“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding” Part 3 (Pro 18:17-24)

[Study Aired September 10, 2025]

Pro 18:17 He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him.
Pro 18:18 The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty.
Pro 18:19 A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.
Pro 18:20 A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.
Pro 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Pro 18:22 Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.
Pro 18:23 The poor useth intreaties; but the rich answereth roughly.
Pro 18:24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

These last few proverbs of chapter 18 that we’ll look at today stress the importance of fair judgement, the power of words, the value of strong relationships, and the contrasting behaviours of people in different life circumstances. I’ll be using the story of the two harlots in (1Ki 3:16-28) as a sort of guide and template to help bring out some of these points.

Pro 18:17  He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him.

In this story of the two harlots that were brought before Solomon (1Ki 3:16-28), it was the woman who was just that spoke up first before the king, but it’s not about the order of who speaks first, rather it is the attitude of the one speaking, and the second woman who was not just was the one trying to sound like she was just in her cause, “first in his own cause”. This third chapter of Kings gives us one of the best examples of someone, or in this case of two people, pleading their cause to then have the truth rightly divided by Solomon who typifies God’s judgements that are working in the body of Christ today, “but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him”.

1Ki 3:16  Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.
1Ki 3:17  And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.
1Ki 3:18  And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.
1Ki 3:19  And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it.
1Ki 3:20  And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
1Ki 3:21  And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.
1Ki 3:22  And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.
1Ki 3:23  Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.
1Ki 3:24  And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.
1Ki 3:25  And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.
1Ki 3:26  Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.
1Ki 3:27  Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.
1Ki 3:28  And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.

Both of these women reside within us, and it is by God’s power and chastening grace in our lives that we will be able to come to the point where we can discern the good and evil within ourselves having had our senses exercised by the trial of our faith, which is precious unto us (1Pe 1:7).

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

It’s precious because this exercise of faith makes it possible for us to partake of strong meat, and purifies God’s word in our hearts that is likened unto gold, so that by “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.” (Heb 5:14, Psa 12:6, 1Pe 5:10).

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.

Psa 12:6  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

The ability to judge and discern good and evil is a gift from God that is received of those who are given a hunger and thirst to ask for it in faith (Jas 1:5, 1Jn 5:4, Mat 5:6 , Rom 3:27), and Solomon, who typifies the elect, was granted that desire to ask for and to know the truth, as typified by this prayer that he made in (1Ki 3:9).

1Ki 3:9 “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?”

The “neighbour” that comes and searches him, “but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him”, is represented by Solomon in (1Ki 3:16-28), and it is our prayer that the Lord will be that friend who sticks closer than a brother within us, and faithfully administers the wounds that judgement brings so we can die daily, and be buried in His baptism so we can be raised with Christ in heaven (Psa 139:23-24, Pro 27:5-6, Heb 12:3, Gal 6:9, 1Co 15:31).

Psa 139:23  Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
Psa 139:24  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Pro 27:5  Open rebuke is better than secret love.
Pro 27:6  Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Heb 12:3  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners [the one harlot against the other in 1Ki 3:16-28] against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Gal 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.(Psa 116:15, 1Pe 1:7)

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Pro 18:18  The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty.

The [CLV] version of this proverb reads “Casting the lot causes quarrels to cease, And keeps staunch foes apart”, and that is definitely what Solomon was doing with these two woman. The contention was over their children which represents doctrine (Mat 13:37-38), and it would take the judgement of God ‘in the lot of the matter’ to bring about the truth (Pro 16:33).

Pro 16:33  The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.

The powers and principalities that we wrestle against are higher than us and stronger than us (Eph 6:12) and would sift us like wheat as Christ told Peter (Luk 22:31), unless Christ and his body prayed for us (Luk 22:32).

With God’s spirit within us (Rom 8:9) we are able to “parteth between the mighty” within us and cause “contentions to cease” in our heavens because He is greater and higher than all those powers and principalities we wrestle against (Eph 1:21), and can give us victory over our condemning conscience and the accuser of the brethren who wants to sift us like wheat (1Jn 4:4, 1Jn 2:1).

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

1Jn 4:4  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

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:

Pro 18:19  A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.

Have you offended anyone lately? We don’t go out purposely trying to offend people, but if we stand on God’s word we are promised that we are going to be an offence to the world around us (2Co 2:15-17, Mat 10:22-23).

2Co 2:15  For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
2Co 2:16  To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?(2Co 3:5)
2Co 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: “in the sight of God speak we in Christ” but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Mat 10:23  But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

The “strong city [the city is a church]” of the world is being run by the god of this world (2Co 4:4) and the gates of hell are symbolized by “the bars of a castle” that protect the false doctrines of mankind, and they will not prevail against the body of Christ (Mat 16:18).

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.(Luk 16:26, Joh 3:3, Joh 8:43-44)

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

In due time all of those strongholds will be torn down by Christ and His Christ through judgement that will destroy the man of perdition in the hearts and minds of all of mankind who holds fast to the traditions of men (2Th 2:7-8, Rev 19:20, Rev 20:14-15).

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:

Rev 19:20  And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire [the gates of hell that God’s elect will destroy in others having overcome and not been hurt by the second death, having died first (Rev 2:11, Rev 14:10-12)]. 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.

Pro 18:20  A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.

Positively speaking, God knows our need for daily spiritual bread and our heavenly Father gives the increase in our lives (1Co 3:6, 1Th 3:12), and prunes the branches of our life so that we can continue to bring forth much fruit (Joh 15:2, Tit 2:12-13, Mat 7:18-21).

Joh 15:1  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Joh 15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it (Tit 2:12), that it may bring forth more fruit.
Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Joh 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in 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.

Tit 2:12  Teaching^{G3811 (Paideuo = chasten (-ise) instruct learn teach)} us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Tit 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Mat 7:18  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Mat 7:19  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
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 (Mat 12:48-50, Rom 8:28).

When it is the “good fruit” of our mouth coming forth because of the life of Christ in us that is increasing as we decrease (Mat 7:15-20), then it is likened unto living waters that come forth from our “belly” (Joh 7:38), the abundant and satisfying life in Christ we are blessed to be dragged unto (Joh 6:44).

Mat 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Mat 7:16  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Mat 7:17  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Mat 7:18  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Mat 7:19  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Pro 18:21  Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Having a love of the truth produces a hunger for righteousness which blesses God’s people who are now speaking the truth in love (Eph 4:14-15). It is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him, and so we must die to ungodly patterns of old, so that our conversation or way of life is not being conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of God’s spirit within us day to day (Rom 12:1-3). Today the world is being given over to evil spirits because there is no love of the truth, and this is happening all according to the counsel of God’s will (2Th 2:12, 1Jn 1:6, 1Jn 2:21, Eph 1:11).

Eph 4:14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love,(1Jn 5:2) may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.(Jas 1:27)
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Rom 12:3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Pro 18:22  Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.

We have all found a wife and obtained favour of the LORD, that wife being the bride of Christ, Jerusalem above (Psa 137:5-6, 2Co 11:2-3, Rev 21:2-3, Rev 21:9, Rev 22:17).

Psa 137:5  If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

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.[Christ’s wife]
2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Rev 21:9  And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

Rev 22:17  And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely (Eph 2:8).

Pro 18:23  The poor useth intreaties; but the rich answereth roughly.

Pro 18:23 One who is destitute speaks with supplications, Yet the rich man responds with roughness.” [CLV]

The contrite and broken spirit spoken of in (Isa 66:2) is a gift from God, and that is the man that God looks to and acts upon his request, his importunate intreaty (Luk 18:13-14, Heb 5:7, Eph 5:30).

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

Luk 18:13  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
Luk 18:14  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;  “and trembleth at my word”

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

The rich man who responds with roughness is the Pharisee in us who thinks his many wonderful works are going to save him, and is sure that he is clothed, and not naked, blind and miserable (Rev 3:17). The publican is the one who goes away justified in this parable as a result of having a contrite and broken heart that acknowledges his sinful condition (Luk 18:13-14, Rev 3:17-18)

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

Pro 18:24  A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

This last proverb of chapter 18 reminds us that with Christ as our friend in this life (Joh 15:14-15, Luk 12:4) we can show ourselves friendly to one another, which will manifest if we don’t neglect so great a salvation (Heb 2:3), but rather stir up God’s spirit within us so that you can be a joint that supplies in love, and with God’s love being shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5), we can be “a friend that sticketh closer than a brother”, because we are a member of the same one body. You can’t get any closer than that, and there is nothing in this life that can bring us greater joy than knowing we belong to each other in the LORD. That is where our true lasting happiness comes from.

Rom 12:4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
Rom 12:5  So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
1Co 6:16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.[Eph 5:30]
1Co 10:17  For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
1Co 12:12  For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
1Co 12:13  For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Co 12:20  But now are they many members, yet but one body.
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Eph 4:4  There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
Col 3:15  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Joh 15:13  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Joh 15:14  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Joh 15:15  Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.[“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding”]

Luk 12:4  And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

[What will a true friend do, who sticks closer than a brother?
He will deliver Mat 10:19,
He will cast the fear out of us Luk 12:32, 1Jn 4:18, Rom 5:5,
He will bind the sacrifice to the altar Psa 118:27,
He will help us in our unbelief Mar 9:23-24,
He will give us Godly confidence with the faith of Christ Php 3:3, Heb 10:35,
He will never leave or forsake us, for great is His faithfulness, Heb 13:5, Lam 3:22-23].

Rev 17:1-6 The Judgment of the Great Whore, Part 1

 [Study Aired April 11, 2025]

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 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Introduction

As we saw in our previous studies, all these seals, trumpets and plagues occur within us, within our lives for the purpose of dragging us out of the darkness and the lies of the doctrines of the great harlot, and into the light of the truth in the doctrines of Christ:

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

This judgment of the seven last plagues is poured out upon us while we are still spiritually in “Babylon the Great”, and before we are given to begin to enter into the house of God:

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. [Greek: aorist tense – ‘begin to be fulfilled’]

We know this is true because the seventh plague is poured out on us while we are yet in darkness and yet in the clutches of Babylon the Great:

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.

The seven last plagues “fill up the wrath of God” upon the doctrines of Babylon which dominate our minds, for the purpose of doing what nothing to this time in our lives has accomplished. That is why they are said to be “great and marvelous”.

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.

The seventh plague signifies the sum of all that fills up God’s wrath against all the sins and false doctrines that still hold us within Babylon. Here is how that plague is described. Here is what must happen in the lives of all who will be dragged out of Babylon and ripped away from all that this world has to offer in the attempts of the adversary to keep his king, the beast within us all, upon Christ’s throne, the throne of our heats.

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.

Wait just one minute! Weren’t we told that these seven last plagues “fill up the wrath of God”?

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.

Psa 9:1 <To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David.> I will praise [thee], O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

Yes, there it is. The seven last plagues “fill up the wrath of God” through our wholehearted service which “shows forth all thy [great and] marvelous works.” Wholehearted service to God endures “all thy [great and] marvelous works.” Enduring the judgment of our rebellious, self-righteous carnal mind is the fruit of being brought to realize that “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17):

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 [no longer partake of her sins], and that ye receive not of her plagues. [Do not continue to receive of her plagues]
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double [The “fire and brimstone” of Rev 14:10-12].
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. [Exactly what we said while we were in Babylon]:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest [You and I have said], I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire [and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb (Rev 14:6-12)], that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

Isa 40:2  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for [Hebrew: ‘because’] she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.

Our “comfort”  is not because of some fabled ‘rapture’ out of this world to avoid the judgments of God. Rather, our comfort is… “for [because] she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

The fact that it is the seventh plague, the last plague, which “gives to Babylon the wine of the fierceness of God’s wrath” explains to us that these next two chapters, chapters 17-18, are nothing less than the details of what must take place within us as these plagues are being poured out upon us while we were still in the clutches of the darkness of Babylon, all the while thinking of ourselves in these terms:

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

The church of Laodicea also happens to be the seventh, the last of the seven churches, and she signifies the mind of the harlot who says, “I have done no wickedness”:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness [While in reality she is “wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked”].

It is while we are in this complacent, self-righteous Laodicean mindset that we are still enmeshed and submerged in our most insidious and tenacious darkness. We have works and labour and patience, and we have not put up with them which are evil. We have tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and we have found them liars: We have borne, and had patience, and for Christ’s name’s sake, we have labored and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, we have all left our first love have those who lord it over the Lord’s flock (the Nicolaitans), we have Jezebel teaching us to rebel against the Lord’s ways, we say we are Jews and we are not, and we want nothing of His judgments in our lives (Rev 3:1-4).

At this point we all cry out, “My Lord, what more do you want of me? I have refused them that are evil, I have borne and had patience and for your name’s sake I have labored and have not fainted. I have tried them which say they are apostles and are not and I have found them to be liars. My end works are better than those I stated with. I hate the Nicolaitans. How have I left my first love? Where is the throne of Satan in my life? What more is there of this world that I must give up?”

We are completely unaware that it is even possible to have accomplished all of what is listed here in Revelation 2 and 3 and still come to a place where we are spiritually “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” How is that possible? It is possible because we have “become entangled again with the yoke of bondage”, we have left our first love, we have become lukewarm, and say in our heart that we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, when in reality we are spiritually wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, we deny that it is even so.

Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

2Pe 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

So here we are in this 17th chapter. The shortcomings of the seven churches are burned out of us via the seven last plagues of chapter 16. The seventh plague was the judgment of great Babylon within us:

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.

This 17^th chapter and the 18^th chapter will reveal to us just how the Lord accomplishes the judgment of this great harlot with whom we have committed spiritual fornication and have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication:

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.

