Rev 14:1-5- Part 2- Who Is Given To “Sing A New Song”?

[Study Aired February 9, 2025]

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.
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

We ended our last study asking the question… who are those who “sing a new song”?

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.

Who else sings this “new song”? We just read who else sings this “new song”. But just in case we might have missed it, let’s go back to the four beasts and four and twenty elders of Rev 5. That is right, it is the same “four beasts and four and twenty elders” who have the harps of God and they too ‘sing a new song’:

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;

Since “no one can learn that [new] song but the hundred and forty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth”, and since John hears harpers harping with their harps when he sees these hundred and forty and four thousand, and since the four beasts and the four and twenty elders are also redeemed from the earth, having every one of them harps, and are also singing this same “new song”, it is clear to anyone with any spiritual discernment that these two symbols, like Pharaoh’s two dreams, “are one”.

Gen 41:1  And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
Gen 41:2  And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favoured kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow.
Gen 41:3  And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river.
Gen 41:4  And the ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke.
Gen 41:5  And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good.
Gen 41:6  And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.
Gen 41:7  And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.
Gen 41:8  And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.

Gen 41:25  And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

What other symbols are used to show us who these 144,000 symbolize? Here is more symbolism for the same people:

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.

“Following the Lamb whithersoever He goes” means these 144,000 signfy those who are willing to please their Father Christ just as Christ wanted nothing but to please His Father and to do what His Father sent Him to do. “These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins”. Who is signified as a virgin in scriptural symbolism?

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.

A repentant harlot is a spiritually “chaste virgin to Christ”. The same is true of any man or woman who has repented of his or her spiritual or physical adultery, fornication or uncleanness of any kind. The same principle applies to molesters and molested children who have accepted Christ as their savior. All who have Christ living His life of rejection and tribulation and persecution within them are “chaste virgins unto Christ”.

“These follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes” means that these recognize that they follow and live by the doctrine of Christ, and that doctrine is that “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4). It means that these virgins “fill up in their bodies what is behind of the afflictions of the Christ, 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 [the] Christ [the Greek has the article ‘the’, and reads ‘the Christ’] in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

“These follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes” means that these “144,000… firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb… follow His steps”:

1Pe 2:21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Wherever the Lamb goes, His virgin bride goes with Him. It is only those Christians, who are espoused unto Christ as a chaste virgin, who are “redeemed from among men, and are the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.”

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 whole world reaps the pain and misery their sins produce. That includes the Lord’s firstfruits bride:

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 [the whole creation, verse 22], 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.

We are the adoption, and we are redeemed in earnest only at “this present time” (Rom 8:18), and we are still “waiting for the adoption and the redemption of our bodies.”

Rom 8:24  For we are saved [Aorist tense] 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.

Ours is a future reward which cannot be realized in this present time except by believing the words of “that holy spirit of promise”. It is “that… promise” which constitutes “the earnest of our inheritance”, which ‘earnest’ is but a downpayment of “the purchased possession” which Christ purchased with His own blood ‘to the praise of His glory’:

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted [in Christ], 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 [Greek: down payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

God’s “firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” are right now “waiting for the adoption… the redemption of our bodies”. That is the honor we have been given if indeed Christ is living His life within us and we are “redeemed from among men”, and as His espoused bride, and if we are going wherever He goes.

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.

The last symbol we have not yet considered was the first mentioned in this 4^th verse:

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women;

“Women” throughout scripture signify the church, the bride of Christ:

Eze 23:2  Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
Eze 23:3  And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
Eze 23:4  And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.
Eze 23:5  And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

The ‘women’ by which we are all ‘defiled’ are all the daughters of the great whore of Revelation 17-18. “Were not defiled” is in the aorist tense, which tells us that we are in the process of being judged as the Father drags us out of Babylon and is through the process of being judged placing us upon the “sea of glass mingled with fire”:

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Rev 15:2  And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

“Not defiled with women”, does not mean they were never defiled with women. What it means is that these “firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” are well on their way to “coming out of her” the great whore and all of her daughter harlots, and willingly bearing the same hatred and rejection which that very same ‘whore’ dished out to our Lord. In this world ‘we are as  He is’:

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.

Christ was born into and raised up in the synagogues of the great whore:

Luk 2:51  And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

When His ministry began He ‘came out of her’ because he had no accord with her:

Luk 3:22  And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him [at His baptism by John], and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.
Luk 3:23  And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,

2Co 6:14  Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
2Co 6:15  And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

The Greek word for ‘guile’ is G1388, ‘dolos’, and it means ‘deceit’. ‘Deceit’ is to mislead and to tell lies. No healthy marriage relationship can exist on anything less than the Truth. A marriage based on lies cannot last, and we simply cannot say “Lord, Lord” and at the same time “do not the things [that Christ, our husband, says to do]”:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

We may deceive ourselves that we are obeying our spiritual husband, but He is not deceived. “There is no guile in the mouths of God’s elect, the espoused bride of Christ”. “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” [the bride of Christ]:

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?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

That is why we are told that Christ’s bride has heard the thunder of God and is familiar with the lightning which produces the judgment of that thunder and hail.

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

It is because “the hail [is sweeping] away the refuge of lies” within us, that there is no guile in our mouth, and we are without fault before the throne of God.

Mat 12:5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? [“before the throne of God”].

Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

God’s elect, His one hundred and forty and four thousand virgins, His four beasts and four and twenty elders, singing a new song, harping with their harps, are “without fault before the throne of God and of 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.
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

Summary

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.

What we have seen in this study is that this Lamb standing on Mount Sion, and the hundred and forty and four thousand, together are “the Christ”, who one and all think and act as our heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ think and act.

Joh 17:11  And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

Joh 17:21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
Joh 17:22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Joh 17:23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

This “that they may be one even as we are one” is true to the extent that Christ says of us: “I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you persecute”.

Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

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.

We saw that mount Sion is just another symbol of where God has desired to dwell in His people:

Psa 132:13  For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.
Psa 132:14  This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

That being the case, the hundred and forty and four thousand and Mount Sion both signify the Lord’s elect, firstfruit, wife.

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:

We have seen that the voice from heaven as the voice of a great thunder, and the voice of many waters is simply the Word of God, and that the great thunder signifies the judgment that comes with the fiery lightning which produces that thunder and its accompanying hail. We have also seen that the thunder of God signifies the judgment of our sinful flesh, and that the hail which accompanies that thunder signifies the fiery truths of the Words and doctrines of Christ which “shall wipe away the refuge of lies.” We have seen that “the refuge of lies” signifies the lying false doctrines of Babylon in which we thrive before God’s thunderous Word comes to us and judges us.

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

We saw that the “harpers harping with their harps” signify the the Lord’s elect, and are the same as the four beasts and the four and twenty elders, who also all have harps and sing the same new song just as these 144,000.

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 15:2  And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

Rev 5:9  And they [the four beast and the four and twenty elders] 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;

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 14:3  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

We have seen that the new song sung by the 144,000, can only be sung by the 144,000, and yet the harps which John hears here with the 144,000, and the fact that both the 144,000 and the four beasts and the four and twenty elders, all sing this same “new song”, and both have the same harps and are both “redeemed from the earth”, proves that these two symbols, like Pharaoh’s dreams, both signify the same thing. And that ‘same thing’ is the few chosen and faithful elect of God, who are in both cases “redeemed from the earth… from among men”.

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.

We have seen that those who are “not defiled with women, and are virgins” are not virgins because they have never known women, but rather they are virgins because they have overcome the name, number, mark and image of the beast. We saw that being a virgin is a matter of repentance from our own ways, and obedience and fidelity to the words and ways of our Lord. Being a spiritual ‘virgin’ is a matter of coming out of the lies and sins of Babylon and her harlot daughters, and believing and doing the things Christ tells us to do.

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

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.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my [virgin] people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

We saw that the world will despise and reject God’s elect but that in the end no one can “lay anything to the charge of God’s elect” because, in God’s eyes they are “without guile, without blame, and without fault before the throne of God.”

Mat 12:5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? [“before the throne of God”].

Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

These first five verses of this 14^th chapter of Revelation are repeated here just before the rest of the verses in this 14^th chapter for the purpose of incentivizing us to “endure to the end”, and to give us the ‘respect of the reward’ of being privileged to “follow the Lamb withersoever He goes”, and by having respect for that reward we are now able to endure the judgment that lies before us and which judgment must “first begin… at the house of God”:

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

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?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Next week, Lord willing, we will continue our study of the next six verses of Revelation 14, and we will see that the preaching of the everlasting gospel is all about the fact that “the hour of His judgment is come”, which judgment will teach the inhabitants of the world righteousness (Isa 26:8-9), and it will also produce the “worship of the maker of heaven, and earth and the sea and the fountains of water”.

Rev 14:6  And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive [his] mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Ezekiel 38:1-23 Prophesy Against Gog

[Study Aired December 2, 2024]

INTRODUCTION

In Today’s study, we turn our attention to Gog, who is described as a leader of a great army, whose kingdom is called Magog, whom the Lord is going to use to attack the people of Israel who had come back to their land from captivity and are living peacefully and unsuspectingly at the time.

Apart from the fact that Magog appears as grandson of Noah, there are limited references to Gog and Magog in the Bible. They appear only in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 and Revelation chapter 20. In order for us to understand Today’s study and the subsequent one, we need to know what Gog represents spiritually. From the Book of Ezekiel, we can deduce that Gog and his kingdom Magog represents a formidable challenge to the Lord’s elect (the people of Israel) after they have come back from captivity and are living without walls in Israel.

Eze 38:10  Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
Eze 38:11  And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
Eze 38:12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

In the Book of Revelation chapter 20, Gog and Magog again poses a threat to the reign of the Lord’s elect over the kingdoms of this world.

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.

As we have learnt in the study of the word of the Lord, there is past, present and future application of the word of the Lord. The present reality of the word of the Lord is the “is” part of the word of the Lord and the future application is the “will be” part of the word. Since Jesus Christ represents the word of the Lord, “Jesus today” is the “is” part and “Jesus forever” is the future application part.

Rev 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.  

Heb 13:8  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Joh 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

With this in mind, let’s see how the study of Ezekiel chapter 38 today applies to us now. In this chapter and chapter 39, there is no mention of Satan. However, in the Book of Revelation, we are given additional information that it is Satan who will deceive the people of the world to engage the Lord and His elect in a battle. In other words, the chief prince, Gog, represents Satan. In today’s and the next study, there are references in the two chapters (38 and 39) which confirm this assertion that Satan represents Gog, who uses the people of this world (many nations) as His great army to fight the Lord’s elect. The Lord calls this invasion of Gog and his great army against the Lord’s elect, a great shaking in the land of the people of Israel.

Eze 38:19  For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; 

This great shaking is the Lord’s judgement of our old man or flesh using Satan or the devil as His instrument that blows the coals in the fire.

Isa 54:16  Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

Here in this study, we shall see the Lord using the tools of His four sore judgements – every man’s sword being against his brother, and pestilence to destroy the old man or flesh within us. This destruction implies the ruin of the influence of the devil or Gog in our lives.

Eze 38:21  And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
Eze 38:22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

Eze 14:21  For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?

Ezekiel chapter 38 comes right after the Lord had brought to life the dry bones and is gathering us, His elect from the four corners of the earth. Today’s study therefore shows us the present danger – the devil (Gog), who can derail our restful life in Christ. As the Lord’s elect, we need to be watchful of the devices of the devil.

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Our protection is therefore to put on the full armor of the Lord, so that we can be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
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 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Eph 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

We also need to know the future application of Today’s study which is consistent with that of Revelation chapter 20. After the symbolic thousand year reign with Christ over the kingdoms of this world, all humanity shall be deceived by the devil to rebel against the Lord and His elect, which will cause the Lord to destroy all flesh or human beings living at that time by His fire from heaven. That is how death shall be destroyed.

1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

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.

Having this understanding that Gog represents the devil and Magog, the people of this world whom Satan has blinded and therefore uses them against the Lord’s elect, our study today becomes easier to understand.

Eze 38:1  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 
Eze 38:2  Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 
Eze 38:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: 

As indicated in previous studies, the word of the Lord coming to Ezekiel signifies our Lord Jesus coming with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness to His elect. It is in this coming that we are gradually given the keys of the kingdom of the Lord to understand its mysteries.

2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
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:

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.

In verse 2, we are introduced to Gog as the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, ruling over the land of Magog. Gog means ‘mountain’. In other words, Gog signifies a formidable opposition that the Lord has raised against His elect. Magog means ‘the land of Gog’ or ‘the kingdom of Gog’. The Jewish historian Josephus recognized Magog as the Scythians, known for their destructive warfare. In the subsequent verses, the army of Gog encompasses several nations. In the Book of Revelation, we can easily infer that the leader who is playing the role of Gog to gather together the armies of the whole world (the kingdom of Magog) against the Lord and His elect, is Satan. Gog is therefore a symbol of Satan, whom the Lord has fashioned as the waster to destroy.

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.

Gog, being the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal is significant. Meshech means ‘drawing out’ and Tubal signifies ‘thou shall be brought’. The devil’s role is to draw out or bring out sin in our lives. As we can remember, before the devil showed up, Adam and Eve did not know their state as sinful beings. That is what it means to be naked and not know it. However, the devil coming to the scene exposed their nakedness.

Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Gen 3:9  And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
Gen 3:10  And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Gen 3:11  And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

In verse 3, the Lord is telling us that He is against the adversary, the devil. Being against the devil means our Lord opposes or resists the devil. As the Lord’s representatives here on earth, we are therefore called to resist the devil and we can only do it when we first submit to Christ our Lord.

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Eze 38:4  And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: 
Eze 38:5  Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: 
Eze 38:6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. 

Turning Gog back and putting hooks into Gog’s jaws in verse 4 signify that  the Lord controls all that the devil does. As we are aware, in this world, we go through an experience of evil orchestrated by the devil. However, all that the devil does is in accordance with the counsel of the Lord’s will. The fact that the devil comes with an army of horses and horsemen, clothed with all sorts of armor implies that we, His elect are in a spiritual warfare against the devil and his cohorts. This is described as follows:

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 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

It is instructive to note that in verse 4 this great army of Gog or the devil are all capable of handling the sword. The sword here refers to the false doctrines of man’s wisdom and tradition. This great army is Satan’s messengers of false apostles parading as angels of light.

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

In the Book of Revelation, this great army represents the locusts that come out of the bottomless pit.

Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Rev 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
Rev 9:7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

The countries mentioned who are part of the army included Persia, Ethiopia, Libya and Gomer. These four countries represent a significant portion of the world at that time and as we are aware, the number four symbolizes the whole of the issue at stake. Therefore, these countries represent the whole of the world and as we can see, later in the Book of Revelation, the army of Gog comes from the people of the whole world.

Eze 38:7  Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. 
Eze 38:8  After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. 
Eze 38:9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. 

It is instructive to note that the devil and his cohorts have been prepared for us, the Lord’s elect as shown in verse 7. As we come out of the churches of this world, or Babylon, and become part of the church of the firstborn or the Jerusalem above which is symbolized here in verse 8 as the mountains of Israel, that is when the Lord calls the evil one and his cohorts to service in verse 8, to be used as instruments of His judgement of our old man or flesh. The story of Job, a symbol of the Lord’s elect shows us how the Lord uses the devil (Gog) to administer His judgement of our flesh with the view of destroying it.

Isa 54:16  Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

The handing over of the man in the church in Corinth to the devil after sleeping with his father’s wife affirms how the Lord uses the devil for the destruction of our flesh.

1Co 5:1  It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
1Co 5:2  And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
1Co 5:3  For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
1Co 5:4  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Verse 9 tells us that the coming of the evil one in our lives as an instrument of judgement is like a storm or a cloud that covers our land, representing our bodies. In the Book of Psalms, the Lord had vividly shown us what we go through when He raises a storm, through the agency of Gog or the devil.

Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

When the devil comes with his cohorts as a cloud over our land, we barely can see the sun which is Christ during this period. Our Lord Jesus also went through this experience of the devil as a cloud covering Him when He said why had the Lord forsaken Him.

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?

In all of this evil experience that we go through, we are assured by the Lord that we shall come out victorious and that no weapon formed or fashioned against us shall prosper.

