Zec 12:1-14  “The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel”

[Study Aired August 17, 2023]

In chapter 11 of Zacharias, we learn of the effect God’s word has on the nations during the symbolic period of time known as the thousand-year reign (Rev 20:6, Rev 12:5). The word of God is not contemptible to the masses at the beginning of this reign (Rev 11:15) because anon with joy the word will be received (Mat 13:20-22). In time, however, “the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.“

Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
Mat 13:22  He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

As time goes on, the judgment with a rod of iron will produce the results God intended it to have all along; results that are explained in this twelfth chapter of Zacharias and all of Malachi 1:1-14. It will be a time of plenty for the flesh: plenty of watering and planting of the word, plenty of physical healing, along with the needs of society being met plentifully, as Christ demonstrated when His ministry began on the earth.

The ministry of our Lord on earth as a man parallels the elect’s rule and reign under Christ during the thousand-year reign, the natural revealing the spiritual (1Jn 4:17, 1Co 15:46, Rom 1:20). Christ healed all the sick that were brought to him, and fed the masses and met the needs of people as those needs arose and were brought to His attention. However, Christ never converted a single soul, and neither will God’s elect during their reign, to teach the world that the increase of all that watering and planting can only come from God and at an appointed time that has been ordained according to the counsel of His own will (1Co 3:6, Eph 1:11).

The beginning of miracles which Jesus did in Cana of Galilee [another need met by Christ (Joh 2:11)] declared the end from the beginning and was the reason Christ said “Woman, [Mary, a type of elect church] what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.” That the new wine is better than the present wine at the wedding of Cana represents the thousand-year reign of the saints “when men have well drunk.” The new wine represents the time when the saints are ministering and judging the world in the great white throne judgment with the better wine. A most glorious part of our relationship with Christ, a blessed and joyous experience will be in giving the word, the better wine, the cup that Christ longed to drink with us today and does, to the rest of the world in the lake of fire which will produce converted children for the Groom and Bride of Christ (Luk 22:15, Act 20:35, Gal 4:27). 

Joh 2:11  This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him. 

The six earthen vessels in this story in John 2:1-11 represent the witness of the process of judgment that must come upon all mankind in the great white throne judgment (witness 2 x process of judgment 3 = on all mankind = 6). God’s elect have this treasure in earthen vessels today and are being sanctified by God’s word [wine] today (Joh 17:17, 2Co 4:7), and will fill the world with that better wine in the lake of fire. The first wine at the wedding of Cana represents the thousand-year reign when the saints will shower the world with both physical and spiritual abundance, symbolized by the first wine given at the wedding that ran out – “the mother of Jesus saith unto him, they have no wine.” In like manner, there will be a famine of the word toward the end of the thousand-year reign in the sense that the hunger and ‘anon with joy’ spirit will dissipate until the second resurrection, which is when the better wine will be given to all of humanity. 

Joh 2:1  And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: 
Joh 2:2  And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. 
Joh 2:3  And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. 
Joh 2:4  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.
Joh 2:5  His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
Joh 2:6  And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
Joh 2:7  Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. 
Joh 2:8  And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. 
Joh 2:9  When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, 
Joh 2:10  And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. 
Joh 2:11  This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him. [His disciples believed because of the sign but did not yet understand the spiritual significance of this first miracle.] 

Keeping all of this in mind, it becomes clear that the number 1000 in the expression ‘thousand-year reign’ symbolizes for us the inability for the world to hear the word of the Lord with spiritual eyes that see and ears that hear (Jer 22:29). “O earth (10), earth (10), earth (10), hear the word of the Lord” if multiplied, adds up to the complete one thousand years, and it is at the end of the thousand-year reign when the contempt of mankind will become very evident as a result of the familiarity of their relationship with Christ and his saints without the accompanying spirit of God which makes that relationship grow into one becoming a disciple indeed (Rom 8:9, Joh 8:31). The “inhabitants of Jerusalem”, to which humanity is likened in this study, will rebel against our Lord and His Christ’s rulership being overtaken by Satan who will be loosed for a season (Rev 11:15, Rev 20:7-9).