Do we dare think that we have never been a part of the “many waters” upon whom this great whore has been sitting for so long? Who could better show us what it was like to endure and experience the seven last plagues than those who have already endured and experienced the seven last plagues which is exactly who this angel signifies:

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him [“one of the seven angels which had the seven vials”]. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Rev 22:8  And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9  Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book [including the seven last plagues]: worship God.

Something had to take place which would shake us up to such a degree as to bring us to realize that there is something which has not yet been burned out of us. There is something which has blinded us from seeing ourselves as “carnal… babes in Christ”, a spiritual state, which simply does not yet permit us to receive the strong meat of God’s Word. There is something still within us which resents even being told that we are “weak in the faith”, still “in need of milk and herbs, and not strong meat.” We are “drunk with the wine of her fornication”, and we can’t even recognize the alcoholics we have become. There is still more to be accomplished in us, even after so much has been done. Remember, this entire prophecy is addressed to the “seven churches which are in Asia.” These seven churches, with all their shortcomings, are ‘Babylon the great’ with which we are now dealing in this 17th chapter. These are not two separate churches. The seven churches of Revelation 2-3 are “all they in Asia” who have forsaken the Lord’s apostles and have followed “false apostles”:

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

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.

“All they [of] Asia” signify the complete church, with all of its strengths, as well as all of its faults and shortcomings, and the “great city” and “great harlot” of Revelation 17-18 is that very same “wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked” harlot church, as the seven churches of Asia:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Satan’s throne in the church in Pergamos is the same as “the throne of the beast” in Revelation 16. The beast is given his throne by the great red dragon. When we are bowing down to and worshiping the beast, we are also bowing to and worshiping the dragon who gives the beast his power and his throne and his great authority.

Rev 2:13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat [Greek: thronos, throne] is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

Rev 16:10  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat [G2362: ‘thronos’, “throne”] of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

So the seven churches are one and all “Babylon the Great”, and her candlestick will be removed if she fails to repent. But this is “Mystery Babylon the Great”. She is not easily detected by the world within us, and to make certain Babylon is given to “overcome the saints” within us, she performs “many wonderful works” (Mat 7:22), performs miracles (Rev 13:14), and we are even told that she is filled with “gold, silver and precious stones”, which are the very symbols of the materials with which we are to build upon Christ in 1Corinthians 3. Therefore we do not see the depth of her tentacles within our way of life, until it is “revealed by fire”.

1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

Rev 18:11  And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12  The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

It is while we are still in Babylon that we begin building with the proper materials, but until we become wholehearted in our walk, we are really doing nothing more than adding to the gold, silver and precious stones in Babylon. We see nothing for which to repent, and we are simply adding to her great accomplishments within us up to this point.

Jer 3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

Jer 24:7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart [when the seven plagues of the seven angels have been poured out upon us].

Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. [That is the purpose and the fruit of the seven last plagues]

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat [the enduring of the seven last plagues] 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.

It is “envying, strife and divisions” (1Co 3:3) stemming from the inability to receive the strong meat of God’s word, which obstructs us from remaining “of one mind, and of one spirit.” Doctrinal divisions and denominations are symptoms of a carnal mind, and are not the fruit of searching for God with a whole heart, and trembling at His commandment to “defer to your leaders… [and seek] safety in a multitude of counselors”:

Heb 13:17 Be persuaded by your leaders, and be deferring to them, for they are vigilant for the sake of your souls, as having to render an account, that they may be doing this with joy, and not with groaning, for this is disadvantageous for you. (CLV)

Pro 11:14  Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Pro 15:22  Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

Pro 24:6  For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Rev 18:12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

Now let’s look at the first example of this “gold, silver and precious stones” which are to be found in such great abundance in Babylon, as it is described in the first of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2.

Rev 2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
Rev 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: [Teachers  of egregious false doctrines]
Rev 2:3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Rev 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. [Christ dwells in us (1Co 3:15-16)]

We all produce many wonderful works; we labor hard in the Lord’s service; we develop patience, and we refuse to put up with those who are evil in our midst. We have even tried those who say they are sent by God, and we have found out that they are not sent by God, but are just liars who deny the Truth of God’s Word. We hate the Nicolaitans, who lord it over the Lord’s flock. Our patience is twice noted, our labors in the service of our Lord is twice noted, and we are commended for “not fainting.” In the face of all of these “many wonderful works”, we are still told that we are guilty of “leaving our first Love.” In spite of all that has already been accomplished, we have not yet been granted to follow Him in everything and to go everywhere He goes. We are warned that if we do not repent, our candlestick will be removed.

Let’s compare the description of all of what is taking place in the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, with the last three vials of Revelation 16, which fill up the wrath of God on the darkness that is still in us even after we have come so far.

Rev 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat [Greek: thronos, throne] 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.
Rev 16:12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
Rev 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
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.
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.

This seventh and last vial, which fills up the wrath of God upon our ungodliness and unrighteousness, is the judgment of those influences of “great Babylon” which, even at this late date, still afflicted us. We have seen the scriptural meaning of the word ‘darkness’. We know that great Babylon carried away God’s physical Old Testament people. In the New Testament “Babylon the Great” is a spiritual harlot:

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.

This spiritual ‘Babylon the great’ is a spiritual “whore” who is committing spiritual fornication with all the kings of the whole earth, and she is nourished by the spiritual “waters of the [spiritual] Euphrates river”, which we are told are “being [spiritually] dried up”. There is no difference between the “drying up” of the waters which nourish Babylon and “the great hail stones which sweep away the refuge of the lies” of Babylon. Both are instruments of God to expose and to judge spiritual Babylon’s “wretched, poor, blind and naked condition within us, and her judgment and destruction within us.

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.

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 are plainly told that the frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, beast and false prophet, are all false, evil, lying spirits, and we know that ‘Christ’s words are also spirit’ (Joh 6:63). We know that these spirits coming out of the mouths of the dragon, beast and false prophet are false words and false doctrines which gather all the kings in our earth to “the …  battle of the great day of God Almighty”. We know this  because we at one time believed all the lies of this great whore:

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.

We will pause remembering that the angels showing the judgment of this great whore to John signifies all those who have come out of her and repented of having committed fornication with her.

Eph 3:3  How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, [‘He revealed to me the mystery’]
Eph 3:4  Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) [“The revelation of Jesus Christ…” (Rev 1:1)]
Eph 3:5  Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
Eph 3:6  That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
Eph 3:7  Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
Eph 3:8  Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
Eph 3:9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church [By the seven angels] the manifold wisdom of God,

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.

Rev 12:14-17 – Part 1 – The Earth Helped the Woman

[Study Aired Dec 27, 2024]

Rev 12:14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Rev 12:15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Rev 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

All the symbols of scripture are taken from previous verses. The two witnesses are explained in Zechariah 4 as those who speak “the Word of the Lord” according to Zec 4:6. The ‘woman’ of this chapter, and the 17^th and 18^th chapters signifies the harlot of Isa 1:21.

Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: butIsrael doth not know,my [apostate] people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

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

If we hope to understand the meaning of this “signified” revealing of Jesus Christ within us, and if we have any hope of understanding how we are to “keep the things written therein”, then we must always go back to the Old Testament to discover what the “two wings of a great eagle… a flood… [and] the earth opened it mouth ” means.

Mat 13:52  Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new [Testament] and old [Testament].

When we do that then we will discover that it was the same ‘woman’ in the Old Testament, who was “carried into the wilderness” upon these same ‘eagle’s wings’ that were used here in the New Testament to “fly Israel into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished… [and kept safe] from the face of the serpent” even as she continues to rebel against her own Savior:

Exo 19:3  And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them,so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

We will also discover there in that Old Testament story of the Lord’s sad relationship with His own people when He delivered them from the bondage of Egypt what is meant by “the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman”, and we will see how “the earth opened up her mouth and swallowed up the flood…”

Finally, if we want to be “instructed unto the kingdom of heaven”, we will also have to use “things old”, things in the Old Testament, to determine who are those who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Rev 12:16  And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Here is where “the wings of an eagle” are first mentioned in scripture. It is while Israel, the Lord’s own people are “in the wilderness”, at Mount Sinai, at the giving of the law of Moses to Israel.

Exo 19:3  And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

But where is Israel when God is telling them these words? Like this woman who brings forth this man child, Israel is “in the wilderness”, at the base of Mount Sinai, just before Israel turns her back on God and makes the golden calf whom she then claims as her God who brought her up out of Egypt. They are yet to rebel against Him ten times.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Israel herself, is rebelling against the Lord even as He is in the process of delivering her from her own bondage. Yet this is how the Lord provided for Israel while they were “the church [“the woman”] in the wilderness”:

Exo 16:4  Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

Israel, the ‘woman’ who brought forth the man child, rebelled against the Lord even as He nourished her with symbolic “bread from heaven”. But it wasn’t “the True Bread From Heaven”:

Joh 6:31  Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Joh 6:32  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
Joh 6:33  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

The law of Moses signifies the manna which was “not that [True] Bread From Heaven”. The law of Moses signifies the “land of milk and honey” which is for carnal babes in Christ who cannot yet receive the ‘strong meat’ which is “the True Bread From Heaven”. The law of Moses signifies the basic principles of the doctrine of Christ which will retard out spiritual growth if we do not go beyond those basic principles:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

This ‘woman’ who brings forth this mature ‘man child’, is taken into the wilderness on “two wings of a great eagle”. The only other place in scripture where a ‘woman’ is taken into the wilderness “on eagles’ wings” is:

Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself [in the wilderness].

Why isn’t this ‘woman’ caught up unto the Lord and to His throne with the man child that comes out of her? The reason this ‘woman’ is taken into the wilderness where she has a place prepared of God is given us is these verses:

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

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

“The woman” who brought forth “a man child” is “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”:

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.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

If we are “in Christ” then we are at this very moment “seated with Christ in the heavens”:

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

If we are “in Christ Jesus” then we are the “man child” who was “caught up to God and His throne”, even while being “the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”:

Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

In our next study we will see how the scriptures reveal that the “manchild” is both in heaven and at the same time is on this earth as “the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”.

Nevertheless, we are told that this time we spend in rebellion against our own husband and as a part of a great harlot worshipping a golden calf is all an integral part of God “bringing us to Himself”:

Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself [in the wilderness].

Rev 12, 13, 14 and 15 all chronicle us as those who are being judged for our unfaithfulness in this present time leading up to the pouring out of God’s wrath upon our own unrighteousnesses, and this is what we are told twice about all of these things revealed in these chapters.

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [the beast and the dragon], 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.

“All that dwell upon the earth shall worship the beast”, is followed by “Here is the patience and faith of the saints”. We will encounter this same apparent contradiction in the 14^th chapter where we will again be told that those who worship the beast will be tormented day and night and “the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever”, immediately followed by the same apparent contradiction we read in chapter 12:

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.

To get the full impact of these counterintuitive verses let’s read them in their full context:

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.

The few who are given eyes that see and ears that hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God will acknowledge that “fire [and brimstone] shall try every man’s works of what sort they are”:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire [and brimstone, Rev 14:10]; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work [in “this present time”, Rom 8:18] abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work [in “this present time”] shall be burned , he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

It is enduring these trials and tribulations and enduring the pouring out of God’s wrath on all of our ungodlinesses, in “this present time” (Rom 8:18) which “is the patience and faith of the saints” (Rev 13:10). “Blessed are they that read, and hear, and keep the things written therein, for the time is at hand…” to keep all these sections of scripture. It must be so because, after all, exactly how many men receive the mark of the beast?

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:

How could we have missed seeing this plain statement except we were blinded by the One who came to blind all who claim that they do see?

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say,We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

The natural man reads this verse here in Rev 12 and concludes that this woman is at variance with the dragon. After all we are told that she “is nourished… from the face of the serpent.” But does “nourished… from the face of the serpent” mean that the woman is at odds with the doctrine of the serpent? Absolutely not! Israel worshipped a golden calf even as the Lord was dragging her out of Egypt. If the woman were really at odds with the doctrine of the serpent, then she too would have been caught up to God and to His throne with the man child she brought forth. Instead we see her, just as we see Israel at the time of her exodus from Egypt, fleeing into the wilderness, all the while seeking the destruction of God’s typical “man child”, Moses.

Exo 17:4  And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

Israel, the type of the “woman [who] brought forth a man child”, is to be found “in the wilderness… nourished… from the face of the serpent”, yet wanting to “return to Egypt”, and siding with the adversary against their God and His messenger, Moses. That is the spiritual state of this “woman” who has “flown into the wilderness where she is nourished… from the face of the serpent”. It is only our lack of knowledge of the scriptures which keeps us from getting the point that is being made.

Again, how are we told she was taken there?

Exo 19:3  And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

If this verse were not here along with Rev 12:14, we would not know that God considers our time in the wilderness to be given to us by the agency of “the wings of a great eagle”, an unclean bird. The very fact that this statement is given to Israel at the base of Mount Sinai, “which answers to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”, tells us that God considers our time in the wilderness as well as our time in Babylon, as an integral part of His “bringing us to Himself”.

Here is what the holy spirit has inspired to be written concerning this woman at Mount Sinai, in the book of Galatians:

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.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him [that was born] after the Spirit, even so [it is] now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman [“Jersalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”] and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we [Gentile Galatians] are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

“The desolate has many more children than she which has a husband”? How is that possible? That is definitely not a natural statement. The natural man sees the words “born after… the freewoman” and just naturally thinks of Sarah’s natural children in physical Jerusalem. But as is always the case, the things of the spirit are hidden and counterintuitive to the natural man. So we are told that life comes only through death, sight comes only through blindness, peace comes only through sending a sword, and Sarah’s natural children have become “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”, while Hagar and her Gentile children, are now brought near to God by the cross of Christ. These words here in Gal 4 are seen and read, but they are not perceived by the natural man because:

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man 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.