Isa 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

Eze 38:10  Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: 
Eze 38:11  And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, 

Verses 10 and 11 are saying that a time shall come that ideas will enter Gog’s head and will make wicked plans of attacking the Lord’s elect who are at rest in the Lord after their exit from Babylon. We know from the word of the Lord that our thought process and what we settle on to execute in our lives all originates from the Lord. This also applies to Satan or Gog. As indicated in Ezekiel 38:4, it is the Lord that drags Satan to attack the Lord’s elect for the destruction of our flesh.

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

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

Eze 38:4  And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:

Eze 38:12  To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. 
Eze 38:13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? 

In verses 12 and 13, we are told that the aim of the Lord dragging the devil to attack us is to take a spoil or prey. This spoil or prey is our old man or flesh which is the result of the Lord’s judgement.

1Co 5:4  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

In verse 13, it is stated that Sheba, Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish shall all conclude that Gog and his army have come to the people of Israel to take a spoil or prey. Sheba means ‘complete’, Dedan signifies ‘low country’ and Tarshish refers to ‘jasper’. What these names suggest is that we were like a low country (Dedan) that had been overrun by the Philistines which represents our flesh and as we mature spiritually or become complete in Him (Sheba), we come to see through the word of the Lord (jasper) that the judgement of our flesh is through the agency of the devil and that it is for the purpose of taking a prey or spoil of our flesh.

2Ch 28:18  The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Bethshemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there.

Eze 38:14  Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? 
Eze 38:15  And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: 
Eze 38:16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. 

In verse 14, a rhetorical question was asked of Gog if he recognizes that the people of Israel are dwelling in safety. The answer of course is that the devil (Gog) knows when we are dwelling in safety. In the Book of Jeremiah, we are told what it means to dwell in safety, as follows:

Jer 32:37  Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
Jer 32:38  And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
Jer 32:39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:

From these verses, we can see that dwelling in safety means being delivered from captivity (Babylon) and brought together to Jerusalem where we are given one heart as we all follow one way.  In other words, we have been delivered from the physical churches of this world or Babylon and brought together from every tribe and kindred to become the New Jerusalem. It is in the church of the firstborn that we dwell in safety.

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,
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,
Heb 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

In verse 15, we are made aware that it is as we come to the New Jerusalem that the Lord drags the devil (Gog) to gather his forces from the north to attack us, His elect. It is instructive that the army of Gog comes from the north which means judgement. What this implies is that it is when we have come to the New Jerusalem that our judgement begins. As mentioned earlier and in verse 16, this army of Gog from the north comes against us like a cloud that covers our land or bodies. That is to say that during this period of our trials, we barely see Christ working all things according to the counsel of His will. However, the Lord has shown us in verse 16 that it is through our trials that He is sanctified. The Lord’s sanctification is our sanctification.

Jer 1:14  Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Jer 1:15  For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
Jer 1:16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.  

Jer 10:22  The voice of tidings, behold, it cometh, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals. (ASV)

Eze 38:17  Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Art thou he of whom I spake in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, that prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring thee against them? 

Verse 17 affirms to us that Gog is the old serpent who had been prophesied in old time by the servants of the Lord that he shall come against the Lord’s people or elect. That is why the devil is called an old serpent. Right in the beginning of the Lord’s creation, when the serpent deceived Eve we are warned by the Lord of the impending attacks of the devil against the Lord’s people.

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
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.

Eze 38:18  And it shall come to pass in that day, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah, that my wrath shall come up into my nostrils. 
Eze 38:19  For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; 
Eze 38:20  so that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

These verses show us that Gog, who signifies the devil, is the instrument that the Lord uses to judge our old man. Statements such as the Lord’s wrath coming up into his nostrils, the jealousy and the fire of the Lord’s wrath, and the great shaking in the land of Israel on that day, all signify the judgement of our old man, or flesh, through the agency of the devil or Satan.

Isa 54:16  Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

2Ki 22:13  Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.

2Ch 12:12  And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well.

In verse 20, we are shown what the wrath of the Lord or His judgement accomplishes. The fishes of the sea denote our lives dominated by our flesh, the birds of the heavens signifies the influence of the evil one on our hearts and mind, and the beasts of the field is our flesh. The creeping things upon the earth represent the false doctrines of man’s wisdom and tradition which we imbibe or eat to defile ourselves.

Lev 11:41  And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten.

Lev 11:43 Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.

The statement that all men upon the face of the earth shall shake at the presence of the Lord means that all men shall be judged. Concerning the Lord’s elect, our judgement is meted out to us in this age. The rest of humanity shall be judged in the lake of fire age. At the end of the Lord’s judgement, all our mountains, the steep places and every wall that separates us from the Lord shall be destroyed.

Eze 38:21  And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. 
Eze 38:22  And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. 
Eze 38:23 Thus will I magnify myself and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD. 

The whole of the Lord’s tools for judging us are the sword, famine, pestilence and noisome beast.

Eze 14:21  For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?

In verses 21 and 22, we are shown some of the tools that the Lord uses to judge us and they are the sword and pestilence. The overflowing rain, hailstones, fire and brimstones that the Lord will rain on the devil and all his cohorts all relates to the truth of the Lord’s words which destroys the works and devices of the adversary in our lives.

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

In verse 23, we are shown the effects of the Lord’s judgement. The Lord shall be magnified and sanctified in our lives. The Lord’s sanctification is our sanctification. As the Lord is magnified and sanctified in us, we shall come to know Him intimately.

May the Lord continue His work of sanctification in us. Amen!!

Rev 11:15-19, Part 2 – The Seventh Trumpet

Now Is Come Salvation

[Study Aired Nov 15, 2024]

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great;   and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

In our last study we took note of the fact that the seventh trumpet is the only event among all the seven seals, all the seven trumpets, and all seven vials, which does not immediately describe the actions which this trumpet produces. Notice how this seventh trumpet, unlike any of the other six trumpets, is first alluded to in chapter 10:

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.
Rev 10:8  And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
Rev 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Rev 10:11  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

We are told that this trumpet eventually fulfills the mystery of God, but the same verse 7 of chapter 10 also reveals that this seventh trumpet is a process which requires a certain number of days to be fulfilled.

In chapter 11 we are actually given the fruit which is produced by this seventh trumpet… “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ”, but before the kingdoms of this world can become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ, it is revealed that a “manchild”, who was “to rule the nations with a rod of iron” must first be born of a harlot woman, which ‘woman’ was to spend “a thousand two hundred and sixty days in the wilderness, while her “manchild” was caught up unto God and His throne”.

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 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

But before that manchild can become mature he must first come to see himself as the beast of Revelation 13, which arises up out of the sea of all flesh. He then matures into “a second beast with two horns like a lamb, but which speaks as a dragon:

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

“The earth and them that dwell therein” includes you and me and all the rest of mankind:

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18  Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Three sixes is not the number of “a man”. There is no article in the Greek. The Greek simply reads…”it is the number of anthropos…” and ‘anthropos’ is the Greek word for ‘mankind’. Mankind’s creation began on the sixth day along with all the rest of the beasts of this earth. Consequently ‘mankind’ has been branded with the number six, signifying his incomplete state ever since the beginning of his creation:

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.

Being ‘incomplete’, which is the spiritual significance of the number ‘6’, mankind is universally afflicted with the false doctrine of “free will”. Mankind is therefore incapable of understanding that he must be brought to “cease from his own works as God did from His”, before he can “enter into the Lord’s rest” and thereby become complete, which is the spiritual significance of the number seven:

Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4  For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Heb 4:5  And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7  Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8  For if Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

The thirteenth chapter of Revelation reveals that the Lord’s Christ must come to see himself as an incomplete and hopeless beast before he can enter into the Lord’s rest and be complete in the Lord, who is in the process of making man in His image. But there is chapters 14 and 15 still to be revealed to the Lord’s elect before he can enter into His rest.

Revelation 14 begins with a snapshot of the completed product, 144,000, of “the firstfruits unto God and the  Lamb:

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.
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault [they are the complete and finished product] before the throne of God.

However, mankind cannot be completed by the work of this all important seventh trumpet, until he has been judged, because God’s judgments, whether in this age or in the great white throne judgment, always teach men to become righteous:

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.

To that end, Revelation 14 tells us of the work of the three angels ‘flying in the midst of our heavens’. ‘Three’ signifies the process of being judged.

These three spirits are working our judgment in our heavens. The first angel brings the gospel to us. That good news includes the fact that “the hour of His judgment is come” upon us. The second angel destroys the very foundations of Babylon in our lives, and the third angel’s work is to pour out the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God upon us, and to torment the Lord’s very elect with the fire and brimstone which is His Word and His doctrines. That torment and judgment takes place “in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of The Lamb”. The work of this third angel causes the smoke of our torment to ascend up for the eons of the eons giving us no rest day nor night while there is any tendency at all to worship the beast and his image within us:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, [Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:]
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

The work of the third and final angel concludes with these words, which let us know exactly to whom these words are addressed:

Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

The point that is being made is the imminence of the work of this seventh trumpet. “NOW is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ”.

This inheritance is all ours even now but only in down payment form.

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 [the downpayment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
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.

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.

For all who are “found worthy” to be in that blessed and holy first resurrection, this kingdom and this reign is now. “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” (Rev 12:10)

The judgment of Revelation 14 is the judgment of “the very elect” and it is the product of the pouring out of the seven last plagues of the Lord’s wrath upon the kingdom of the beast within the Lord’s elect which is described in great detail in Revelation 15-16. That ‘wrath of God’ is His judgment which transforms the beast within the Lord’s elect into the four beasts and the four and twenty elders of Revelation four and five.

Where are the four and twenty elders?

Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,

When we know what the four beasts and the four and twenty elders symbolize, we need not to even ask that question, because the four beasts and the four and twenty elders symbolize one and the same thing. Asking ‘where are the four beasts’ is like asking ‘what happened to the seven cows’ of Pharaoh’s dream, while discussing the the seven ears of corn. The cows and the corn are both symbols of the one point that is being made. There will be seven years of plenty, to be followed by seven years of famine.

Gen 41:25  And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

So too, the beasts and the elders are one. The seven angels and the seven priests are one, and in this entire prophecy God is showing us what the Lord is about to do.

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;

And what is God about to do? It is the very next verse, and it is to be “read… heard… and kept, for the time is at hand”.

Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Christ has “given us a kingdom” just as His Father has given Him a kingdom, and like Him we are to “reign on the earth… for the time is at hand.” “Every creature in heaven and on earth” will worship God, and the four beasts do so continually.

Rev 4:8  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

Those who have been given “eyes within” know that the four beasts are always worshiping God

Rev 19:4  And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.

But when is this worship emphasized and made especially evident? It is especially evident at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when the kingdoms of this world “within” is seen by those who are “full of eyes within” to fall and “become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ”.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

What a wonderful day that is when the conquering king takes control of His own rightful kingdom which has been in the hands of wicked husbandmen for so long. Everyone will, in their own time, bow their knee and confess that our Lord is Lord over the man of sin “to the glory of God”.

Rom 14:11  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

Php 2:10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

Every part of our being rejoices at the time of this great event.

Rev 5:13  And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

God’s wrath is, was, and will come before the dead are judged

Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

How few it is that realize that they are born and live their lives under the wrath of God until the day they believe on Christ. If “the time of the dead that they should be judged” means the resurrection that immediately precedes the millennium, and you do not experience the death and resurrection which is the revelation of Jesus Christ here and now, then you will not be in that resurrection that immediately precedes the millennium, and you will not be one of the priests and kings who will rule with Christ over the kingdoms of this world.

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

This truth is demonstrated with two verses of scripture. It is a rare person who even sees the apparent contradiction between these two verses of God’s Word.

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?

It is “in judgment” that God pours out His wrath upon all of our ungodliness and unrighteousness. Let’s read it again: “keep the things that are written therein, for the time is at hand… and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged…” (Rev 11:18).

Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Death must precede judgment. Only those who are “full of eyes within” can even begin to see that those who “are appointed once to die and then be judged” are us. It is we who are the first to die to our old man through the judgment of our old man, and that dying and that judgment has begun at the house of God and we must “die daily” and be crucified with Christ daily:

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.

It is we who are “crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20), and it is we who are “buried with Him in baptism” (Rom 6:3-4), even as we live and are being judged in these dying “earthen vessels”.

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.

The ‘world’ that is within us and the ‘world’ that is without us are both bent on the destruction of “the seed of the woman”,  (Rev 12:5). There are many other titles given to the “seed of the woman” who is also called “a manchild who is to rule the world with a rod of iron”, but they are all titles of “the very elect” of God.

Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
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.

While God is in the process of destroying our old Adam by replacing him with a “New Adam” who is called “the last Adam”, it is not our prerogative to “destroy the earth”. That is a task that has been delegated to those who are called ‘the seed of the serpent’ and are said by our Lord to be “of their Father the devil”.

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
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.

Who is it that our Lord says will bruise His heel? Who is it that seeks to destroy the manchild as soon as he is born? It is each of us when we are “those Jews which believe on Christ, but are still “of our Father the devil”.

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many believed on him.
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;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

This is us when we were “of our father the devil”, even as we thought we “believed on Christ”. This is us when our “man of sin” is standing in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God. This is us as the wrath of God is being poured out upon our ungodliness and unrighteousness and we are made to admit that “I am the man” (2Sa 12:7). This is us when we come to see that “Them that destroy the earth” are those who are seeking the life of our Lord Himself.

Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

What is found within the ark of His covenant?

Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

These are the closing words of the introduction of the seventh trumpet. “The temple of God was opened in heaven and there was seen in his temple the ark of His testament.”

What was in the ark in the temple of God? Here is the first and the last account of the contents of what “was seen in His temple [in] the ark of His testament”.

Deu 10:5  And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the LORD commanded me.

1Ki 8:9  There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

Within the ark of the covenant was the law of God. That was the basis upon which the covenant was contracted. Israel contracted with God to keep His laws, and our Lord agreed to be their God. That is the same way we are married to our Lord today. That is how we become His bride. We agree to “do the things He says… and fulfill the law of Christ”. If we don’t do the things He says, then we are not His wife, and He is not our Lord.

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

That is what is meant by “there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament”. If we have our Lord living within us, then we will be doing the things He says and we will be doing “the will of our Father which is in heaven”. It is “the things which He says” which are the “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake”. It is “the things which He says” which are the “great hail” which will “sweep away the refuge of lies”.

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Summary

We have seen that “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ” is primarily to be understood as first happening within, as the image we are is destroyed by Christ as we decrease daily and He increases daily within us.

We have seen that “our Lord and His Christ” is speaking of us as those who are anointed of and are sent out by Christ, just as He was anointed of and sent out by His Father to save this world.

We have demonstrated that the four beasts and the four and twenty elders are one and the same symbol of God’s elect, just as the cows and corn both meant the same thing in Pharaoh’s dreams. Thus, when we are told that the four and twenty elders fall down and worship God when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, we are being told that the four beasts also fall down and worship our Lord and our God.

We have seen that it is God’s Word which is the fire of His wrath which is, was and will be poured out upon all of our ungodliness and unrighteousness, and we saw that this is all being announced and being done even as we are beginning to take the land away from the giants who have for so long dominated our land. This is the significance of the imminent judgment in every generation which is this seventh trumpet, which has already begun to take the kingdom of this world and “by little and by little” transform it into the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ.

Finally, we saw that this is all accomplished by the Words of our Lord being within us and destroying by its great ‘heat’ all that can be burned out of us, as we learn to “do the things that our Lord says”.

Next week, Lord willing, we will begin to see what we are given to understand in the first of the four chapters which separate this introduction of this seventh trumpet from the chapter which reveals to us the exact nature of the judgments of the seven last plagues of this seventh trumpet. It will be the beginning of chapter twelve, concerning the woman, the manchild she is prophesied to bring forth, and the dragon who is right there seeking to destroy that manchild.

“The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies” – Isa 28:17

[Study Aired July 13, 2024]

The Book of Joel appears to have been written somewhere between 520 to 200 BCE, before the destruction of the first Temple and after the exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel during wicked King Manasseh’s reign (2 Ki 21).

Joel conveys the same uncomplicated theme and indictment of sin, judgment, chastisement, and forgiveness leading to salvation, as was portrayed in our recent study of Hosea and reiterated in the other so-called ‘minor prophets’ and, indeed, the entire Bible. However, complications to the simplicity of God’s word assuredly arise when the ‘Beast’ we are (Ecc 3:18 – ‘man is but a beast’ 2 Pet 2:12) typically hides from his indicting conscience. The path of inevitable guilt for disobedience to our Lord’s commands innately activates a sense of psychological nudity that is profoundly spiritually embedded in our genes, the spirit in man (Job 32:8). The lamentable yet God-given progression of sin is to excuse ourselves and accuse some other entity for the entire saga is first and classically typified by Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:1-24).

