Rev 21:1-3 A Bride Adorned for Her Husband

[Study Aired July 6, 2025]

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Introduction

Our goal in this study, as it has been throughout, is to understand how a new heaven and a new earth are being formed within each of us, and how the first heaven and the first earth are passed away, and there is no more sea, in the sense that “the things written herein must shortly came to pass” with all those who “read, heard, and kept the things written here” two thousand years ago as well as those who read, hear, and keep the things written in this prophecy to this very day. We want to make clear that these words “are spirit… which will never pass away”, and therefore have been being kept by believers in every generation since Christ.

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Here are some of those words which have been being kept by those who have been reading and hearing them for the past two thousand years.

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

Is it possible that there is even now a new heaven and a new earth? As always these things we are to keep are to be seen as primarily spiritual and within “until the redemption of the purchased possession”.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Does the fact that our inheritance is just in “earnest… until the redemption of the purchased possession” mean that we simply do not really have it at this present time? That is what our flesh tells us, but what does the spirit tell us about how we are to perceive our heavens and our earth at this present time?

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth [from this moment on] know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

For  those to whom it is given to read, hear and keep these “things which are written [herein]”, this is how there is now a new heaven and a new earth”.

2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Does “all things” include heaven? Should we really see ourselves as being in heaven?

Eph 2:6 and raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, (LITV)

So when we who “keep the things written therein” read of a “new heaven and a new earth”, we are not to think only of a future event, but we ought also to think in terms of what Christ has accomplished within us.

Isa 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Isa 65:18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
Isa 65:19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

This is what God is doing within us if we are this “Jerusalem” which He is creating. This is the end product of what God is doing now within His chosen few.

Isa 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.

What is the name given to those whose “seed will remain”?

Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

These are words which we are to keep here and now (Rev 1:3). This “New Jerusalem” is to be understood as a present reality “in earnest” for God’s elect (Eph 1:14).

How does our Lord go about making “all things new” for all men who are “in Christ?” Here is how that is accomplished in every man in his own appointed and predestined time:

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

“The day [which] shall… reveal by fire.. of what sort [our] works [are]” is the day of the Lord’s judgment, and this is when that day begins within His elect:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Which men have defiled the temple of God? Is it only sinners who do that? Yes, that is right; it is only sinners who defile the temple of God and who must, one and all, be destroyed. Who then must be destroyed?

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

If “all have sinned” and if “the wages of sin is death”, how then is anyone saved? Here is how that is accomplished.

Rom 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

There it is. “There is no difference” between “all… and all them that believe”. So much for the heresy of Calvin that “all” here means only “all kinds of men”. Not so. If that were the case, the phrase “for there is no difference” would have no contrast at all. How would that then read? ‘… by faith of Jesus Christ unto all kinds of people, and upon all kinds of people, who believe, for there is no difference’??? The words “kinds of people” are not in the Greek and are not the point being made. What the point being made is is that “The righteousness of God is by the faith of Jesus Christ, and it is coming unto all, as well as to all believers, because there is no difference” between the process of salvation which is coming to all sinners, as well as “all who believe”. All will be judged, either now in this life, or else they will be judged in the lake of fire, called “the second death.” “There is no difference, because there is one event which destroys the old man in present believers, and then it is the very same event which will one day destroy the old man in all the rest of mankind, who will be “cast into the lake of fire.” It is all the same experience. It is simply experienced at a different time.

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

So we are told that the overcomers of this life will be the first to enter into this symbolic city called “new Jerusalem”, and to serve as the channel, or agency, by which all unbelievers will be shown mercy and be brought to faith, to repentance and eventually brought into that city and into the family of God.

Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

God’s “elect… overcomers” have “in earnest” and “in the spirit” already been granted to “come unto” and to be the children of this “holy city, new Jerusalem”.

Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The reason this “holy city, new Jerusalem” is called our mother while Christ is called our “everlasting Father”, is that this New Jerusalem is Christ’s bride. This New Jerusalem is the Biblical symbol of “the church which is His body” but which is also His bride, His elect.

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Heb 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

If we are God’s elect, then we are espoused to Him as “a chaste virgin” who is also called His bride.

Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

It is this very same “new Jerusalem” which is symbolically said to be “written upon” those who are Christ’s bride, His elect.

Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

In the final analysis whether we are a bride, a city or an overcomer, ‘the dream is one’ (Gen 41 :25-26) and all three symbols signify the greatest honor ever to be bestowed upon any person. One’s wedding is a very important day. ‘The dream is one’, and these symbols all signify the one Christ of Christ. Christ and His Father are dwelling within His first fruit elect for the purpose of using them to bring all the rest of mankind to themselves.

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

This is what Christ’s Father sent Him to accomplish:

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but [He sent His Son into the world] that the world through him might be saved.

Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

This is first fruit of the 144,000 firstfruits unto God and the Lamb. God “tabernacles with them” first. Afterward it is also true of “a great multitude which no man can number”, who go through the same tribulations and wash their robes white in the same blood of the Lamb. These are two separate groups of mankind who are being saved. One is symbolically numbered as being 144,000. The other is “a great multitude, which no man could number”.

Rev 7:4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Rev 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

What we are not told in Rev 7:9 is that there is a symbolic thousand years between these 144,000 who are enthroned at the beginning of the thousand year reign of “our Lord and His Christ” and the appearance of this “great multitude which no man could number… when the thousand years are expired”.

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

The very next verse after informing us that the nations in the four quarters of the earth have been destroyed is that the goats stand before Christ, and they are being judged according to their works before the Great White Throne. The goats had no part in the “blessed and holy… first resurrection:

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

We are given more revelation concerning these 144,000 in Rev 14.

Rev 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Now notice what these 144,000 are called:

Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

These 144,000 are ‘virgins’ and ‘firstfruits.’ They are not called the only fruits, they are distinguished as “firstfruits unto God and the lamb.” Who else is identified by these same symbols of a virgin and being firstfruits?

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Jas 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Again, the dream is one, and the firstfruits and the virgin are just a couple of more symbols signifying those who will be the first to have Christ and His Father living within them, and who will rule and reign with Christ on this earth for a thousand years.

God will “judge the world”, and “all men will be saved”, and God will one day dwell within all of mankind who have ever lived.

Act 17:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

Heb 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Here we have it again. It is called “the assembly of the firstborn”. It is not called ‘the assembly of the only born.’ So there is obviously a group in whom God dwells first. They are His numbered “firstfruits”, in whom He dwells before He dwells with the “great multitude which no man can number.”

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

“They that are Christ’s at His coming” are also called “a kind of firstfruits… unto God and the Lamb.” That is why Israel is given three seasons of harvest. The first of the firstfruits is called the barley harvest at the passover and the days of unleavened bread. This is where the wave sheaf of barley was waved before God as the offering of the first of the first fruits. The second harvest season is called both Pentecost and “the feast of firstfruits.” This harvest is in the summer. It is the harvest of the wheat. There is yet another harvest of the souls of mankind “in the end of the year.”

Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15  Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
Exo 23:17  Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

These are three festivals that signify the “each in his own order” harvests to which the apostle Paul refers in 1 Corinthian 15:

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order:[1] Christ the firstfruits; afterward [2] they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  [3] Then cometh the end [of the year harvest, the great white throne], when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Christ is the first of the firstfruits. He is the wave sheaf which is offered to His Father during the days of unleavened bread. Fifty days later, the two loaves are to be offered “with leaven”, and they are also called “firstfruits unto the Lord.”

Lev 23:15  And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
Lev 23:16  Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
Lev 23:17  Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.

“They shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord” seems to the casual reader to contradict:

Lev 2:11  No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.

The next verse clarifies this apparent contradiction:

Lev 2:12  As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour.

“Not be… for a sweet savour” is the point. The firstfruits unto the Lord are the trespass offering as His body. It is Christ, but not His head.

This “New Jerusalem” is both “the body of Christ” and “chaste virgin… bride”:

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

The “New Jerusalem” is another name for the 144,000 firstfruits unto God and the Lamb:

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

The “New Jerusalem” is another signification of the four beasts and the four and twenty elders who were also redeemed from among men:

Rev 5:8  And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

Again and again the Lord is telling us just how special we are to Him, and He is showing us how integral we are to His plan and His purpose. He identifies with us to the extent that just as the whole creation was created for Him He is working all things together for our good:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

We are that “bride [who He has] adorned for her Husband, and in whom He dwells:

Rev 21:1  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Conscience – An Insensible Conscience, Part 7

[Study Aired November 25, 2023]

As similarly stated in Part 6 of this Conscience series, by the time we get through all seventeen parts, we should have all nuances of conscience etched in our hearts for instant recall of the still small voice behind saying, “This is the way, walk you in it” (Isa 30:15-21). Subsequently, the many subtleties of an evil conscience overlap, and now also with our study on “An Insensible Conscience”.

The expression “insensible”, by its prefix ‘in’, means not or no and means being insensitive, unconscious, numb, impervious, unaffected or dead, and for this cause becoming unaffected by sin once acknowledged and forgiven. It is the positive meaning and mostly for this study’s purpose, it is our practised good conscience that becomes impervious to being manipulated by the many nuances of an evil conscience, and we subsequently are blessed with a peaceful conscience.

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
Heb 10:2  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience [Insensibility] of sins.
Heb 10:3  But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 
Heb 10:4  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

The Elect of God, by ‘instantly’ choosing good over an evil conscience, knows that it is not his strength that carries the glory of righteousness, but Christ’s strength, since of ourselves, we are incapable of overcoming anything without the holy spirit. The process is that we see the evil approaching and resist the devil by submission and acknowledgement of Christ’s strength by instantly asking the Lord for his power and workmanship to not enact a particular sin. We can’t overpower Satan, and as some so-called charismatic Christian denominations say, “We’re gonna twist ole Satan’s tail tonight” with their services that are a contemporary version of Jezebel’s priests of Baal cutting themselves mythically forcing Baal to submit to their requests (1Ki 18:19-40). 

In fact, Christ and Satan (by association) laugh at the absurdity (Psa 37:9-15). Being told to “resist the devil” implies their power and will is the impetus of change; we cannot resist anything without Christ. Our God-given action is to immediately ask our Father in heaven, in Christ’s name, to put the sin out of our life ~ that is the act of resisting the Devil. Being told to “resist the Devil” is another parable enabling strong delusion for the spiritually barren.

Jas 4:7  Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
 Jas 4:8  Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts [resultant good conscience], double-minded ones. 

Our Lord is making for himself a Wife with a single-minded focus on His ways; a beautiful woman who sees Him as the ‘prize’ as opposed to her former Queen Vashti self, manipulating her husband and all around her to vainly assure her statehood and glory above her husband. The irony is that when a Godly wife glorifies her husband as in the Lord, she becomes the recipient of all her desires, inclusive of the highest honour. In the Elect’s case, she becomes Christ’s Wife.

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is [in this case, oneself], there will your heart be also. 
Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 
Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 
Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon [the treasure of self-righteousness].

Our forebearers in Old Israel and their ponderous journey for our ensamples are twofold. First, to create the sons of God as numerous as the stars of heaven, and second, to tediously grind every man ever to exist to powder (Mat 21:24) to guarantee that we will seek to be free from these bodies of decaying flesh and demand only Christ’s spirit; to shudder at the thought of looking back to lust for some delusionary nirvana of so-called ‘perfect flesh’ with its regalia. As such, we will intensely desire, to the soles of our feet, to have “no more conscience of sins” (Heb 10:2).

Old Israel and we, since we are highly corruptible flesh prone continuously to sin, need to be reminded constantly to be watchful for its treachery. It is only after falling seventy times seven (Mat 18:22) and coming back to Christ for innumerable forgiveness that we become weary of the flesh and spew out the evil conscience. We cry to be free, to be ‘insensible’ to evil by a practised good conscience and abiding peace.

Heb 8:10  “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 
Heb 8:11  And they shall not each man teach his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. 
Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.” 
Heb 8:13  In that He says, A new covenant, He has made the first one old. Now that which decays and becomes old is ready to vanish away.