So it is with this “woman… in the wilderness.” Only those who are given the gift of “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” will understand how Sarah’s physical seed has become “the [spiritual] children of the bondmaid”, while the Gentiles who accept Christ, even if they are physical Galatians or the physical seed of Hagar, have now become “the children of the freewoman… through the faith of Christ”.

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

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

Because this is so easily missed, for those who are given to see this, here it is again:

Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren [Gentile Galatians], as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son [physical Jerusalem, and physical Jews]: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman [Gentiles who are in Christ].
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we [Gentiles in Christ] are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Notice, it was both Pharaoh and Israel who wanted Moses dead. Nevertheless, Pharaoh, the agent of the serpent with a serpent upon his head in all the sculptures and coffins of the Pharaohs, sought to destroy the “seed of the woman [who was] the mother of all living”.

Gen 3:20  And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

We have seen that being “nourished for a time, and times and half a time” is the same as “forty and two months, or one thousand two hundred and sixty days”. They are all the same symbol of both the time we are witnessed to by God’s elect while we are yet of our father the devil, as well as the time we spend as God’s witnesses to those who are still “the seed of the serpent”. Here we are as those who are being witnessed to by God’s “two witnesses”:

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.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

And here we are first as unconverted ‘Gentiles’, and later as God’s two witnesses to the woman in the wilderness, also know as “that great city wherein our Lord was crucified”.

Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

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.

Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

Here in Exo 14 is the Old Testament type of this “woman [who] brought forth a man child” and who is then pursued by the serpent who “casts out of his mouth water as a flood… that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood”. Here in Exo 14 we also see how both this woman and the serpent feel about Moses, who in this case is the symbol of “the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”:

Exo 14:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 14:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baalzephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.
Exo 14:3  For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They [are] entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
Exo 14:4  And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.
Exo 14:5  And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?
Exo 14:6  And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him:
Exo 14:7  And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.
Exo 14:8  And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand.
Exo 14:9  But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon.
Exo 14:10  And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
Exo 14:11  And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12  Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

Israel, the shadow of the woman in the wilderness, is on board with Pharaoh in seeking to destroy God’s elect who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”. In a very real sense, “the serpent was wroth [‘along with the woman’ as well as] with her seed”.

We will pause our study at this point and in our next study we will seek to understand the spiritual significance of the flood which the dragon cast out of His mouth by which he hoped to carry away the woman and the remnant of her seed.

The Book of Joel – Chapter 3:3

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. – 1 Co 6:20 – Eze 37:3.

[Study Aired Sept 21^th]

In the opening two verses of Joel Chapter 3, we were left surveying the valley of dry bones with our Lord as he appealed to us to trust in his deliverance. Otherwise, we, too, would add our blood to the depth of a horse’s bridle (Rev 14:20).

We continue to soberly listen to our Lord while reflecting deeply upon our spiritual correlations to these startling visual images of our disappearing reprehensible nature of refusing to be spiritually aroused by him, our husband.

Significations

Joe 3:3  And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

The concept of ‘casting lots’ was instituted by the Lord of the Old Covenant for his divine selection of a sin-bearing sacrifice of the Lord’s goat and his people’s goat with the institution of the Day of Atonement. Note that goats, too, are to be presented as an offering without blemish (Lev4:23), just as sheep, yet the goat peculiarly represents sin. My experience with goats, and particularly male goats, is that they are wily, and their eyes and mannerisms appear eerily calculating; they are highly self-aware and, by man’s standards, compared to other animals, overtly sexually offensive, even (hopefully) causing the basest of men to squirm. It seems that those aspects of a goat’s nature match mankind’s devilish artful nature of devising ‘inventions’ (Devise; think; plan. Psa 99:8. 106:29 & 39. Pro 8:12. Particularly Ecc 7.29) for his covert sensual and financial profit physically and spiritually. A male goat’s sexual awareness is somewhat parallel to a female ass, as she compulsively ‘snuffing up the wind in her season’ (Jer 2:24) in an Aholah and Aholiabah-like passion to satiate their’s and their lover’s appetite. That is their animalist nature that grotesquely and deliberately equates to us physically and, worse, spiritually, preferring to seek spiritual paramours (Eze 23:20) in worldly ideologies, snuffing up the spirit of wily doctrines of ‘another Jesus’ (2Cor 11:4).

Since our Lord designed goats ‘goatish’ (literally meaning: Lustful, lascivious, libidinous, lewd, wanton, licentious, salacious, randy, concupiscent, horny) nature, an additional nature of a goat lends itself to leading the Lord’s sheep where they normally don’t want to go on their own accord; hence, such a goat is valuable for the shepherd in the world he calls a ‘Judas goat’ to leading a selected flock through a difficult path of dense vegetation, up yard ramps, or to an unwitting slaughter. No matter how many sheepdogs bark and nip at the heels of the sheep, if they do not want to go where the shepherd wants to move them, they stubbornly crowd together for protection. However, the wily goat seems to understand what the herder is frustratingly attempting to do and steps out from the flock; the sheep uncannily lose their fear and ‘magically’ follow the goat precisely where the shepherd wants the flock to go ~ such is Satan’s way represented by his priests in the churches of the world, today, working enchantments in the laity’s minds (2 Ch 33:6-9).

Lev 16:5 And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
Lev 16:6 And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.
Lev 16:7 And he shall take the two goats for a sin offering, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Lev 16:8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the Scapegoat.
Lev 16:9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
Lev 16:10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the Scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

Our Lord, the “fit man”,  led us, the wily Scapegoat, alive and released into the world of sinful wilderness just as was the Lord’s goat to make an atonement with Him in our flesh. The Lord’s goat, though exceptionally subject to sin, represents Jesus’ flesh that didn’t sin as the fifth part (Lev 5:16. 27:1-34) represents faith through a chastisement he didn’t deserve, while our equivalent goat represents us alive in the wilderness of Babylon, dying daily to sin and overcoming by our Lord’s sinless power and might.

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:

Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

The sin offering is a person who is given to see that there is nothing good about his flesh and its works, and thus his need for a saviour, and the Lord’s goat symbolises making an offering to God for what he is and what he is becoming by Christ’s righteousness being in his flesh (Col 1:24).

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:

Following are links for a more detailed understanding of the Scapegoats:

Scapegoat: https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-scapegoat/

Trespass offering/Lord’s goat: https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/do-we-have-a-trespass-offering/

Casting lots by historical customs is a method for two conflicting parties to reach an agreement on a trivial matter, despite their heated debate indicating stubborn, self-righteous, even Laodicean-like piety (wryly observed, Russian roulette would be the more decisive casting of lots). For a possible Elect of God to dally with such delusion clearly identifies cringe-worthy ignorance when our Lord clearly says that we are to know the truth that will set us free from such conceit.

Mat 21:23  And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?
Mat 21:24  And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Mat 21:25  The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?
Mat 21:26  But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.
Mat 21:27  And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. 

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 [Not ‘you might know the truth’ and thus feeling the need to cast lots for the many gods to decide. Thus…]

Mar 7:13  Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

The casting of lots was and is for Old Covenant people who don’t know Christ’s word because they do not have spiritual discernment. It effectively is gambling on another Jesus when we are commissioned to know ‘the Jesus’, to diligently seek to find his truth and not be so whorishly insipid by saying we don’t know. It is absurd to believe that God needs to cast lots for him to know his heart, and neither do we to know him.

Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

The spirit will show us the keys to the Kingdom, and not by the casting of lots that can provoke Satan to step in and, at Christ’s acknowledgement, request to give us a good threshing and we to run off humiliatingly wobbling bare bruised butts. 

Act 19:11  And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
Act 19:12  So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them [Anointed cloths being a slowly disappearing relic of Jewish traditions].
Act 19:13  Then certain of the vagabond Jews [ones looking for selfish and financial gain], exorcists [All ministers of Babylonian Christianity deluding the laity], took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. 

See, the vagabond Jews were unwittingly casting lots since they didn’t know whether this strange new power came from Jesus or Paul. So they, like wily goats, cunningly concluded that they had best ‘bet’ on both of them, colloquially speaking in English humour, to have ‘two bob each way’ and assure financial gain.

Act 19:14  And there were seven sons of one Sceva [means a ‘mind reader’ priest], a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.
Act 19:15  And [low and behold!] the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 
Act 19:16  And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Of course, the classic casting of lots was performed at the foot of the cross.

Mar 15:24  And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.

Clothing represents being arrayed righteously or unrighteously. Since the “vagabond Jews” cast lots to soundly quash any argument over the personal selection of Jesus’ clothing, it again symbolises our former ignorance of not knowing righteousness from unrighteousness. It symbolically is a very haphazard way of imagining that we can acquire our Lord’s righteousness while refusing to follow his path. It is a version of whitewashing the outside of the metaphorical tomb we are, whose insides are full of decay and stench (Mat 23:27). Babylonian Christianity similarly represents a casting of lots since none of the 40,000-plus denominations speaks the words of the same number of different Jesus, and so, to the laity, their noisome babbling is one big gamble and unwittingly, no winners!

The casting of lots spiritually is his true followers asking the Lord for his will to be accomplished for an assuredly righteous outcome, regardless of personal loss.

Pro 16:33  The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD. 

So, in those regards, how has Israel “cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.”?

Additionally, what it means is that treacherous Judah (Jer 3:7-11), representing the Lord’s priests today who claim to hold the Lord’s word righteously, has had a greater God-given and wilful ignorance than Egypt, Sodom, Tyre and Old Jerusalem. She has utterly disregarded her Lord’s commands and searched for enlightenment in her many idols for a more consuming Sodom-like immediate sensuality, as did Aholah and Aholibah ass-like snuffing the wind for more exciting ‘flesh’, and for us, almost guaranteed to overshadow the spiritual.

Gen 19:4  But before they [The angels of the Lord in Lot’s home] lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
Gen 19:5  And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

Jud 1:5  I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
Jud 1:6  And the angels [The Lord’s budding Elect who returned to spiritual Babylon!]] which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Jud 1:7  Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

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

Sodom and the cities of the plain (Gen 13:10-12) were exceptionally rich in goods and were the crossroads of trade for the established world.

In the Biblical sense, to “know” someone is represented by a husband and wife who are allegedly united in a righteous spirit, mind, and body (“allegedly” speaking since the concept mostly remains an ached-for vision and rarely a reality) that the energy of physical and spiritual unity is so unspeakable that the only way for men and women to express its complexity is righteous sexual unity. Subsequently, near-perfect and unified sexual satiation between a husband and wife, at best, cloudedly expresses the inexpressible nature of God, the spiritual condition of the Heavenly that lasts for eternity that only the omniscient spirit can effortlessly abide.

Jud 1:18  How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
Jud 1:19  These be they who separate themselves, [divided by lots] sensual, having not the spirit.

Jas 3:14  But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts [and thus resort to the casting of lots mostly within one’s mind regarding the Lord’s word], glory not, and lie not against the truth. 
Jas 3:15  This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 

As such, “they” spoken of in Joel 3:3 are the Priests of Israel who did not deliver the word of God to the nation righteously, as commissioned. They symbolically and unconsciously ‘cast lots’ by the act of divination and sort other deities from neighbouring tribes since they feared the people, just as a husband, covertly, and from experience, grows to fear intimately approaching his wife and likely rejection; he smoulders in righteous anger hopefully without bitterness for a figurative 40 years (the number for trials or tribulation Acts 14:22) as did the Lord for his wife, Israel. Our Lord hasn’t let the sun go down on his anger, thus giving up on us, since he lives eternally in the spirit of light.

Eph 4:26  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Psa 95:10  Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
Psa 95:11  Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Col 3:18  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
Col 3:19  Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 

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.

Because of Eve’s curse, the vast majority of carnal husbands are destined to at least inwardly feel an undignified pleading for boudoir intimacies with their wives and often give up and, in Babylon, seek ‘dishonest spoil’ with more willing Aholibah’s physically and most outstandingly, spiritually in the world’s religions. That ghastly inward feeling of fawning for spiritual intimacy is what Christ, too, felt with Israel’s tardiness when he endlessly ‘pleaded’ with her to return to him.

Jer 2:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 2:2  Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

“… and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.”

Having sexual intimacies with another female other than one’s spouse is adultery and worthy of physical death in Old Covenant times, and more profound spiritual death today for the Lord’s Elect. But an alleged priest of God, notably a lay Christian who professes to know ‘the Jesus’ to unconscionably penetrate a boy as naturally as a female, is unutterably shameful. Since males directly represent Christ, the sexual engagement of a boy represents the immaturity of Judah and particularly Christians today and their intimacy with not just ‘another Jesus’, but the god they have created of and in themselves.

Rev 22:15  For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Dog H2965 – Definition:

1. a dog 
2. metaph. a man of impure mind, an impudent man.

Lev 18:22  Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Lev 18:23  Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

While the world is currently hell-bent on normalising homosexuality and lesbianism, and the world since the King James Bible indirectly attributes “dogs” to be synonymous with homosexuality, both the seemingly mild-mannered expression “of impure mind” relating to same-sex interactions, and if not repented, belies the phenomenal and guaranteed retribution in the Lake of Fire.

2Ki 23:7  And he [Josiah, King of Israel] brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
2Ki 23:8  And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

Again, it is the Priests, the Lord’s very Elect, who he holds accountable for our sexual perversions that mirror the spiritual.