It will be akin to that moment when Christ said, “Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?” For which of all the works done during the reign of the saints does the world (Gog and Magog) come up against the camp of the saints (Joh 10:32)?  This whole scenario with mankind coming up against the camp of the saints reveals the man of perdition within, a man typified by Judas who was also sent a spirit which caused him to betray Christ and come up against Him (Joh 13:27). 

The “burden of the word of the LORD to Israel” brings with it, in time, a contemptible spirit as mentioned in Malachi 1:1 and 1:7.

Mal 1:1  The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. 

Mal 1:7  Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. 

Here are the verses for this study:

Zec 12:1  The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. 
Zec 12:2  Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. 
Zec 12:3  And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. 
Zec 12:4  In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. 
Zec 12:5  And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God. 
Zec 12:6  In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. 
Zec 12:7  The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. 
Zec 12:8  In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them. 
Zec 12:9  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 
Zec 12:10  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. 
Zec 12:11  In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. 
Zec 12:12  And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 
Zec 12:13  The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; 
Zec 12:14  All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

Zec 12:1  The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. 

“The burden of the word of the LORD” for the world, represented by Israel, is juxtaposed against what God’s word does within us, in our heavens and in the earthen vessels which we are, which is used by God to bring His workmanship unto perfection. It is He who “stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.” This “burden” has become a joyful burden we can bear through Christ today, and if we are granted to endure until the end, we and all the elect will be used to bring forth the manifold knowledge of Christ that will then become “the burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD.“

These physical events Christ has created, stretching “forth the heavens” and laying the “foundation of the earth” (Rom 1:20), represent what Christ will do within every man in his appointed time in order to conform “the spirit of man within him” to become a new creation by the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ (Rom 12:1-2, Eph 2:10).

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

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

Zec 12:2  Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
Zec 12:3  And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

God is making the body of Christ, Jerusalem above the mother of us all, “a cup of trembling unto all the people round about [that are] in siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.“ Jerusalem becoming a “cup of trembling” is the burden of the word of the LORD or “Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people.” Jerusalem as a cup of trembling is talking about the elect in the first resurrection, “the people round about” represent the world which doesn’t recognize the ‘man of perdition’ on their hearts (2Th 2:3, Rev 2:13). “Israel” (verse 1) and “the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (verse 5) include the religious world and their corrupt spiritual influence on the earth (Rev 11:8, Rev 18:2-3, Isa 1:4-6).

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

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 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Isa 1:6  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

The world will be “cut in pieces” as a result of burdening themselves with the stone of stumbling Christ and his bride will be during the thousand-year reign, which is something that is going to happen via the sharper-than-any-two-edged-sword of God going forth from the elect (Heb 4:12). Even if all the earth comes up against the body of Christ, “though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it“, God’s judgments will prevail even from the start of the thousand-year reign until the end (Mic 4:3).

Mic 4:3  And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Zec 12:4  In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
Zec 12:5  And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

“In that day” means the day the saints rule with a rod of iron and the world is shown their blindness. God will take away the power of influence the churches of the world have (“every horse“) by showing them their blindness, to which “I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness” refers (Rev 14:16-20). 

Rev 14:15  And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Rev 14:16  And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. 
Rev 14:17  And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:18  And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. 
Rev 14:19  And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 
Rev 14:20  And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

That “astonishment” being talked about is connected to the amazement the world will feel when they come to sober up spiritually and understand this verse, “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”^{G2295 wonder} (Rev 14:8, Rev 17:6).

Rev 14:8  And another, a second, angel followed, saying, Great Babylon has fallen, has fallen, which of the wine of the fury of her fornication has made all nations drink. 

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 world will begin to wake up to where God’s power resides, “And the governors of Judah [the elect] shall say in their heart: The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.” The world will serve the same God the elect serve, and the elect overcoming the giants of the land that are accompanying the worlds yet defiled land [wood, hay and stubble], will reveal the strength of the elect’s relationship with God to the world.