The Bride of Christ alone among Babylonian/Gentile Christianity (inclusive of the rest of humanity figuratively outside the Camp of Israel) is given to see the ‘vision’ brightly seen in the opening verse of Joel 1, that she, too, was the whore, Gomer, symbolically the Lord’s first wife. Her Lord has given her, the “little flock” (Luke 12:32) Church, the greater portion of His spirit to understand and keep all His commandments progressively. From that standpoint, she vivaciously sees from whence she has come through the sequence of the lust of the eyes and flesh that inevitably result in the most catastrophic sin of all, that of pride. When the inner trumpet blasts the warning of lust and is dismissed, hiding from the sin innately and insidiously follows. Pride is instantly in lockstep with hiding since, if the sin is discovered, the humiliation is exacerbated seemingly beyond endurance and covering lies are now used to hide and consolidate the original sin further. The pride is now “joined hand in hand” with lies to maintain its status and has become so deeply rooted that it seems impossible to break free without ironically desiring death to escape the humiliation.

Pro 16:5  Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

Eze 18:24  But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

Rom 2:12  For as many [All of humanity!] as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law [First, physical Israel, and then the spiritual Israel of God, the Bride] shall be judged by the law;
Rom 2:13  (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 
Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Rom 2:15  Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
Rom 2:16  In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. 

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 [The Heavenly Jerusalem above]: 

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world [Things directly contradicting God’s word, and, or innocuous things idolised], neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 
1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever [It all is vanity and chasing the wind of diverse and evil spirits, that cannot be contained to be eternally enjoyed. (Ecc 1:14, Ecc 2:10-11)]. 

Psa 10:2  The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. 

We all are that man of sin (2Th 2:1-4) who is most wicked in his pride since it is pride that stops us from going to Christ to acknowledge the sin and thus doubly amplifies the original sin of illicit lust! Subsequently, we become dreadfully “the poor” in our Lord’s spirit and are taken by our own devices of evil imaginations through self-righteousness.

Joel 1:1-12

Joe 1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. 
Joe 1:2  Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? 
Joe 1:3  Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 
Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. 
Joe 1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 
Joe 1:6  For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 
Joe 1:7  He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
Joe 1:8  Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
Joe 1:9  The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn. 
Joe 1:10  The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 
Joe 1:11  Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
Joe 1:12  The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

Now, and in the Book of Joel, the Bride is given to enthusiastically advance and consolidate her understanding of her disappearing harlot ways through her Lord’s ravishing word.

Significations:

Joe 1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

Joel’s father was Pethuel (H6602), which means ‘vision of God’, and ‘to be spacious, be open, be wide’, and profoundly states God’s nature that Joel envisioned as the ‘spaciously unadulterated’ indictments of sin, judgement, chastisement, and forgiveness leading to salvation. However, carnal Israel was utterly frustrated through blindness (Isa 42:18-25), having never received lasting spiritual peace through unity with her Lord to bring salvation. She, now understood as predominantly Babylonian Christianity, remains in that God-given vexation of the spirit to this day and into the coming Resurrection to Judgement. However, for a very small “little flock”, the Lord has and still is dragging out of Babylon within, is being given eyes that see the mysteries in and through Christ, her “deliverer.”

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in [at the end of the One-Thousand Year reign with the rod of iron]. 
Rom 11:26  And so all Israel [symbolic of the entirety of mankind] shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: [Please see all of Romans 11:25-36]

An Invasion of Locusts

Joe 1:2  Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
Joe 1:3  Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 
Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. 

The answer to Joel 1:2 is a resounding, “Yes.” Old Israel, to this day in Babylonian Christianity, has been given major blindness and deafness that only chastisement will break the pride of her power only by Christ’s strength. The terminology “blindness in part” used in Rom 11:25 suggests minimal blindness and deafness and belies the reality of total blindness and deafness during all the days of their fathers.

The only “old men,” meaning Israel’s prophets and sanctified teachers, paradoxically who do hear those verses’ significations is the Bride of Christ, who is the only one unified with her Husband given to see and hear all positive and negative meanings of the ‘inhabitants of her land’ within her. She has keenly observed all spiritual signs from Genesis 1 to Revelations 22, the endlessly repeated pattern of rebellion, chastisement, and physical salvation resulting from the plagues of locusts, cankerworms, and caterpillars in knowing their spiritual equivalence. She is that ‘other generation’ in verse 3 and the second “army” in Song of Solomon 6:13 who alone is given to understand spiritual significations.

The following verse of Son 6:13 is Solomon’s tortured mind trying to understand the Shulamite by inwardly searching his mind; he says,

Son 6:13  Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.

 The ‘first army’ of the two is Manasseh (the elder) and Ephraim (the younger), depicted in the book of Hosea and other biblical locations solely as Ephraim, representing them both as greater Israel.

1Co 1:22  For the Jews [symbolic of spiritual understanding] require a [an outward physical] sign, and the Greeks [symbolising the world] seek after wisdom:

The world’s peer-reviewed logic and ‘scientific methodology’ that, if honestly used, is the genuinely very best man has outside of Christ to gain truth progressively, but, like Artificial intelligence, can never discover the eternal spiritual realities. Hence, both Jews (Manasseh and Ephraim) and Greeks, as one, represent the world and are utterly deaf and blind to Christ.

1Co 1:23  But we [The Bride] preach Christ crucified [in spirit], unto the Jews a stumblingblock [since Christ is spiritually perceived and is not clearly stated by the letter in the Law of Moses, and thus cannot be understood], and unto the Greeks foolishness [Unstable, esoteric stupidity];

Greeks represent Gentiles. The Jews, meaning Manasseh and Ephriam, because of their dependence on the physical laws of Moses, are lumped in with the Gentiles as the same with the world. The tribal world cannot agree with one another to this day and, in fact, is becoming more violently contentious with every man’s hand against his neighbour.

Rom 2:5  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 
Rom 2:6  Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 
Rom 2:7  To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
Rom 2:8  But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
Rom 2:9  Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; [Gentile H1672 = a Greek either by nationality, whether a native of the mainland or of the Greek islands or colonies. G1671 Greece = unstable: the miry one [the world/mankind made of miry clay].
Rom 2:10  But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the [Spiritual] Jew first, and also to the Gentile [the world becoming God in the Lake of Fire]:
Rom 2:11  For there is no respect of persons with God [… thankfully!]. 

Zec 14:13  And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them [Jew and Gentile, the world of humanity]; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise against the hand of his neighbour.

It is only the Bride of Christ who is given to ‘tell her children’, meaning, to see from Israel’s endless loop of disobedience, chastisement and salvation against her sins within that the spiritual palmerworms, cankerworms, and caterpillars will consume the last morsel of green until all that is left is her “black” desolate landscape negatively and Shulamite-like positivity. The palmerworm, cankerworm and caterpillar are the progressive stages of development of the locust and are the same. Joel 1:4 reads as if there are three different geniuses of insects coming from each worm. However, they all represent the development of the locust.

Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm [H1501: locust] hath left hath the locust [H697: locust] eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm [H3218: young locust] eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller [H2625: locust H2628 – 1. (Qal) to consume, finish off, bring to an end] eaten.

The world of Gentile Jewry and Greeks disregards the King of King’s immutable truth and thus has no righteous king and multitude of counsel; rather, Satan is their father of lies who devours the truth and enslaves them by their multitude of idols directed by defiant women who represent Babylon’s churches and rule the laity with their imagined Christ, “another Jesus” as described in 2Co 11:4.

Pro 30:27  The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; 

Nah 3:13 -17 Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars. 
Nah 3:14  Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln. 
Nah 3:15  There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. 
Nah 3:16  Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away. 
Nah 3:17  Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day [when Christ’s commands are dismissed in the blackness of the night], but when the sun ariseth [Christ’s word is preached] they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. [Flying high in the heavens carried by the spiritual wind to find another landing place to infect lies]

Scorpions and serpents are false doctrines that give us lies within. They are as numerous as 200,000,000 locusts, with the lies of stings in their tails.

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth [mankind]: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 

Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Rev 9:8  And they had hair as the hair of women [40,000 plus Babylonian churches], and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
Rev 9:9  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 
Rev 9:10  And they [the locusts] had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. 
Rev 9:11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon [Satan].

Notice again the Jew/Hebrew association with the Gentile Greek ethnicity, additionally substantiating that Satan rules the world from Adam to the beginning of the One-Thousand Year reign with the rod of iron by Christ and His Christs.

Stepping down to:

Rev 9:16  And the number of the army [enigmatically the first “army” of the “two” in the Son 6:13 residing within while in Babylon] of the horsemen [locusts] were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them [200,000,000]. 

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters [God’s fiery word] shall overflow the hiding place [Drown them in the Lake of Fire while they yet live].

(For a more thorough understanding of “locusts”, please see this link and scroll down to Rev 9 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/studies/ )

Joe 1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 

Wine represents God’s spiritual word, and wine drinkers are our former Babylonian selves, revelling in the doctrines of the world, unconscious of the spiritual cloud causing darkness. They have not progressed in understanding Christ’s New Covenant doctrine of spiritual understanding and are thus unwittingly cut off and enslaved when Moses read.

Isa 5:8  Woe unto them that join house to house [likened to “join[ing] in hand” with lies Isa 5:8], that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 
Isa 5:9  In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. 
Isa 5:10  Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. 
Isa 5:11  Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! 
Isa 5:12  And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. 
Isa 5:13  Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst [For this cause, the locusts have eaten up the truth, leaving only lies]. 

The drunkards and wine bibbers are our Babylonian former selves dancing to our happy-clappy music of falsely believing that they are saved without chastising grace and are blind to the reality that they remain at Sinai enslaved by Moses’ laws while imagining that they are Christ’s elected symbolic Jews (Rev 2:9). 

2Co 3:6  [It is Christ, the Bride’s husband,] Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 
2Co 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away [And since the cross, is superseded by the new wine]: 
2Co 3:8  How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 
2Co 3:9  For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 
2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
2Co 3:11  For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. 
2Co 3:12  Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech [Only because the spirit of God has given us understanding]:
2Co 3:13  And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 
2Co 3:14  But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
2Co 3:15  But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
2Co 3:16  Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 
2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 
2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Joe 1:6  For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 
Joe 1:7  He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white [skin, de-barked].

That strong, innumerable nation with the teeth of a lion is Gog, and Magog represents the 200.000.000 locust lies seen in the previous scripture, Revelation 9:6, following the One-Thousand Years. The fire that comes down from heaven at the end of One-Thousand Years represents God’s fiery word, figuratively consuming all of mankind until his flesh is black, with the horrific visual of cracked black skin exposing cooked ‘white’ flesh beneath just as the bark from the fig and vine branches is made white (apparently the flesh of man cooks white like roast pork)

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 [all of humanity alive at that time, yet, representing the all from Adam to that point in time ever to exist]. 
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.

The pure virgin word of God clothes the Bride of Christ in dazzling white. When God’s fiery, all-consuming word is “eaten”, it has the distinct effect of making us initially symbolically yet factually spiritually white.

Dan 7:9  I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 

Joe 1:8  Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 

That verse reminds us of Jephthah’s daughter, whom the Bride of Christ directly represents, temporarily weeping upon the mountains of the Lord for the denied physical fulfilment in marriage and children. Although Jephthah’s daughter grieved her virginity until her death, the Bride of Christ she represents today glorifies her Lord for her symbolic virginity, knowing full well that she was formally characterised as the whore, Gomer.

Jdg 11:36  And she [Jephthah’s daughter] said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD [a vow to sacrifice a pure offering in the first that comes forth from his house], do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. 
Jdg 11:37  And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months [a witness with many representations. Jew/Greek. Elder serving she, the younger, etc.], that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows [The little flock, the joints of the Bride]. 
Jdg 11:38  And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. 
Jdg 11:39  And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father [for us, Christ], who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel, 
Jdg 11:40  That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. 

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.

Rev 6:9  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain [The virgin Bride of Christ] for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 
Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 

Hence, Jephthah’s daughter, the Bride of Christ, no longer laments her youth virginity since she is betrothed to Christ. However, temporarily, for humanity, the spiritual reality of the New Covenant marriage to the Lamb of God is dried up.

Joe 1:9  The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn. 
Joe 1:10  The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 
Joe 1:11  Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen [The incipient Elect seeing her former ways]; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. 

The harvest of the field perished at the beginning of the One-Thousand Years when all who are given to be the Bride, have gone into the wedding supper. Outside remain the symbolic dogs like Esau, who rejected the Lord’s word. They, being alive at the end of the One Thousand Year rule, will wither away by God’s fiery word coming down from heaven and making their flesh burn (Rev 20:7) being made white carried forward into the Lake of Fire until they are literally pure white like Christ and his Wife. 

Mat 22:11  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 
Mat 22:12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

Joe 1:12  The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. 

However, even now, before the OTY reign, the world languishes fruitless since “the” Christ, the “joy” in Babylonian Jews and Greeks, is made nothing since their understanding of his Law remains physically understood and thus devoids them of understanding.

Rom 3:31  Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the [spiritual] law. 

Dan 12:9  And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Dan 12:10  Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. 

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.

That “time of the end” is today, ever since the Cross, and understood only by Christ’s Bride being made white. Her brother and sisters in the world, portrayed as Jews and Greeks, will be made white in the Lake of Fire.

Next week, Lord willing, we will see the next step of “Repentance” that follows chastising fire.

May the Lord hasten that day in the Bride, inclusive of the Jew and Greek.

2Ki 23:19-37  The pillar of the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night

[Study Aired April 27, 2023]

2Ki 23:19  And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. 
2Ki 23:20  And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem. 
2Ki 23:21  And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. 
2Ki 23:22  Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; 
2Ki 23:23  But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem. 
2Ki 23:24  Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. 
2Ki 23:25  And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him. 
2Ki 23:26  Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. 
2Ki 23:27  And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. 
2Ki 23:28  Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 
2Ki 23:29  In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. 
2Ki 23:30  And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead. 
2Ki 23:31  Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 
2Ki 23:32  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. 
2Ki 23:33  And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. 
2Ki 23:34  And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there. 
2Ki 23:35  And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh. 
2Ki 23:36  Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
2Ki 23:37  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. 

Christ’s body will be “the pillar of the cloud by day” and “the pillar of fire by night” before the people throughout the thousand-year reign which God will not take away (Exo 13:22). 

Exo 13:22  He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

That witness of God’s pillars (Rev 3:12) will have the same effect the parables of Christ have had on all of us in our time of ignorance and blindness not discerning the word correctly, not having been given the eyes or ears to see and hear the truths (Mat 13:13) which were always right in front of us (Act 17:27) like the pillar in the wilderness.

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.

Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Act 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

Flesh has no excuse regarding what God has physically witnessed to us about His existence (Rom 1:20), but without the spirit of God within (Rom 8:9), we can’t be anything other than blind and ignorant to what He is showing us His word means spiritually. Therefore, we can say with apostle Paul concerning doing evil that we did it in ignorance and were blind Babylonians in our thinking (Mat 13:16, Eph 4:18, 1Ti 1:13, 1Pe 1:14, Eph 1:11).

This section of 2 Kings highlights for us this blindness God can cause to fall upon us, demonstrated in type and shadow via the nation of Judah who, after the death of their zealous king Josiah, a type of Christ, go back into their same idolatrous ways. God has to make us a pillar and witness to us that we cannot become that new creation without His deliverance: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar [1Jn 4:17, Joh 5:30, Joh 15:5] in the temple of my God.

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.

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Remembering that the example of Lot’s wife is an admonition to us that our natural mind wants to go back to a pattern which fashions ourselves “according to the former lusts in your ignorance”, and, God willing, our hearts will be as Lot who lost his wife who represents Babylon out of which we come as we are scarcely saved (1Pe 4:17-18) by being given the power to keep our eyes on the pillar of light set before us, actions typified by Lot who forsook all to ‘come out her my people’ and not look back (Rev 18:4).