When we are sanctified, that is set apart for Christ, and some aspect of impurity vanishes, we become ‘insensible’ to its whereabouts, and when our Lord likewise remembers our impurity no more, we are at one with Him and the Father.

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth.
Joh 17:18  As You have sent Me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. 
Joh 17:19  And I sanctify Myself for their sakes, so that they also might be sanctified in truth. [When Christ returned to his former glory, he was divested of corruptible flesh and automatically became ‘insensible’ to an evil conscience]
Joh 17:20  And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, 
Joh 17:21  that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
Joh 17:22  And I have given them the glory [the same pure spirit nature] which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, 
Joh 17:23  I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know [through Christ and his Christs] that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. 

The key scripture of Heb 10:2 and us being purged of an evil conscience and therefore becoming insensible to evil is in the Aorist Tense; thus, we are being purged. Once we have the authentic spiritual mindset to have vanished all nuances of an evil conscience, we become insensible; we forget what is behind us and push forward to greater unity in Christ and the Father.

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

… meaning that while we are in these bodies of sinful flesh, we will never be entirely free of sin. We are being made perfect even as the man Jesus was made perfect to be Christ.

Heb 10:2  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had [G2192, G5721] no more conscience of sins. 

Jesus, once purged of His corruptible body, was made impossible to return to sin. However, and for us remaining in these bodies of decaying flesh, we are always prone to sin even while we are forgiven and righteousness is attributed to us regardless of a random sin since the Lord knows our purged hearts. “Once we are purged, [we] should have had no more conscience of sins”, but in all fleshy likelihood, we are cursed with weak flesh that is highly likely to return to our vomit and retain consciousness of repeated sin.

The glorious state is to be given to be entirely free of the consciousness of sin, and our conscience thus being/becoming “insensible” to the current sin in question. It is the same state of insensibility to sin. Christ and the Father exist, yet while man exists, we are a vexation to the spirit.

A significant purpose of the sacrificial Laws of Moses offered year after year was to ponderously etch in the hearts of our forebearers the Lord’s plan of salvation and, most importantly, that our works to attain righteousness can never be gained by the sweating of our hard work since we in the New Covenant are our Lord’s workmanship (Eph 2:10).

The outcome of Hebrews 10:1-18 is in verse 18,

Heb 10:18  Now where remission [G859] of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 

Remission G859 –  Definition: 1. release from bondage or imprisonment 2. forgiveness or pardon of sins (letting them go as if they had never been committed), remission of the penalty.

From G863 – 1. to send away a. to bid going away or depart of a husband divorcing his wife.

In other words, upon acknowledging our sins and being forgiven, sin isn’t attributed to our lives even while still in sinful flesh. We are pardoned and released from the bondage of the physical ordinances of the Law we now live spiritually. For this study’s purpose, it means that our conscience becomes “insensible” to that particular sin ~ no more conscience [Insensibility] of sins – Heb 10:2. We are released from marriage in the death of our old wife (Jezebel; Vashti; harlots and Old Jerusalem) of sin ruling our hearts.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 
Rom 3:24  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 
Rom 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation [reconciliation; atonement] through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past [now insensible], through the forbearance of God; 

Of course, and as seen in a previous part of this series, a “seared conscience” is the most damning version of being insensible to our conscience since we are then impervious to sin. We run the risk of having no more remission for that sin since we stubbornly refuse to address that sin, and it is likely an idol of the heart. Of course, no being has a greater ‘seared conscience’ than Satan, our unwitting first father. He is the epitome of self-righteousness, stubbornness and ALL conceptions of evil.

Eze 14:1  And some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. 
Eze 14:2  And the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. Should I at all be inquired of by them? 

Eze 14:5  so that I may capture the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are estranged from Me by their idols, all of them.

All of the Elect of God at some time have an experience or several adventures of estrangement from God by idols of the heart.

Eze 14:6  Therefore say to the house of Israel, So says the Lord Jehovah: Repent and turn from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. [Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you] 

Eze 14:4  Therefore speak to them, and say to them, So says the Lord Jehovah: Every man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I Jehovah will answer him in it by the host of his idols; 

Why?

Eze 14:5  so that I may capture the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are estranged from Me by their idols, all of them.
Eze 14:6  Therefore say to the house of Israel, So says the Lord Jehovah: Repent and turn from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger who lives in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to a prophet to ask of him concerning Me; I Jehovah will answer him Myself. 
Eze 14:8  And I will set My face against that man, and I will make him desolate for a sign and for proverbs [an example to the Church]. And I will cut him off from the midst of My people; and you shall know that I am Jehovah. 
Eze 14:9  And the prophet, if he is deceived, and he speaks a word, I Jehovah have deceived that prophet. And I will stretch out My hand on him and will destroy him in the midst of My people Israel. 
Eze 14:10  And they shall bear their iniquity. As the iniquity of the inquirer, so the iniquity of the prophet shall be. 
Eze 14:11  So that the house of Israel [The Bride of Christ] may never again go astray from Me, nor be defiled again with all their transgressions, but they are to Me My people, and I will be to them for God, says the Lord Jehovah. 

Previous studies in this series have reflected that our brother Cain is a classic foil for us of not joyously receiving correction (Gen 4:13). Cain saw his sin, and his attitude is endemic to us all by looking for ways to ” accuse [and] excuse” (Rom 2:15) our way out of acknowledging our sin. Like Cain, our unrepentant hearts cause us to be a “fugitive”, always imagining we are “hiding” from God and unwittingly causing us to be “vagabonds” and always beset by our greatest enemy, which is sin.

Heb 10:26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 
Heb 10:27  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries [within].

Rev 16:10  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11  And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. 

Pro 16:5  Every one that is proud in heart [unyielding to acknowledge sin] is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. 
Pro 16:6  By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil. 
Pro 16:7  When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies [our forgiven sins] to be at peace with him. 

Rom 3:9  What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 
Rom 3:10  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 
Rom 3:12  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
Rom 3:13  Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 
Rom 3:14  Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Rom 3:15  Their feet are swift to shed blood: 
Rom 3:16  Destruction and misery are in their ways: 
Rom 3:17  And the way of peace have they not known:
Rom 3:18  There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Rom 3:19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Rom 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Of course, as we are advancing spiritually, Babylonian Christianity remains immutably blind to the way of peace. It is undeniably and exponentially evident today that every man’s hand is at war against his neighbour. The West, the paragon of formally imagined Christian virtue, is being answered according to the idol of their hearts, and that idol is their utter insensibility to the knowledge of sin by God’s Law. Every man does what is right in his own eyes, even if he or she wants to identify as a cat or an adult baby literally in nappies (diaper), in a cot sucking on a bottle of milk making loathsomely ‘cute’ baby sounds. Cast God’s laws aside, and anything goes, and how dare anyone question that person’s non-binary identity!

The covert purpose of these absurdities to which the world is utterly blind is Satan’s vain hope to make the Body of Christ insensible to a Godly conscience and be swept away by its great flood of lies. Satan’s frustrations for not having his own will he knows will equally be frustrated in knowing the good outcome the Lord has designed for the “remnant” of the First Woman who brought forth Christ, the “man child”.

Rev 12:13  And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman [Gentile Christianity] which brought forth the man child.
Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

Even though the growth of Christianity since Christ has been turbulent and violent, it grew massively into the largest religious denomination the world has ever seen. Her growth in the heat of the day was an immense benefit to her younger sister, the Bride of Christ.

Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 
Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. 

The world is in a seemingly headlong rush to oblivion, and the following verses outwardly are their depiction when the Commandments of God are jeered. Of course, as we read these verses, as always apply them spiritually to ourselves.

Isa 33:7  See, the men of war are sorrowing outside the town: those who came looking for peace are weeping bitterly.
Isa 33:8  The highways are waste, no man is journeying there: the agreement is broken, he has made sport of the towns, he has no thought for man. (See all of 2Ti 3:1-9).
Isa 33:9  The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling. 
Isa 33:10  Now will I come forward, says the Lord; now will I be lifted up; now will my power be seen. 
Isa 33:11  Your designs will be without profit, and their effect will be nothing: you will be burned up by the fire of my breath.
Isa 33:12  And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as thorns cut down, which are burned in the fire. 
Isa 33:13  Give ear, you who are far off, to what I have done: see my power, you who are near. 
Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are full of fear; the haters of God are shaking with wonder. Who among us may keep his place before the burning fire? who among us may see the eternal burnings?

Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Since Christ is our perfect sacrifice, He has cleaned out the old leaven and the physical Laws with the works of the flesh that once contaminated our consciences. We are, by His power, becoming spiritually clean as the Father has always existed with no conscience of sin, “… because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience [insensibility] of sins.” – Heb 10:2. 

The Bride of Christ is the first and remnant sinners in Zion who are given to see their insensibility to their seared consciences and now shake in fear and are humiliated for having been haters of God. They shake positively in awe and a shift in wonder for the marvellous works the Lord is labouring in their lives (Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work). They are the ones who are first to become positively insensible to an evil conscience since he has placed his stamp on their foreheads (Deu 6:8) as his very own people as the First Fruits faithfully following Christ, him being the beginning of the creation of God.

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

Lord willing, we, too, will endure to be in lockstep with Christ, the first of the first fruits, continuing the creation of God until our brothers remaining in Babylon finish their solemn assembly and re-creation in the fiery furnace on the Eighth Day (2 Ch 7:9).

[Study Aired December 4, 2022]

Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Act 2:5  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
Act 2:6  Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Act 2:7  And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Act 2:8  And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Act 2:9  Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Act 2:10  Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11  Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
Act 2:12  And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
Act 2:13  Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
Act 2:14  But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
Act 2:15  For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
Act 2:16  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
Act 2:17  And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
Act 2:18  And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
Act 2:19  And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
Act 2:20  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
Act 2:21  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Act 2:22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
Act 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Act 2:24  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

In our last study Peter was inspired to remind the other ten apostles that King David had prophesied that Judas was to be replaced. In doing so, he demonstrated that any action against any Old Testament man of God is a prophecy of how Christ and His Christ will be treated by their enemies.

These are the verses in Psalms which the holy spirit inspired Peter to show us were referring to Judas’ betrayal of Christ:

Psa 69:25  Let their home be made desolate; let no one dwell in their tents.

Without explanation he jumped to Psalms 109 and added this verse to make his point that Judas must be replaced:

Psa 109:8  let his days be few; and let another take his office;

Peter tells us these verses refer to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus:

Act 1:20  For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.

Based on these words, the apostles appointed two men and cast lots to see who the Lord had chosen to take Judas’ ‘bishoprick’.

Act 1:21  Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
Act 1:22  Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
Act 1:23  And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
Act 1:24  And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
Act 1:25  That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
Act 1:26  And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

Peter had observed how Christ Himself had applied this principle to Himself when quoting the Old Testament:

Joh 13:18  I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

This is the Psalm Christ referred to:

Psa 41:9  Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

Verse 5 shows once again that King David is referring to “[his] enemies”:

Psa 41:5  Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?

However, Christ identified with King David and with every righteous patriarch, king and prophet and every godly man or woman of the Old Testament who was persecuted for being obedient to Him and His Word. Therefore, every enemy of theirs was His enemy and was the enemy of His nation Israel and of His body, the church. Peter learned that principle from Christ Himself, and he and all the apostles use this principle when they quote the Old Testament.

Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

This Pentecost is the day of the birth of the church of Christ. The church was born on this day because the feast of Pentecost is “the feast of… the firstfruits”:

Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15  Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
Exo 23:17  Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

Contrary to the false doctrine which teaches that this is the only day of salvation, the scriptures teach that there are three distinct harvests of the fruits of this earth which will bring “all in Adam” back to their Lord (1Co 15:22). The order of these harvests is of utmost importance to understanding the plan of God for His creatures.

The first harvest is the death and resurrection of Christ Himself. Christ is the first of the firstfruits as our spotless Passover Lamb who was offered at the beginning of the days of unleavened bread:

1Co 15:20  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

The second harvest was 50 days later. Hence the name Pentecost, which means ‘count fifty’. Fifty is a multiple of five and therefore signifies the “grace through faith” that was given to mankind on the day of Pentecost.