Zec 12:6  In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.

“In that day will I make the governors of Judah [God’s elect] like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf” is another example of men learning righteousness because God’s judgments are in the earth burning up the wood, hay and stubble “like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf” (Jer 5:14). 

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.

Zec 12:7  The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.

God’s elect are represented by “the tents of Judah” who are saved first (Rom 2:10) and the world is represented by “the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem [who] do not magnify themselves against Judah.”

Rom 2:10  But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first [“the tents of Judah“], and also to the Gentile: 

Zec 12:8  In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
Zec 12:9  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 

When we understand that the man of perdition who must be destroyed  is represented by “all the nations that come against Jerusalem“, and that the world, represented by “the inhabitants of Jerusalem“, are precious to God and beloved (Rom 11:28), these verses open up for us (Zec 12:8). This destruction of the nations has an inward application for the body of Christ today who are being judged (1Pe 4:17) and the outward dispensational view of the man of perdition’s destruction is being shown in these verses (Zec 12:8-9).

They [the world] are feeble without the spirit of God within them, “shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God“,  with the elect before them “as the angel of the LORD before them” who will guide them and teach the world the truth of God only to later see the nations “come against Jerusalem” (Isa 26:9).

The world really is, as are God’s elect, sheep for the slaughter (Rom 8:36), and this verse, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” is referring to the time of Gog and Magog when an end of all physical flesh will come (Rev 20:8). That natural event of the destruction of the nations by fire is a shadow of the spiritual baptism of fire that will take place in the lake of fire when all the world is raised in the second resurrection. It is the judgment of all the nations of the world to which God has called the elect (1Co 6:3).

1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

Zec 12:10  And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

These next few verses (Zec 12:10-14) demonstrate the progression of God’s plan, to which we just saw God referring at the event of Gog and Magog in the previous verse “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zec 12:9) resulting in the next great event which will be the great white throne judgment when all the books of humanity are opened (Rev 20:11-12).

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

These following verses (Zec 12:10-14) help us understand how God is going to judge “the inhabitants of Jerusalem” by pouring out “the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn“, meaning God will lead all of humanity to repentance and an understanding (Rom 2:4) of what flesh was and how the spirit of man apart from God’s spirit within does not produce the blessed relationship of knowing God and Christ (Joh 17:3). It is the gift of “the spirit of grace and of supplications” which starts that process in all the world that will be judged at that time (Eph 2:8-9).

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Zec 12:11  In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

Historically there are several interesting connections to look at regarding “the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon“, specifically in regard to the death of pagan kings and the idolatrous worship of deities. In the book of Joshua we learn of all these kings who were killed in this area of Palestine, “all the kings thirty and one” (Jos 12:1-24).

In this verse, Jerusalem represents Jerusalem below, all the world that are being judged, all Israel who are going to be saved through that judgment (Rom 11:26), through the mercy that will have already been shown to the saviors who come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau (Oba 1:21).

The mourning in Jerusalem on that day will be as the mourning of Hadadrimmon^{H1910 H1908} in the valley of Megiddon^{H4023 H1413} because the idols of man’s hearts will be exposed through God’s judgment (Rev 17:9-12).

Rev 17:9  And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
Rev 17:10  And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. 
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 [2Th 2:8].
Rev 17:12  And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

Inwardly this judgment begins at the house of God with the elect (1Pe 4:17). The names Hadadrimmon^{H1910 H1908} and Megiddon^{H4023 H1413} also establish the pagan origins of this location, and most importantly what its spiritual significance is for God’s elect today.

H1910
Hadadrimmon
hădadrimmôn had-ad-rim-mone’

From H1908 and H7417; Hadad Rimmon, a place in Palestine: – Hadad-rimmon.

H1908
hădad
had-ad’

Probably of foreign origin (compare H111); Hadad, the name of an idol, and of several kings of Edom: – Hadad.