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?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 

Our labor in the Lord is never in vain, even if it does not produce the immediate effect we are hoping. We need to be encouraged and not discouraged by the failure of the nation of Judah and their ultimate captivity into which God brought them. Their captivity and all the events that unfolded were to admonish God’s elect today that we can become more that conquerors through Christ, overcoming in this life, but we must go through the fiery trials of this life; the judgment that will purify the bride and make it possible for us to discern good and evil (Heb 5:14). This is another way of saying we will be able to be used by the Lord as “a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night” because we have been blessed to be judge and become those pillars by the hand of the Master Potter, of whose workmanship we are (Eph 2:10).

Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. [“a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night“]

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

God is seeking an occasion against the world who are being witnessed to (Rev 11:3) through the church that they are blinded (Rom 11:7) and cannot see the light side of that pillar unless they are dragged to Christ (Joh 6:44), which for Christ’s body today is a lifelong process of being dragged to Him. We are being blessed to have Christ as our hope of glory within who can give us the power (Rev 11:3) to go from glory to glory and unto perfection on the third day (Heb 12:2, Php 4:13, Exo 26:31, 2Co 3:18).

Exo 26:31  And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made: 

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

In this week’s study, we will look at more of the cleansing process of the land of Judah that typifies a work of the saints that will set the stage for the lake of fire, or great white throne judgment. All mankind must be baptized with water and with spirit as Christ told us in John 3:5. True spiritual baptism is what the elect of God must go through first (Rom 6:1-3, Act 14:22) if we are going to be made meet for the master’s use (2Ti 2:21, 2Ti 2:12) and given the honor to work with the world and bring them into the knowledge of God’s judgments and truth (Isa 26:9).

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

2Ti 2:21  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. 

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

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.

2Ki 23:19  And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. 

The words of the law cannot be performed if we are double minded and unstable (Jas 1:8, Jas 4:8). A cleansing of evil spirits must take place in order for true worship to happen as we draw near to Christ, to whom we are dragged (Joh 6:44), in order to cleanse our hands and purify our double minded hearts so we become stable in Christ (1Pe 5:10, 2Ti 1:7). 

Jas 1:8  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

2Ti 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 

This cleansing process Josiah put the nation through typifies what Christ is doing in the lives of His children today, making the bride ready. “The high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel” represent Christ destroying our pride-filled hearts that contended with God for so long, provoking Him to anger. The Lord takes that spirit away which He caused to be there in the first place (Isa 63:17). This section that reads: “and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel” reminds us that our strength to overcome comes from God, from the house of Bethel, which means bread, which we know represents the true bread from heaven, Jesus Christ our savior (Psa 104:15, Luk 18:1).

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Psa 104:15  And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart. [Luk 21:26]

Luk 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

2Ki 23:20  And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem. 
2Ki 23:21  And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. 
2Ki 23:22  Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; 
2Ki 23:23  But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.

It is only through the strength of Christ that we can slay “all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem” within us and burn “men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem“. After we destroy those things by the grace and faith of Christ, we return to Jerusalem, which typifies our being raised in heavenly places where we are seated together in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6). 

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 

“The passover” is a meaningless event if we partake of it unworthily (1Co 11:27-29), and in these verses we’re reading we see an example of the passover being taken worthily as a result of the diligence of king Josiah, who represents Christ, who destroys “the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars of our hearts and minds.

1Co 11:27  Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
1Co 11:28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
1Co 11:29  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

Christ commands us, as Josiah did the people, to “Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.” This statement given to all the people of Judah to keep the passover typifies for us today the need to keep our lives undefiled and holy before God which we know is impossible without Christ delivering us from our sins (Joh 8:36) by His body and blood, which represent His word that is the true bread from heaven, the true passover we keep spiritually. The flesh and bones is also part of the passover and represents Christ’s body, the scapegoat (Eph 5:30, Lev 16:21) that is being preserved through the life of Christ within each of us, each member being a joint that supplies in love what we need from one another (Eph 4:16).

Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 

Lev 16:21  And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: [Php 2:12-13]

Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Christ is our passover, and we labor to enter into that communion (1Co 10:16), that rest which is found in Him (Heb 4:11). When we confess our faults, He is faithful to forgive all our sins, all our iniquities, so that “Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah.”  This statement typifies for us today what only Christ is able to do through the body of Christ that is strengthened by His life working in us (Php 4:13, Col 1:27). 

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? 
1Co 10:17  For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

What a wonderful blessing to know that the bride will be made ready, and that readiness will come as a result of Christ, who is typified by Josiah, who judged the nation. It is “in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem” which numbers add up to nine (1+8) that represents judgment. The number one (1) represents the day of the Lord and the eight (8)  represents the new man formed out of that judgment which happens on the day of the Lord.

2Ki 23:24  Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. 
2Ki 23:25  And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.

The words of the law that the land of Judah was called to perform cannot be accomplished unless “the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem” are put away by Josiah, who represents our faithful High Priest who cleanses us of all our sins and iniquities (1Jn 1:9). He is our advocate to that end and is greater than our conscience which condemns us and is easily beset by the sin in our lives (1Jn 2:1-2). When we are washed and cleansed of our sins, God is merciful to renew a right spirit within us (Psa 51:10), typified by “the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD“; a type of the law of Christ that quickens us (Gal 6:2, Joh 6:63, Rom 5:5).

1Jn 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

1Jn 2:1  My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
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. 

Psa 51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

This section, “And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him“,  reminds us that God is a jealous God and with His spirit within us, we are going to experience that jealousy regarding keeping the temple undefiled as we become consumed for the temple of God we are by the life of Christ within us (Col 1:27). That makes us a peculiar people who are zealous of good works, typified by the actions of zealous king Josiah (Tit 2:14-15). Those works are clearly connected to cleansing the temple, which then brings forth fruit and true spiritual worship which our Father seeks out and finds in His people (Joh 4:23).

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: 

Tit 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he [Joh 8:36] might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works
Tit 2:15  These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

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.

2Ki 23:26  Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. 
2Ki 23:27  And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. 
2Ki 23:28  Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

The conclusion of the matter is to fear God and work righteousness as we learn that God will not be mocked (Ecc 12:13-14). So we have this section of scripture reminding us that God puts us through severe trials so we don’t sin any longer (1Pe 4:1). He does not turn away “from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal“ because he loves us and is receiving us through those corrections (Heb 12:6) that make us one with Him as He gives us the power we need through Christ (Php 4:13) to overcome and endure the much tribulation of this life necessary in order to enter into the kingdom of God (Act 14:22).

Ecc 12:13  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecc 12:14  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. 

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

What we are being told is that if God can remove a nation, or nations, and cast off His chosen city Jerusalem, then we can be sure He can also do this to us, and will do this and receive us back in this age if we are His (Psa 37:28, Psa 94:14, Psa 138:8, Psa 119:8). We don’t avoid this captivity is what we’re being told, and at the same time we also are being reminded that the same God who has the power to bind and bring us into captivity can also deliver us and reinstate us, if it is His will to do so in this life.

Psa 37:28  For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.  captivity can also deliver us from ourselves each one of us at our appointed time.

Psa 94:14  For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.

Psa 138:8  The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

Psa 119:8  I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.

2Ki 23:29  In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. 
2Ki 23:30  And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead. 

Pharaohnechoh, king of Egypt, coming up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates, a place that means “break forth”, reminds us that our enemy is given to break forth at times and prevail against our flesh (Job 1:12). That does not mean that our spiritual life is going to be destroyed. Rather, it becomes a testimony for us, and eventually all the world, that nothing will ever be able to separate the body of Christ from the love (Rom 8:35-39) of God that receives us through those severe Job-like trials in our lives which are needful to try the faith of Christ in us (Luk 21:18, Rev 13:7-11).

Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD. 

Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Luk 21:18  But there shall not an hair of your head perish.

Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 
Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 
Rev 13:9  If any man have an ear, let him hear. 
Rev 13:10  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 

This period of time in 2 Kings has an is-was-and-will-be application, as do all the words of God. Looking at the sum of God’s word and considering that God is working all things according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), helps us understand this principle and frees up these stories that were written for the elect’s sake today (2Co 4:15).

Satan, who is the god of this world (2Co 4:4), is figuratively represented by “Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt.” All of the cleansing of the land, which Josiah accomplishes from a physical standpoint, may seem futile to us seeing the kingdom went right back to its evil practices after Josiah is killed. However, the lesson is twofold for God’s elect; one side showing us that our flesh and blood being ruled over by Christ, who is typified by Josiah, cannot inherit the kingdom of God (“according to all the law of Moses” of v25 above), and that it is through that death of the flesh we will inherit eternal life (1Co 15:50). That’s the present way we can look at this section of 2 Kings, but it also has an outward dispensational way of looking at it, knowing that the saints’ rulership during the thousand years will not change anyone’s heart, as was typified by king Josiah’s rule, which is why the corrupt kings kept coming after Josiah was no longer ruling.

2Ki 23:25  And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.

Being slain at Megiddo is another way of telling all mankind that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but all men will be saved each man in his own order. If we are predestined to be in the first resurrection, then we will have been tried and tested in this life, which is what it takes to keep our garments, otherwise our Megiddo moment will be in the great white throne judgment (Rev 16:14-16).

Rev 16:14  For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 
Rev 16:15  Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Rev 16:16  And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon^G717.

ArmageddonG717
– Original: Ἀρμαγεδδών
– Transliteration: Armageddon
– Phonetic: ar-mag-ed-dohn’
– Definition: Armageddon = the hill or city of megiddo

• In Rev 16:16 the scene of a the struggle of good and evil is suggested by that battle plain of Esdraelon, which was famous for two great victories, of Barak over the Canaanites, and of Gideon over the Midianites; and for two great disasters, the deaths of Saul and Josiah. Hence in Revelation a place of great slaughter, the scene of a terrible retribution upon the wicked. The RSV translates the name as Har-Magedon, i.e. the hill (as Ar is the city) of megiddo. 

– Origin: of hebrew origin H2022 and G4023
– TDNT entry: 08:48,8
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Location 
– Strong’s: Of hebrew origin [H2022] and [H4023]; Armageddon (or Har-Megiddon) a symbolical name: – Armageddon. 

These physical locations discussed (Megiddo [2Ki 23:29] and Armageddon [Rev 16:16] which are the same location) remind us that the one thing common to all men is judgment. Gog and Magog is another physical type of judgment that represents the lake of fire judgment that will come upon all the world in the second resurrection when those who have not been blessed to be judged in this age (1Pe 4:17) will be judged by God’s fiery words in the great white throne judgment (Joh 5:29, Rev 20:13-15).

Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. 

2Ki 23:31  Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 
2Ki 23:32  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. 
2Ki 23:33  And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. 
2Ki 23:34  And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there. 

Notice who is running the show here. It is Pharaohnechoh who takes the twenty-three year old evil king Jehoahaz in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he [Jehoahaz] might not reign in Jerusalem, “And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath.” Pharaohnechoh is a type of Satan who keeps this king in bands just as the devil has kept the world in the bondage of corruption (Rom 8:21) until this day. Also, “that he might not reign in Jerusalem” means taking away all possibility for righteous rulership which typically can only manifest from Jerusalem, which typifies Jerusalem above, the mother of us all. Pharaohnechoh was the vehicle God used to stop grace [Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he began to reign. 2+3=5] from abounding in the king’s life which spiritual bondage prevented fruitful growth [Riblah: H7247]. Part of that bondage is expressed by the “tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold“, symbols of God’s word which is being peddled making merchandise of the brethren (2Pe 2:3, 2Co 2:17). A talent is worth 3000 shekels, and one hundred talents would be worth 300,000 shekels. Again we see the process of grace being taken away from the nation with these symbolic numbers reminding us that the way the world is being taxed today is by not being judged, which keeps the world in the bondage of sin, and that is what God has caused Satan to do until this day (2Co 4:4).

Riblah H7247  riblâh rib-law’

From an unused root meaning to be fruitful; fertile; Riblah, a place in Syria: – Riblah.

Total KJV occurrences: 11

Then Pharaohnechoh, who is type of Satan, made “Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.” This is telling us that the god of this world has the power God gives him to put the basest of men in charge and elevated to positions of power (Dan 4:17), even as others are taken away and destroyed as Jehoahaz was.

Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. 

It is significant that Pharaohnechoh changes the name of Eliakim the would-be predecessor of king Jehoahaz to Jehoiakim as a negative shadow of the devil giving someone who is elevated a new name in this world, unlike the positive rendition of that written in Revelation regarding the new name God’s elect are given in Christ (Rev 2:17, Rev 3:12). 

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 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.

Jehoiakim is also given “the room of Josiah his father” by Pharaohnechoh, a type of the devil who gives people power in places where they ought not to be, symbolizing the man of perdition being on the heart of our thrones until he is not (2Th 2:8). The father’s bed is to be undefiled, and Josiah, who typifies Christ, had a bed that was undefiled, and now with this latest king Eliakim whose name was changed to Jehoiakim (H3079) there was going to be defilement in the nation of Judah once again, symbolized by where Eliakim rested, whom God raised up to defile the bed of his father, Josiah.

H3079 yehôyâqı̂ym BDB Definition:

Jehoiakim = “Jehovah raises up”

1) son of Josiah and the third from the last king of Judah; subject vassel of Nebuchadnezzar who reigned for 11 years before he died a violent death either in combat or by the hands of his own subjects

2Ki 23:35  And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh.

This is how the business of religion is run in this world, and these verses are clearly showing us that it is the god of this world, represented by Pharaohnechoh, who is pulling the purse strings of those who promise us liberty in Babylon but are actually in bondage, revealed by those very actions of putting a tax on the people, symbolizing their wanting dominion over the faith of others (2Pe 2:19, 2Co 1:24).

2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 

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

2Ki 23:36  Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 
2Ki 23:37  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

This chapter ends by revealing the fruit of Satan’s world with its false version of grace, symbolized by the age of Jehoiakim who was twenty five (5×5) when he began to reign. He reigned for eleven years [“The Ruin and Disintegration of the Perfection of the Flesh”] telling us that no stable foundation of righteousness was ever established, reminding us that the so-called foundation of Babylon must come crashing down, first in the lives of the elect, and then in the whole world which will be judged by the saints who will bring “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail” to wipe away the refuge of lies in this world (Rev 18:2, Rev 11:19).

Rev 18:2  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 

Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

That is when the world will begin to see a new version (2Co 5:17) of Exodus 13:22 “the pillar of the cloud by day” and “the pillar of fire by night.”

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. 

Exo 13:22  He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

Acts 7:1-20  The Patriarchs Moved with Envy Sold Joseph into Egypt

[Study Aired January 22, 2023]

Act 7:1  Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
Act 7:2  And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
Act 7:3  And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
Act 7:4  Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
Act 7:5  And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
Act 7:6  And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
Act 7:7  And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
Act 7:8  And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Act 7:9  And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
Act 7:10  And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Act 7:11  Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
Act 7:12  But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
Act 7:13  And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Act 7:14  Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Act 7:15  So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
Act 7:16  And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
Act 7:17  But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18  Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
Act 7:19  The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
Act 7:20  In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months:

Our last study ended with Stephen being dragged before the Sanhedrin on the same trumped-up charges the Sanhedrin used to condemn the Lord. Stephen ends up being the first person to literally lay down His life in defense of the gospel of Christ. Stephen was so persuasive that his opponents had to falsely accuse him of saying that Christ said He would destroy the temple:

Mat 26:59  Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death;
Mat 26:60  But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses,
Mat 26:61  And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.

Of course, there was not one word of Truth in that accusation. Here is what Christ had really said:

Joh 2:18  Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? [Christ had just cleansed the temple]
Joh 2:19  Jesus answered and said unto them, [You] Destroy this temple [speaking of His own body], and in three days I will raise it up.

How objective was the Sanhedrin when they heard this ludicrous accusation against Christ? This was the response of the high priest:

Mat 26:62  And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?

Stephen’s false accusers had very little choice but to run with the same exact lie and same exact false accusation:

Act 6:12  And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,
Act 6:13  And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
Act 6:14  For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
Act 6:15  And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

Of course, it was all a lie. Christ had said no such thing, and Stephen certainly had said no such thing. His life was centered around that physical temple because he had not yet been shown that the reformation of Christ would indeed eventually make the physical temple obsolete and unnecessary. It took the destruction of the temple to make that point clear for many Jewish Christians.

Nevertheless, the same High priest, Caiaphas, asked Stephen the exact same question He had asked Christ.

Act 7:1  Then said the high priest, Are these things so?