Sodomite H6945 – 1. male temple prostitute. From H6942; a (quasi) sacred person that is (technically) a (male) devotee (by prostitution) to licentious idolatry: – sodomite unclean.

Though homosexuality, rape of either sex and adultery are assuredly not lawful, the following verses seem too mild a condemnation for the act of engaging in same-sex intimacies. Nonetheless, and regardless of the world’s many nuanced levels of disgust or acceptance, God gave us over to the lusts of our hearts to starkly contrast our ways with his. Sin is sin regardless of humanity’s scale of rottenness. And so, these verses almost seem blasé.

1Co 6:12  All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
1Co 6:13  Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats [for this cause, a male member is designed for its female equivalence]: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
1Co 6:14  And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
1Co 6:15  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
1Co 6:16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
1Co 6:17  But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 
1Co 6:18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 

To this point, the above signifies the male spiritual equivalence of those highly innovative (mostly unexpressed) variations of sexual obscenities; so, what is the benefit of selling a girl for wine?

The first correlation that springs to mind of selling a girl for wine is the malicious intention of intoxicating her enough to break down her possible resistance to unwanted sexual intimacy.

Hab 2:15  Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! 
Hab 2:16  Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.

Sensually having one’s foreskin uncovered, as depicted in Habakkuk 2:16, doesn’t take much imagination to understand the heightened state of vocalised arousal by the intoxicated person, blurting his normally embarrassingly darkest sins for his groomer friend’s itching ears. Since uncircumcision represents physical uncleanliness and, therefore, spiritual uncleanliness, both parties are drunk with their figurative foreskins uncovered symbolically and shamefully revealing their ‘impure’, ‘unclean’ minds represented by a “dog” being an unclean animal (See “dog” above). Both raucously and unashamedly glory in sharing thoughtless ejaculations of normally dishonourable exploits. Noah’s son, Ham, likewise shamefully spewed news to his brothers of seeing his father through the open tent fly following Noah’s night of overly enjoyed wine, lying comatose and naked on his bed (Gen 9:20-25). Ham’s brothers, to their credit, didn’t share in degrading their father and gloriously covered his nakedness.

1Co 7:19  Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. 

Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

We are to glorify God with our bodies, directly identifying our sexuality and righteous arousal as holy and glorious for Christ, our Husband. His kisses are better than wine, and his wife knows she is guaranteed to bring forth his pure ‘issue’ of truth for spiritual children, the fruit of the womb of our minds.

Lev 26:9  For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.

Psa 128:3  Thy wife [The Bride of Christ] shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

1Jn 3:9  Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed [Being Christ’s seed, and not of the Serpent] remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 

For not glorifying God sexually with our bodies in the purity of marriage, our Lord’s right hand of chastisement will strike us for our drunkenness on doctrinal lies graphically pictured by a man’s shamefully inglorious “spewing” of lies and resulting bastard children from the womb of The Great Whore.

Lev 15:31  Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their [uncircumcised] uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.
Lev 15:32  This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defiled therewith; 
Lev 15:33  And of her that is sick of her flowers, and of him that hath an issue, of the man, and of the woman, and of him that lieth with her that is unclean.

1Co 6:16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot [or another man, woman or beast] is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh [… mind-blowing, isn’t it?].

And so, a girl being sold for wine is financial gain from the despicable acts of rape or her wilful pimping for monetary gain. It represents spiritual pedophilia by recklessly selling the immature, ignorant or innocent word of God for one’s selfish richness of a vile spirit.

1Co 6:17  But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 
1Co 6:18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body [Be it fornication with another man, woman or beast he is in unity with that spirit (Ecc 3:21  Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast [the unconverted man] that goeth downward to the earth? To where Satan’s spirit eats your dust].
1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 

Num 14:24  But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. 

2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

The Lord’s Elect are ‘bought with a price’, and that price is Christ and his sinless sacrifice so that we can fill up behind him the spiritual death of our old man.

Subsequently, the Lord has today gathered his Elect in the valley of Jehoshaphat to plead with them to personally judge their nations within for every imaginably disgraceful sexual act represented by Laodicean slothfulness of spiritual homosexuality and whoredoms with the ignorant and innocent for riotous personal gain. Hence, being bought with a price, we glorify God with the members of our bodies in His spirit with a circumcised heart (Rom 2:29), exposing the righteous glory of the headship of Christ and our Father.

Rev 9:20-21-Part 4-The Sixth Trumpet

[Study Aired Sept 1, 2024]

We are continuing to seek to know the scriptural significance of all the symbols used to inform us of our judgment, and the judgment of all men in the sixth trumpet.

Rev 9:20  And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Rev 9:21  Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

The rest of the men

8) “The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues” tells us that God’s wrath is on all our self-righteous, ungodliness, and His Wrath is an ongoing yet incomplete process in which we are “dying daily” and being “crucified with Christ” daily. If we do not believe on Christ and do the things He says then we are not ‘dying daily’ and ‘His wrath abides on us’:

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.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.  [I am “killed by these plagues… 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.

Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, [dying daily and being crucified with Christ daily]
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Yet repented not of the works of their hands

9) “Yet repented not of the works of their hands” signifies the same ongoing judgment which is upon the self-righteous “worship of devils” and “idols of the heart” with which we struggle for so very long. All of this is leading up to the revelation and the judgment of self- righteous Babylon within us in chapters 17 and 18. It is we who are admonished to “read, hear, and keep the things written therein”:

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.

We read and we actually understand those words and yet we struggle every day to apply the Lord’s words of admonition to ourselves instead of all those sinners somewhere ‘out there’

Jeremiah admonishes us:

Jer 2:30  In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. [Our own words condemn us “like a destroying lion”]

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:

Paul admonishes us:

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: [All men, Eph 2:2, are by nature “the children of disobedience”].
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

We all ‘lose or first love’ (Rev 2:4) and “return to [our] own vomit [and our] wallowing in the mire”.

Idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood

10) “Idols of gold, silver, brass, stone and wood” are these very same false convictions with which we struggle, ranging from the false doctrine of salvation through self-righteous good works to “turning grace into lasciviousness”. These are all false doctrines called “idols of the heart.”

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity [self-righteousness, Eze 33:13] before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
Eze 16:18  And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
Eze 16:19  My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, [wherewith] I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and [thus] it was, saith the Lord GOD.

“The stumbling block of our iniquity” is our own self-righteousness, the most insidious of sins. Ezekiel defines this phrase for us in:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity [Believing his righteousness was “his own righteousnesses”] that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

When we fail to believe these following verses, at that moment we become self-righteous:

Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670, ‘helkuo’, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth [How much clearer can the Lord be?], nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

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:

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

Which neither see, nor hear, nor walk

11) “Which neither see, nor hear, nor walk” is the perfect spiritual description of these self-righteous idols of the heart which have taken away our spiritual sight, our spiritual ears, and therefore our ability to walk in Christ’s  steps and live as Christ lived.

Job 12:25  They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like [a] drunken [man].

Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions [are] with us; and [as for] our iniquities, we know them;
Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
Isa 59:15  Yea, truth faileth; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw [it], and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment.

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

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And [some] of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth

Neither repented they of their murders

12) “Neither repented they of their murders” signifies both the hatred which is in our hearts for our fellow man, as well as the blasphemous doctrine of a “Christian soldier” being a physical soldier physically fighting for his country.

2Co 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
2Co 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

Nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication,

13) Refusing to repent of “…their sorceries, [and] their fornication” signifies the tenacity of the false doctrines of “another Jesus” which cling to us even as we are being judged “in one day… the day of the Lord… the day of His wrath”, and as we are struggling to be free of them, and of the influences of “another Jesus”.

Isa 47:9  But these two [things] shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, [and] for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].

Rev 2:14  But I have a few things against thee (Pergamos), because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

Rev 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee (Thyatira), 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.

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 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong [is] the Lord God who judgeth her.

Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

14) The gold and silver implements of the temple signify the doctrines and thoughts of our Lord:

Rev 9:20  And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Rev 9:21  Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

“Nor of their thefts” tells us that we have stolen God’s Words and doctrines of gold and silver, and we have twisted them and have perverted them and have used them in that way to cover the idols of our hearts and the doctrines of “another Jesus” signified by all those “idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood”.

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

Joe 3:5  Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:

These are not physical idols in either Ezekiel, or Joel, or Revelation. These are self-righteous idols of our hearts, made by twisting God’s gold and God’s silver, which signify His Words and His doctrines. These are self-righteous “idols of the heart… images of men” which we have “made to ourselves”, and we commit whoredoms and fornication against our Lord by believing in and living by those self-righteous “idols of the heart.”

Our ‘idols of our hearts’ are always accompanied by “the stumbling block of [our self-righteous] iniquity”:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

‘Iniquity’ is defined as “trusting to our own righteousness”:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

That is exactly what every harlot does. Spiritual ‘harlots’ do not perceive themselves as harlots at all. This is what a spiritual harlot always does:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

A spiritual harlot cannot see that she is spiritually malnourished and naked. Instead, this is how she perceives herself:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

What this “adulterous woman” is eating is “[her] own bread” while she is dressed in [her] own apparel”, and she really believes that “I have done no wickedness” and she “has need of nothing”, while the spiritual truth is that “thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”.

The whole world is groaning and travailing with us as we are being judged. But there are far more of those men who continue in their self-righteous, rebellious ways and do not repent who will be judged at a later resurrection, the resurrection of the great white throne judgment:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
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 [G2920, ‘krisis’, judgment].

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Summary

Here is what we have just seen in the demonstration of the spirit (the Word, Joh 6:63) and of power [the Word, 1Co 2:4).

Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching [was] not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in [words of the] demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of [the words of] God.

God’s words are His power. It is our fidelity to His words which empowers us to overcome the adversary and all His lies.

Ecc 8:4  Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

All these symbols signify what the Lord is doing with His power:

1) An army signifies ongoing spiritual warfare within us all.

2) Men on the horses signify the incredible power and influence of the testimony and doctrines of this vast army which is within us.

3) The number two, as in “two hundred thousand, thousand” tells us  that  that there are myriads of false witnesses to all those false doctrines.

4) The breastplates of fire and of jacinth, and brimstone on the horsemen tell us that we will be judged by the words of our own mouths and by the very doctrines we have been teaching to others.

5) The death of “the third part of men” tells us that we are dealing with the process of judgment upon “the inhabiters of the earth,” upon the house of God first (1Pe 4:17).

6) The fact that the power of these horses is in their mouths, which are “as the mouth of a lion,” instead of coming out of the mouth of the men on the horses, tells us that the horse and his rider are both one and the same beast speaking all the same lying doctrines of demons.

7) “Their power is in their mouth and in their tails” tells us that these are the false doctrines of false prophets with which doctrines we all have been hurt, and from which we are being delivered by the process of judgment which is at this very moment taking place in “the house of God.”

Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

8) “The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues” tells us that God’s wrath is on all ungodliness, and this is an ongoing, yet incomplete process in which we are “dying daily,” and being “crucified with Christ” daily.

9) “Yet repented not of the works of their hands” signifies the same ongoing judgment which is upon the “worship of devils” and “idols of the heart” with which we struggle so very long.

10) “Idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood” are these very same false convictions with which we struggle, ranging from the false doctrine of salvation through good works, to “turning grace into lasciviousness.”

11) “Which neither see, nor hear, nor walk” is the perfect spiritual description of these ‘idols of the heart’ which have taken away our spiritual sight, our spiritual ears, and therefore our ability to walk in Christ’s footsteps and live as Christ lived.

12) “Neither repented they of their murders” signifies the false doctrine of a “Christian soldier” being blessed to be a physical soldier physically fighting for God and country, as well as failing to understand that hatred of one’s fellow man is spiritually the same as murder (1Jn 3:15).

13) “Nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication” both signify the tenacity of the false doctrines of “another Jesus,” which cling to us, even as we struggle to be free of them, and of him.

14) “Nor of their thefts” tells us that we have stolen God’s Words and have twisted them, and have perverted them, and have used them in that way to cover the idols of our hearts, and the doctrines of “another Jesus.”

Next week, Lord willing, we will consider what is the little book in the hand of Christ, and why it is that we are not given the message contained in the voices of the seven thunders.

Rev 10:1  And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow [was] upon his head, and his face [was] as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Rev 10:2  And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and [his] left [foot] on the earth,
Rev 10:3  And cried with a loud voice, as [when] a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Rev 10:4  And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
Rev 10:5  And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
Rev 10:6  And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
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 9-13-16- Part 2- The Sixth Trumpet

[Study Aired Aug 25, 2024]

We said we would continue our next study by answering the question, What is the spiritual significance of “the great river Euphrates”?

What is “the great river Euphrates?”

The Euphrates is the river that fed and nourished Babylon. It was upon the waters of the Euphrates that the wealth of all the provinces of Babylon flowed and came into “that great city”. Babylon and the walls of Babylon actually spanned the entire width of the Euphrates River and it was to Babylon that God’s people were carried away as captives:

Psa 137:1  By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Psa 137:2  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
Psa 137:3  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us [required of us] mirth, [saying], Sing us [one] of the songs of Zion.
Psa 137:4  How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?

Here is one of the “woes” placed upon God’s people by the prophet Jeremiah. In this ‘woe’ we see that God uses the Euphrates and Babylon to “mar” the girdle which should be used to cover our nakedness. The result is to make us “profitable for nothing”. We see that those who “sit on David’s throne” are caused by God to “stumble on dark mountains” and go into “gross darkness” and are carried away captive, and it is all the work of the Lord.