Here is the link to the study on the spiritual significance of the number five:
Significance of the Number Five

The feast of Pentecost is also called “the feast of… the firstfruits” signifying that we, too, with Christ, “are a kind of firstfruits”, being the beneficiaries of “the first resurrection”:

Jas 1:18  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

The Lord’s work in the lives of His “firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” began on the day of Pentecost, the “feast of… firstfruits”:

The “rushing mighty wind” was the gift of holy spirit which was given to those 120 people. The gift of the holy spirit was accompanied by “cloven tongues of fire”, signifying the fiery witness which was taking place at that moment. The Lord’s Words are called ‘fire’ in scripture:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

The gift of the holy spirit is the ‘baptism of fire’ promised by both John the Baptist and by Christ:

Mat 3:11  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
Luk 12:50  But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

These same ‘fiery words’ of the Lord in Jeremiah’s mouth are the same fiery words of the Lord into which we are all baptized, and which are called a fiery ‘two-edged sword’ in:

Rev 1:16  And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

“They were filled with the holy spirit, and began to speak with other languages.” They did not begin to speak in unintelligible gibberish which characterizes the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches of today. We are even told which languages were being spoken by those who were given the holy spirit that day:

Act 2:5  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
Act 2:6  Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

The multitude gathered in Jerusalem that day were devout Jews, “out of every nation under heaven”, and they heard the wonderful works of God being spoken of by ‘every man in his own language’:

Act 2:7  And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Act 2:8  And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Act 2:9  Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Act 2:10  Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11  Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
Act 2:12  And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?
Act 2:13  Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

There will always be skeptics. It is right and proper to “try the spirits”, but we should do so with a ‘Berean’ attitude to “see if these things be true”, not with a closed mind that is telling us this is all a hoax, “These men are full of new wine.”

Act 17:10  And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Act 17:11  These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

“They searched the scriptures daily” with an open mind to see “whether those things were so”.

When the holy spirit was given on the day of Pentecost, Peter, who just a few weeks earlier had denied with an oath that he knew the Lord, was now publicly telling the “men of Judea” what he had found when he had “searched the scriptures [to see] whether these things were so”:

Act 2:14  But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
Act 2:15  For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
Act 2:16  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

Notice that Peter’s words are not addressed to those who had come to Jerusalem to observe this feast from all the countries mentioned in:

Act 2:9  Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Act 2:10  Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11  Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

None of these people thought those who had been given the holy spirit were drunk because they all said: “We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”

For many years I thought these were Gentile “devout men, out of every nation under heaven”, but notice what the scripture says:

Act 2:5  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

This is the very birth of the church. Peter has not yet gone to the house of Cornelius, and the apostles themselves are yet… carnal babes in Christ, still offering blood sacrifices for their sins, and still convinced that God is working only with the physical seed of Abraham. Remember what we read in our last study. These events took place over two decades following the death and resurrection of our Lord:

Act 21:18  And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.
Act 21:19  And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
Act 21:20  And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
Act 21:21  And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
Act 21:22  What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.
Act 21:23  Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;
Act 21:24  Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
Act 21:25  As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

If Paul had broken his word concerning the letter sent to the Gentiles in Acts 15, and if indeed he had been teaching the Jews among the Gentiles that they need not keep the law of Moses, this was the perfect opportunity to make that clear. However, Paul had never once told the Jews among the Gentiles that they need not keep the law of Moses, and he was more than willing to “Do… this we say unto you”:

Act 21:26  Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself [according to the law of Moses] with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering [a lamb. A blood offering, as if the blood of Christ was not sufficient] should be offered for every one of them.

All who offer offerings at the temple in Jerusalem must be Jews. Gentiles were not the least bit welcome in that temple, and the thousands of Jews at the day of Pentecost at the birth of the church were just as “zealous of the law” of Moses, as they were these decades later when Paul made his final visit to Jerusalem.

Here on the day of Pentecost, Peter is speaking specifically to the “men of Judea”, who did not understand the “wonderful works of God” being spoken of by the apostles and the others who comprised the 120 who received the holy spirit that day.

Act 2:14  But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
Act 2:15  For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
Act 2:16  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

These were the same Jews which believed on Him one day and were calling for His crucifixion the next day, as Peter revealed when He said:

Act 2:22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
Act 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

It is true that Christ died to bear the sins of the whole world, but that was not yet understood by these immature apostles and believers who were all Jews on the day of Pentecost. Gentiles were not yet welcome in Jerusalem, much less into the temple.

Deu 23:3  An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever:

This is what the holy spirit inspired the apostle Peter to say to the “men of Israel [among whom Christ had been] approved… by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you” (vs 22):

Act 2:17  And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
Act 2:18  And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

There is no dichotomy or contradiction between what Peter quotes Joel saying and what Paul says about women being quiet in the congregation. The word ‘silence’ is not a proper translation of the Greek word, sigao, which is more often translated ‘hold their peace’:

1Co 14:34  Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.

All speaking by women is not prohibited in the church as the commandment to Mary to tell the apostles that He had risen was done “in the church” shows us. Nevertheless, it was not done in a capacity of overseeing and teaching the church, which the holy spirit through the apostle Paul in his latest epistles prohibits:

1Ti 2:11  Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
1Ti 2:12  But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

Neither Deborah, the judge, nor Huldah, the prophetess, nor Anna in the temple, ever sought to usurp authority over men. Deborah even upbraided and shamed Barak for insisting that she go with him to the battle:

Jdg 4:8  And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go.
Jdg 4:9  And she said, I will surely go with thee: notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.

The whole story of Deborah and Barak is a testimony of how far from God Israel was at that time:

Isa 3:12  As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

It is those nations who claim the Lord’s name to this day who produce the most women rulers.

There is a proper time and place for women to speak, and the story of Mary telling the apostles of the resurrection was such a place, and the women on whom the holy spirit fell on the day of Pentecost is another such example where “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” and do so properly, not seeking to “usurp authority over the man”.

Act 2:19  And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
Act 2:20  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
Act 2:21  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Act 2:22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

“Ye men of Israel” [who had seen the] miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by [Christ] in the midst of you” are those to whom Peter is speaking. It was they who could not understand the languages being spoken by the 120 disciples. If Peter has any hopes of being heard by these men, then they surely must truly have seen all these “miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did by Him in [their] midst”. Peter is not speaking to people with the mind of the spirit who could see any of this from a spiritual perspective. These were all unconverted people who had not the least bit of spiritual understanding. They had indeed seen all these “miracles, wonders and signs”, but what about “wonders in the heavens above, and signs in the earth beneath”? Had “the sun [appeared to have] been turned into darkness and the moon [appeared to be turned] into blood before the [judgment of] that great and notable day of the Lord” which was beginning on this very day?

Here is what all these men of Jerusalem had seen just seven weeks earlier at the crucifixion of Christ:

Mat 27:45  Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
Mat 27:46  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

This time of darkness from noon until three P.M. was witnessed by all those in Jerusalem and far beyond Jerusalem. This was an incredible supernatural event because any natural eclipse of the sun lasts no more than a few minutes. It was recorded by many heathen historians as John Gill relates in his commentary on Matthew 27:45:

“…but it is evident, that it is taken notice of, and recorded by Heathen historians and chronologers, as by Phlegon, and others, referred to by Eusebius (d). The Roman archives are appealed unto for the truth of it by Tertullian (e); and it is asserted by Suidas, that Dionysius the Areopagite, then an Heathen, saw it in Egypt; and said, “either the divine being suffers, or suffers with him that suffers, or the frame of the world is dissolving.” (End Quote)

Mat 27:47  Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.
Mat 27:48  And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
Mat 27:49  The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.
Mat 27:50  Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Mat 27:51  And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
Mat 27:52  And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
Mat 27:53  And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
Mat 27:54  Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

The Lord’s own stubborn people were less affected by these things than that Roman “centurion, and they that were with him”.

These events have great spiritual significance concerning the spiritual ‘earthquake’ which the Lord uses to drag us to Himself, but again these words are being addressed to very carnal Jews who were familiar with all these physical events but had not been given to repent of all they had done to facilitate the crucifixion of their own Savior. Like doubting Thomases, this audience had to see to believe, and they had seen all these “miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by [Christ] in the midst of you.”

These unbelieving Jews and Thomas are types of our own self-righteous, rebellious old man.

Joh 20:24  But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
Joh 20:25  The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Joh 20:26  And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Joh 20:27  Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
Joh 20:28  And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Joh 20:29  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

Many have believed “that have not seen”, and they are being given a blessing for believing without having to physically see all these things we now are blessed to read about. I used to wish that I had been there with the original twelve apostles to see all the miracles of Christ in real time. Christ tells us “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed”.

The disciples had witnessed many more signs and wonders than the Jews who cried out for Christ’s crucifixion:

Joh 20:30  And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
Joh 20:31  But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

“The things that are made”, including these signs and wonders to which Peter refers, must precede the spiritual:

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

This principle applied to the events surrounding our Lord’s death and resurrection. Christ had to come first in a natural body before we could get to know Him spiritually. That principle also applied to all these “miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by [Christ] in the midst of [these Jews who dwelt in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost].” If the Lord grants us to continue in His faith in these things we have never physically seen, we will be blessed of all men:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

This is the blessing to which we are hoping to attain:

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Whether we are given to “have part in the first resurrection” or not it will have nothing to do with anything we did of our own will any more than those who crucified the Lord chose of their own will to do so. Peter reveals who it was who had been determined in advance to be given the bitter task of crucifying our Lord:

Act 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Act 2:24  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

The same could be said of the wicked hands of the self-righteous treachery Joseph’s ten brothers conspired against Him. They thought for certain they had rid themselves forever of their pesky ‘Daddy’s boy’ brother. Nonetheless, the words of Joseph to His brothers apply to all things the Lord is doing:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Christ and His Christ are the real ‘daddy’s boys’, who have been given to know the Father and His Son as Joseph knew his father:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

If it is God who has predestined that we are all guilty of our Lord’s crucifixion, then it is incumbent upon the Lord to deliver “every man” from the death into which He has placed “every man”. That is also the very thing we are told the Lord, through His judgments, is doing for every man in Adam:

2Sa 14:14  For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Lest any man miss the point being made here, Paul puts it this way:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire [The lake of fire/second death/ white throne judgment].
1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1Co 15:21  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

The “all” of the first part of verse 22 is the same “all” of the last part of that verse. Christ’s sacrifice covers “the sins of the whole world”:

1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

That is truly good news, and this is the message the Lord has given us to take to this dark and hopeless world. The resurrection of Christ and the giving of the holy spirit on the day of Pentecost are the first two harvests which will lead to the third and final harvest of “all in Adam” at the great white throne judgment where the elect will dwell comfortably in the everlasting flames, judging men and angels:

Deu 8:16  Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;

Isa 26:19  Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15  He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

Joh 6:58  This [Christ and His Word] is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

There is a resurrection of the dead, and we, of all men, are most blessed (1Co 15:19).