H4023
Megiddon
megiddôn    megiddô
meg-id-done’, meg-id-do’

From H1413; rendezvous; Megiddon or Megiddo, a place in Palestine: – Megiddo, Megiddon.

H1413
gâdad
gaw-dad’

A primitive root (compare H1461); to crowd; also to gash (as if by pressing into): – assemble (selves by troops), gather (selves together, self in troops), cut selves

Zec 12:12  And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 
Zec 12:13  The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; 
Zec 12:14  All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

The land that mourns represents all of humanity [the whole represented by the four family groups named], “All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart”:

the family of the house of David (beloved/loving) apart, and their wives apart;
the family of the house of Nathan (giver/given) apart, and their wives apart;
the family of the house of Levi (joined/attached) apart, and their wives apart;
the family of Shimei (my listeners/renowned/famous) apart, and their wives apart;

“All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart^H905 [apart, alone, by self]” These names we’re looking at are connected to the world, and to the court, and give us great hope of how ‘as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive’ (1Co 15:22). 

David H1732 beloved/loving
youngest son of Jesse and second king of Israel

Nathan H5416 giver/given

a son of David by Bathsheba
the eminent prophet in the time of David and Solomon
a man of Zobah, father of one of David’s mighty warriors
father of Azariah who was over the officers of Solomon
son of Attai and father of Zabad of the tribe of Judah
brother of Joel of the tribe of Judah
one of the head men who returned from Babylon with Ezra
a man with a foreign wife in the time of Ezra
head of a family of Israel who shall mourn when they look on him whom they pierce

Levi H3878 “joined to”/attached
the third son of Jacob by Leah and progenitor of tribe of Levites

Shimei H8097 Patronymic from H8096; Shimei or Shimhi or Shimi or Shimea = renowned/famous
a Benjamite, son of Gera of the house of Saul in the time of David
a Benjamite, son of Elah and commissariat officer in the time of Solomon
the Ramathite in charge of the vineyards of David
son of Gershon and grandson of Levi
a Levite, son of Jeduthun and chief of the 10th division of singers in the time of David
a Levite of the sons of heman who took part in the purification of the temple in the time of king hezekiah of Judah
a Levite, brother of Cononiah in charge of receiving the tithes and offerings in the reign of king hezekiah of Judah
a Levite who had a foreign wife in the time of Ezra
a Judaite, son of Pedaiah and brother of Zerubbabel
a Simeonite, son of Zacchur
a Reubenite, son of Gog and father of Micah
one of the sons of Hashum who had a foreign wife in the time of Ezra
one of the sons of Bani who had a foreign wife in the time of Ezra
a Benjamite, son of Kish, father of Jair, and grandfather of Mordecai in the time of Esther
a Levite, son of Jahath, grandson of Gershon, and great grandson of Levi
Benjamite, father of Adaiah, Beraiah, and Shimrath. Spelled ‘Shimhi’

The world will be feeling very alone, very bad, and very apart in this moment when they have been separated for judgment, as God has intended for all the world to feel like Joseph’s brothers felt when they came to see the one they pierced. It will take as much time as it needs to take for the world to understand these words of Joseph in Genesis 45:5, which will always be true for all of God’s creation that must experience, “The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel”, judging each man, in his appointed time and bringing us all into the realization of His great unending love toward each of us (Joh 3:16, 1Co 15:28). 

Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

2Ki 14:19-29  “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”

[Study Aired December 22, 2022]

2Ki 14:19  Now they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem: and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there.
2Ki 14:20  And they brought him on horses: and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David.
2Ki 14:21  And all the people of Judah took Azariah, which was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah.
2Ki 14:22  He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers.
2Ki 14:23  In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years.
2Ki 14:24  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
2Ki 14:25  He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.
2Ki 14:26  For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.
2Ki 14:27  And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
2Ki 14:28  Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 
2Ki 14:29  And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead.

The LORD has a controversy (Jer 25:31) with the nations within us, and all the nations of the world without, that will not be resolved until all flesh is destroyed.