Jer 13:1  Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.
Jer 13:2  So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put [it] on my loins.
Jer 13:3  And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying,
Jer 13:4  Take the girdle that thou hast got, which [is] upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
Jer 13:5  So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
Jer 13:6  And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there.
Jer 13:7  Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.
Jer 13:8  Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 13:9  Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
Jer 13:10  This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
Jer 13:11  For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
Jer 13:12  Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
Jer 13:13  Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
Jer 13:14  And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.
Jer 13:15  Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken.
Jer 13:16  Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, [and] make [it] gross darkness. [Smoke of the ‘abussos’ filled with locusts which dim the sun and the air, Rev 9:2-3]
Jer 13:17  But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for [your] pride [iniquity, Eze 33:13]; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD’S flock is carried away captive.
Jer 13:18  Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, [even] the crown of your glory.
Jer 13:19  The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open [them]: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive.
Jer 13:20  Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where [is] the flock [that] was given thee, thy beautiful flock?
Jer 13:21  What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them [to be] captains, [and] as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?
Jer 13:22  And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, [and] thy heels made bare.
Jer 13:23  Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? [then] may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Jer 13:24  Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.
Jer 13:25  This [is] thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
Jer 13:26  Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.
Jer 13:27  I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, [and] thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when [shall it] once [be]?

Here God is telling His people that ‘He will cause’ the righteousness of His people to become “marred” then, “after many days”, He will cause them to abuse His wine and be drunk. He will then “dash father against son… will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but [will] destroy them…” He then causes darkness… makes it gross darkness… [and then He says] woe unto thee, O Jerusalem…” To which Isaiah adds:

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

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.

As God’s people, we “lose our first love” and become the great harlot of the book of Revelation, who is revealed to be “the faithful city… the city wherein our Lord was crucified,” to which we all bear witness as we ‘look behind us’ to see all these details of the revelation of Jesus Christ, within us.

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

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 1:21]

We see “the Lord’s day” behind us. That is when we realize that we were “the great city… where our Lord was crucified.” These truths have no “ring of truth” to them until we have already lived and “kept the things which are written therein.”

Rom 4:25  Who was delivered for [Greek, dia, through] our offences, and was raised again for [dia, through] our justification.

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.

What does all of this have to do with the four angels being loosed from their bonds in the Euphrates River? It shows us that God’s own people who “believe on Christ” are the very people who are now Babylon itself, the great city wherein our Lord was crucified, and the very same people who want the christ of Christ, crucified to this very day (Joh 8:30-59).

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those [many] 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 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Joh 8:37  I know that ye [“many Jews which believed on Him”] are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
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 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Joh 8:42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye [“many Jew which believed on Him”] 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.

As we “look behind us”, we see clearly “that great city” was each of us only yesterday, and this is what is being revealed in this trumpet woe to the inhabiters of the earth. This is what is seen by those who “keep the things which are written therein” (Rev 1:3). We have been the waters of Babylon, nourishing and sustaining her every desire with our doctrines and our substance.

What is “an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year”?

Rev 9:15  And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

Christ tells us “there are twelve hours in a day.”

Joh 11:9  Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

Of course, Christ is talking about walking in Him. He is “the light of this world”.

Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Joh 9:5  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

What does that make you and me if we follow in His footsteps?

Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

So for all who “walk in the day”, there are “twelve hours in the day”. But there are also twelve months in the year in which to “slay the third part of men”. What is this “year for to slay a third part of men” in the lives of God’s elect? Here is the only year in scripture that is given any special consideration.

Isa 61:2  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

This ‘year’ was the topic of the very first sermon of Christ’s ministry. It was given in His own home town of Nazareth immediately after His temptation in the wilderness.

Luk 4:16  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was [Notice that it does not say “according to the 4^th commandment], he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luk 4:17  And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luk 4:20  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Luk 4:21  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

The “acceptable year of the Lord” is the year in which the whole of the gospel [four angels] comes to “heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” But Christ made it clear that before these four angels would be released from the River Euphrates within us, we must first come to see ourselves as being in Babylon, being the sick who need a physician, and the blind who need “recovering of sight.”

Mat 9:12  But when Jesus heard that he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
Mat 9:13  But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

If we see ourselves as “whole”, then the words of this trumpet are not for us, and we do not need a physician. So it is with our sight. If, while we believe lies, we think we see, then we are yet blind and our sin remains:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And [some] of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Until we see that we live by every word, that all things are ours, that we keep the things written therein, we are totally unaware of what God is doing. The “hour, day and month and year” of scripture are one and all parts of the process which comprises “the year of the Lord” spoken of by Isaiah and Christ in which ‘judgment is now on the house of God’:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment [“The year of the Lord and the day of vengeance”] 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?

Isa 61:2  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

Proclaiming the year of the Lord is to proclaim the destruction of the kingdom of our old man just as Israel and Judah were destroyed before they were made to “acknowledge [their] wickedness”:

Rev 9:15  And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

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:

What does “to slay the third part of men” mean?

We have already covered the spiritual significance of the number three when we did our studies on the various ‘thirds’ which are mentioned in chapter eight of this prophecy. Three in scripture signifies the process of being judged. If this trumpet is one third, then there must be two other thirds.

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.
Rev 8:8  And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
Rev 8:9  And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

We are not counting thirds, but we are being told that the process of judgment is taking place within us. The third part of the trees was burnt up, the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, and now the third part of men are to be slain by the fire, smoke and brimstone which issue out of the mouths of the horses that come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit. Each seal adds to the previous seal, but it is all the revelation of Jesus Christ. Each trumpet of the seventh seal adds to the knowledge that was revealed in the previous trumpet, but it is all “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little” the revelation of Jesus Christ who is persecuted by each of us when we are in Babylon. When all the thirds are realized in our life, we will begin to be “crucified with Christ”, and we will be “dying daily” with our Lord as we ‘fill up in our bodies what is behind’ of His afflictions, and we too, will be “perfected the third day.”

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

Act 22:8  And I 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 [the] Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Rev 9:18  By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

When will we be given eyes that see that all of these thirds of dying are nothing less than the progression of the revelation of Jesus Christ within us as we “keep the things that are written therein,” and “keep the saying of the prophecy of this book” (Rev 1:3 and Rev 22:7).

Summary

We have seen the scriptures which tell us the meaning of 1) the four horns of the golden altar, 2) four angels which are 3) bound in the river Euphrates, 4) which angels are commissioned to be loosed, 5) which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, 6) for to slay the third part of men.

1) The voice from the four horns of the golden altar, we saw signify both the whole and the strength of the words of the gospel of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2) The four angels are the symbol of the whole of the gospel which has for so long been

3) bound in the river Euphrates, signifies the great river of deathly lies, which nourish and support Babylon and which are the subject of the two million horses and their riders in next week’s study.

4) The loosing of these four angels signify the release into our hearts and minds of the truths which necessitate that Babylon, with all of her smoke and horses and scorpions and lions and all of her lies begins to be judged within us.

5) It is the birth of this day of judgment within us that is the hour, day and month which make up the acceptable year of the Lord, also called the day of the Lord, within us.

Isa 49:8  Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;

Isa 61:2  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

2Co 6:2  (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now [is] the accepted time; behold, now [is] the day of salvation.)

6) “For to slay a third part of men” is the symbol of the three part process of the judgment of the old man and his kingdom, with all the armies and principalities with which he rules within us.

Next week, Lord willing, we will discover why the armies of the darkness of the smoke of the bottomless pit are said to number two hundred million and why their breast plates are “of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone.”

Rev 9:16  And the number of the army of the horsemen [were] two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

Rev 9:17  And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses [were] as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

Rev 9:18  By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

Ezekiel 23:26-49  Aholah and Aholibah, Part 2

[Study Aired July 15, 2024]

Introduction

In order to understand the study for today, we have to go back to the earlier verses to understand the context. There were two sisters – Aholah and Aholibah. Aholah was the elder, and she played the harlot with Assyrians who invaded the ten tribes of Israel. As we indicated in the previous study, the two sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, represent the church of the Lord in different dispensations. Aholah represents the church when it was under the law of Moses, and Aholibah signifies the church after the coming of Christ. That is to say that Aholah represents our walk when we did not know Christ and walked in the churches of this world (Aholah) according to the law of Moses. Aholibah signifies our walk when we were still in the churches of this world when Christ started coming to us. The Assyrians represent the false apostles who come in the name of the Lord but are wolves in sheep’s clothing. 

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. 

The ten tribes of Israel representing Aholah, or Samaria, who were taken into captivity by the Assyrians is a warning to the Lord’s elect represented by Aholibah that if she also played the harlot, she shall suffer the same fate. 

1Co 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 
1Co 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 
1Co 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 
1Co 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 
1Co 10:5  But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 
1Co 10:6  Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 
1Co 10:7  Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 
1Co 10:8  Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 
1Co 10:9  Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. 
1Co 10:10  Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 
1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
1Co 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Unfortunately, Aholibah became worse than her sister in terms of her whoredom both with the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Spiritually, both the Assyrians and the Babylonians are the same. In summary, the abominations being committed by the church of the Lord (Babylon) of which we were part, are not different from the rebellion of the people of the world against their creator, the Lord. Today’s study continues with the sins of Aholibah, the younger sister who represents the churches of this world of which we were part during a certain period of our walk. We committed whoredom in the churches of this world or Aholibah or Babylon before Christ came to us with His judgment. Today’s study also shows us how the sins of Aholibah give the Lord the occasion that He is seeking to come and judge her.  

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. 
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. 
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. 
Rev 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

The Consequences of the Sins of Aholibah

Eze 23:26  They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes, and take away thy fair jewels. 

Verse 26 tells us that the Babylonians shall strip Aholibah of her clothes and take away her fair jewels. Garments or clothes spiritually signify righteousness. This implies that when we were part of the physical churches of this world or Babylon, we were stripped of our righteousness in Christ as the truth of the word of the Lord represented here by our fair jewels were taken away by the lies or false doctrines of the adversary.

Eze 16:17  You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore.
Eze 16:18 And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. 

Eze 23:27 Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee, and thy whoredom brought from the land of Egypt: so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. 

In verse 25 in the previous study, the Lord stated that in view of the whoredom of Aholibah, He shall deal with her in His fury. That means that the Lord will judge us, His elect, for our sins. 

Eze 23:25  And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire. 

Verse 27 therefore shows us the outcome of the Lord’s judgment. Our lewdness or filthiness shall cease, and we shall stop our whoredom which we have carried along from the world even though we have come to know Christ. Our whoredom refers to our propensity to serve another Jesus through the false doctrines we imbibe. Through the judgment of the Lord, we shall cease from serving another Jesus as we come to know the Lord. In other words, through the suffering that we go through, we shall cease from sin as we learn righteousness. 

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 
1Pe 4:2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 

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.

Eze 23:28  For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated: 
Eze 23:29  And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.
Eze 23:30 I will do these things unto thee, because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.

Verse 28 informs us of the Lord’s judgment of our old man, and in verse 30, we are given the reason why we are being judged. That is, we had gone whoring after the heathen, and as a result, we had been polluted with their idols. Whoring after the heathen means being enticed by man’s wisdom and tradition. As a result, we end up having idols of the heart which prevent us from knowing Christ and His words. 

Mar 7:13  Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. 

Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? 
Eze 14:4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; 

In verse 28, being delivered into the hand of them whom we hate and into the hands of them from whom our minds are alienated is the same as being handed over to Satan for the destruction of the 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.

In verse 29, the evil one shall take away everything we have worked for. As we are aware, before the Lord came to us, we were serving Him in the power of the flesh. All our labors in the flesh regarding the kingdom of the Lord shall be destroyed through the Lord’s judgment. In Isaiah 60:5, we are told that during our early walk with the Lord when the glory of the Lord has risen upon us, we are helped in our walk with the abundance of the sea and forces of the Gentiles which refer to our flesh as it aids us in our initial walk with Christ. This was what happened to Abraham when the Lord first called him. He was helped by His father who brought him to Haran, just short of the promised land of Canaan. It was after the death of Terah, Abraham’s father, that Abraham was able to answer the Lord’s call appropriately by leaving Haran to enter Canaan. In verse 28, we are assured that through the Lord’s judgment, the labors of the flesh shall be destroyed as we mature in Christ. 

Isa 60:5  Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.

Gen 11:31  Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, wife of his son Abram. They set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came as far as Haran, they stayed there. 
Gen 11:32 Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran. 

In verse 28, we are also told that through the Lord’s judgment, the shame of our nakedness shall be revealed. This implies that we shall come to see clearly our inability to stop sinning while the man of sin is still on the throne of our hearts and minds. 

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 
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 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:

We Shall Drink of Our Sister’s Cup

Eze 23:31  Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore will I give her cup into thine hand. 
Eze 23:32  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much.
Eze 23:33  Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria.
Eze 23:34  Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 23:35 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. 

The fate of Aholah has painstakingly been written for our admonition. However, we did not pay heed to what happened to her but rather played the harlot more than our sister. As a result we shall suffer the same fate as our sister in terms of her judgment as we drink from her cup which is deep and large as shown in verse 32. Drinking from a cup deep and large means that our judgment shall be thorough and shall accomplish exactly the Lord’s agenda for our lives.

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
1Co 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Being filled with drunkenness and sorrow in verse 33 means tasting of the evil experience of the Lord’s judgment. Drinking from the sister’s cup and sucking it out in verse 34 signifies receiving the full package of the Lord’s judgment which was meted out to Aholah. As indicated, the judgment shall be thorough such that the Lord’s purpose for our lives is accomplished. Breaking into pieces and tearing our breasts off our bodies means coming to our wits’ end as we go through the Lord’s judgment.

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! 