[Study Aired November 24, 2022]

2Ki 12:1   In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2Ki 12:2  And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 
2Ki 12:3  But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.
2Ki 12:4  And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of the LORD, even the money of every one that passeth the account, the money that every man is set at, and all the money that cometh into any man’s heart to bring into the house of the LORD,
2Ki 12:5  Let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance: and let them repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found.
2Ki 12:6  But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.
2Ki 12:7  Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.
2Ki 12:8  And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house.
2Ki 12:9  But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of the LORD: and the priests that kept the door put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.
2Ki 12:10  And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king’s scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags, and told the money that was found in the house of the LORD.
2Ki 12:11  And they gave the money, being told, into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the LORD: and they laid it out to the carpenters and builders, that wrought upon the house of the LORD,
2Ki 12:12  And to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.
2Ki 12:13  Howbeit there were not made for the house of the LORD bowls of silver, snuffers, basons, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of the LORD: 
2Ki 12:14  But they gave that to the workmen, and repaired therewith the house of the LORD.
2Ki 12:15  Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully. 
2Ki 12:16  The trespass money and sin money was not brought into the house of the LORD: it was the priests’.
2Ki 12:17  Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.
2Ki 12:18  And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and in the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem.
2Ki 12:19  And the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 
2Ki 12:20  And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and slew Joash in the house of Millo, which goeth down to Silla.
2Ki 12:21  For Jozachar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

Any and all judgment coming into our life can be understood as preceding from God’s word from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 and is “given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”(2Ti 3:16). Those words of God will not return void (Isa55:11), but will result in providing for us the growth and understanding we need regarding knowing our Father and Christ if we are being sanctified in this age (Joh 17:3, Joh 17:17, Heb 9:27).  In time and through patient continuance (Joh 8:31-32) in well doing, God’s promises will be fulfilled, resulting in the salvation of all mankind, each man in his order (2Pe 3:9, Jas 5:7, 1Co 15:22-24)

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 

Jas 5:7  Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. 
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

The thousand years of reigning by the saints and the rebellion at the end of it by humanity (Rev 20:8) demonstrate the inability for the world to follow through and be sanctified by God’s word, which will happen in the lake of fire for the rest of humanity (Rev 20:14). God’s elect will have already endured through that process of fiery judgment without which, we would be illegitimate children (Heb 12:6-8). The day of the Lord is now upon God’s people, and is represented by judgment and fiery trials (1Pe 4:12) which torment us and burn up our old man, legitimizing our role as kings and priests who will rule under Christ for a thousand years, which is a symbolic amount of time (2Ti 2:12).

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: 

This section of Kings (2Ki 12:1-21) is a type and shadow of that time of ruling over the nations of this world, and can be “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” if God will grant us this blessing.

2Ki 12:1   In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2Ki 12:2  And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 
2Ki 12:3  But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. 

The “seventh year of Jehu“ [king of Israel] when Jehoash began to reign [in Judah] is a type of when the elect will be resurrected and reign over Jerusalem below, “in Jerusalem” of 2Kings 12:1. Jerusalem represents the unconverted ‘earth, earth, earth’ of mankind (Jer 22:29) who will experience this rod of iron rulership of the saints over all flesh for a symbolic thousand years (Rev 20:6). Rulership with a rod of iron over those who do not have God’s spirit within them can never be anything more than as a water baptism does not bring about conversion (Hab 2:14).

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. 

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 

Hab 2:14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

The world will read and hear the word which is in the earth, but will not be able, without God’s spirit within them, to continue in the truth and being faithful to God’s word, which is reserved for God’s elect throughout the ages as His “disciples indeed” who are blessed to read, hear, and keep “those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand” (Rev 1:3, Jas 1:22, Rom 8:9, Joh 8:31).

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

The thousand-year reign is therefore a dispensation witnessing against all flesh that cannot inherit the kingdom of God, seeing this is not their time to receive this hope of glory within which makes God’s elect “accepted in the beloved” today (Col 1:27, Eph 1:6, Rom 9:13). Jehoash’s forty-year reign is a type of that reign of the saints and so we read this about his reign remembering that “Jehoiada” (the priest) is a type of Christ our head “And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him“. Jehoash did that which was right but in the end “the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places” (of verse 3), telling us in type and shadow language that the rule of the saints, when we are doing the right things for the people of the earth, does not conclude in a change of heart as it is only God who can do the dragging and converting of their lives which brings increase (Joh 6:44, 1Co 3:6).

Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Joh 6:44 No one can come to Me if ever the Father Who sends Me should not be drawing him. And I shall be raising him in the last day.

1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. Repair the breaches of the house

2Ki 12:4  And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it cometh into any man’s heart to bring into the house of Jehovah, 
2Ki 12:5  let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. 
2Ki 12:6  But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. 
2Ki 12:7  Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore take no more money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. 
2Ki 12:8  And the priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house. [ASV]

A “breach“^H919 is symbolic of a schism in the body of Christ that needs to be healed just as you would physically stop a leak or fill in a crack in a wall of a building or ship that was in need of repair (1Co 12:24-27). God is the one who causes these schisms to come about so we can learn to have compassion on each other as we go about healing those schisms with the gifts God has given us to accomplish this (1Co 12:28).

1Co 12:24  For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: 
1Co 12:25  That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 
1Co 12:26  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
1Co 12:27  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 
1Co 12:28  And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. 

Breach: H919 bedeq beh’-dek 

From H918; a gap or leak (in a building or a ship): – breach, + calker.

Total KJV occurrences: 10

Jehoash, who is a type of the elect, asks this of the priests who represent those who were religious leaders in Babylon, but who are now being given their direction from God’s elect (Rev 11:15). What is specifically asked of the world during the thousand-year reign is stated this way: “All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it cometh into any man’s heart to bring into the house of Jehovah” (see John Gill’s commentary on 2Kings 12:4 for the Old Testament links to these specific offerings). This statement represents the world’s dedication of their lives to repair the breaches of the house of Jehovah. As will be revealed, this dedication does not manifest unless rules are put in place, a rod of iron structure that brings about the results that Jehoash desires, but these are not sacrifices that are typical of what God wants (Php 3:9) and we can only give properly unto God by being given a broken and contrite heart that worships God in spirit and in truth (Isa 66:2, Psa 51:17, Mic 6:8, Joh 4:23).

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Psa 51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. [which cause us to give cheerfully and out of a willing heart (2Co 9:6-7)]

2Co 9:6  But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 
2Co 9:7  Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

Mic 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

The book of Malachi talks about bringing the tithe into the storehouse of God, which represents our entire life while we are in this flesh, and to do so as a cheerful giver (2Co 9:6-7). Therefore, these actions by the priests not wanting to repair the breaches of the house are a witness against them that they are yet a rebellious house that does not understand the blessing that would be theirs if they ‘would only just come under his wing’, which none of us can do until we are dragged to Christ (Mat 23:37, Joh 6:44). God knows how stubborn our carnal hearts are, and this section of kings makes that very clear. These things again are written for our sakes (1Co 10:11) to show us that it is impossible to be dedicated to God and “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse” with a humble and contrite heart unless the Lord grants that spirit (Mal 3:8-15).  That is who we are, but if God is merciful to us in this age, we will also experience the day of the Lord now (Mal 4:1-6) that will result in the fruit described in the closing verses of Malachi chapter three (Mal 3:16-18). We don’t get from Malachi 3:8-15 to Malachi 3:16-18 without experiencing Malachi 4:1-6 which is typical of the seven last plagues that must be poured out upon God’s elect to make the bride ready (Rev 15:8, Rev 19:7).

Mat 23:37  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

Mal 3:8  Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 
Mal 3:9  Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 
Mal 3:10  Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
Mal 3:11  And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. 
Mal 3:12  And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. 
Mal 3:13  Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? 
Mal 3:14  Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? 

Mal 4:1  For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 
Mal 4:2  But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 
Mal 4:3  And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts. 
Mal 4:4  Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. 
Mal 4:5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: 
Mal 4:6  And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. 

Mal 3:16  Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. 
Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 
Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

It is in the 23rd year of king Jehoash that “the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house“, which points to the only way the breaches in God’s temple can be healed, and that is by grace through faith represented by the number five (2+3=5), which is not part of the dispensation called ‘the thousand-year rule’.

Here are three bible versions of 2Kings 12:7-8 to help us get the sense of what is being said here.

2Ki 12:7  Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore take no more money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.
2Ki 12:8  And the priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house. (ASV)

2Ki 12:7 and king Jehoash calls to Jehoiada the priest, and to the priests, and said unto them, `Wherefore are you not strengthening the breach of the house? and now, receive no money from your acquaintances, but for the breach of the house give it.
2Ki 12:8 And the priests consent not to receive money from the people, nor to strengthen the breach of the house, (CLV)

2Ki 12:7  Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.
2Ki 12:8  And the priests consented to receive no more money of the people, neither to repair the breaches of the house. (KJV)

This was an act of disobedience on the part of the priests who decided, “If we can’t keep this money for ourselves from our “acquaintances” then we’re not going to collect it and not repair the breaches of the house of the Lord.” This is all typical of the religious leaders of this world not wanting to go down to Jerusalem to worship the true God and present their bodies a living sacrifice which is what will be required of the nations of the world (Zec 14:17). Even if there is no conversion, God is going to require that the nations come to learn how to worship him (Psa 96:9, Psa 33:8).

Zec 14:17  And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. 

Psa 96:9  O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth. 

Psa 33:8  Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

The priests’ stubbornness regarding not collecting the money from their acquaintances for the house of the Lord, does not stop God from formulating another way in which to collect these resources, as we will read. The religious world, once they know what is required of them in their service to the Lord, will not be interested in following through, especially in matters of repairing the breaches of the Lord’s house. When Christ is preached with selfish motives, like wanting to make money off of the gospel, not freely receiving and giving, then we become that breach by our own actions, and this chapter shows us how traditions of men will not die away overnight. Any obedience that is experienced during the thousand-year reign is really just mankind complying to God’s will against their own yet carnal will, making them of the same opinion still (Mat 10:8, Luk 6:46). All these events which unfold are all according to the counsel of God’s own will and show us who we are without the spirit of God within us giving us the ability to wholeheartedly serve the Lord (Mic 6:8).

2Ki 12:9  and Jehoiada the priest takes a chest, and pierces a hole in its lid, and puts it near the altar, on the right side, as one comes in to the house of Yahweh, and the priests keeping the threshold have put there all the money that is brought in to the house of Yahweh. [CLV]

Christ is the one who has paid for our transgressions (1Pe 1:18), and this chest represents the life of Christ that was pierced (“pierces a hole in its lid“) to pay for our sins and transgressions (Isa 53:5). The placement of the chest is significant as we are bound to the altar with Christ “on the right side” meaning that through his life that was poured out for us we can have the power to present our bodies a living sacrifice through Christ, in the “house of Yahweh“. Keeping the door as these priests did, or the threshold, which is to be a servant or door keeper (Psa 84:10, Joh 13:14) whose function, although humble and unassuming (Mic 6:8), is critical to facilitating growth through a spirit of humility at that threshold where God used the priests to keep “the door [and] put therein all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD“.

1Pe 1:18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 

Isa 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Psa 84:10  For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Joh 13:14  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.

Mic 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

2Ki 12:10 And it comes to pass, at their seeing that the money [is] abundant in the chest, that there goes up a scribe of the king, and of the high priest, and they bind [it] up, and count the money that is found [in] the house of Yahweh,
2Ki 12:11 and have given the weighed money into the hands of those doing the work, those inspecting the house of Yahweh, and they bring it out to those working in the wood, and to builders who are working in the house of Yahweh,
2Ki 12:12 and to those [repairing] the wall, and to hewers of stone, and to buy wood and hewn stones to strengthen the breach of the house of Yahweh, and for all that goes out on the house, to strengthen it. [CLV]

The resources that have now been made available through this box where people are putting money needs to be counted and distributed to the various workers to see to it that the breaches get healed in the temple. These actions are symbolic of how the Lord will use the elect as His scribes: “there goes up a scribe of the king, and of the high priest, and they bind [it] up, and count the money that is found [in] the house of Yahweh” to properly distribute this wealth that is symbolic of God’s word (Pro 4:7, Pro 2:1-7) to bring about the repairs to the various breaches in the temple of God (1Co 3:16).

Pro 4:7  Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

Pro 2:1  My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; [in “a chest“]
Pro 2:2  So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; [use that wisdom to heal the “breaches” in the temple of God]
Pro 2:3  Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; 
Pro 2:4  If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;  [in “a chest“]
Pro 2:5  Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. 
Pro 2:6  For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. 
Pro 2:7  He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

There are two scribes that go up, “a scribe of the king, and of the high priest” who represent the elect who are given direction by Christ who is our King and high priest. These scribes’ function is to give “the weighed money into the hands of those doing the work, those inspecting the house of Yahweh, and they bring it out to those working in the wood, and to builders who are working in the house of Yahweh, and to those [repairing] the wall, and to hewers of stone, and to buy wood and hewn stones to strengthen the breach of the house of Yahweh, and for all that goes out on the house, to strengthen it“. This is all a shadow of how God will use the elect to teach the nations what actions are needed to repair “the breach of the house of Yahweh“, telling us that when God’s judgments are in the earth men will learn righteousness by the church (Isa 30:20, Isa 26:9-10, Eph 3:10). Learning of righteousness does not mean you are righteous or converted within, but it is the first stage of being ‘baptized with water’ which all men must experience before they are ‘baptized with spirit’ (Joh 3:5).