The high priest knew this accusation against Christ was not true when they suborned the two false witnesses. He therefore knew that Stephen was not putting these same false words into Christ’s mouth.

It was a fabricated lie then, when they pinned it on Christ, and it is simply being repeated by the false witnesses who are testifying that Stephen is teaching that Christ had said that He would destroy the temple. Here is how that false accusation played out with Christ:

Mat 26:59  Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death;
Mat 26:60  But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses,
Mat 26:61  And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
Mat 26:62  And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
Mat 26:63  But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.
Mat 26:64  Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Mat 26:65  Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.
Mat 26:66  What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death.
Mat 26:67  Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands,
Mat 26:68  Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?

When we read these words we just naturally think, “Wow, I certainly would not want to be those guys who spit in Jesus’ face and who smote Him with the palms of their hands and said Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who smote thee!” However, according to Christ, that is exactly what we ourselves do to the Lord every time we mistreat our brother in any way:

Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
Mat 25:38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Mat 25:39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Mat 25:42  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
Mat 25:43  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Mat 25:44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

We are Christ’s spiritual body whether we fully realize that or not. If we as a ‘good Samaritan’ are granted to treat our “least… brother”, a total stranger, with love and sincere concern we are doing that to Christ. If we ‘pass by on the other side’ (Luk 10:31) and fail to minister to the needs of “the least of these [our] brothers”, we have failed to do so to Christ Himself. It is Christ Himself who informs us that if we follow in His steps we are “Jesus of Nazareth”, and when we mistreat our brother, we are persecuting Christ Himself:

Act 22:8  And I [Saul of Tarsus… signifying our own old man] answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

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:

If Christ is within us, we will have the same reaction to our persecution the apostles had when they were beaten with “forty stripes save one” and ordered not to speak at all in the name of Christ:

Act 5:40  And to him [Gamaliel] they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Act 5:41  And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

Christ refused to answer His false accusers simply because His time to be offered up had come, and He would never work against what His Father’s hand and what His Father’s foreknowledge had determined before to be done as we learned earlier in this same book:

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

Christ’s witness against His accusers was the life He lived among His accusers. It was a life of healing the blind and the lame and the sick of the very people who were now calling for His crucifixion. Christ was condemned by a kangaroo court in which He was already condemned before He was even apprehended. When the apostles were arrested shortly before Stephen was apprehended, they had told the Sanhedrin and the elders of the Jews that they had crucified the innocent Son of God. It was only on the advice of Gamaliel and because of the undeniable miracles surrounding their arrest, they were simply beaten in hopes that would deter them from continuing to accuse the Sanhedrin and the elders of Israel of murdering their own Messiah.

This discourse by Stephen will demonstrate to the leaders of the Lord’s own people that they have a long history of rejecting and killing the Lord’s prophets out of nothing more than envy.

Stephen, just like the Lord, had done nothing but heal the sick among the people and ‘serve tables’. Yet he is now the first person who will suffer the same fate His Lord suffered, and it proved the accuracy of the Lord’s own words:

Mat 10:16  Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
Mat 10:18  And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
Mat 10:19  But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
Mat 10:20  For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

Mat 10:24  The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
Mat 10:25  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

Joh 16:1  These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
Joh 16:2  They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
Joh 16:3  And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

How true those words are! Especially since Stephen is granted the opportunity to show us all how our entire history, the life of every man, is a life of rebellion against the Lord and His Christ. Even the Lord’s Christ is rebellious before being processed through fiery judgments to become pliable in His hands. Rebellion against the Lord and His prophets is the essence of Israel’s [and our] history which Stephen recounts to the people who He considers to be the Lord’s chosen people. Remember, the gospel has never yet gone to the Gentiles, and Stephen considers physical Israel, the people before whom he is making his defense to be the Lord’s saints and His chosen nation.

With absolutely no time to prepare a defense, the holy spirit inspired Stephen to show the church council of his day exactly how much like their envious and rebellious fathers they are.

Act 7:2  And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
Act 7:3  And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
Act 7:4  Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father [signifying the dying of our old man] was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.

Stephen is telling the Sanhedrin and us that we all must come out of Babylon, which is what ‘Ur of the Chaldeans’ symbolizes. The Sanhedrin, just like the religious leaders of our day, think they have already come out of Ur and out of Egypt. They certainly do not see themselves as that “great city where also our Lord was crucified”:

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified [The religious system of His day].

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isa 1:9  Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

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

Here we have revealed to us who the great whore of Revelation 17 and 18 is. It is not physical “Judah and Jerusalem” alone, rather it is the religious systems of the whole world through whose offences Christ was offered up and through whose justification He was raised up:

Rom 4:25  Who was delivered [to be crucified] for [G1223, ‘dia’, through] our offences, and was raised again for [G1223: ‘dia’, through] our justification.

Act 7:5  And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
Act 7:6  And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.

The churches of our day are as spiritually deaf and as spiritually blind as the Sanhedrin in the days of Christ and Stephen, and to them Stephen was giving them nothing more than a summary of Israel’s history. However, to those who have been given to ‘compare spiritual [types and shadows] with spiritual [realities]’ Abraham’s calling out of Ur of the Chaldeans signifies our being called out of spiritual Babylon, “the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8).

Typifying each of us, Abraham did not immediately obey the Lord’s commandment to leave his father’s house and the country in which he lived. The fact is that we are told that it was Abraham’s father, signifying his own flesh, that took him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan:

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Instead of leaving his father’s house, it was “[his] father’s house” which took him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to go into Canaan:

Gen 11:31  And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
Gen 11:32  And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

“Terah died in Haran” tells us that we do not begin to enter into our own calling until after our old man begins to die, while still in the land of the Chaldeans, while still in Babylon. When our old man dies, then we immediately begin to come out of Babylon and into the land of promise:

Gen 12:5  And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Like Abraham, as Stephen pointed out, we are not given a possession in this present world, but as the spiritual seed of Abraham we, too, are promised “the [whole] world [G2889: kosmos]”:

Rom 4:13  For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

This promise of ruling all the nations of the whole world is one of the “many things” to which Christ referred when He told His apostles:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

According to the letter of the promise, Abraham was only to inherit from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates River:

Gen 15:18  In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Gen 15:19  The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
Gen 15:20  And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
Gen 15:21  And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Looking at the letter of those words you do not see the words “the world”. All you see is a very small country stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers. Nevertheless, all flesh, the flesh of “the world,” is signified by listing ten nations in those verses.

The number ‘ten’ signifies the bankruptcy of the flesh of all men in its negative connotation:

 The Number Ten

The number four signifies the whole of whatever is under consideration:

The Number Four

The four hundred years of servitude in Egypt (4x10x10) signify the whole of our spiritual indebtedness because of the sins of our flesh:

Mat 18:23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
Mat 18:24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.

It is only after the Lord begins to drag us out of this world that He also begins to give us the dominion over our flesh which we never had before:

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

1Pe 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
1Pe 2:12  Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Act 7:7  And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.

We will miss the fact that Stephen thought he was witnessing to the Lord’s chosen people if we do not realize and remember that at this time the apostles were all still living with the doctrine that one must be physically circumcised and become a part of the physical nation of Israel to be saved. That doctrine prevailed all the way up to Acts 15:

Act 15:1  And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.
Act 15:2  When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.

By the time this conference took place in Jerusalem, Peter had already been sent to the house of the Gentile Roman centurion, Cornelius, and had been told that he was not to call any man common or unclean (Act 10:15). To the apostles who heard what the Lord told Peter, that was still not a commandment for the Jews to forsake the law of Moses, and they continued to be circumcised and to offer blood offerings at the temple.

Therefore, even after this Jerusalem conference, the conclusion was that Gentile Christians need not be circumcised or offer offerings in the temple, but the Jewish Christians were still expected to do so:

Act 15:23  And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The [Jewish] apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
Act 15:24  Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
Act 15:25  It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
Act 15:26  Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Act 15:27  We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
Act 15:28  For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
Act 15:29  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Acts 15 is years in the future at this point, and even after it was agreed at this conference that the Gentiles did not need to be circumcised or keep the law of Moses, it was also agreed that the Jews must continue to do so:

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.
Act 21:26  Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

This trial of Stephen was very soon after the death and resurrection of Christ. It was under the same high priest, Caiaphas (Act 4:6). It was long before Peter went into the house of the Gentile Roman centurion, Cornelius, where Peter admitted to Cornelius that it was ‘unlawful’ for a circumcised man to go into the house of a Gentile:

Act 10:28  And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Stephen’s trial was long before there was yet any hint to the apostles that the gospel would ever be preached to the Gentiles. The point being that at this time the physical nation of Israel was still considered by Stephen and the apostles to be the chosen people of God, and Stephen is witnessing to his own people just as Christ had done before him:

Joh 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Joh 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Stephen was circumcised, and still believed it was essential for salvation:

Act 15:1  And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.

Stephen is identifying with ‘his own’ nation while making his defense and showing them their own “envy” and rebellion against their own Messiah:

Act 7:8  And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Act 7:9  And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
Act 7:10  And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

Stephen simply could not possibly have seen the spiritual significance of Joseph saving the Egyptians from starvation before he, through the Egyptians, saved his brothers from starvation, just as the Lord will use His elect to save apostate physical Israel and apostate Christians who claim to be spiritual Israel:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Stephen obviously saw the “envy” which motivated Joseph’s brothers to sell him into Egypt. Stephen knew the high priest and the Pharisees had delivered the Lord up to be crucified out of envy:

Mat 27:17  Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?
Mat 27:18  For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

Mar 15:9  But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
Mar 15:10  For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.
Mar 15:11  But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them.

Those with whom God works are always envied and persecuted by those who envy their relationship with God. Joseph’s brothers envied his close relationship with their father Jacob. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses out of envy over the close relationship Moses had with the Lord:

Num 12:1  And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Num 12:2  And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.
Num 12:3  (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

The Lord chastened Miriam and Aaron by making Miriam leprous for a week. She was healed only after Moses prayed for her.

Just a few weeks afterward, Korah and Dathan and Abiram, a man named ‘On’ and two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, famous men of renown, all envied Moses’ and Aaron’s close relationship with God and falsely accused them of ‘lifting [themselves] up above the congregation’:

Num 16:1  Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
Num 16:2  And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:
Num 16:3  And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?

This was a work of the Lord to demonstrate who those were whom He approved as Moses told Korah and his company of envious rebels:

Num 16:4  And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face:
Num 16:5  And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him.

Paul had read these words and knew the purpose for heresies and schisms within the body of Christ:

1Co 11:18  For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
1Co 11:19  For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

While the Lord’s emphasis is on “they which are approved [being] made manifest” that manifestation also reveals those who are heretics.

Stephen continues to witness against the envy of those who are falsely accusing him:

Act 7:11  Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
Act 7:12  But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.

In this story, Jacob signifies our old man who must begin to die before we can embrace the Lord’s promised salvation.

Gen 50:15  And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
Gen 50:16  And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
Gen 50:17  So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
Gen 50:18  And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
Gen 50:19  And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Gen 50:21  Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

Joseph had told them when he first revealed himself to them seventeen years earlier that He had already forgiven them and he would nourish them, but they were not given faith in his words:

Gen 45:10  And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:
Gen 45:11  And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.

Jacob did not believe that he and Rachel or Joseph’s brothers would ever bow down to Joseph any more than his other sons believed that they would bow down to him:

Gen 37:8  And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
Gen 37:9  And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10  And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Gen 37:11  And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

Act 7:13  And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Act 7:14  Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Act 7:15  So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,

While we are in this world, signified by Egypt, we are all as spiritually dead as Jacob and his sons who all died in Egypt. In that spiritual state, we live outwardly, but we are dead spiritually.

Luk 9:59  And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Luk 9:60  Jesus said unto him, Let the [spiritually] dead bury their [physically] dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

1Ti 5:6  But she that liveth in pleasure is [spiritually] dead while she liveth.

Act 7:16  And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.

We are told the Lord did not give Abraham an inheritance in Canaan, and we are told that he was a stranger and a pilgrim in the land he was promised as an inheritance:

Act 7:5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.

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.

At the same time, we are told that Abraham did own a place to bury his dead there in Canaan where he was a stranger and a pilgrim. That is all we have in this world, a place for our old man to die and be buried.

Act 7:17  But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18  Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
Act 7:19  The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
Act 7:20  In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months:

We are all being born into the kingdom of God at a time of great growth in our unchosen family which is still in Egypt. When the time arrives to ‘come out of her’, then the Lord begins to send trials into our lives, and we are caused to cry out to him to deliver us from Egypt.

It is important we understand that it is while we are still in Egypt, still serving the gods of Egypt, that the Lord begins His work of deliverance in our lives. His choice of calling us is entirely of Himself and has nothing to do with us or our falsely labeled ‘free will’. Being brought out of Egypt is just an earlier stage and a less mature type of coming out of Babylon. It is also while we are in Babylon that the Lord comes to us and begins His work of salvation within us:

Mic 4:10  Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

The Lord’s people “come out of [Babylon]”, but it is only while we are there in Babylon that He begins the process of delivering us out of her power over us:

Our deliverance out of Babylon is the seventh and last of the seven plagues which we must begin to fulfill before we will be given to begin to enter the temple of God in heaven:

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.

Rev 16:17  And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19  And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20  And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21  And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

A “great earthquake [and] a great hail” are both an integral part of the destruction of “great Babylon”, the pillar and ground of all the false doctrines of this world. This is what that ‘great earthquake and great hail’ accomplish:

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

We ‘grow and multiply’ in false doctrines while we are in Egypt and while we are in Babylon:

Jer 29:4  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
Jer 29:5  Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
Jer 29:6  Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
Jer 29:7  And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.

We are not commanded to pray for Babylon or this world to be saved at this time, but we are to pray that we can live in peace while we are in this world:

1Ti 2:1  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2  For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. [Not that the Lord will save the world in this present time]

Joh 17:9  I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

Jer 50:1-15 The Word the Lord Spake Against Babylon

[Study Aired September 18, 2022]

Jer 50:1  The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
Jer 50:2  Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
Jer 50:3  For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
Jer 50:4  In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.
Jer 50:5  They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
Jer 50:6  My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.
Jer 50:7  All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.
Jer 50:8  Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks.
Jer 50:9  For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.
Jer 50:10  And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD.
Jer 50:11  Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;
Jer 50:12  Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
Jer 50:13  Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.
Jer 50:14  Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.
Jer 50:15  Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.

After the Lord uses wicked men to judge and punish His people for their iniquity, He then judges those He used as His sword to punish His own first-fruit people. Babylon was the Lord’s instrument to punish His own self-righteous, iniquitous people, and our study today concerns the Lord’s judgment upon Babylon as the type of those He uses to judge and to punish us:

Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
Psa 17:14  From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

Jer 50:1  The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
Jer 50:2  Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

Just as Babylon came “out of the north” to deliver the Lord’s wrath upon His own people, the judgment of Babylon is also “out of the north:

Jer 50:3  For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.

Eze 9:1  He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
Eze 9:2  And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.
Eze 9:3  And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side;
Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, [The great harlot (Isa 1:21)] and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof [“The mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth” (Rev 17:5)].

Just as Jeremiah and Baruch were protected and allowed to stay in Judah, God will always protect those who have His ‘mark’ in their foreheads. It is “upon the forehead” because that mark is “the mind of Christ”:

1Co 2:16  “Who has known the mind of the Lord so that he can teach him?” However, we have the mind of Christ. (GWV)

Jer 50:4  In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.
Jer 50:5  They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

‘Zion’ typifies the throne of Christ. It is Christ and His kingdom to whom we look of our salvation:

Act 4:10  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Act 4:11  This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Act 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

The reuniting of physical Israel and Judah and their return to the Lord is qualified as taking place “when your sisters Sodom… and Samaria… return to their former estate, then you and your daughters will return to your former estate”:

Eze 16:55  When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

That is the qualified timing for the outward fulfillment of this prophecy:

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to [outward, physical] Israel, until the fulness of the [outward physical] Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26  And so all [outward] Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

The salvation of physical Israel as a whole, has not and, will not take place in “this present time” (Rom 8:18). The salvation of physical Israel will take place only “when Sodom and her daughters return to their former estate”. In plain language it will not occur until the white throne judgment. The phrase “return to their former estate” means they will ‘return to having a relationship with Christ’.

Nevertheless, the reunification of Israel with Judah has a present application in the 144,000 who are being judged in “this present time”, in this physical life. These 144,000 are called “the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb”, and they are counted as twelve thousand from each tribe of Israel:

Rev 7:1  And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
Rev 7:2  And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
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.