Again, in verse 35, we are given the reason for the Lord coming to judge us. It is because we have played the harlot and have cast the Lord behind our back. The Lord is always looking for an occasion to come and judge us as His elect. Our sins therefore give the Lord the occasion He is looking for to come into our lives to turn us around.

Jdg 14:1  And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
Jdg 14:2  And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. 
Jdg 14:3  Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. 
Jdg 14:4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

Eze 23:36  The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations; 
Eze 23:37  That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them. 
Eze 23:38  Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. 
Eze 23:39  For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house. 

In verse 36, the Lord was asking a rhetorical question about Ezekiel judging the sisters Aholah and Aholibah.  Ezekiel here represents the Lord’s elect, and since we shall judge the world as the Lord’s elect, the Lord here was reminding us of our role as judges. 

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

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. 

Before we are given to judge the world, we must know our sins. In verse 36, the Lord was asking Ezekiel to declare to the sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, their abominations. It is after we come to realize our sins that judgment follows. Knowing our sins is therefore a prerequisite before we are judged by the Lord. In this life therefore, the Lord is seeking for an occasion to cause us to know our abominations so He can judge us. Judgment therefore is a privilege the Lord is bestowing on us, His elect as we come to know our sins in this life. 

Verses 37 and 38 shows us our sins which gave the Lord the occasion to come and judge us. Although we say we are married to Christ, we committed adultery with another Jesus and therefore played the harlot. We also had blood on our hands for the way we treated the Lord and His elect sent to us. It is when the Lord comes to open our eyes and ears to understand the word of the Lord in spirit instead of the letter of the word that we come to know the sins of the church that we were part of and thought of it as the true bride of Christ. As our eyes are opened, we become aware that Babylon or the churches of this world was the one causing us to commit adultery with another Jesus and killing those sent to us. We have therefore stained our hands with blood.

Rev 17:3  And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 
Rev 17:4  The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 
Rev 17:5  And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” 
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly. 

Luk 11:49  Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 
Luk 11:50  so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 
Luk 11:51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

As if that was not enough, the churches cause us to offer our children to pass through the fire. That is to say that through false doctrines, we make those who have just come to know the Lord worse off or spiritually dead. 

2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 
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. 
2Pe 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

In verses 38 and 39, we are told that we defiled our sanctuary and profaned our sabbath. We defiled our sanctuary when we had our man of sin or our old man sitting in the throne of our hearts and claiming himself to be God through the false teaching of man having his own will. 

2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 

Through the same false teachings of man having his own will and that we make our own decisions, we profane the Lord’s sabbath as we do not come to know how to rest in the Lord. 

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 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. 
Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Eze 23:40  And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments, 
Eze 23:41  And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil. 
Eze 23:42  And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads. 
Eze 23:43  Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them? 
Eze 23:44  Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women. 

In our quest to influence the world, we brought in the multitude to worship with us in the churches of this world. In verse 40, the multitude are described as men from afar. Verse 42 also refers to these men as carefree multitudes, men of common sort and drunkards from the wilderness. The multitude refers to ungodly men who crept into the churches of this world secretly as prophesied by Jude as follows:

Jud 1:4  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Jud 1:8  Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 
Jud 1:9  Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 
Jud 1:10  But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 
Jud 1:11  Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. 
Jud 1:12  These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 
Jud 1:13  Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. 

Jud 1:16  These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. 

Apostle Paul warned us of these multitudes during his farewell speech to the elders of Ephesus as follows: 

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. 

In verses 40 and 41, washing herself, painting her eyes, decking herself with ornaments, sitting on stately beds and having a table set before her with incense and oil are the church’s way of making herself attractive to the people of the world who come in as sheep in wolves’ clothing to devour her. This is what the Lord says about the churches making themselves attractive:

Mat 23:25  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 
Mat 23:26  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 
Mat 23:27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 
Mat 23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

In the final analysis, the churches of this world, represented by Aholah and Aholibah, become worse off as they indulge in harlotry, leaving behind the simplicity that is in Christ and go after another Jesus through the agency of these multitudes or false apostles.

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. 
2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 
2Co 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. 

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.   

Eze 23:45  And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. 

Here in this verse, we are assured of the elect, represented here as righteous men, judging the churches of this world in an age to come. 

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

Eze 23:46  For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and spoiled. 
Eze 23:47  And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. 
Eze 23:48  Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. 
Eze 23:49 And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD. 

Inwardly, Babylon within us shall be destroyed through the judgment of our old man. This judgment is qualified in verse 47 as a company coming to stone us with stones, dispatching us with the sword, slaying our sons and daughters, and burning up our houses with fire. As we are aware, according to the law of Moses, the sin of adultery is punishable by death through stoning. Being stoned with stones is therefore to remind us that the judgment we are going through for our adulterous lifestyle against our Lord is to put our old man to death. 

Joh 8:4  They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 
Joh 8:5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 

The sword as an instrument of judgment refers to the negative words spoken against us which is one of the tools that the Lord uses to cause people to speak bitter words to us, His elect. 

Psa 64:2  Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity: 
Psa 64:3  Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:

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.

Jdg 7:22 And the three hundred [men with Gideon] blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host [of the Midianites]: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.

The slaying of our sons and daughters refers to the destruction of our false doctrines in our hearts and minds through the hail of the Lord or the truth of the word of the Lord.

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. 

Our houses being burnt with fire means the destruction of our old man or flesh through the word of the Lord such that we can offer our bodies (houses) as living sacrifices to the Lord. 

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.

In verses 48 and 49, we are made aware that the result of our judgment is to cause our lewdness to cease and to know who the Lord is. That is to say that through judgment, we learn righteousness as we get to know the Lord better. In summary, this is what the Lord is doing in our lives:

Psa 107:9  For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. 
Psa 107:10  Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; 
Psa 107:11  Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High: 
Psa 107:12  Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help. 
Psa 107:13  Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. 
Psa 107:14  He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. 
Psa 107:15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 

May His name be Praised. Amen!!

Ezekiel 23:1-25  Aholah and Aholibah, Part 1

[Study Aired July 8, 2024]

Introduction

Today’s study talks about the two women who were the daughters of one mother – Aholah and Aholibah. Aholah refers to Samaria, and Aholibah signifies Jerusalem. The study gives details of the sins these two women have committed, thus giving the Lord the occasion that He is seeking to come and judge them with the sword.

Jdg 14:1  And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
Jdg 14:2  And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. 
Jdg 14:3  Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. 
Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

The Two Women from One Mother

Eze 23:1  The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 
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. 

As shown in verse 4, the two women represent Samaria, which was called Aholah, and Jerusalem is referred to as Aholibah.  Samaria consisted of the ten tribes of the people of Israel who occupied the hilly central part of ancient Palestine who were defeated and taken captives by the Assyrians. Jerusalem, also called Aholibah, consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and served as the capital for the people of Israel, and it is where the temple of the Lord, built by King Solomon, was situated. They were also taken captive by the Babylonians. Both Samaria and Jerusalem were therefore one people – the children of the Lord.

As we are aware, women represent the church. The mother symbolizes the church, and since the two women were of one mother, with one being older than the other, they spiritually signify the church of the Lord in different dispensations.  That is, the church before Christ came and the church after Christ came. 

Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. 

Mar 3:33  And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren?
Mar 3:34  And he looked round about on them which sat about him (the disciples or the church), and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!

As shown in verse 3, before we started our walk with Christ, we all committed whoredom in Egypt and were no different from the people of the world.

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Even when Christ came to us to start the process of becoming His people, that is, during our youth days, we were still of the world as we played whoredom. In verse 3, we are given a graphic view of what happened to us. We had our breasts pressed and our virginity defiled. As a church, represented by a woman, we must feed our children with our breast milk. That is, the milk of the word of the Lord. It is in feeding the young with milk that the church has favor in the eyes of the Lord as shown in Songs of Solomon 8:10.

Isa 66:11  That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.

Son 8:10  I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour. 

Unfortunately, even in our youth as a church, we had our breasts pressed. In other words, instead of feeding the children in Christ with milk, we rather focused on the pleasures of this world. 

Luk 8:14  And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

Being defiled as virgins means that we did not care about being espoused to Christ as our husband. We went in and played the harlot with another Jesus instead of Christ our husband.

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. 
2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 
2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

The Sins of Aholah

Eze 23:5  And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, 
Eze 23:6  Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. 
Eze 23:7  Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
Eze 23:8  Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.

As we learned in the previous study, our neighbors are those who have received the mercy of the Lord. This means that the Assyrians, qualified as our neighbors in verse 5, are those who were fellowshiping with us and were part of the church of Christ. David said that it was not an enemy that reproached me, but my guide, whom we took counsel together and walked into the house of the Lord in company.

Luk 10:29  But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 
Luk 10:36  Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 
Luk 10:37  And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Psa 55:12  For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: 
Psa 55:13  But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. 
Psa 55:14  We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. 

These brethren or the Assyrians are described in verse 6 as being clothed in blue and are the captains and rulers. It is instructive to note that the priests in the Old Testament were required to wear an ephod of the color blue. Thus, the Assyrian captains and rulers being clothed in blue affirms that these Assyrian armies represent those who have received the mercy of the Lord and were part of us as leaders (priests) of the church of the Lord. 

Exo 39:22  And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue.  

Num 4:11  And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put to the staves thereof:  

In verse 6, these leaders are described as desirable young men. This implies that outwardly, these leaders are attractive in terms of how they present themselves to us and have the energy to work in the church. However, inwardly, they are like wolves in sheep’s clothing who are actually merchants of the souls of men. In the negative sense, these men clothed in blue relates to their status as merchants as shown in the following verse:

Eze 27:24  These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.    

Rev 18:11  And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her (Babylon); for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: 
Rev 18:12  The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, 
Rev 18:13  And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

These men from Assyria described as horsemen riding on horses in verse 6 are those angels who are loosed from the river Euphrates by the sounding of the trumpet by the sixth angel to destroy the people of the Lord through false doctrines which is represented by the great river Euphrates.

Rev 9:13  And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 
Rev 9:14  Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 
Rev 9:15  And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. 
Rev 9:16  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. 
Rev 9:17  And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
Rev 9:18  By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 
Rev 9:19  For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. 

These false doctrines we imbibe cause us to commit whoredom as we leave the simplicity that is in Christ in favor of another Jesus as shown in verse 7. As a result, we defile ourselves with idols of the heart and therefore cannot hear from the Lord. As described in verse 8, our situation in the churches was no different from our lifestyles when we were in the world or Egypt.

Eze 23:9  Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. 
Eze 23:10  These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her. 

To the Lord’s elect, being delivered into the hands of the Assyrians is the same as being delivered to Satan since these Assyrians are the agents of the devil. As we have learned earlier, the purpose of handing us over to the Assyrians is for the destruction of our flesh.  Discovering her nakedness or stripping her naked means that as the Lord’s elect, we realize our sins or nakedness through the judgment of the Lord, which in this case is meted out by the Assyrians. The sword being an instrument of the Lord’s judgement by the Assyrians in verse 10 means the lying words or the false doctrines of the adversary spoken to destroy us. 

2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; 
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

Psa 64:2  Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity: 
Psa 64:3  Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:

The Sins of Aholibah

Eze 23:11  And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. 
Eze 23:12  She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. 

As indicated earlier, these sisters represent the church in different dispensations. The people of Israel represent the church until the coming of Christ and therefore symbolize the elder sister, Aholah. Aholibah, the younger sister, signifies the church that Jesus Christ paid with His blood. Even before the Apostles died, the church has started its whoredom with Assyrians, her neighbors. What happened to the church, signified by the people of Israel both in the wilderness and in Canaan, are all written for our admonition. However, in spite of the Lord’s judgment of the people of Israel, the church of Christ, signified by Aholibah, did not pay attention. In fact, we became worse off in terms of our whoredom than our sister (Aholah) representing the people of Israel.

1Co 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 
1Co 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 
1Co 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
1Co 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 
1Co 10:5  But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 
1Co 10:6  Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 

We were led astray by the Assyrians, our neighbor as shown in verse 12. As indicated earlier, the Assyrians represent the leaders in the churches of this world who have led us astray through false doctrines to worship another Jesus. Joel chapter 2 gives us a vivid description of these leaders, typified by the Assyrians, who are empowered with all the resources by the Lord as they parade in the churches of this world as apostles while in reality, they are false apostles. These strong people in Joel chapter 2 are the same as the army of the two hundred million horsemen in Revelation 9:16-19.

Joe 2:1  Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; 
Joe 2:2  A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 
Joe 2:3  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 
Joe 2:4  The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
Joe 2:5  Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 
Joe 2:6  Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. 
Joe 2:7  They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march everyone on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 
Joe 2:8  Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. 
Joe 2:9  They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 
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:

This is how Peter described these Assyrians with whom we were enchanted during our time in Babylon even though they were causing us to commit whoredom:

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. 

2Pe 2:17  These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 
2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 
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. 
2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 

Eze 23:13  Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, 
Eze 23:14  And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, 
Eze 23:15  Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: 
Eze 23:16  And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. 
Eze 23:17  And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. 
Eze 23:18  So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.

As indicated in verse 13, both Aholah and Aholibah have taken one path, which is playing the harlot. In other words, worshiping another Jesus is the trade mark of the churches of this world irrespective of the dispensation. 

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 

The pull of the harlot woman is irresistible unless we are given to know her in the spirit. Aholibah, the younger sister, defiled herself with the Babylonians while her elder sister, Aholah did that with the Assyrians. Spiritually, the Assyrians are the same as the Babylonians. The role of both Assyrians and the Babylonians was to increase our whoredom. This is what Paul has to say about the Assyrians and the Babylonians:

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.

Eze 23:18  So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister. 
Eze 23:19  Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. 
Eze 23:20  For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 
Eze 23:21  Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth. 