Isa 30:20  And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: 

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Isa 26:10  Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. 

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

2Ki 12:13 Only, there is not made for the house of Yahweh basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, any vessel of gold, and vessel of silver, out of the money that is brought into the house of Yahweh;”
2Ki 12:14 for to those doing the work they give it, and they have strengthened with it the house of Yahweh,
2Ki 12:15 and they do not reckon with the men into whose hand they give the money to give to those doing the work, for in faithfulness they are dealing.
2Ki 12:16 The money of a trespass-offering, and the money of sin-offerings is not brought in to the house of Yahweh–for the priests it is. [CLV]

God’s elect are the temple of God that is ruling on the earth during the thousand-year reign, and so there are at least two things being shown in these verses. Firstly, these implements represent who the elect already are, “basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, any vessel of gold, and vessel of silver“, and so the money is not used to make any of these instruments in this story. Secondly, God’s elect “do not reckon with the men into whose hand they give the money to give to those doing the work, for in faithfulness they are dealing“. These men who the elect ‘don’t reckon with’ represent those whom God has caused to be faithful servants in that age, and so there is a trust that is established in their dealing with others which we know God controls, “for in faithfulness they are dealing” (Psa 33:4).

Psa 33:4 For upright is the word of Yahweh, And all His work is in faithfulness.” [CLV]

The priests, who represent the religious leaders of the world who are being ruled over by the saints, only receive “The money of a trespass-offering, and the money of sin-offerings” that “is not brought in to the house of Yahweh“, another symbol telling us that there is no conversion in the earth which only happens by partaking of this blessed communion we share in the “house of Yahweh” (1Co 10:16).

1Co 10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 

2Ki 12:17 Then go up does Hazael king of Aram, and fights against Gath, and captures it, and Hazael sets his face to go up against Jerusalem;”
2Ki 12:18 and Jehoash king of Judah takes all the sanctified things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had sanctified, and his own sanctified things, and all the gold that is found in the treasures of the house of Yahweh and of the house of the king, and sends to Hazael king of Aram, and he goes up from off Jerusalem.
2Ki 12:19 And the rest of the matters of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written on the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2Ki 12:20 And his servants rise, and make a conspiracy, and smite Joash in the house of Millo, that is going down to Silla.
2Ki 12:21 yea, Jozachar son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad son of Shemer, his servants, have smitten him, and he dies, and they bury him with his fathers in the city of David, and reign does Amaziah his son, in his stead. [CLV]

This last section of Kings reveals a parable for us of how in the end the world will come up against God’s elect symbolized by these wars and rumours of war between “Hazael king of Aram, and fights against Gath, and captures it” and then “Hazael sets his face to go up against Jerusalem” typical of Gog and Magog doing this as well, at the end of the symbolic thousand-year reign (Rev 20:8).

Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

In a positive sense, Jehoash doing this, taking “all the sanctified things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had sanctified, and his own sanctified things, and all the gold that is found in the treasures of the house of Yahweh and of the house of the king, and sends to Hazael king of Aram, and he goes up from off Jerusalem” is symbolic of the elect during the thousand-year reign not shunning to declare the whole counsel of God as His faithful witnesses (Act 20:27), filling the world with the knowledge of God “as the waters cover the sea”(Hab 2:14). This also leads to the attempt of our death by Gog and Magog (Rev 20:8).

Act 20:26  Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. [Gog and Magog]
Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. 

Hab 2:14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. 

Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 

In this light, Jehoash’s death typifies Christ and his Christ being crucified afresh – by Gog and Magog who have already spiritually murdered us in their hearts – the true nature of the beast being revealed at God’s appointed time (Php 3:18-19).

Php 3:18  (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 
Php 3:19  Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) 

Just as Christ demonstrated for his disciples that it was expedient for him to go away Joh 16:7) in order that the comforter would be sent, so it was expedient to have Satan loosed for a season to demonstrate what we all would resort to without the power of God’s holy spirit giving us the ability to do the right thing (1Sa 16:14-15).

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. 
1Sa 16:15  And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

The actions of Judas betraying Christ typify the moment when Gog and Magog come up against the camp of the saints, as does this betrayal of “Jozachar son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad son of Shemer, his servants“. Judas being a [type of the man of perdition within all] and each person’s ‘day of evil’ being revealed, shows what is naturally in the heart of all men as God has ordained it: “But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him” (Luk 22:3, Pro 16:4). In this sense, we also see Joash as Judas or Saul after the priest Jehoiada dies, as we are told that he was not buried in the sepulchres of the kings, because of his idolatry and murder of a priest of the Lord (2Ch 24:13-27).

Joh 13:27  And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

Luk 22:3  Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. [Joash was a king whose name was changed, the ‘h’ being taken out, which is symbolic of God’s spirit leaving him, going from the name “Jehoash” to “Joash” after his transgressions found him out]

2Ch 24:13  So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set the house of God in his state, and strengthened it.
2Ch 24:14  And when they had finished it, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of the LORD, even vessels to minister, and to offer withal, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD continually all the days of Jehoiada. 
2Ch 24:15  But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. 
2Ch 24:16  And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house. 
2Ch 24:17  Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.
2Ch 24:18  And they [the princes of Judah along with King Joash] left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass. 
2Ch 24:19  Yet he [the LORD God] sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they [the prophets] testified against them: but they would not give ear. 
2Ch 24:20  And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you. 
2Ch 24:21  And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.
2Ch 24:22  Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he [Zechariah] died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it.
2Ch 24:23  And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the host of Syria came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus. 
2Ch 24:24  For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the LORD delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. So they executed judgment against Joash. 
2Ch 24:25  And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings. [Eze 18:24]
2Ch 24:26  And these are they that conspired against him; Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabitess. 
2Ch 24:27  Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him, and the repairing of the house of God, behold, they are written in the story of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

Again, this is what we all would resort to without the power of God’s holy spirit giving us the ability to do the right thing (Pro 15:4-5). We can of ourselves do nothing (Joh 15:5) and yet we have a great promise if we receive the faith to believe it (2Pe 3:9, 1Jn 1:1-29).

Pro 15:4  A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
Pro 15:5  A fool despiseth his father’s instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent. [Jehoiada was a father figure to Jehoash]

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. 

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 

1Jn 2:23  Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. 
1Jn 2:24  Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. 
1Jn 2:25  And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. 
1Jn 2:26  These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. 
1Jn 2:27  But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. 
1Jn 2:28  And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 
1Jn 2:29  If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. 

Exo 22:16-31 Laws Regarding Social Justice

[Study Aired September 5, 2022]

Exo 22:16  And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.
Exo 22:17  If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.
Exo 22:18  Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Exo 22:19  Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.
Exo 22:20  He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.
Exo 22:21  Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Exo 22:22  Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.
Exo 22:23  If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;
Exo 22:24  And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
Exo 22:25  If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. 
Exo 22:26  If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down:
Exo 22:27  For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.
Exo 22:28  Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people. 
Exo 22:29  Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. 
Exo 22:30  Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me. 
Exo 22:31  And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.

The second part of Exodus chapter 22 focuses on social justice laws of Moses. It deals with various issues, such as lying with a maid who is not betrothed to a man, not entertaining the practice of witches, lying with a beast, treatment of a stranger, widow or the fatherless child, not charging interest when lending to the Lord’s people and setting apart the first fruit, first born ox or sheep and the firstborn son for the Lord.  These supposed carnal laws have deep spiritual truth about how we are to live as His elect with our brothers and sisters. As our eyes are being enlightened to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, we come to appreciate the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 
Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Exo 22:16  And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. 

When Israel left Egypt, they were like a maid who was yet to be betrothed to the Lord Jesus. However, they were seduced and therefore ended up engaging in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab.

Num 25:1  And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. 
Num 25:2  And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
Num 25:3  And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.

Our story is not any different from that of the Israelites. As destined to be maids of Christ, we were all seduced first by the enemy, the devil, before we were rescued by the Lord to become the true maids of Christ. The man who seduced a maid in verse 16 is the devil. As a result, we all come under the rule of the devil. In other words, we become his wife and therefore, one flesh with the devil. Being one flesh means that we share in his carnality.

1Co 6:15  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!
1Co 6:16  Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 
1Co 6:17  But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

Mat 19:5  and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

Joh 8:44  You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

The statement in verse 16 that “he shall surely endow her” means the man must pay the bride-price for her. This is another way of saying that the devil has sold his whole life to make the maid his wife (one flesh) by deception. That is why we are admonished to be sober-minded and watchful.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Exo 22:17  If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

The father here is the Lord Jesus Christ who utterly refuses to give His bride, the church of the firstborn, to the devil. As indicated in verse 17, the devil is therefore required to pay the bride-price. However, the devil has nothing to offer. Therefore, the Lord paid with His life to set us free from the devil. In the fullness of time, the Lord will also refuse to give our brothers and sisters in Babylon to the devil as his wife as the Lord’s sacrificial offering (bride-price) will also be available to all humanity including the devil himself.

Isa 59:15  Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. 
Isa 59:16  And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

Exo 22:18  Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

A witch is a sorceress. In the Bible, rebellion against the Lord is the same as practicing witchcraft. In this sense, we were all sorceresses or witches who are not permitted to live, as we have rebelled against the Lord at a certain period of our lives. As a result, we are required to die. This death here is the death of our old man through the Lord’s judgement.

1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Exo 22:19  Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death. 

As we are aware, we are all beasts. Lying with a beast here means being of one flesh with the beast which implies being under the control of the beast and therefore having the same nature of a beast. The beast here is the same as the old man or the flesh. If we are to inherit the kingdom of the Lord, then our old man or the flesh within us that dominates us must be put to death. It is through this death that we become overcomers of the flesh and therefore destined to avoid the second death which is the lake of fire.

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

1Co 6:15  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 
1Co 6:16  Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 

Rev 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Exo 22:20  He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.

Sacrificing to any god is the sin of idolatry, which is the same as being stubborn as shown below:

1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

What this means is that we have all been idolators at a certain point of our walk where, in our stubbornness, we refused to submit to Christ. We are therefore to be utterly destroyed. This means that our old man or the flesh must be completely put to death in our lives. The judgment we are facing in this life is designed by the Lord to put to death the sinful deeds of the flesh.

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. 
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Exo 22:21  Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

The question is, “What does a stranger signify spiritually?” The following verses show us who is a stranger in this world:

Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 
Heb 11:9  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
Heb 11:10  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Heb 11:11  Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Heb 11:12  Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

The verses above show us that the elect are strangers in this world. We are therefore to make sure that we do not oppress or vex the members of the church of the firstborn as we are all strangers in this world. To oppress means to keep under subjection and hardship, especially the unjust exercise of authority. As the body of Christ, none of us must exercise unjust authority over one another since we are all strangers in this world and children of God. The whole church system of this world is characterized by pastors keeping under subjection the people of God. This is what the Lord Jesus has to say about this:

Mat 20:25  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
Mat 20:26  But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
Mat 20:27  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
Mat 20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Paul, Peter and Solomon also said the following regarding this matter:

2Co 1:24  Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

1Pe 5:3  Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.

Ecc 8:9  All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.

To vex means to make someone feel annoyed, frustrated or worried. When our message focuses on what we are required to do without bringing forth the enabling power of the Lord to assist us to do what He wants, we become frustrated or worried since we see that we do not have the capacity to do what is required. Our time in Babylon was characterized by frustration because we thought that everything depended on us. One of the verses which has been abused is that of working out our salvation with fear and trembling in Philippians 2:12. We were always mentioning this without knowing that it is the Lord who does the work in the next verse.

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Exo 22:22  Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.
Exo 22:23  If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;

A widow or a fatherless child are the same in the spiritual sense. On a positive note, a widow represents the church of the elect who in this world is a desolate woman who trusts in God and continues in prayer and supplication night and day. This woman is contrasted with another woman who has glorified herself and lives deliciously and says that she is no widow and shall not see sorrow.