Who are these 12,000 from each tribe of Israel who are sealed in their foreheads as “the servants of our God”? The answer is that they are “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”:

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.
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

Paul informs us that we are those “who first trusted in Christ”:

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.

It is we who are “sealed” in our fore heads who weep for the abominations being done in the Lord’s adulterous city where our Lord was crucified:

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,

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

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

“The firstfruits unto God” are not excluded from His judgments. The fact is that they are preeminent in His judgments as they are the first to endure His fiery judgments:

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?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

That is where we are here in Jeremiah. ‘Judgment has first begun at the house of God’:

Jer 50:6  My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.

“Their shepherds have caused them to go astray… from mountain to hill”. Mount Zion is where the Lord will place His throne which He has “prepared for judgment”. He considers Mount Zion to be beautiful, and it is called “the city of the great king”:

Psa 9:7  But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.

Psa 9:14  That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.

Psa 48:2  Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

The Lord’s throne and His temple are “in heaven”:

Psa 11:4  The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.

The Lord sits upon His throne:

Psa 47:8  God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.

His throne is being prepared “in the heavens” and will rule this world:

Psa 103:19  The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

The salvation of Israel comes out of Mount Zion:

Psa 53:6  Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

King David tells us the redeemed are Zion and that the Lord dwells within His redeemed:

Psa 74:2  Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

The Lord will not dwell in a filthy temple in a defiled heaven. The heavens must first be purified by and through His fiery judgments:

Heb 9:22  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

It is of this purifying judgment of the Lord that we read:

Jer 50:7  All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.
Jer 50:8  Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks.

This is where John’s words get their inspiration in:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Few people in today’s urbanized society can understand the admonition to “be as the he goats before the flock”. People who have had sheep and goats know that sheep, even the male rams will follow where a he-goat leads. The Lord admonishes His people “Be as the he goats before the flocks”. Be leaders who want to “feed my sheep” as Christ three times admonished Peter:

Joh 21:15  So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
Joh 21:16  He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Joh 21:17  He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

The Lord wants His people to be leaders who are willing to blaze the fiery trail of salvation. All His people who are given to remain faithful to the end in “this present time” will have been given the backbone to fear the Lord more than they fear being rejected by society, by their friends and even by their own families. The Lord’s people know that the religions of this world, and shepherds of those religions, are at this very moment leading the Lord’s people from His mountain to their own little hill, their own ‘kingdoms of this world’.

Jer 50:9  For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.
Jer 50:10  And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD.
Jer 50:11  Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;

The destroyers of the Lord’s people make merchandise of them and become rich and “fat” at their expense. There can be no doubt that the shepherds of the Lord’s people are the ministers of Babylon because we are told right here in this chapter on the judgment of Babylon that it is the shepherds of the Lord’s people who have led them into “mystery Babylon the Great”:

Jer 50:6  My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.

What this tells us is that Judah was in ‘Mystery Babylon’ before she was carried away by the armies of physical Babylon. This theme is carried over into the New Testament where Paul and John both lament what they knew was happening right before their eyes. This is what Paul told the elders of Ephesus just before he left Ephesus for Jerusalem where he was apprehended by the Jews:

Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

The number ‘three’ always signifies that the process of judgment is under way.

John lived to see the apostate ‘Diotrephes’ become so preeminent that he could cast out of the church those John sent to the church:

3Jn 1:9  I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
3Jn 1:10  Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

The church of our Lord and the churches which had been raised up by the apostles had become the great harlot before the apostles had all died.

Notice what Paul says about “all they in Asia”:

2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

“All they which are in Asia” are “the seven churches of Asia” to whom the book of Revelation is addressed:

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Jer 50:12  Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

The religions of this world, which have been like the head of gold on the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, will go from such prominence to being “the hindermost of the nations” and despised of all men.

Jer 50:13  Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

‘In the fullness of times’ Babylon within us and Babylon in all men will be destroyed “because of the wrath of the Lord”. It is the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God at that time in our lives as Revelation 14-16 explains:

Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, [“All men” (Rev 13:16)]
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

“All nations” (Rev 14:8) and “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” is all inclusive of all who are in Adam and Noah and have rebelled against the covenant with God which they are under. “Every man… each in his own order” will experience these “seven last plagues”, which will be used of the Lord to drag all men out of Babylon and unto Himself:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: ‘drag’] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

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

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

Rev 16:17  And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19  And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

The fall and destruction of the religions of this world will be the greatest ‘earthquake’ “since men were upon the earth”. You and I cannot imagine how the Lord will accomplish such a momentous event, but He will bring it to pass, and outward Babylon the Great, all the religions of this world, will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming, just as He destroyed ‘Babylon the Great’ within each of us:

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:

“Brightness of His coming” means that Christs power and preeminence will be undeniable throughout the whole world.

Luk 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
Luk 17:25  But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.

It is in the Lord’s power to make His powerful presence known world-wide just that fast, “as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven”.

Because God made a covenant “with [Noah] and his seed after [him]” Babylon signifies all religions and all their greedy holy men who make merchandise of the Lord’s flock while teaching doctrines which are in rebellion against the words of Christ:

Gen 9:5  And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.
Gen 9:6  Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
Gen 9:7  And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
Gen 9:8  And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
Gen 9:9  And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; [All mankind]

God is in covenant with all men, and this rebellion against Him and His covenant is “Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the World” which afflicts “all nations” (Rev 14:8).

2Pe 2:1  But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2Pe 2:2  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
2Pe 2:3  And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

If a man who claims to be speaking for Christ asks you for money for the message he is giving you, then you are dealing with a “grievous wolf [and] the voice of a stranger” (Act 20:29, Joh 10:5). This is what Christ tells us, and this is what those in whom He dwells will do:

Mat 10:7  And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Mat 10:8  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

The greedy whore system is now being judged within all who are in Christ and the judgment of that great whore will also have a climatic, end of the age fulfillment:

Jer 50:14  Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.

Isaiah had prophesied of the fall of Babylon long before Babylon became a prominent city:

Isa 21:9  And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

Isa 47:1  Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

Isa 48:20  Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.

Jeremiah admonishes us to “bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows” (Jer 50:14). Arrows signify doctrines, and archers signify teachers. Those who destroy Babylon will use her own words to condemn and destroy her because she uses the Lord’s words but does not obey the Lord’s words:

Mat 23:1  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
Mat 23:3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

What “they say” is the very arrows (Jer 50:14) which the ten horns will use to ‘shoot at her for she hath sinned against the Lord’.

The Lord’s words are also called ‘fire’ in the mouths of His prophets:

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 ten horns on the beast will also use the Lord’s words which the great harlot speaks hypocritically to “burn her with fire”:

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:

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

The Lord instructs those who are sent to destroy Babylon to “bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD”. Those ‘arrows’ signify words, including the words of the Lord:

Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

Psa 18:13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
Psa 18:14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. [“The lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven” is the proclamation that: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ” (Rev 11:15)]

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded [his trumpet]; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

The lightning, voices, thunderings, earthquakes, and great hail are one and all the words and voice of the Lord which will burn with fire the kingdom of the great whore:

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Zec 9:14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.

Psa 64:3  Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:

In 1 Samuel we read:

1Sa 31:3  And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers.

Here is the definition of the Hebrew word ‘yarah’, translated as ‘archers’ in this verse and as “shooter” in 2 Samuel 11:24:

H3384
יָרָא    יָרָה
yârâh    yârâ’
yaw-raw’, yaw-raw’

A primitive root; properly to flow as water (that is, to rain); transitively to lay or throw (especially an arrow, that is, to shoot); figuratively to point out (as if by aiming the finger), to teach: –  (+ archer, cast, direct, inform, instruct, lay, shew, shoot, teach (-er, -ing), through.

Total KJV occurrences: 83

‘Archer’ and ‘shooter’ are both proper translations of this word, but let’s take note of how this Hebrew word ‘yarah’ is by far most commonly translated:

H3384
ירא  /  ירה
yârâh  /  yârâ’
Total KJV Occurrences: 82
teach, 33
Exo_4:12, Exo_4:15, Exo_24:12, Exo_35:34, Lev_10:11, Lev_14:57, Deu_17:11, Deu_24:8, Deu_33:10, Jdg_13:8, 1Sa_12:23, 1Ki_8:36, 2Ki_17:27, Job_6:24, Job_8:10, Job_12:7-8 (2), Job_27:11, Job_34:32, Psa_25:8, Psa_25:12, Psa_27:11, Psa_32:8, Psa_45:4, Psa_86:11, Psa_119:33, Isa_2:3, Isa_28:9, Isa_28:26, Eze_44:23, Mic_3:11, Mic_4:2, Hab_2:19
shoot, 10
1Sa_20:20, 1Sa_20:36, 2Sa_11:20, 2Ki_13:17, 2Ki_19:32, 2Ch_26:15, Psa_11:2, Psa_64:4 (2), Psa_64:7
shot, 7
Exo_19:13, Num_21:30, 1Sa_20:36-37 (2), 2Sa_11:24, 2Ki_13:17, 2Ch_35:23
archers, 5
1Ch_10:3 (4), 2Ch_35:23
taught, 5 2Ki_17:28, 2Ch_6:27, Psa_119:102, Pro_4:4, Pro_4:11
cast, 4
Gen_31:51, Exo_15:4, Jos_18:6, Job_30:19
teachers, 3
Pro_5:13, Isa_30:20 (2)
teacheth, 3
Job_36:22, Pro_6:13, Isa_9:15
rain, 2
Hos_6:3, Hos_10:12
casteth, 1
Pro_26:18
direct, 1
Gen_46:28
inform, 1
Deu_17:10
instructed, 1
2Ki_12:2
laid, 1
Job_38:6
shooters, 1
2Sa_11:24
showed, 1
Exo_15:24-25 (2)
teacher, 1
Hab_2:18
teaching, 1
2Ch_15:3
watered, 1
Pro_11:25

‘Archers’ (five entries), ‘shooters’ (one entry), and almost all other entries carry the concept of teaching or instructing. That is what the Hebrew word ‘yarah’, translated as ‘archers’ only five times, actually signifies.

Jer 50:15  Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.

“Round about” means from every direction, as Israel shouted while circling Jericho. “She hath given her hand” means that “her foundations have fallen”. It means she realizes her end is imminent. This is how the book of Revelation reveals this great world-wide harlot system will be destroyed:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Rev 17:12  And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Rev 17:13  These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

The very next chapter tells us what happens during this symbolic “one hour with the beast”:

Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

Rev 18:17  For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,

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.

Zechariah speaks of the Lord’s appearing in these words:

Zec 9:14  And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
Zec 9:15  The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.
Zec 9:16  And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.
Zec 9:17  For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.

Verse 14, speaking of “the Lord… going forth as lightning”, brings this verse of Luke 17 to mind again:

Luk 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.

Here is the New Testament ‘condensed version’ of Zechariah 9:14-17:

Rev 18:20  Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

What a blessing it is to endure the coming of Christ to destroy the beast who supports the harlot which are both within us! What joy it is to “shout against [the great harlot]” and to witness “the vengeance of the Lord… upon her” within each of us.

[Study Aired May 9, 2022]

Exo 9:1  Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 
Exo 9:2  For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 
Exo 9:3  Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 
Exo 9:4  And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. 
Exo 9:5  And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land. 
Exo 9:6  And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
Exo 9:7  And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
Exo 9:8  And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
Exo 9:9  And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. 
Exo 9:10  And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
Exo 9:11  And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.
Exo 9:12  And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.
Exo 9:13  And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 9:14  For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.
Exo 9:15  For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
Exo 9:16  And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
Exo 9:17  As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?
Exo 9:18  Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
Exo 9:19  Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.
Exo 9:20  He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:
Exo 9:21  And he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.
Exo 9:22  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:23  And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:24  So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exo 9:25  And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. 
Exo 9:26  Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. 
Exo 9:27  And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
Exo 9:28  Intreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.
Exo 9:29  And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’S.
Exo 9:30  But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God.
Exo 9:31  And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.
Exo 9:32  But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up.
Exo 9:33  And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. 
Exo 9:34  And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 
Exo 9:35  And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.

This chapter focuses on the fifth, sixth and the seventh plagues – the death of Egyptian cattle, outbreak of boils and the raining down of hail. All these are part of the Lord’s judgment of the old man or the beast within symbolized by Pharaoh. As we are aware, the Lord’s four sore judgments entail the following:

Eze 14:21  For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?

The mention of four sore judgments means that the whole of the Lord’s judgment involves the sword, famine, noisome beast and pestilence. This means that the judgments we encounter in this life, leading to the death of the old man, are related to the sword, famine, noisome beast or pestilence.

Exo 5:3  And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

As indicated in the previous studies, the turning of the waters of Egypt into blood, the unleashing of frogs, lice and swarms of flies all have to do with the pollution of the word of the Lord by lies and false doctrines propagated by evil agents of the devil. This results in famine of the word of the Lord as indicated by Amos:

Amo 8:11  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 
Amo 8:12  And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

Today’s study has to do with the Lord’s judgment on our old man in relation to the sword (raining down of hail) and pestilence (outbreak of boils and the death of cattle and other animals).  All these judgments are to bring Pharaoh to the point of allowing the people of Israel to be liberated from their Egyptian bondage in order to serve the Lord. This is reiterated by the Lord as He instructed Moses and Aaron to tell Pharaoh as follows:

Exo 9:1  Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 

Our Lord’s desire to get rid of the old man (Pharaoh) within us is again stated here in verse 1 where the Lord told Moses to tell Pharaoh to let His people go so they can serve Him. As long as the beast reigns within our members, there is no way we can please or serve the Lord. As we are aware, the Lord had sworn by an oath with our fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) that He would give their descendants the promised land, which is our bodies. Knowing this, we must have confidence that irrespective of our circumstance and where we are spiritually, the Lord will put to death the old man (Pharaoh) in order for us to serve Him acceptably.

Exo 6:8  And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.

Heb 6:13  For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, 
Heb 6:14  Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 
Heb 6:15  And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 
Heb 6:16  For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 
Heb 6:17  Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 
Heb 6:18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 
Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 

Having confidence that the Lord will surely cause us to possess the land (overcome the flesh to possess our bodies), all we have to do is believe in the strong hand (His judgments) of the Lord to accomplish it. The stubbornness of the beast, signified by Pharaoh’s resistance to let the people of Israel go from Egypt, brings us to the fifth plague or judgment by the death of cattle, horses, camels, etc. as follows:

The Plague of the Death of Cattle

Exo 9:2  For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 
Exo 9:3  Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 

In the scriptures, cattle, asses, horses, camels, oxen and sheep are symbols of worldly riches as shown in the following examples of Abraham and Job:

Gen 24:35  And the LORD hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses.

Job 1:3  His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

These worldly riches represent the things of this world which are the source of sin – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life which we are admonished not to love.

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 

The plague of the death of the cattle, asses, camel, etc. therefore is judgment of the Lord which brings about the death of the world within us and therefore curtails our quest for mammon. The rich young ruler who came to Jesus wanted to serve the Lord as he came to inquire about the way of salvation. However, the cares of the world and his love for riches disqualified him from becoming a son in this life.

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

Mat 19:16  And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 
Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Mat 19:18  He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Mat 19:19  Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 19:20  The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
Mat 19:21  Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
Mat 19:22  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. 

Jesus telling the rich young ruler that he should go and sell his riches does not mean that Jesus is having against the riches of this world. No!! The blessing of the Lord also includes the riches of this world. However, Jesus is here speaking in a parable, not to the world, but to His elect. What Jesus said is that the way to the kingdom of God is to be spiritually poor. Being spiritually poor is what the Lord meant when he said that the young man should sell his possessions. Again, when Jesus said that it was almost impossible for those who are rich in this life to enter the kingdom of God, He was speaking in parable. What he meant is that it is impossible for those who think they are spiritually rich to enter the kingdom of God.

Mat 19:23  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
Mat 19:24  And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Exo 9:4  And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. 
Exo 9:5  And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land. 
Exo 9:6  And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. 
Exo 9:7  And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. 

The cattle of Israel stand for spiritual riches as against the cattle of Egypt which represent the love of the world. The cattle of Israel not experiencing death in verse 4 means that spiritual riches are eternal, while the cattle of Egypt, which stand for the things of this world, are temporal or dying.

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!