These verses continue the narration of the sins of the church of the Lord. In verse 18, we are told that she carried out her whoring openly and flaunted her nakedness. The sins of the physical churches of this world of which we were part of are open secrets to the public – how they have separated completely from the Lordship of Christ. As stated in verse 19, the churches have increased their whoring as they remember the days of their youth when they played the harlot in Egypt. This is to let us know that the current state of the churches of this world is no different from the people of the world (Egypt). In other words, the churches have conformed to the standards of this world of which the Lord has admonished us not to. This is because when we were in the churches of this world (Babylon), we were dominated by the lust of the flesh which is equated to how donkeys lust for a partner when they are on heat as shown in verse 20. Verse 21 shows us that our walk in the churches of this world was not different from how we lived in the world before Christ came.

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

2Ti 3:5  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 
2Ti 3:6  For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 
2Ti 3:7  Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

The Need for the Judgment of the Lord

Eze 23:22  Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side; 
Eze 23:23  The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses. 
Eze 23:24  And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about: and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgments. 
Eze 23:25  And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire. 

In view of the fact that we had not changed but continued to live the lifestyles we were used to in the world, Egypt, even though we claimed to be the Lord’s people, the Lord saw it as the occasion that He was seeking to come and judge us. As we are aware, it is through the Lord’s judgement that we learn righteousness.  

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. 

The judgment in this case means the Lord bringing the Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa mentioned in verse 23, against the Lord’s people who represent us, His elect, using the sword as His tool to judge us. This is affirmed in verse 25 where the remnant of the Lord shall fall by the sword together with our offspring (sons and daughters) who represents our false doctrines in our heavens. In verse 25, we are told that our residue shall be devoured by the fire. This implies that it is through the fire of the Lord’s words that our false doctrines shall be devoured. 

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. 
Jer 5:15  Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. 
Jer 5:16  Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. 
Jer 5:17  And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword. 

In Jeremiah 5:17, the nation that comes from far which represents the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa in verse 23 shall eat our harvest and all the food for our sons and daughters, sheep, etc. The food here refers to our false doctrines which shall be destroyed through judgement. 

As indicated earlier, the negative aspect of sword refers to words that are spoken aimed to destroy us (our old man). These negative words spoken is one of the tools that the Lord uses to cause people to speak bitter words to us, His elect. 

Psa 64:2  Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity: 
Psa 64:3  Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: 

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.

Jdg 7:22 And the three hundred [men with Gideon] blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host [of the Midianites]: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.

May the Lord continue to uphold us through His judgment of our old man so that after having done all, we shall stand!! Amen!!

The Book of Hosea – Part 9, Hos 9:1-17

[Study Aired June 8, 2024]

The term “whore” or “harlot” is, by Babylon Christian sensitivities, increasingly offensive because they, as we in the past have done, incredibly want to relieve their accusing consciousnesses (Rom 2:12-16) of their deliberately subtle and Babylon’s increasingly blatant degeneracy. Today, in this it seems, the rapidly closing age of man’s rule, Babylon has once again become one language. Not just by her ability with AI to instantly translate languages, but more spiritually potent internationally is the deranged moral cry of every man openly justifying his “one language” of spiritual perversions. In fact, so degraded is the term ‘honourable’ regarding thinking and actions that very few people can identify what it means, equally as they can’t identify the difference between a man and a woman. The world is designed by Christ to be on a one-way ticket just short of oblivion; ‘but for the Elect’s sake, no flesh would be saved alive’ for the One Thousand Year Rule by them! 

Mat 24:21  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 
Mat 24:22  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. 

Regarding the Tower of Babel:

Gen 11:1  And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 
Gen 11:2  And it came to pass, as they [Descendants of Noah] journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. [Shinar = country of two rivers {Euphrates River} 1. the ancient name for the territory later known as Babylonia or Chaldea and today, Iraq. Since Mt. Ararat is a distance to the North-North-West, they must have gone into Persia, Iran today in order to come from the East].

Notice that they are not heading East towards the sun/the Son of righteousness, but instead to the symbolic spiritual darkness in the West to build their amazing tower. Eventually, the light shining from the rising sun in the East will dispel the darkness in the West. This spiritually symbolises what happens to the Lord’s Elect. However, for the time being, as described in Hosea’s account in old Israel, there will be semi-darkness in the coming exile.

Gen 11:3  And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter [The burning of brick to make it stronger is what the Elect of God see in themselves as they suffer the glorious tribulation of Him building off-site yet still on the Earth, the New Heavenly Jerusalem in them ascending spiritually as a tower “unto heaven”]. 
Gen 11:4  And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 
Gen 11:5  And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 
Gen 11:6  And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do [to pollute Christ’s word].
Gen 11:7  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech [… confounded language in the world is exactly what is nearing its conclusion today]. 
Gen 11:8  So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 
Gen 11:9  Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. 

Babel H894. Definition: babel or Babylon = confusion (by mixing) 1. Babel or Babylon, the ancient site and/or capital of Babylonia (modern Hillah) situated on the Euphrates. From H1101 – 1. to mix, mingle, confuse, confound a. (Qal) 1. to mingle, confuse 2. to mix. 

What is mixed is the seed of men “mingling” with one another of endless moral ideologies opposing the Lord’s word. If those times of building the tower of the Beast’s ascension to sitting on the throne of God, soundly stating that he is god, were not cut short, the timeframe and plan for God’s recreation of man would have been theoretically shortened.

Likewise, and today for the sake of the Elect, Old Israel in Hosea’s time is deliberately designed to be a whore for the emergent Bride of Christ’s enduring reflection, not to repeat her former ways.

The Lord Will Punish Israel

Hos 9:1  Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor. 

Righteous or unrighteous sexual lust, particularly for men, is designed by God to be a phenomenally powerful magnet, equally as most women’s desire to bear children. On both occasions, if sensual gain is heightened by lingering on an illicit act, the replayed thought held captive by lust is likely to sear one’s conscience to excuse the occasion and subsequently carry out the misdeed. Just as alternately crossed layers of plywood create a thin yet incredibly strong structure, so do the dismissed trumpet blasts of righteous alarm laminate illegitimate thoughts for a seared conscience.

Likewise, is the “joy as other people” who do not know Christ since they do not have a moral foundation as Israel did outwardly to know right from wrong. Consequently, whoring was as natural as brute beasts of the field. Symbolically in nature, brute beasts have more ‘morality’ than mankind only because they are programmed to procreate by certain biological timings rather than man’s conscious deliberations.

Pro 5:3  For the lips of a strange woman [Israel’s neighbours, even some of their ‘own household’] drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: 
Pro 5:4  But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. 
Pro 5:5  Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. 
Pro 5:6  Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. 
Pro 5:7  Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. 
Pro 5:8  Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: 
Pro 5:9  Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: 
Pro 5:10  Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; 
Pro 5:11  And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, 
Pro 5:12  And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; 
Pro 5:13  And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

Israel, as we do spiritually, having repeatedly committed whoredoms and given to not hearing the still small trumpet blast within to remember their Lord’s commands, have figuratively fattened themselves with ‘loved reward upon every cornfloor’ and is traced to a seared conscience since their reward is the fatness of lawlessness without sharp rebuke. 

Eze 33:3  If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; 
Eze 33:4  Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 

Hos 9:2  The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. 

Nonetheless, all her outstanding debts will be paid in the coming exile, and for our unrepentant hearts, the resurrection to Judgment. In that case, in this time and age, spiritually for us, our unrighteousness will never be satisfied with Babylon’s bread and wine, and we may be given over to a reprobate unclean mind, hopefully for temporary chastisement. If not…

Hos 9:3  They shall not dwell in the LORD’S land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

Israel went into exile regardless of the potential confusion of connecting Egypt, Assyria, Sodom, and Old Jerusalem since our Lord deems them all as one and the same. Similarly, it is with the Lord’s own people inwardly today if any return to the vomit of unclean Babylonian doctrine. Subsequently, and before being dragged out of Babylon, God’s Elect were one and the same with the mixed seed of Babylon’s churches. 

Rev 18:3  For all nations [The Elect, too!] have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her [Babylon’s] fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies [Lewd doctrines for etching ears]. 
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. 
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Hos 9:4  They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.

If we come before our Lord seeking answers to our prayers and we have not beforehand acknowledged our sins, our sacrifice—that is, spiritually, our prayers—is polluted and contemptible. Offering lame, sick, blind and any other sacrifice that is defective is us when we come before Christ without repentance and forgiveness for our brother’s sins against us.

Mal 1:6  A son [in the flesh] honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests [those claiming Elect], that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
Mal 1:7  Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar [Christ]; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. 
Mal 1:8  And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor [An outward king or person deeply respected]; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.

Verse 4 of Hosea seems to directly relate to the Day of Atonement, which is a “holy convocation” and not a feast day as the other six are named. It is a solemn assembly and day of physical fasting that profoundly identifies Old Israel as physically dependent on him.

Passover – Lev 25:4-8

Unleavened Bread – Lev 23:6

Feast of Firstfruits – Lev 23:10

Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks (count 50 days) – Lev 23:16

Feast of Trumpets – Lev 23:24

Day of Atonement, not a Feast but a Sabbath rest – Lev 16, 23:26-32

Feast of Tabernacles or Booths – Lev 23:34

How interesting that in the subsequent verses of Joel 2:12-17, written before 201 BCE, a prophetic representation of spiritual fasting for the Israelites, no doubt a lot of blindness for the masses, and partial blindness for a few!

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. 
Joe 2:14  Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? 
Joe 2:15  Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
Joe 2:16  Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 
Joe 2:17  Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? 

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 [in the Lake of Fire].

So, too, it is with our sister Babylon, as we once did. They fast and pray similarly to the custom of Israel before Christ without his spirit to cleanse their polluted hearts. For those dragged to Christ since the cross, the Bridegroom’s spirit resides within, where mourning is far removed since they know their calling as His Bride, where physical fasting is not a necessity, but rather, a broken and contrite spirit which is totally submissive to Christ.

Meanwhile, in the harlotry of Babylonian Christianity, they fast and pray mostly for physical reward, and “their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.” Consequently, in type, the Lord’s people, the “haven of the good”, bury their spiritually dead brother’s polluted bones, represented as unclean doctrines and resulting stench in their nostrils.

Eze 39:11  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers [the Elect of God]: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.
Eze 39:12  And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
Eze 39:13  Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD. 
Eze 39:14  And they shall sever out men of continual employment [the Elect who never give up routing spiritual pollution from within], passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search. 
Eze 39:15  And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog [the multitude of Gog, the world].
Eze 39:16  And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land [at the end of the One Thousand Year reign in the Lake of Fire].

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.

Hos 9:5  What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD? 
Hos 9:6  For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis [haven of the good] shall bury them [since they are in exile]: the pleasant places for their silver [God’s word], nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles. 

A brambled confusion of thorns in their tabernacles is what blindness does to one devoid of spiritual understanding. He’s pricked that the scriptures are too difficult to untangle, and rightly so since he hasn’t been given spiritual understanding (Mat 13).

Hos 9:7  The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. 

The days of visitation have come in this age since the cross only upon the Lord’s little flock of Elect. Any professing priests of God therein, and typified as Essau disdaining his inheritance, are foolish and mad enough not to recognise God’s glorious gift of the First Resurrection and give their entire heart to him.

Hos 9:8  The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
Hos 9:9  They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah [hill]: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins. 

“The days of Gibeah” are frightfully renowned for the Levite giving his concubine to be most vilely raped repeatedly to death by the sons of Belial, and her husband subsequently sending her dissected body to the far corners of Israel…

Jdg 19:30  And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed [a pollution depicting all of Israel and not just Benjamine] done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.

During the conflict, Israel fiercely battled Benjamin to near extinction. This can be compared to finding only one ripe cluster of grapes on a vine or one plump, ripe fig on a fig tree, which would be thoroughly plundered by thoughtless, uncouth men, leaving nothing for anyone else, representatively leaving no carried forward seed of Benjamin now paralleled to Ephraim’s coming destruction. 

On a positive note, the Lord’s scattered little flock is cherished as the apple of His eye, with the one ‘firstfruit’ fig symbolizing the emerging Bride amidst a world of spiritually immature green apples or evil figs (naughty figs, Jer 24:1-10).

Hos 9:10  I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor [Lord of the gap; a deity; Baal], and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved. 
Hos 9:11  As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception. 

Unclean fowl such as crows and vultures, keen to be first to gorge themselves on an animal’s afterbirth or struggling young just delivered, is like Israel, the church, lacking in her Lord’s courage to protect her flock from evil spirits who would normally fly away at the first motherly threat; so, too, are we in lockstep with our first father, Satan, if we fail to challenge what we suspect is unclean doctrinal food. 

Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil [unclean fowl], and he will flee from you. 
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. 
Jas 4:9  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 
Jas 4:10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Rev 18:2  And he [An Angel of the Lord in harmony with the Elect] 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 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 
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. 

Hos 9:12  Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave [Miscarry] them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
Hos 9:13  Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer. 

Those verses can be seen as we once were, allowing the innocence of youthful and pure doctrines to perish without any resistance from our mother Babylon, who stands by passively while her religious leaders also indulge in wrongdoing. Subsequently, she bears symbolic stillbirths, even though they live, being ripped apart by the predatory pastors of Babylon, effectively giving their children to Satan, “the murderer”.

Lev 18:21  And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

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. 

Rev 12:1  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 
Rev 12:2  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 
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. 
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.