Jer 25:31  A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy^H7379 with the nations, he will plead^{H8199 = judge} with all flesh; he will give them [all flesh] that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD. [Heb 4:12] 

That destruction of flesh is the good news of the gospel that we naturally cannot receive, as God seeks an occasion against all flesh that cannot inherit the kingdom of God, a kingdom that will be received, each man in his order by putting off the flesh (1Co 15:22-24).

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

For God’s elect that occasion is happening right now with judgment upon us that causes us to come to worship our Father in spirit and in truth (Joh 4:23) as a result of the gift of the grace through faith given to us (Eph 2:8) so we can go on to perfection on the third day (Luk 13:32).

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

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 

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.

I mention all this because of the opening verse of the study which discusses the “conspiracy^H7195 against him in Jerusalem” (2Ki 14:19), him being king Amaziah who represents our flesh which cannot inherit the kingdom of God. God conspires against our flesh, and that is the controversy the world has been blinded to not see unfolding. The unfolding started from the creation of Adam as the marred vessel that was created to be destroyed and made anew in the Potter’s hand (Jer 18:4, Jer 22:29, Joh 10:28-29). 

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

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Joh 10:28  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Joh 10:29  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

For further evidence of what the carnal fleshly mind in Adam thinks of himself, we see where Amaziah flees to avoid judgment which is in a place that means ‘invincible’, Lachish^H3923, as opposed to humbly going to the mount from whence comes our help, where we are judged and acknowledge that there is no good thing within us, and that we constantly need Christ’s hand in our life to guide us (Psa 121:1-2, Joh 6:44, Luk 18:19, Rom 8:14).

2Ki 14:19  Now they made a conspiracy^{H7195=treason} against him in Jerusalem: and he fled to Lachish^H3923; but they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there.

H3923  lâkı̂ysh  Lachish = “invincible”(BDB)

1) a city lying south of Jerusalem on the borders of Simeon and which belonged to the Amorites until conquered by Joshua and allotted to Judah

Psa 121:1  A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 
Psa 121:2  My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

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

Luk 18:19  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

2Ki 14:19  Now they made a conspiracyH7195 against him in Jerusalem: and he fled to Lachish^H3923; but they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. 

All the forces of the world around us are for our sakes (2Co 4:15), and because God is able to work all things according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), we can now understand how it is possible that these verses below that use the phrase “all things” apply to each one of us individually who know, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). 

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

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: 

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

“All things” become the reality of our existence “on that day” (Joh 14:20) as we grow in our conviction of what God can do in the body of Christ which is the temple of God (Rom 8:36-39, Rom 8:9, 1Co 3:16) . “All things” includes the death of our old man, the losing of our life which we initially think is invincible (Lachish^H3923) only to find out later that we must lose that life (Rom 6:11) in order to become a new creation that is formed in Christ (Mat 10:39). 

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

Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Rom 5:10  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

2Ki 14:20  And they brought him on horses: and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David.

The old man, typified by Amaziah, is buried in Jerusalem below and brought to that place of rest by horses, strong beasts of the earth which remind us that like king David and Amaziah, they are going to their graves with their beastly nature still intact to be buried “with his fathers in the city of David“. The dead are still burying the dead to this day, and each life, as with all the kings of old, represents stages of the old and new man that by God’s mercy we come to see within ourselves today (Act 2:29-33). Not to belabor the point, but we are told that David is not just dead, but “dead and buried“, meaning he is in the earth, earth, earth of Jeremiah 22:29 yet to spiritually hear the voice of the Lord in the second resurrection (Joh 5:28-29, first resurrection separated by the thousand year reign of the saints, Rev 20:5-6).

Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 
Act 2:31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 
Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 
Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

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.

Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

2Ki 14:21  And all the people of Judah took Azariah, which was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. 
2Ki 14:22  He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers. 

In 2 Kings 15:1-6 we learn what this son of Amaziah, whose name was Azariah, was up to, as he reigned for [52] years “And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done; Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.” Those actions brought God’s wrath upon him, “And the LORD smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several [separate] house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the house, judging the people of the land.”