Col 2:2  That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; 
Col 2:3  In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 

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: 

The cattle of Israel, which signify spiritual riches, entail getting to know the wisdom and knowledge of God which is precious in the Lord’s sight as indicated in the verses above. It is those whose eyes are being opened who value spiritual riches. The flesh, signified by Pharaoh, does not care about spiritual things, and therefore it is no wonder that Pharaoh’s heart became hardened even after seeing the cattle of Israel not affected by the plague, as he did not take it to heart at all.

The Plague of the Outbreak of Boils

Exo 9:8  And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. 
Exo 9:9  And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:10  And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
Exo 9:11  And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.
Exo 9:12  And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.

Boils are a skin disease caused by bacterial infection. In the scriptures, when one has a skin disease, he/she must appear before a priest to give his verdict on the nature of the skin disease whether it is a defiling skin disease or a rash, in which case the person is declared clean.

Lev 13:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying,
Lev 13:2  When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests: 
Lev 13:3  And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean. 
Lev 13:4  If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days: 
Lev 13:5  And the priest shall look on him the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more: 
Lev 13:6  And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean: it is but a scab: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.

What this means is that through the Lord’s judgment of our flesh (outbreak of boils), we are taken through a humbling experience (judgment of boils) which causes us to depend on our brothers and sisters (Priest). This was what happened to Hezekiah when he got sick and was about to die. Isaiah told him initially that he would die, but after Hezekiah sought the Lord to show mercy to him, he was given an additional fifteen years. Hezekiah was humbled by this near-death experience, and he submitted to Isaiah’s words. In healing Hezekiah, Isaiah took a lump of figs and placed it on Hezekiah’s boil, and he was healed. As we may be aware, figs in the scriptures represent the Lord’s people, so a lump of figs represents the body of the elect through whom healing comes to us when through the Lord’s experience, we are humbled.

2Ki 20:1  In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 
2Ki 20:2  Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 
2Ki 20:3  I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 
2Ki 20:4  And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 
2Ki 20:5  Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 
2Ki 20:6  And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. 
2Ki 20:7  And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

Pharaoh’s stubbornness became evident once again as the Lord hardened his heart and therefore was not willing to let the Israelites go. This is all to show us that dealing with the beast within or the old man is not our work – it is the Lord’s work!! In Romans, we are reminded that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is all part of the Lord’s way to show us how He has been merciful to us and to cause us to trust in Him through the showing forth of His power.

Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

In verse 8, Moses was commanded to take the ashes of the furnace which became transformed to dust and finally led to the plague of boils. We are the ashes in the furnace. We are the ones who are being called out of the furnace of affliction. What this means is that in the fullness of time, the Lord will use us to bring boils or judge the world.

Isa 48:10  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 
Isa 48:11  For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.  

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. 

Exo 9:13  And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 
Exo 9:14  For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. 
Exo 9:15  For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
Exo 9:16  And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
Exo 9:17  As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?

As shown earlier, the stubbornness of Pharaoh, or the old man within us, is all the work of the Lord in bringing us to appreciate that being an overcomer is through the power of the Lord and not by anything that we do. This power of the Lord comes to us through the knowledge of His divine word.

Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Mar 12:24  And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?

In verse 15, the Lord stated that He will smite the old man with pestilence and that the old man shall be cut off from the earth. Being cut off from the earth means the old man shall surely be destroyed and therefore will not influence our earthly members. This destruction is through judgment.

The Plague of Hail

Exo 9:18  Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
Exo 9:19  Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.
Exo 9:20  He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:
Exo 9:21  And he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.
Exo 9:22  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.

Hail comes down from heaven and is very destructive to things on earth. In verse 19, we are told about the destructive nature of hail. It destroys all our cattle and all that remains in the field. As we are aware, the field is the world.

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

As indicated earlier, all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life – are not of the Lord, and His judgment of hail destroys the love of this world within us.

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 
1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Hail is a kind of rain and therefore represents the truth of the word of God which particularly destroys our false doctrines and lies.

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Exo 9:23  And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:24  So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exo 9:25  And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.

In verse 23, we are given additional information about the judgment of hail. We are told that the Lord sent thunder, hail and fire that ran on the ground. This is repeated in verse 24 where fire mingled with hail came over the land of Egypt and wreaked havoc. This plague of hail meted out against the land and the people of Egypt is the same as the sounding of the first trumpet by one of the seven angels when the seventh seal was opened.

Rev 8:6  And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
Rev 8:7  The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

As we have indicated, hail refers to the truth of the word of the Lord. Fire also represents the word of the Lord as shown as follows:

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.

However, when the word of the Lord is described as fire, it is referring to the ability of the word of the Lord to judge us and in the process destroy that which is not in line with the word of the Lord within us.

Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; 
Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

So, hail mingled with fire, which was unleashed in the land of Egypt, means that getting to know the truth of the word of the Lord comes with the judgment of ‘our earth’ which is represented here as the land of Egypt. In other words, tribulation and persecution come as the result of the word we are receiving. As indicated in verse 25, this judgment results in the destruction of all that is in the field, both man and beast, and every herb and tree in the field. We have already shown that all that is in the field represents the love of the world in us. The reference to all that is in the field, both man and beast, is to let us know the impact of the Lord’s judgment on the beast within us. The scriptures speak in several places of trees representing mankind. We are all trees which do not bring forth good fruit and therefore must be brought down by hail mingled with fire to produce good fruit.

Luk 3:9  And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Luk 6:44  For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

Herbs in the scriptures signifies spiritual immaturity as used in the following:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 
Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

So, the destruction of herbs by hail mingled with fire is the destruction of our false doctrines and lies which hold us captive to the rudimentary aspect of the word of the Lord.

Exo 9:26  Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. 

As we have indicated, hail represents the truth of the word of the Lord or the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Goshen means ‘drawing near’. The absence of hail where the people of Israel were (Goshen) is another way of saying that as the Lord draws us nearer to Himself through His judgments, the mystery of God (hail) shall be finished.

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.

Exo 9:27  And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. 
Exo 9:28  Intreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. 
Exo 9:29  And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’S. 
Exo 9:30  But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God.

Pharaoh’s admission that indeed he had sinned and that he and his people are wicked in contrast to the Lord’s righteousness is another way of saying that the old man (the heart) is desperately wicked and that the new man after the image of Christ is righteous. In verse 30, Moses made a statement that Pharaoh and his servants (the old man) can never fear the Lord. What Pharaoh said is the same as what Saul told David after David spared Saul’s life when he had the opportunity to kill Saul – that is, David (new man) is more righteous than Saul (old man).

Jer 17:9  The heart (the old man) is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. 

Col 3:9  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Col 3:10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Pharaoh’s request for Moses to entreat the Lord to stop the thunderings and the hail so that he would let the people of Israel go is also the same as Saul’s admission that David would be king. In other words, the Lord’s elect (David) will surely overcome the flesh or the old man (Saul or Pharaoh).

1Sa 24:16  And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.
1Sa 24:17  And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
1Sa 24:18  And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.
1Sa 24:19  For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the LORD reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day.
1Sa 24:20  And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand.

Exo 9:31  And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. 
Exo 9:32  But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up. 

It is insightful to note that the hail destroyed the flax and barley, the source of food. The coming of hail in our lives, which represents the truth of the word of the Lord, destroys all false doctrines and lies which were our source of food during our time in Babylon. The wheat and the rie, however, were not affected by the hail because they were not grown. In the parable of the weeds, Jesus described the wheat as being the children of the kingdom. The coming of the judgment of hail, therefore, does not destroy the elect in their spiritually immature state.

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed (the wheat) are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

Exo 9:33  And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.
Exo 9:34  And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Exo 9:35  And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.

As we have stated in our previous study, when the Lord grants us relief from our suffering, our flesh or the old man (Pharaoh) has the tendency to go back to its vomit. This is the same as the Israelites claiming back their freed servants when there was relief in the Babylonian siege during the time of king Zedekiah.

Jer 34:8  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them, 
Jer 34:9  that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother. 
Jer 34:10  And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again. They obeyed and set them free. 
Jer 34:11  But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves.

Our prayer today is that may the Lord grant us the grace to continue to submit to His judgment of our old man so that we may be presented faultless and without blame. Amen!!

Audio Links

Awesome Hands – part 52

“To Show in You My Power”

Jan. 7, 2013

In last study we covered the first half of Exodus 9, and how the admonitions in those plagues are lived out in our lives spiritually today.

In the study today, we are going to continue to go over these admonitions and see that the Lord raises His elect up for the very purpose of bringing judgment in their lives and into the lives of others they are around and sent to while in this age.

Exo 9:16  And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

Exo 9:17  As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?

When the Lord is working in our lives, He doesn’t hide this Truth. In fact, He works in our lives and causes things to happen that He will later use to bring us to remembrance for the express purposes of allowing us to know that all things are worked out according to His will and that He has been with us all of our lives.

In Exodus 9:16, we know that the Lord is speaking through Moses the message that Pharaoh has been raised up for the power of the Lord to be shown to and through Pharaoh, but whose hand has the rod of the power of the Lord been placed in? It is in Moses and Aaron’s hands.

With this in mind, we know that when we are used to spread the Gospel, we are used to spread spiritual seeds which hold much power!

It is the very Word in our mouths which holds the power, just like the rod in Moses and Aarons hands, and the messengers or laborer as stated in Corinthians, is counted as nothing and know nothing, i.e. we are nothing without Christ, the Word.

Job 8:9  (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)

1Co 3:5  Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
1Co 3:7  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
1Co 3:8  Now he that planteth and he that watereth ARE ONE: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
1Co 3:9  For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
1Co 3:10  According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

“A very grievous hail”

When the Lord is ready to show forth His complete judgment, He brings forth hail spiritually. Of course, this physically happened to Egypt but it was worked to admonish us today just as much as it was for their purposes back then.

Exo 9:18  Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

If we take the sum of thy Word, and look for other similar occurrences of things which come and have never been seen before and never will be seen again, then we might see that what hail represents spiritually is God coming into our lives and bringing the judgment He alone can bring upon His house.

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?

What does this judgment have to do with “hail” and why is it spiritually significant? I promise that it was raveningly significant to these Egyptians when it started to fall.

Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

An earthquake and great hail represent the same thing spiritually speaking but also notice WHEN it is this event of MONUMENTAL proportions happens.

Isa 29:5  Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
Isa 29:6  Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.

Rev 6:12  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

When is the sun DARKENED and the moon is become as BLOOD?

Joe 2:30  And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
Joe 2:31  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Joe 2:32  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

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.

Lastly, just a few verses earlier in Acts:

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.

Is it just mere coincidence that hail is mentioned as never having happened to Egypt and that it will not be seen in this manner again? I think not and the scripture bears witness to this.

How then is this plague of hail representative of the judgment God calls upon His house and what is happening to Egypt?

Isa 28:14  Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
Isa 28:15  Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Isa 28:16  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
Isa 28:18  And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

The Pharaoh who sits on the throne and Egypt of which he rules typifies where God’s people are to come from and which king they are to worship.

Moses and Aaron are literally being sent to the Pharaoh to deliver judgment to his house.

So, because the Lord is merciful, He tells us before the time what He is going to do when the “great and terrible day of the Lord happens”.

Exo 9:18  Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
Exo 9:19  Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.
Exo 9:20  He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:
Exo 9:21  And he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.

This seventh plague is bringing a complete judgment against the house of Egypt, but it is also representative of the Lord showing mercy to His people.

The mercy that will be shown is applicable for this plague but also for the last three that are to come.

For those who fear the Word of the Lord, they will be able to recognize that the Lord will bring forth what He says He will bring forth, judgment. It is coming to us all NOW or LATER.

All of these plagues happen relatively quickly in time physically for Egypt, but spiritually speaking we are simply warned that these things will happen and to be prepared.

It is the preparation of the heart that prepares us and we know that there is NOTHING we can do in order to prepare ourselves for this judgment. The preparation or lack of it is all from the Lord.

Joe 2:10  The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
Joe 2:11  And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
Joe 2:12  Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
Joe 2:13  And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

It is those who fear the Word of the Lord of which the Lord will show mercy. For Egypt, this hail is very grievous and will destroy all the things the Lord says will be destroyed, and for spiritual Israel this is EQUALLY true.

We may not think it a positive occurrence and it is not for the old man in us represented by Egypt, but for the new man in us, this is wonderful indeed because where there is DEATH, LIFE springs up!

Isn’t this what we are told baptism in the Word is all about?

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

What is the Word of God ALSO representative of?

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:
Mat 3:12  Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

No one will be “rending their heart,” no one will be “calling on the name of the Lord,” without this first happening.

1Co 12:3  Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

This is a miraculous event which is spiritually typified by the work the hail is sent to do. It is sent to sweep away all false pretences of God the Father and the refuge of lies that our heart believes in.

Exo 9:22  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:23  And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:24  So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exo 9:25  And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.
Exo 9:26  Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

Is it not apparent that ANYTHING left in the field was destroyed only to leave the faintest of residue of what once was? The very trees themselves were broken and what are trees representative of?

Mar 8:23  And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.
Mar 8:24  And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.Psa 92:12  The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

Psa 92:13  Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.

Isa 2:11  The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
Isa 2:12  For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
Isa 2:13  And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,

“I have sinned this time”

Spiritually speaking, when you are in the process of being destroyed you will naturally call out to God for deliverance and physically speaking we see this happening with Pharaoh and his kingdom.

Exo 9:27  And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
Exo 9:28  Intreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.

When we are going through death, likened to having a deadly wound, we cry out for deliverance. Pharaoh is no different in this.

He wants the plague to stop “for it is enough,” but as soon as this “wound” is healed, the Pharaoh goes right back to his old ways of thinking.

Exo 9:29  And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’S.
Exo 9:30  But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God.
Exo 9:31  And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.
Exo 9:32  But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up.

The purpose for the hail is to tell us, is to show us that the Lord has full control over all aspects of our lives both physically and spiritually.

However, the hail comes to also show us that we must be full of Godly repentance. We, like Pharaoh, just want the judgment to stop so we do and say whatever we can in order to petition the Lord to heal us of the death that these plagues bring.

The wheat and the rie have not yet been dealt with but they still remain in Egypt. This is so that the Lord can allow them time to grow so that those things which remain “under the surface” can be dealt with in due time.

Exo 9:33  And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.
Exo 9:34  And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Exo 9:35  And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.

Just like Pharaoh, we too will “repent” but will go right back into our ways but this is all the start of this spiritual admonition that the Lord will fully deal with “all that is in Egypt,” thus; the Locusts will come.

Next study, we will see Lord willing, the spiritual significance of “Moses went out of the city” as compared to what the means to us today in the spirit. Though the hail will end, the locusts will be sent to completely devour anything that is left over from the hail.

They will also usher in the start of great darkness for the old man.

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Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Introduction

“Egypt” is the Biblical symbol for the world out of which we first come as we begin our journey toward knowing God and His Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ we are to consider ourselves as dead to the world and alive in the spirit. That is why Christ calls those who put the world ahead of Himself, “the dead”.

Mat 8:21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer [ allow] me first to go and bury my father.
Mat 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

That is also why we read of ourselves as being considered as dead in the streets of that “great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified”.

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

According to the scriptures, if you know God and His Son, you smell like death to the natural- minded man of Babylon.

2Co 2:15 for we are a fragrance of Christ to God, in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:
2Co 2:16 to these [“those who are perishing”], indeed, an odor of death for death, yet to those [“who are being saved”] an odor of life for life. And for this who is competent?
2Co 2:17 For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking.

Rev 11:8 is speaking of Babylon the great and equates Babylon the great with “Sodom and Egypt”. So the “diseases… which [ God]… brought upon the Egyptians” is a type and shadow of the diseases which afflict us while we are in Babylon. What were the diseases which afflicted Egypt and exactly how are we to avoid those same afflictions and diseases?

First Plague

Exo 7:20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
Exo 7:21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

The waters of Egypt are the corrupted words of God. Those waters turning to blood tell us what happens when we begin to see how we have been believing the heresies of heretics, and we begin to see how our teachers have been twisting and polluting the words of God. Only then does our old man begin to die from drinking that bloody water.

Second Plague

Exo 8:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 8:2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:
Exo 8:3 And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs:
Exo 8:4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.
Exo 8:14 And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank.

These frogs, and the lice and flies which follow them, are all symbols of the 200 million false doctrines which come against the Truth of God’s Word, blotting out the light of the Sun:

Rev 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Rev 9:7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

How many of these witnesses to the lies and heresies of the adversary are there?