Even Babylon will violently protect her still-born lamb (her laity) to remain in her care, twice dead. Having been a wool grower (a sheep farmer), I’ve noted individual ewes for up to three days, keeping at bay foxes, eagles and crows from her stillborn until she grows weary and thirsty. She will go her way and, just like Babylon, forget her dead young, and naturally, her milk will dry up. Thankfully, for the Lord’s little flock, she has moved on from milk and is paradoxically soundly attached to the Vine, Christ, the symbolic root of Jesse from King David’s stock.

Hos 9:14  Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. 
Hos 9:15  All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings , I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.
Hos 9:16  Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. 
Hos 9:17  My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations. 

The Bride of Christ is spiritually connected to Christ, who is her foundational root. While the Bride’s sisters in Babylon are focused on the victimised ‘wandering’ Jews who claim to be Jews but are not and are fiercely defending their mutually agreed 200,000,000 Zionist lies, she (the Bride) is also scattered and symbolically wandering among every nation on Earth.

Joh 10:15  As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 
Joh 10:16  And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 

Deu 30:1  And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, 
Deu 30:2  And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; 
Deu 30:3  That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. 
Deu 30:4  If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: 
Deu 30:5  And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

The Bride of Christ sees the detailed view of the entirety of her Lord’s word. The flesh is a wearisome evil experience, and so, too, can be endlessly reminded of having been a whore. Though not remotely proud of her former, and still disappearing nature, she is well past being sensitive and defensive to how her Lord designed her for recreating her in his image.

Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 

1Co 15:41  There is one glory of the sun [The Father in Christ], and another glory of the moon, [One of two churches] and another glory of the stars [The world, those outside the camp of the Saints]: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 
1Co 15:42  So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
1Co 15:43  It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 
1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Now, and with no memory of her whoreish ways, the Bride, Christ’s blossoming Wife, the New Heavenly Jerusalem above, is an extraordinarily dazzling and colourful jewel already considered to crown her Husband (Pro 12:4… ‘a virtuous woman…’) intimately fitted (rooted) in spiritual comfort of the same unified mind in him (Rev 21:9-27).

The Book of Hosea – Part 7, Hos 7:1-16

[Study Aired May 25, 2024]

The Hosea 7 theme continues from Chapter 6 with Israel’s impenitent heart. With deep reverence and fear, and embarrassingly, sometimes not fearfully enough, the Lord’s Gomer-like Wife hears her Lord’s constant pleading to her to return to him and faithfully minister Him her espousal dues. 

Hos 7:1  When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.

What immediately springs to mind from the opening line of verse 1 is,

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

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.

What comes to mind from the next line of verse 1 is the Lord’s wife insolently parading around like Oholah and Oholibah with her skirts hiked up, displaying her thighs. To varying degrees, all women in the flesh are highly conscious of every detail of their bodily presentation and their male kin’s immense genuine gratitude. Israel, the aging harlot that she is, no matter how much attention she gives to removing physically every spot and wrinkle from her body, her lovers hiss in derision. 

Eze 23:32  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou [the younger, Aholibah] shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much. [humiliation].

Lam 2:15  All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

Like stumbling upon a buried treasure in a field, not so the Bride of Christ! She, with the awe of discovering a hidden spring in a parched land and with a deep sigh of understanding, looks back upon her former harlot self in humiliation and paradoxical joy. She realises that the glory of her youth lewdly displayed for all leering lovers’ delight was a “falsehood” and her true glory designed for one man represented as Christ, she allowed to be stolen from her in her many partings with her “troop” of harlot-like friends in Babylon’s churches.

The symbolic 1,000 wives of Solomon’s court of ethnic beauties, the World, and particularly Ephriam and Samaria, who represent them as our brothers and sisters in Zionist Christendom, don’t realise that they are “spoiled” and ‘robbed’ of their beautiful spiritual femininity and are now just a dried-up old harlot.  As Hosea 7:2 says…

Hos 7:2  And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

It is dreadfully hypocritical for the Bride of Christ to look with derision upon her sisters remaining in Babylon for their unwitting harlotry. She remembers all too well that yesterday, she lewdly rioted with them.

1Pe 4:3  For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
1Pe 4:4  Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: 

Psa 106:39  Thus were they defiled with their works, and went a whoring with their inventions.
Psa 106:40  Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.

It is the remaining nakedness of the Lord’s wife He abhors that sets her at odds “before [His] my face”; that is His mind.

1Co 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we [The Bride only] have the mind of Christ.

Rev 1:1  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants [who do and walk in all His commands] things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 
Rev 1:2  Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

Hos 7:3  They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. 

It takes the God-given proverbial ‘guts’ to leave mother and father behind and, with bright feminine eyes, enthusiastically run forward to our Husband to walk hand in hand with him, under his wing as a mother hen ‘loves’ her chicks together in the Lord’s vineyard to see if the pomegranates have budded. 

Our first father is Satan, and our mother is Babylonian Christianity in lockstep with Agar of Mt. Sinai.

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

Son 7:12  Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves. 
Son 7:13  The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates [protecting His word] are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved. 

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. 

Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants [two separate marriages, the former, our first ‘mother’, divorced]; the [former] one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is [… still existing as harlot Christianity/Zionism], and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Hos 7:4  They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened. 

Leavening makes bread light, fluffy and far taster than unleavened flat-bread. Unleavened bread signifies the stark, unadulterated reality of God’s word without a hint of man’s inclusions to make it more palatable with his self-appointed righteousness.

Exo 12:8 [Israel upon quickly coming out of Egypt, Babylon today] And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

Exo 12:14  And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an [spiritual!] ordinance for ever.
Exo 12:15  Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

1Co 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
1Co 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 

Every baker knows that it takes only a hint of leaven to leaven the entire lump of dough. In verse 7, and since we are at first “all adulterers”, we shall see in the subsequent verses that we have been too drunk on our doctrine to add the Lord’s unadulterated leaven that glorifies His word and makes His bread delicious. 

My observations of bakers in Melbourne, Australia, no doubt indicative of the nation and the West, are that many of them are given to drinking alcohol while baking in the wee small dog-watch hours of the morning. Upon heating their ovens, and if they are too intoxicated, they could, most humiliatingly, even without alcohol, fall asleep, and the batch to be baked deflates. Hence, in verses 4-6 of Hosea 7, he has heated the oven and seemingly forgotten to place his consignment in the oven. Spiritually, unleavened and leavened bread denotes the constant swapping of our sinful to sinless condition until we are left without sin and paradoxically leavened most buoyantly with the Lord’s righteous leaven. Conversely, the leaven of our disappearing Pharisaical selves is our pride holding fast to our dogma. As verse 5 says, ‘stretching our hands with scorners’ of the same party (mind) spirit, thus displaying the nudity of our self-righteousness.

Exo 23:18  Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.

Lev 7:12  If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried. 
Lev 7:13  Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings. 
Lev 7:14  And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the LORD, and it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings.

Hos 7:5  In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners [He has joined hands with like-minded “fools” H3684 –  1. fool, stupid fellow, dullard, simpleton, arrogant one]

In Hosea 7:5, princes making us sick and biblically termed “revellings” are our treasured Babylonian friends outwardly and internally who, having gained Dutch courage (too much wine) and raucously proclaimed the hotly inflated dogma of agreement with each other (from the same batch of dough) are now exhausted. Now, bleary-eyed from wine, they all are like a big batch of buns past peak proofing (inflated, leavened) and indifferent from being left too long for the baking, are now deflated as they lie in wait for their drunk baker, effectively a priest of God too late to correct the mistake but regardless, he shoves them in the oven.

Inversely, the Bride, and with a shudder having recognised that same wretched condition in her former self, partakes of her Lord’s spirit and righteously divides the truth.

Gal 5:18  But if ye be led of the spirit [for this cause, as opposed to alcohol-fueled revellings], ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings [G2970], and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Pro 12:23  A prudent man concealeth knowledge: but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness.

Revellings G2970 – Definition: 1. a revel, carousal a. a nocturnal and riotous procession of half-drunken and frolicsome fellows. From G2749 – Definition: 1. to lie [in wait] a. of an infant b. of one buried c. of things that quietly cover some spot.

Hos 7:6  For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

The big batch of buns, symbolically Babylonian-deluded righteousness that has enough of God’s truth to be partially inflated, are unceremoniously baked regardless of their sinful condition and unwittingly, to them, made half-baked and distasteful. A silent remnant preparing to leave Babylon has nothing to do with her baker’s disgusting dainties; she has seen how the ‘bakers’, represented as her priests and kings, peddle their doctrinal merchandise. None call upon the Chief Baker, their Lord, for counsel.

Hos 7:7  They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me. 
Hos 7:8  Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. 

Isa 64:4  And from forever they have not heard, nor did they listen. Eye has not seen a God except You, who works for him who waits for Him.
Isa 64:5  You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned. In them is eternity, and we will [a process] be saved. 
Isa 64:6  But we are all as the unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as a menstruation cloth. And we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 
Isa 64:7  And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us, and have melted us away [Unturned; half-baked; cast out] because of our iniquities. 
Isa 64:8  But now, O Jehovah, You are our Father; we are the clay [for this cause, the dough], and You are our Former [Baker]; and we all are the work of Your hand.

1Jn 5:13  I have written these things to you who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have everlasting life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. 
1Jn 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us [His Wife in this age forward].
1Jn 5:15  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. 
1Jn 5:16  If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. 

For this demonstration, if we see our brother inflated with the leaven of unrighteousness and not with the Lord’s spirit, we pluck him from the all-consuming lake of fire to be correctly baked today in the Lord’s oven for his spiritual gastronomical delight.

Jud 1:21  Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 
Jud 1:22  And of some have compassion, making a difference: 
Jud 1:23  And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. 

Hos 7:9  Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. 

In this apparently fast-closing age, and from the pinnacle of man’s Babylonian tower, almost all mankind sees its coming destruction yet, like a moth to a flame, are helpless to change the course to oblivion. The World’s mighty ruling men and women are in utter discord, violently disagreeing with others’ forced dogma and never coming to the truth. Of course, without the Lord’s spirit, it all is pre-designed to fail most miserably. Hence, he fights on classically propped up like Mr Biden, whose ‘grey hairs’ belie his supposed wisdom. The United States of America’s ostentatious adage as “leaders of the free world and democracy” is more and more becoming an embarrassing mumble since what she doesn’t know is that all her woes symbolising the World’s putrid state of affairs are foundationally spiritual. If we can’t see that very same condition within ourselves, we will, like them, be destined to ‘bake’ in the oven on the Eighth Day.

Mal 4:1  “For indeed the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “It will not leave them even a root or branch. 
Mal 4:2  But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication will rise with healing wings, and you will skip about like calves released from the stall. 
Mal 4:3  You will trample on the wicked, for they will be like ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 

Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition [destruction in the Lake of Fire].

Hos 7:10  And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this. 

It is relatively easy to see our lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh, but following on its heels is pride, the most tenacious of sins that stubbornly sustains the foundational lust. Consequently, symbolised by Pharaoh in Moses’ day, we can hopefully, in this age, sequentially receive one plague to change our hearts. Yet, like Israel, if we harden our hearts and do not return to our Lord to acknowledge our sins, plague after plague can occur until maybe all the symbolic plagues of Egypt upon the spirit of our old man drag us out of the wretched condition of being a “silly dove.”

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
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?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Hos 7:11  Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. 
Hos 7:12  When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard. 

The term “silly” means spacious and wide. The definitive ‘silly dove’ is the Blue Rock pigeon, a pest common to the World’s cities and used for pigeon racing primarily for its renowned homing instincts. To mitigate the individual being targeted for a peregrine falcon attack, these pigeons congregate in flocks on the ground and confidently in the air, roaming ‘spaciously and wide’ and appearing arrogant for their abilities to tease and dodge predators. They are strong and agile flyers, and therein lies another attribute of being “silly” since they trust in their own strength to out-fly a falcon, a symbolic “evil bird” being Satan and his demons (Pro 28:26, Gen 3:19). It is a wonderful sight to see a falcon coming up from below a large flock of pigeons cunningly increasing the flock’s altitude to masterfully put in a stoop that causes repeated flock fragmentation and rejoining, similar to a school of fish being attacked by barracuda as he singles out a weak victim (Matt 26:41, 38, Gal 4:9… ‘weak and beggarly elements’). Spiritually, mankind is a “silly dove” who likewise congregates in Babylon’s churches and other religions; “silly doves” figure as women symbolising churches (2Ti 3:6… ‘weak and silly women’/individual harlots and churches), believing their unwitting predator pastor’s every word as he plunders their wallets and spiritual minds. If not happy with that ‘predator’, they go to Egypt and Assyria, representatives of other doctrines that speak smooth and more agreeable words to their ears.

2Ti 4:3  For the time will come when they [the ‘silly doves’ searching ‘far and wide’] will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 
2Ti 4:4  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 
2Ti 4:5  But watch thou [the Bride] in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. 

The glaring outward representation of a “silly dove” is the West ditching all vestiges of Christianity’s partial light of understanding for every Egyptian, Assyrian, Sodom, Capernaum, and Old Jerusalem “spacious and wide” putridness to ensure immutable end-time darkness.

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

Christ, the chief ‘fowler’, has spread a net upon them and caught them in strong delusion. Chastisement has already been lit upon the Bride of Christ, and she is learning to love her Lord’s fiery word. Her sisters in Babylon are yet to be ruled with the rod of iron in readiness for her chastisement in the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:7-10).

Jer 2:17  Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?
Jer 2:18  And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? 

Hos 7:13  Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me. 
Hos 7:14  And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me. 
Hos 7:15  Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me. 
Hos 7:16  They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. 

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

1Pe 1:1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, [the Lord’s little scattered flock, the…]
1Pe 1:2  Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.