1Ti 5:5  Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

This assertion of who a widow is, is affirmed by the fact that Jerusalem which is above is also described as having no husband and desolate. The adjective “desolate” is also what is used to describe the widow in 1 Timothy 5:5.

Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

1Ti 5:5  Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

If we do anything to hurt a member of the body of Christ, we are hurting the church or the widow and invariably hurting our Lord Jesus Christ.

Act 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
Act 9:4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Verse 23 says that the Lord hears us when we come to Him in our affliction. That is another way of saying that when we are being tempted and we cry to the Lord, He will always provide a way out such that we can bear the temptation.

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Exo 22:24  And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. 

All of us in our time have afflicted or hurt the Lord’s elect when we resisted those who brought the truth of the word of the Lord to us. In doing so, we were actually hurting Christ and as a result, He has come into our lives to deal with us in His wrath with the fire from His mouth which is the sword or words.

Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

As stated in verse 24, the result of dealing with our old man or flesh is that our wives become widows and our children become fatherless. As indicated earlier, widows represent the church of the elect when viewed from a positive perspective. Thus, our wives becoming widows means that through the Lord’s chastening, we become part of the church of the firstborn. Children are the result of the union between a husband and a wife. They represent our works whether under Christ or the devil. In time past, we were basically the wives of the devil as we were one flesh with him. Our dead works were the result of our union with the devil. The Lord making our children fatherless is another way of saying that our dead works under the devil are destroyed. These dead works are the works of the flesh which are as follows:

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 
Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 
Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Heb 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Exo 22:25  If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. 

The heavenly resources that the Lord has given to us, which refer to His words, are such that we must also be prepared to minister His words to our brothers and sisters. However, we are not to charge interest (usury) on what we give to our brothers and sisters. In other words, we are not to benefit financially from the heavenly resources of His words that we make available to others. This is because, freely we have received and freely must we give.

Deu 15:6  For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

Deu 28:12  The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

Deu 23:19  Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:
Deu 23:20  Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

Mat 10:8  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. 

Exo 22:26  If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: 
Exo 22:27  For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.

We are to avoid exposing the nakedness of our brothers and sisters as much as possible when they are not able to use the heavenly resources of His words committed to them. The statement “thou shall deliver it unto him by that the sun goes down” in verse 26 is another way of saying that love covers over the multitude of sins. This pleases the Lord who hears their cry.

1Pe 4:8  And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Exo 22:28  Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people. 

We are not to revile God and curse the ruler of our people. The reason that we are not to curse the ruler of our people is that they are ordained by the Lord and therefore, criticizing them means criticizing God.

Rom 13:1  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:2  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 
Rom 13:3  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 
Rom 13:4  For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 
Rom 13:5  Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

Exo 22:29  Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.

We, His elect, are the first of humanity to be presented to God as ripe fruits. Being ripe means that the bride of Christ is ready to be offered as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Although verse 29 is cast in the sense that it depends on us not to delay our presentation before God, we know that our timings are all ordained by the Lord. This means that the Lord is the one who will not delay in offering us as a living sacrifice to God. The liquor from the ripe fruits represents the product from the winepress of the grapes. The liquor therefore speaks of our judgement which produces righteousness. The elect are also the firstborn sons who are dedicated to the Lord.

Rom 12:1  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Rom 12:2  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 

Rev 14:17  Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 
Rev 14:18  And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 
Rev 14:19  So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 
Rev 14:20  And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

Exo 22:30  Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.

As we have indicated several times, we are the beast represented in verse 30 as the oxen and sheep. A more understandable version of Exodus 22:30 is as follows:

Exo 22:30  You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me. 

Our mother in verse 30 is Jerusalem which is and is in bondage with her children. The seven days refer to the complete period of our lives when we were in Babylonian captivity. The number eight signifies a new beginning, and therefore being presented to God on the eighth day means that after our exit from Babylon, we begin our new walk with Christ as we are dedicated to the Lord. That is the period that our light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon us.

Isa 60:1  Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
Isa 60:2  For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. 
Isa 60:3  And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. 
Isa 60:4  Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. 
Isa 60:5  Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

Exo 22:31  And ye shall be holy men unto me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.

As the elect of the Lord, we are to be offered to God as holy, without any blemish. What is required of us to maintain our holiness is to avoid eating flesh torn by beasts in the field. We know that the field represents the world, and so the beasts here signify those who are not given to know Christ.  The flesh that is torn by the beasts of the field symbolizes the false doctrines and the wisdom and traditions of men which are perpetrated by our brothers and sisters in Babylon. These false doctrines serve as food for the dogs which signify the assembly of the wicked or evil workers as shown in the following verses:

Psa 22:16  For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

Php 3:2  Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. 

May the Lord deliver us from false doctrines in our heavens and guide us to know more of His truth which is able to save us!! Amen!!

Jer 48:32-47  Yet Will I Bring Again the Captivity of Moab in the Latter Days

[Study Aired August 21, 2022]

Jer 48:32  O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer: thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer: the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.
Jer 48:33  And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.
Jer 48:34  From the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh, and even unto Jahaz, have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, as an heifer of three years old: for the waters also of Nimrim shall be desolate.
Jer 48:35  Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, saith the LORD, him that offereth in the high places, and him that burneth incense to his gods.
Jer 48:36  Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the riches that he hath gotten are perished.
Jer 48:37  For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.
Jer 48:38  There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the LORD.
Jer 48:39  They shall howl, saying, How is it broken down! how hath Moab turned the back with shame! so shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to all them about him.
Jer 48:40  For thus saith the LORD; Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab.
Jer 48:41  Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men’s hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Jer 48:42  And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the LORD.
Jer 48:43  Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the LORD.
Jer 48:44  He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
Jer 48:45  They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon because of the force: but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.
Jer 48:46  Woe be unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth: for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captives.
Jer 48:47  Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

Sibmah is an area of Moab known for its vineyards and for the treading of its grapes. Jazer is similar to Sibmah and has already been broken and destroyed by the Babylonians. “Thy plants” signify the people and doctrines of Sibmah which have held dominion over us for so long and are now being judged and destroyed by the spoiler.

Jer 48:32  O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer: thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer: the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.

As we saw with the stories of Abraham mourning the loss of Ishmael and King David mourning the death of King Saul, it is proper that we never rejoice when we see our enemy fall, and that we mourn with those who mourn.

Gen 17:18  And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

2Sa 1:17  And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son:
2Sa 1:18  (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.)

Rom 12:15  Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

The ‘summer fruits and…vintage’ of both Jazer and Sibmah are the fruits of her proud lies and false doctrines to which we have attached ourselves with so much pride that we of ourselves cannot humble ourselves to let go of their deadly affect upon us. Therefore:

Jer 48:33  And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.

“Their shouting shall be no more shouting” is the same as saying:

Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Luk 11:34  The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.
Luk 11:35  Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.

If we think that darkness within us is light, then our shouting will not be shouting. Rather it will be weeping and mourning for the loss of the kingdom of our old man. Our own wickedness will correct us:

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

Moab within us claims he fears the Lord, yet he ignores the Lord’s word and the Lord’s ways.

As an example of light being darkness, anyone who thinks that the modern ‘Book of Jasher’ is anything but spurious heresy is in deep darkness while thinking they are in the light. When we read:

2Sa 1:18  (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.)

“…It is written in the book of Jasher” should never be understood and meaning ‘…it is written in the modern, spurious ‘book of Jasher’. The same goes for the Book of Enoch which is not in our view at this moment. For any who think the book of Jasher is authentic just take the time to read chapters 53-54 which purport to give us the story of Joseph and his brothers. The book of Jasher chapters 51-54 retell the story of Joseph’s brothers appearing before him in Egypt, and in this retelling, these chapters add much to “that which is written” in the True written word of God.

Here is a short cut and paste from chapter 51:

“37 And Joseph went out from them and came into the chamber, and wept a great weeping, for his pity was excited for them, and he washed his face, and returned to them again, and he took Simeon from them and ordered him to be bound, but Simeon was not willing to be done so, for he was a very powerful man and they could not bind him.
38 And Joseph called unto his mighty men and seventy valiant men came before him with drawn swords in their hands, and the sons of Jacob were terrified at them.
39 And Joseph said unto them, Seize this man and confine him in prison until his brethren come to him, and Joseph’s valiant men hastened and they all laid hold of Simeon to bind him, and Simeon gave a loud and terrible shriek and the cry was heard at a distance.
40 And all the valiant men of Joseph were terrified at the sound of the shriek, that they fell upon their faces, and they were greatly afraid and fled.
41 And all the men that were with Joseph fled, for they were greatly afraid of their lives, and only Joseph and Manasseh his son remained there, and Manassah the son of Joseph saw the strength of Simeon, and he was exceedingly wroth.
42 And Manassah the son of Joseph rose up to Simeon, and Manassah smote Simeon a heavy blow with his fist against the back of his neck, and Simeon was stilled of his rage.
43 And Manassah laid hold of Simeon and he seized him violently and he bound him and brought him into the house of confinement, and all the sons of Jacob were astonished at the act of the youth.” (End Quote)

I do not believe that I am the only one who hears “the voice of a stranger” in these words of this obviously spurious ‘book of Jasher’. According to this book, Judah took a stone ‘the weight of 400 shekels’ (ten pounds) and threw it up in the air with one hand and caught it with the other hand and then sat upon it and crushed it to powder. Then Joseph had Manasseh his son to do the same trick. Then Judah and Simeon threaten to destroy all of Egypt. Here is verse 35 of chapter 54:

“And Joseph was greatly afraid at the words of his brethren lest they should destroy Egypt…” (End Quote)

It is a book of total fantasy wrapped up in many verses taken right out of the Bible and millions of nominal Christians are deceived by such spurious heresy. Equally false stories abound throughout this book and throughout the equally spurious Book of Enoch. The books mentioned in scripture are not those which have been invented by unprincipled men to masquerade as books of scripture. Christ’s sheep know His voice, and none of these books, regardless of their antiquity, have the voice of Christ within them:

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Joh 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

As ‘proud Moab’ all our lying false doctrines are revealed for what they are, and yet it is proper that we mourn the death and destruction of Moab just as King David mourned the death of King Saul recounting King Saul’s many wonderful works:

2Sa 1:17  And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son:
2Sa 1:18  (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.)
2Sa 1:19  The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!
2Sa 1:20  Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
2Sa 1:21  Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.
2Sa 1:22  From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty.
2Sa 1:23  Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.
2Sa 1:24  Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.
2Sa 1:25  How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.
2Sa 1:26  I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
2Sa 1:27  How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!

Three times King David laments “How are the mighty fallen”, and he does so regarding the Lord’s rejected anointed.

King Saul has a closer relationship to Abraham’s seed than Moab has, nevertheless both are of Abraham’s family, and both must be judged. King Saul’s judgment will be more severe than Moab because he typifies those who were given more and therefore are expected to produce more:

Luk 12:47  And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Luk 12:48  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

We have “all sinned and come short of the glory of God”, and His fiery words will try every man’s work of what sort they are:

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

Jer 48:34  From the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh, and even unto Jahaz, have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, as an heifer of three years old: for the waters also of Nimrim shall be desolate.

Isaiah 15 contains this same lamentation for Moab and Zoar:

Isa 15:5  My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.

Zoar is the very city to which Moab’s father Lot, and his mother, Lot’s oldest daughter, and her younger sister, Lot’s two daughters fled before leaving Zoar to live in a cave:

Gen 19:15  And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
Gen 19:16  And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
Gen 19:17  And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
Gen 19:18  And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord:
Gen 19:19  Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die:
Gen 19:20  Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.
Gen 19:21  And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken.
Gen 19:22  Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar [meaning ‘little’].

Isa 15:6  For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.
Isa 15:7  Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.
Isa 15:8  For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.
Isa 15:9  For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.

“An heifer of three years old” is a mature cow with a strong voice, whose lowing can be heard by all who are anywhere near. The Lord Himself will bring ‘lions’ upon Moab in the form of the merciless Chaldeans.