Rev 9:16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

This is all the result of the doctrine of “tolerance in the nonessentials” versus “diligently listening to the voice of the Lord thy God, [ and] keeping all His statutes”.

Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

“Diligently listen… keep all His statutes”. Does that sound as if there is anything which is ‘nonessential’ about to be said by the Lord they God?
Here is what heretics, heresies and lies do for our spiritual life:

Psa 78:45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

This is speaking of the spirits and words of the false prophets to which we have all fallen victim in our own time.

2Ti 2:17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
2Ti 4:15 Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
2Ti 4:16 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
2Ti 4:17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
2Ti 4:18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen
Rev 2:15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

Third Plague

Exo 8:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:17 And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:18 And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.

Fourth Plague

Exo 8:24 And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.

Both these plagues and the innumerable swarms are just to tell us how many heresies of the heretics there are that will always be there to keep us from seeing the light of “the Sun of righteousness” when we believe that there are nonessential statutes that proceed out of the mouth of the Lord our God.

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.

Notice the “healing” that is promised both here in Mal 4:2 and in Exo 15:26. Healing comes when we ‘diligently listen to the Lord our God”. It is the Truth of God word which gives us the healing we so need.

Psa 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Fifth Plague

Exo 9:2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,
Exo 9:3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: t here shall be a very grievous murrain [ H1698, deber pestilence, diseases].
Exo 9:4 And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel.
Exo 9:5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.
Exo 9:6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
Exo 9:15 For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence [ H1698 deber – diseases]; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
Exo 9:16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
Lev 26:25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence [ H1698 deber – diseases] among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Num 14:11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
Num 14:12 I will smite them with the pestilence [ H1698 deber – diseases], and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

Livestock in scripture represents our possessions and our wealth, and the wealth of the children of Abraham are riches in gold and silver and cattle which all belong to God and are again the symbols of the wealth we have in Him and His Word.

Gen 13:2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Diseased cattle are just another way of telling us how we have fallen victim to the heresies of heretics and false prophets. Both Lev 26:25 and Num 14:11-12 demonstrate that the diseases of our cattle are our own diseases, and just like the frogs and the flies and the lice, they spiritually devour and destroy us and all we spiritually own, simply because we would rather tolerate the so- called nonessential words that proceed out of the mouth of God, rather than to “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord our God”.

Sixth Plague

Exo 9:8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
Exo 9:9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:10 And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
Exo 9:11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.

We have seen that Job suffered from boils because of his pride in his own, nonexistent righteousness. But the same pride that restrains our old man from letting loose the throne of God within our hearts, is the same pride that kept Pharaoh from letting Israel leave Egypt, and it was the same pride which kept Job from acknowledging that he was vile of himself and not righteous at all.

Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
Job 33:9 I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

So once again it was the words of Job’s mouth, the false doctrine of proud self- righteousness, which was used of God for an occasion to bring “these diseases”, the boils and blains upon him, and it is the lies of spiritually proud Egypt which brings “these diseases” and boils “upon man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt” within us.

Seventh Plague

Exo 9:22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exo 9:25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.

What do you suppose this destruction of Egypt and its wealth by hail signifies in spiritual terms? Could it possibly be false doctrines and failing to “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord our God” rather than to tolerate the so- called nonessential words which come forth from the mouth of God? What do the scriptures reveal to be the spiritual function of hail?

Isa 28:17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Judgment is being laid “to the line and… to the plummet” with the righteousness of the Truth of God’s Word. Jerusalem, God’s own people are no exception to those words proceeding out of the mouth of God. The fact is that God’s own house will be the first to be judged:

2Ki 21:13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
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?

“The house of Ahab” tolerated the nonessential doctrines of “that woman Jezebel”:

Rev 2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

It behooves us all to “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord our God” and to never even consider “tolerating the nonessentials”, as if any of the words which proceed forth out of the mouth of God were “nonessential”. Here is what happens when we allow that woman Jezebel to teach in our midst:

2Ti 2:17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;

A ‘canker’ devours us just as do the locusts of the eighth plague or ‘disease’ upon Egypt.

Eighth Plague

Exo 10:3 And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 10:4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
Exo 10:5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
Exo 10:6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.
Exo 10:7 And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
Exo 10:14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
Exo 10:15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

Again we are made to know that the diseases God brings upon the Egypt within us are heretics with heresies which are worse than any preceding plague of this kind. It is ordained that we buy into especially egregious doctrines like believing there is no law or that Christ died to sin so we can live in it, before we are given to see that our world is being destroyed by our own stubborn desire to destroy the Christ within us. That is exactly what Pharaoh’s determination to keep Israel in slavery represents.

Exo 1:15 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:
Exo 1:16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

The very threat of this plague of locusts makes Babylon, which spiritually is Egypt, begin to realize that “Egypt is [ being] destroyed” within us as we contend with, reprove and condemn our own Creator who seems intent on destroying our old man, Egypt within us. We have already seen that it is the lies, falsehoods and heresies we so willingly tolerate, that these locusts symbolize. It is these lies represented by these locusts which block out the light of the Sun of righteousness.

Rev 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Ninth Plague

Exo 10:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.
Exo 10:22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
Exo 10:23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

It is the lies and heresies that constitute the smoke coming up from the abusos, or “bottomless pit” within us, which blots out the light of the sun and produces the locusts which devour and destroy the old man who is symbolized by Egypt and Egypt’s Pharaoh. Pharaoh is the symbol of that “man of sin, the son of perdition” who is still hanging on to the hope of “withholding” the destruction of our old man and the birth of our new man within.

2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [ withholds] will let [ withhold], until he be taken out of the way.
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:
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

The “love of the Truth” is contrasted with failing to “diligently listen to the word of the Lord thy God”. It is the sin in our members that desires to be accepted of this world and fit in with this world. But that ninth plague of darkness brings us to condemn our Creator more than ever before. The darkness of this plague is the same darkness of the fifth of the seven last plagues of Rev 16.

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.

Pharaoh is the type of our proud, rebellious “old… first man Adam”. Pharaoh never repented, and he was destroyed, just like that generation whose carcases fell in the wilderness. Christ made it clear that the birth of our new man comes only through the death and destruction of our old man.

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

And that is exactly what the tenth plague symbolizes within us:

Tenth Plague

Exo 11:4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
Exo 11:5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
Exo 11:6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.
Exo 11:7 But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians [ our old man] and Israel [ Christ in us].

The coming of this death angel, is the destruction of the man of sin of 2Th 2:8.

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:

This death angel is also the “mighty earthquake… such as was not since men were upon the earth”, ushering in the judgment and destruction of the great harlot with all of her pride, her lies, her heretics and heresies within us all.

Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Remember, it is the hail that “shall sweep away the refuge of lies” that make up the very foundation of that great city, Babylon.

Isa 28:17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

So Babylon, that great city where our Lord was crucified within us all, which is spiritually called Egypt seeks to destroy the people of God by keeping them in the bondage of darkness, which is given to God’s unsuspecting people by evil angels bringing evil spirits which must be tried and found wanting of the truth which is the Word of God.
Here is how King David sums up the Egypt and Babylon experience within us all:

Psa 78:42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
Psa 78:43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
Psa 78:44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
Psa 78:45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
Psa 78:46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
Psa 78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.
Psa 78:48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
Psa 78:49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
Psa 78:50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
Psa 78:51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

These words are not addressed to some bad man somewhere else. These words are addressed to you and to me. When we read that “He spared not their soul from death”, we are reading about what God is doing to the old man, the first man Adam within each of us. Christ said so:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat [ our old man within us all] fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Now let’s review what God has promised us if we obey Him:

Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

If we “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord thy God… and keep His statutes, [ God] will put none of these diseases upon [ us]”. Those are the stipulations for staying spiritually healthy. We cannot serve God as we want and expect Him to just go along with our rebellion. Here is what happens when we do that:

Jer 14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence [ H1698 deber – diseases].

Of course, this is the same as saying:
“All things are [ ours]”, and we “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”. What we are told not to do is nothing less than a prophecy of what is in our flesh and what we will do, and what we are told to do is a prophecy of what is not in our flesh and a prophecy of what we will not at first do.
The first commandment mankind was ever given is a perfect example of how “the law of sin in [ our] members” works (Rom 7:21-23).

Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

We all know just how “diligently” our original parents “listened to the voice of the Lord… God”. Contrary to the heretics and heresies of Babylon, God Himself had already placed a “law of sin” within the members of our original parents. It was the operation of this law within their members which assured that they would eat of the tree of which they were told not to eat. That law of sin is to this day sustained in us all, by the “one [ and only] lawgiver”.

Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

So none of us will just naturally “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord thy God and… do that which is right in His sight”. “No not one” will at first, just naturally “give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes”. Consequently all of these diseases will at first come upon us.
Here is one of those afflictions and diseases which in type and shadow come upon us when we refuse to “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord [ our] God:

Jos 7:11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
Jos 7:12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
Jos 7:13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

That is the cure for the disease of “the law of sin in our members”, or as it is worded here in Joshua, “in the midst of thee”. “Sanctify the people… you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you”. That is what we must do if we are to maintain a healthy spiritual life individually as well as the corporate health of the “body of Christ” and the corporate family of God. How are we sanctified? Do “tolerance of the nonessential” words of God sanctify us? Absolutely not! That is the accused thing itself. Achin thought there were some things that simply were not essential in the words God had spoken to Israel, but this is the only way God’s people can be sanctified:

Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: THY WORD is truth…
Joh 17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

It is “through the foolishness of preaching” that we remind each other that the cure for “all of these diseases… the body of this death”, in which “the law of sin and death” has been granted free reign, is accomplished. It is only by “taking away the accused thing from among [ us]. We ‘destroy the accused thing’ by being “sanctified”, and we are “sanctified through the Truth”, and the Truth is “Thy Word”.
So let’s take the time to “Listen diligently to the voice of the Lord… and do that which is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all of His statutes”. That is the only thing which will sanctify us and “destroy the accursed thing from among [ us so we can] stand before our enemies” and “fight the good fight of faith”.

Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Here now are just a few of the verses of scripture which are the “commandments, and… statutes” which are specifically designed to keep us spiritually healthy both individually and corporately. It is ignoring these verses of scripture which has given us the tens of thousands of harlot daughters of Babylon the great with which the world is plagued to this very day.

Tit 3:10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
Tit 3:11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

How can we know who is and who is not “an heretick”? Here is what we must do if we are to stay spiritually healthy. If we fail to do this, we will be “swallowed up by the earth” (Num 16:32-35), and descend into the darkness of spiritual death itself:

1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

We “believe not every spirit, [ but] trying the spirits… because many false prophets have gone out into the world”, tells us that the false doctrines of these false prophets are the spirits which we are to try. And yet it is those who “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord” and who insist on trying “every spirit” and every doctrine to be certain that they are “abiding… in the doctrine of Christ” who are always condemned and accused of being divisive and of being unloving. But when we see what happened to Christ as to all his apostles who were “forsaken of all men” for simply remaining faithful to the word of God, it is clear that the lesson of the scriptures is that it is better to be divided by the Truth than to be united in a lie and in the false doctrines brought to us by the many false prophets who have gone out into the world to deceive.
But is it possible for us to know what is the spirit of Truth and the spirit of error on every doctrine? What is the answer from the scriptures? For those who who have been granted to be able to “try the spirits to see whether they are of God”, here is the answer to that question.

1Jn 4:4 Ye [ who “try the spirits to see whether they are of God”, vs 1] are of God, little children, and have overcome them [ false prophets who refuse to try the spirits of all the false prophets who have “gone out into the world”, vs 1] : because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
1Jn 4:5 They [ the heretics and false prophets] are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

There it is. That is how “know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error”. That is the only way we can remain spiritually healthy and have “none of these diseases upon [ us] which [ God]… brought upon the Egyptians”.

Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

If we “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord [ our] God, and… do that which” we have been commanded in all these verses, then we will be “diligent” to “Keep [ this another of]… His statutes”:

2Jn 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that [“diligently listens to the voice of the Lord” and] abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
2Jn 1:11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

If we fail to “try the spirits” and we allow false doctrines coming from our own brothers to come into our fellowship, then we are simply disobeying our Lord’s commandment to “try the spirits whether they are of God”. Here is how Christ Himself tells us we are to handle any and all such trespass against us:

Mat 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault [ including his false doctrine] between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

It is in keeping with this commandment from our Lord that the apostle Paul commands us:

Tit 3:10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;

It is so much easier to simply tolerate differences of opinion concerning doctrinal matters. Here is the the verse which would keep us from ever having heresies in our midst if we lived by this verse:

1Co 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

That sounds fairly conclusive. It certainly seems to be saying that in matters which concern every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God we should “all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
But notice now how the adversary has managed to completely neutralize and nullify those life giving healthy and wholesome words of scripture. Here is what the Calvinist rebel Albert Barnes has written in his very popular commentary concerning this incredibly important and powerful verse of scripture:

“That ye all speak the same thing – “That ye hold the same doctrine” – Locke. This exhortation evidently refers to their holding and expressing the same religious sentiments, and is designed to rebuke that kind of contention and strife which is evinced where different opinions are held and expressed. To “speak the same thing” stands opposed to speaking different and conflicting things; or to controversy, and although perfect uniformity of opinion cannot be expected among people on the subject of religion any more than on other subjects, yet on the great and fundamental doctrines of Christianity, Christians may be agreed; on all points in which they differ they may evince a good spirit; and on all subjects they may express their sentiments in the language of the Bible, and thus “speak the same thing.” “

There it is, ” uniformity of opinion cannot be expected among people on the subject of religion any more than on other subjects“.
That is the doctrine which has been accepted by the world and by many who were once a part of our fellowship. That is not exactly “diligently listening to the words of the Lord thy God”. That is much more akin the the accursed thing which will keep us from being able to stand up to the false doctrines of our enemies. That is the reasoning of a carnal mind which wants to serve God in its own way with absolutely no fear of twisting and ignoring a very plain commandment to “all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Mr. Barnes thinks nothing of reading those words and telling us that the holy spirit is simply not incapable of keeping us “all… perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” as concerns “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”.
Here is a verse which comes to mind at this point:

Rom 3:3 For what if some did not believe [ those words of God]? shall their unbelief make the faith [ and word] of God without effect?
Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Mr. Barnes lies when he says “uniformity of opinion cannot be expected among people on the subject of religion any more than on other subjects”. The Truth is that when Christ lives in those people, they will have His mind. If Christ is in any man, Christ has but one mind, and that is the same mind which we too, must have:

1Co 2:14 But the natural man [ Albert Barnes included] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Co 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Albert Barnes and the entire ecumenical Christian movement will tell you that it is impossible to have the mind of Christ. You choose who the Lord leads you to believe.
We are doing nothing short of being slothful and even disobeying our Lord when we allow unrepentant brothers in our midst, spreading their heresies after having been twice admonished against those heresies which they have brought into our fellowship.

Pro 18:9 He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.

What is the blood of Christ? What does that blood accomplish in our behalf?

1Co 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

All the admonitions we have covered thus far are in the New Testament. If we apply these words “the plague shall not be upon [ us] to destroy [ us]”. If we do not abide by these words, along with Mr. Barnes, we will be destroyed as “the land of Egypt” within us.

Exo 12:13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

The only reason the plague is not upon us to destroy us is that we have already died to this world, and we no longer care what anyone thinks but God himself, and now we can “diligently listen to” this commandment from out Lord:

Rom 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Rom 16:18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Contrary to what you may hear, Mike Vinson makes no unilateral decisions concerning who is and who is not a heretic in our midst. The words of our Lord, Lord willing, always have and always will be “diligently listened to” and will be followed, and it will be in the mouth of two or three witnesses that every word will be established, and such decisions will be made on after “a multitude of counselors have been consulted.
I will close by quoting the words of our beloved brother, Jim Ross in Australia, which he sent me just this past week:

“I try to remind myself that the closer that I get to our Father in heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ puts me on a priority list for Satan to test my faith. He is not as interested in my loved ones as me or you or our family who seek the things that are above and the mind of Christ. I pray the Lord will direct your steps … for the protection of the flock”.

He then quoted this verse:

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

Thank you, Jim, for your sober vigilance, and thank all of you for your sober vigilance in diligently listening to the voice of the Lord our God.