Jer 48:35  Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, saith the LORD, him that offereth in the high places, and him that burneth incense to his gods.

In terms to which we can relate, the Lord will cause all the holidays which were celebrated in the pagan ‘high places’ to no longer be tolerated, and the gods of the holidays of Moab will be destroyed. Chemosh will be destroyed and “caused to cease”.

Jer 48:36  Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the riches that he hath gotten are perished.

Pipes were sounded at funerals and at times of great mourning, and Kirheres had been a very wealthy city which is now “perished” with all her riches. Our riches are our doctrines, and that is where our hearts are:

Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Jer 48:37  For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.

All these are rituals associated with a great mourning. Moab is so far from God that cuttings were common even though the Lord had told Israel:

Deu 14:1  Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
Deu 14:2  For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

Jer 48:38  There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the LORD.
Jer 48:39  They [You and I] shall howl, saying, How is it broken down! how hath Moab turned the back with shame! so shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to all them about him. [We come to loath our own shame (Eze 20:43)]
Jer 48:40  For thus saith the LORD; Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab.
Jer 48:41  Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men’s hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Jer 48:42  And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the LORD.
Jer 48:43  Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the LORD.
Jer 48:44  He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
Jer 48:45  They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon because of the force: but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.

“Fire shall come forth out of Heshbon” is the same prophecy Gideon’s son made against his brother, Abimelech, who was of the city of Shechem and who had slain 70 of his brothers, the sons of Gideon:

Jdg 9:20  But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.

Jdg 9:23  Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

Jer 48:46  Woe be unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth: for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captives.

Chemosh is the god of the Moabites. This is what we read earlier in this same chapter:

Jer 48:7  For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.

Chemosh has been letting Moab down for many years, including many years before Israel came up out of Egypt. This is what Moses had to say of Chemosh and his people, Moab:

Num 21:25  And Israel took all these cities: and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof.
Num 21:26  For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon.
Num 21:27  Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say, Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared:
Num 21:28  For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon.
Num 21:29  Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites.
Num 21:30  We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba.

Chemosh is called “the abomination of the Moabites when listing the gods to whom King Solomon built temples in Jerusalem:

1Ki 11:7  Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
1Ki 11:8  And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.

The Lord had given King Solomon more than He had given the Moabites; more riches, more knowledge and more carnal wisdom, and yet we read:

1Ki 11:1  But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;
1Ki 11:2  Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.
1Ki 11:3  And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
1Ki 11:4  For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.
1Ki 11:5  For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
1Ki 11:6  And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.

Moab is our proud flesh which is being judged in this age. King Solomon in his old age typifies those who become the same as King Saul who was the Lord’s rejected anointed, for whom it will be worse ‘in that day’ than it will be for Sodom:

Luk 10:10  But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say,
Luk 10:11  Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
Luk 10:12  But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.

Here is the Lord’s conclusion after all this denunciation and destruction of Moab:

Jer 48:47  Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

‘Bring Again The Captivity’

This phrase “bring again the captivity” is found in reference to several nations in scripture. It is most often mentioned in reference to Israel being brought back to their God, but it is also used in referring to other nations:

Jer 29:14  And I will be found of you [“captives from Jerusalem], saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

Jer 30:3  For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.

Jer 30:18  Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.

Jer 31:23  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.

Jer 33:11  The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.

Jer 48:47  Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

Jer 49:6  And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the LORD.

Jer 49:39  But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD.

Eze 16:53  When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:

Eze 29:14  And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.

Eze 39:25  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;

Joe 3:1  For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

Amo 9:14  And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

Zep 3:20  At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the LORD.

Here we have 13 verses with the words ‘bring again the captivity’ in them. Of these 13 verses, 9 of them refer to the Lord’s people Israel. The remaining four refer to Moab, Ammon, Elam, and Egypt. Applying the principle of living by every word, we must acknowledge that Moab, Ammon, Elam, and Egypt are also within the first man Adam who is within every man, especially ourselves first and foremost. Like the seven churches with their various sins and transgressions, at the end of each admonition we are told:

Rev 2:7  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Rev 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Rev 2:17  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Rev 2:29  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Rev 3:6  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Rev 3:13  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

‘Hearing’ and ‘seeing’ are two ways of saying the same thing:

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand: )

We simply cannot understand unless we are given eyes that see and ears that hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God:

Mat 13:9  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

When Christ tells us “Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them”, He is telling us that all the prophets and righteous men of the Old Testament weren’t even ministering to themselves. Instead, they were all ministering to us, and they “have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them”.

It is given to the apostle Peter to place our salvation in the period following Christ’s coming to die for our sins. For that reason, salvation was completely unavailable to anyone in the Old Testament until they come up in the great white throne judgment:

1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

The fact that the holy spirit tells us the Old Testament prophets prophesied of the grace that would come to us, “Not unto themselves, but unto us…” makes clear the primary meaning of that oft repeated phrase “bring again the captivity” refers first and primarily to those who are in Christ in this present time who will be revealed as “the manifestation of the sons of God” at the resurrection of life, which is also called “the… blessed and holy… first resurrection”, which “manner of time” is at the end of this dispensation of grace, and at the beginning of the thousand-year reign of “our Lord and His Christ… with a rod of iron”:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Psa 2:8  Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Psa 2:9  Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

Rev 19:15  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

We live in faith those words are true, and we give our lives in service to the Truth of this promise:

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

With all of this in mind it becomes clear that ‘bringing again the captivity of Moab’, yes, even ‘Moab’, applies primarily to the Lord’s elect first and foremost. It is our false God ‘Chemosh’, the man of sin within us, whom we worship, and who must be the first to die to himself. Through that death and destruction come forth unto life “more abundant” and not ‘bring again our captivity… with Sodom and her daughters’ (Eze 16:53) just to be “a base nation… there”.

Eze 29:14  And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.

Therefore, in closing it is very important that we realize that ‘bringing again the captivity’ of some nations reveals the “manner of time”, and the glory of the particular resurrection which is under consideration (1Co 15:41-42).

1Co 15:41  There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
1Co 15:42  So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

If Sodom is brought back from her captivity and also Samaria, and we are told that ‘Jerusalem and her daughters’ are among those of Sodom and her daughters, then that is a qualifying statement which tells us that this ‘Jerusalem’ is the ‘Jerusalem’ which is now and is in bondage with her children and who answers to Hagar the bondwoman and to her son “the son of the bondwoman” who will “not be made heir with the son of the free woman”.

To state this as clearly as possible:

Eze 16:53  When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them: [“Thy captives” referring to “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children… not… made heirs with the children of the free woman” (Gal 4:30-31)]

Both the 144,000 firstfruits unto God and the Lamb and the great multitude which no man can number are brought again from their captivity and wash their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. However, the great multitude is not the firstfruits to God and the Lamb, and the great multitude which no man can number are instead “the rest of the dead” of:

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them [144,000 firstfruits], and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This [verse 4] is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Here is the earlier prophecy of those who will reign with Christ for a thousand years:

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh [in “this present time” Rom 8:18], and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

It is the “firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” who will rule with Him a thousand years:

Rev 14:1  And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

These “firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb” are numbered as 144,000, to be contrasted with:

Rev 7:9  After this [After revealing to us the 144,000 firstfruits] I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
Rev 7:10  And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Rev 7:11  And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 7:12  Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
Rev 7:13  And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
Rev 7:14  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation [the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death], and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Rev 7:15  Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

Being “before the throne of God” and sitting with Christ in His throne are two very distinct rewards, and it is our hope to be with, and sit with Christ in His Father’s throne and not suffer the loss of that blessing, while still being saved through the fire of His Word:

1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

We are the children of the freewoman, and those who are not the children of the freewoman will not be made heir of the kingdom of God which will reign over the kingdoms of the world for a thousand years and then “judge angels” in the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death.

Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Jer 4:1-9 – Break Up Your Fallow Ground, and Sow Not Among Thorns

[Study Aired February 21, 2021]

Jer 4:1  If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
Jer 4:2  And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
Jer 4:3  For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Jer 4:5  Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.
Jer 4:6  Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
Jer 4:7  The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
Jer 4:8  For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
Jer 4:9  And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

The title of this study comes from verse 3 and is in effect an admonition to “occupy till I come”. That is what Christ told His disciples in this parable:

Luk 19:11  And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.
Luk 19:12  He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
Luk 19:13  And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

The opposite of “occupy till I come” is to leave your ground “fallow”. It is “hiding your talent in the ground, and doing nothing with it:

Mat 25:24  Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
Mat 25:25  And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

The opposite of fallow ground and the way we ‘occupy and break up our fallow ground’ is “return[ing] unto… the Lord… in truth, in judgment and in righteousness, and seeking first the kingdom of God’. Returning to the Lord means that we are seeking Him and His kingdom before anything and everything else.

That is the admonition we are given here in Jeremiah 4:

Jer 4:1  If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
Jer 4:2  And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
Jer 4:3  For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

These three verses taken alone might lead us to believe we can simply repent of our sins and thereby avoid the fiery judgments of the wrath of God. However, Jeremiah goes on to make clear that is not the case:

Jer 4:7  The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

We will discuss this verse more when we get to it, but suffice it to say “no man can enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels is fulfilled”:

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Our next verse here in Jeremiah reveals that the ritual of circumcision was but a type of the spiritual circumcision of the heart:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

The Old Testament covenant the Lord made with Abraham was over 400 years prior to His covenant with Israel to keep the law of Moses. It was a covenant to ritually circumcise all the males in Abraham’s house. It was prior to the law of Moses and was a mere symbol of spiritual circumcision which would come only after the law brought us to Christ. This spiritual application is revealed here in Jeremiah even though it was not given them to see that physical circumcision was just a shadow of the coming spiritual reality:

Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

Removing the foreskins of our hearts is breaking up our fallow ground. Spiritual circumcision is the reality which is symbolized by physical circumcision and has the same meaning as physical water baptism. Both symbolize being washed and putting off the filthiness of our corruptible flesh. Notice how the outward physical symbols of the Old Testament and the law of Moses are being replaced with the inward spiritual realities of “the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2) in the New Testament:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

When the Lord finally gives the apostles the understanding that they are no longer under the law of Moses, it is also revealed that the only ‘water’ that will wash us clean of our sins is “the washing of water by the word”.

So, we need to know how does our believing Christ and His words cleanse us? How does His word cleanse and purify us? The answer is that it does so through physical and mental pain, symbolized by the fiery trials we endure when “judgment begins at the house of God”:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

“Fiery trials… [are] to try us”. There is no way to get to the tree of life but to go through the “flaming [fiery] sword [“trials”] which keeps the way [of] the tree of life”:

Gen 3:24  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

The “flaming sword… turns every way” because it is ever vigilant to burn out of us every false doctrine which is contrary to “the way, the Truth and the Life” which is Christ and His doctrines:

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

If this statement is true, then Christ is symbolized by both the tree of life and by the flaming sword which guards the way of the Tree of Life.

The entire prophecy of Jeremiah is all about this fiery process of being purified by fire, which Paul tells us we are enduring at this very moment if we are Christ’s:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the [fiery] sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body [“The redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:14)].

Peter told us “judgment must begin at the house of God”, but Paul tells us that in time judgment is coming to “every man” and it is described in fiery words:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

In our next chapter Jeremiah gives us the Biblical meaning of the symbolism of ‘fire’. This is the meaning, whether it is speaking of “My words in your mouth” or “hell (Gehenna) fire”:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Mat 5:21  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
Mat 5:22  But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell [Greek: Gehenna] fire.

This entire prophecy of Jeremiah is addressed primarily to the Lord’s elect and concerns their ‘fiery’ judgment for all their sins and iniquities.

The words “sow not among the thorns” admonish us that the fiery words of Christ will devour our old man with all of His rebellious, lying, false doctrines.

Isa 10:17  And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;

Isa 27:4  Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.

Here is the Biblical symbolism of ‘briers and thorns’:

Eze 2:6 And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns [H5544: sillon/sallon] be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

This same Hebrew word is translated as ‘brier’ (briar) in this verse:

Eze 28:24  And there shall be no more a pricking brier [H5544: sillon, salon] unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn [H6975: qots] all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

In the New Testament the word ‘thorn’ carries the same meaning of false, lying words when Christ says:

Mat 13:22  He also that received seed among the thorns [G173: akantha] is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

Briars and thorns “choke the word” because they are false doctrines and lies which make us to “become unfruitful”.

What the Lord is telling us is that we must stop believing and teaching falsehoods, such as the false doctrine of a substitutionary atonement, or the doctrines which deny His fiery judgments. We should instead be teaching the Truth, which is that “every man’s works shall be… revealed by fire”, and that we are expected of our Lord to “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice… die daily… [and be] crucified with Christ”:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The verbs of 1^st Corinthians 3:13 are all in the future tense, because Paul is speaking of judgment which awaits “every man” and not just the elect. The other three verses in Romans, 1^st Corinthians 15:31 and Galatian 2:20 are all in the aorist tense because he is speaking of a process which must begin taking place before we can begin to enter into our inheritance within the kingdom of God. This process of judgment must begin within us before we can begin to enter the house of our Husband, the temple of Christ (Rev 15:8).

All the doctrines of Christ have been taken away from the Lord’s harlot wife, His harlot church:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! [Rev 17-18] it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

Rev 18:24  And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

With this understanding, Jeremiah continues:

Jer 4:5  Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.
Jer 4:6  Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
Jer 4:7  The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

“The lion is come up from his thicket” is a type of our adversary the devil:

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

The “blow[ing of] the trumpet [and the] evil… and a great destruction [coming] from the north” both symbolize the blowing of the seven trumpets of our judgment which will, in time, “make our spiritual cities desolate” and waste and destroy the kingdom of our rebellious and stubborn old man:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [Greek: ‘tupos’, types of us]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Here is the John Mitchell Version of this verse:

1Co 10:11   Now all these things went on progressively stepping together among (to) those folks typically (as examples; figuratively), and it was written with a view toward a placing [of them] into the minds of us: ones unto whom (directed into whom) the ends (conjunctions; or: goals) of the ages have come down to (arrived at) and are now face to face [with us]. (JMV)

Here is our introduction to the seven trumpet judgments, the last of which is the seven bowls which “fill up the wrath of God” upon the great whore within us and upon the entire kingdom of our old man:

Rev 8:1  And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
Rev 8:2  And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
Rev 8:3  And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
Rev 8:4  And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.
Rev 8:5  And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
Rev 8:6  And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

“The destroyer of the Gentiles” is the Gentile king who, as ‘the seed of the serpent’, seeks to devour the ‘seed of the woman’ – the Lord’s elect. Inwardly you and I see this “destroyer” every morning in our mirrors. He is by far the worst enemy you and I will ever meet in this life. He is the “man of sin… standing in the holy place in “the temple… which [we] are”, claiming to be God”:

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin [“the beast” within] be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God [“… which temple ye are…” 1Co 3:16-17], shewing himself that he is God.

Our only hope of defeating this monster is through “the faith of Jesus Christ” and through “the washing of water by the Word”:

Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

“His heel” means our walk… our way of life… our way of life under his influence. “Thy head” is our way of thinking, which in time will “bruise his head” and will dominate our way of life through “the faith of Jesus Christ”. Remember the Lord has just admonished us:

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
Jer 3:15  And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

This fourth chapter continues with this same theme as we just read:

Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

This verse taken by itself deceives us into thinking that if we repent we can avoid being chastened for our sins. The Truth is to be found only in “the sum of [His] words”:

Psa 119:160  The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV)

“The sum of [His] words” reveals that the Lord “chastens and scourges every son He receives” (Heb 12:6), and “the fire tries the works of “every man”, and “no man might enter into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels is fulfilled within our lives (Rev 15:7-8):

1Co 3:13  Every man‘s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man‘s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

This chapter goes on to reveal what “My fury coming forth like fire” means. It means that the trumpet of judgment produces war in our heavens, and that ‘war’ is certain:

Rev 12:7  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels going forth to war with the dragon; and the dragon warred and his angels;
Rev 12:8  And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. (ASV)

That ‘war’ and the Lord’s fury are unavoidable “because of the evil of [our] doings”. Our judgment is coming “out of the north” via a Gentile who will be used by the Lord to judge our old man. That “destroyer of the Gentiles” is our old man whose own mouth is used by the Lord to judge us. We are all in a net we have prepared for ourselves, and we are caught in our own net with our own words:

Job 18:8  For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

Job 19:6  Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

Psa 66:11  Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.

Luk 19:22  And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

When we acknowledge our own iniquity and transgressions, we still must endure our own judgment:

Jer 4:8  For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

Verse 8 is a foundation for these words in the revelation of Jesus Christ within each of us:

Rev 15:6  And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

The beast giving the seven vials to the seven angels, the temple filling up with smoke, and the entering the temple are one and all in the aorist tense. Greek has a past, present and future tense just as English has all three tenses, plus the aorist tense (not used in English) which can denote all three, a continuance of what was begun. Therefore, when the holy spirit defers to the aorist tense there is a particularly good reason for doing so. That reason is that the words of this prophecy have been being ‘read, being heard, and have been being kept’ for the past two thousand years:

Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation [reading, hearing, and keeping the things written] shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

What this is telling us is that the process of being judged continues when these seven vials are being poured out. These seven vials (bowls) are the seventh trumpet, and this is what we are told of the seventh trump:

Rev 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Both verbs ‘begin’ and ‘sound’ are in the present tense because both have been ‘presently’ taking place within the lives of the Lord’s elect every day since those words were written, and they are taking place within us even now if we are the Lord’s elect. The fact that the word “begin” is used demonstrates a process is taking place.

Our harlot mother taught us that if we simply accept Christ as our savior, then we are good to go. “Christ died for us so we have no need to die”, so she told us. It is called “the doctrine of substitutionary atonement”, and it is one of the most insidious and lascivious lies of the great whore and her daughters. Nothing could be less truthful when the entire message of the scripture is:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

We are both judged, and we are “saved… by fire”. The Truth of the scriptures is that “No man [is] able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels is fulfilled” in our lives.

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

The Truth of the scriptures is that Christ did not die for us so we would not have to die, rather He died for our sins so we, too, could “be crucified with Him… filling up in our bodies what is behind of His afflictions… for His body’s sake which is the church”:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

The word translated as ‘behind’ here in Colossians 1:24 in the King James is:

G5303
ὑστέρημα
husterēma
hoos-ter’-ay-mah
From G5302; a deficit; specifically poverty: – that which is behind, (that which was) lack (-ing), penury, want.

If indeed Christ’s death were in substitution for our death, then why are we instructed to “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice unto God”? If Christ’s death is in substitution for our death, then why must we also “die daily” and be “crucified with Christ”? The obvious answer is that there must be something which is “behind… [lacking] of His afflictions”, as we are explicitly told there in Colossians 1:24.

That is exactly what Christ also told us earlier, hidden from this world in these words:

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Based on these words, it follows that we, too, must be “crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20)… and fill up what is behind of His afflictions for His body’s sake which is the church (Col 1:24).

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

For the benefit of any who doubt that the Greek word ‘husterema’ means “lacking”, here are a couple examples of how this word is used elsewhere in the New Testament:

1Co 16:17  I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking [G5303: husterema, lacking] on your part they have supplied.

2Co 11:9  And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking [G5303: husterema, lacking] to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.

After this process of judgment has begun to take place within us…

Jer 4:9  And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

“The heart of the king” is the heart and mind of our old man within us. The ‘princes, priests and prophets’ symbolize all the principalities and powers of all the false doctrines within us. All those false doctrines within us have begun to fall, and this is what they are “wondering”:

Rev 18:18  And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
Rev 18:19  And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

When the knowledge of the sovereign God begins to be made known to us, the Lord’s work within us, from the Lord’s perspective, is “a short work”:

Rom 9:28  For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

That is our study for today. Here are our verses for our next study which will reveal more of our sins and more of the details of our judgment at the hands of our jealous Husband:

Jer 4:10  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.
Jer 4:11  At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
Jer 4:12  Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.
Jer 4:13  Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.
Jer 4:14  O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
Jer 4:15  For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.
Jer 4:16  Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
Jer 4:17  As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 4:18  Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.
Jer 4:19  My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Jer 4:20  Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

Heb 6:20  Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

[Study Aired October 15, 2020]

Heb 7:1  For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; 
Heb 7:2  To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; 
Heb 7:3  Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. 
Heb 7:4  Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. 

The last verse of chapter six of Hebrews sets the stage for a very extensive and detailed parable that goes on to describe how Christ and His Christ are alike, and that parable gives us insight to what it means for Christ to be “the forerunner” and how God’s elect are as he is in that regard (1Jn 4:17, 1Co 15:23).

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

What Abraham is able to accomplish in battle “returning from the slaughter of the kings” typifies the ongoing spiritual battle in our heavens against powers and principalities within (Eph 6:12) that Christ who is represented by Melchisedec is “far above” (Eph 1:21). Offering a tithe to Melchisedec as Abraham did is synonymous with our presenting our “bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1).

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Eph 1:21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

It really wouldn’t be a “reasonable service” if we didn’t have the hope of glory within us “the forerunner” Jesus Christ (Col 1:27) Who gives us the strength to go into battle and come out victorious as He builds the house, labouring within us both to will and to do of our Father’s good pleasure (Php 2:13, Psa 127:1, Luk 12:32).

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Psa 127:1  A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Luk 12:32  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

There are twenty-eight verses in this seventh chapter of Hebrews and we will look at the first four in this study that should help set the stage for this very hope-filled section of scripture that reminds us what Christ’s role is in our lives “to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” of verse 25.

God’s elect are being prepared through that process of salvation to join Christ in becoming saviours who come up on mount Zion “to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S” (Oba 1:21). We are being being made ready through the life of Christ “our forerunner” who is typified by the life of this king Melchisedec who is of the “order of Melchisedec” whose title reminds us how God does all things “decently and in order” (1Co 14:40) as we’re shown that order of salvation through this very bright parable of chapter seven that was written for our sakes “upon whom the ends of the world are come” (2Co 4:15, 1Co 10:11, 1Pe 1:12).

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

1Co 14:40  Let all things be done decently and in order.

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Heb 7:1  For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; 
Heb 7:2  To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; 

When God causes us to realize that we are more than conquerors through Christ (Rom 8:37), we rejoice and again I say rejoice (Php 4:4) as we discover our safe haven in our Lord (Psa 107:30) who first gives us the victory over all those kings within us by His righteousness “first being by interpretation King of righteousness” that gives us the power to slaughter all those kings within us by the brightness of his coming (2Th 2:8). The resulting fruit of that victory is described for us in the names of Melchisedec – “king of Salem” or “King of peace” – that represent the fruit of the spirit that is born out of these battles or storms that God raises in our lives as we learn to recognize the peace that passes all understanding that comes from our Lord alone. The order is important, “first being by interpretation King of righteousness“, then after the battle “after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace” (Php 4:7).

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Php 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Another parable or story that represents this peace and joy we find once we meet Christ on the road, typified by Melchisedec who “met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings“, is found in (Luk 24:16-36). The resulting peace described in this parable comes from Christ who states “Peace be unto you”, and causes our hearts to “burn within us” with a desire to know our Lord as we share our life together in him and tell each other “what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread”.

Luk 24:16  But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
Luk 24:17  And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
Luk 24:18  And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
Luk 24:19  And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
Luk 24:20  And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
Luk 24:21  But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.

[Three days after this great spiritual life and death battle in Christ’s life against spiritual wickedness in the heavens represented by “the slaughter of the kings” that that Abraham overcame (Heb 7:1), we see our Lord the “Prince of peace” (Isa 9:6) show up and declare “Peace be unto you“]

Luk 24:22  Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
Luk 24:23  And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
Luk 24:24  And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.
Luk 24:25  Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
Luk 24:26  Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
Luk 24:27  And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luk 24:28  And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.
Luk 24:29  But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
Luk 24:30  And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
Luk 24:31  And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
Luk 24:32  And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
Luk 24:33  And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,
Luk 24:34  Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
Luk 24:35  And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
Luk 24:36  And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.