2Ki 15:1  In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign. 
2Ki 15:2  Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. 
2Ki 15:3  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done; 
2Ki 15:4  Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.
2Ki 15:5  And the LORD smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the house, judging the people of the land.
2Ki 15:6  And the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

Two things to note:  Jeroboam king of Israel was in his 27th year of reigning when Azariah began to reign, telling us that this king Azariah was going to witness [2] the judgment of the Lord completely [7] in his life and not overcome: “he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several [separate] house.” The “several house” represents how sin separates us from the body of Christ, which is what happened to the life of king Azariah whose son ended up being “over the house, judging the people of the land” of Judah. 

The life of Azariah produced bad fruit. represented by his building of Elath^H359 that he restored to Judah. “He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers.” Based on all that we read about the life of Azariah and what he ended up doing to the nation of Judah, it’s clear that this 16 year old king was not fit to reign and only used his rulership as an occasion for his flesh (Gal 5:13). Starting to rule at 16 in the negative use of that number reveals that although God’s judgment was upon him, [1] his flesh, represented by the number [6], remained leprous and of no use to those around him from whom he was separated because of his natural condition of leprosy that represented his spiritually corrupt heart. As always we are reminded that this is written for our admonition to remind us that unless we are washed by the blood of Christ, which takes away our sinful condition represented by leprosy, we would remain in the bondage that the whole world is in (Joh 8:36, 1Jn 5:19).

H359‘êylôth / ‘êylath   BDB Definition:
Elath or Eloth = “grove of lofty trees”
1) a port on the north-east arm of the Red Sea
Part of Speech: noun proper locative
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H352

Gal 5:13  For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

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

1Jn 5:19  And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. [sinful leprous flesh]

2Ki 14:23  In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. 
2Ki 14:24  And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
2Ki 14:25  He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.

Now God’s word shifts back to Amaziah the father of Azariah to remind us of where these generational sins of Azariah are coming from, and what exactly set the stage for his heart to be as wicked as it was. What must be done to correct this spirit is also given to us in the numbers mentioned in verse 23: “the fifteenth year of Amaziah” and “forty and one years“, both numbers pointing to grace [5], which in the case with Amaziah’s life was greasy grace and not accompanied with life changing correction from the Lord. Just to be clear it is “Jeroboam the son of Joash“ the king of Israel who begins to reign in Samaria for forty-one years, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord by following the sinful ways of “Jeroboam the son of Nebat“. That comparative was made to remind us that grace is not grace when it is accompanied with a lascivious spirit that says ‘let us sin that grace may abound’ (Rom 6:1). 

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

All of these events remind God’s elect that it is only for the sake of our election (1Jn 2:20, Rom 11:5), but for the grace of God go we, as those generational sins are cut off as we become the generation that is judged by God and as such can live out the rest of our lives in obedience to our Lord, which is what that judgment will continue to produce (Exo 34:7, Rom 5:12, Mat 24:34, 1Pe 4:1-2, Tit 2:11-12).

1Jn 2:20  But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

Rom 11:5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

Exo 34:7  Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

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

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

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. [1Jn 2:15-17]

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

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 
Tit 2:12  Teaching^G3811 us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth^G3811, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

G3811 paideuō pahee-dyoo’-o

From G3816; to train up a child, that is, educate, or (by implication) discipline (by punishment): – chasten (-ise), instruct, learn, teach.

Total KJV occurrences: 13

What flesh naturally does is restore evil and not tear it down, and that is exactly what God causes us to do symbolized by these words, “He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel“, leaving us to say in our carnal reasoning why Lord, why are you causing me to err and restoring sin in my life, causing me to err (Rom 9:20, Isa 63:17).

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?

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.

God reveals this life-long struggle of flesh against spirit and spirit against flesh (Gal 5:16-17, Rom 7:19-23) through the prophets who typify the patience and faith of the saints which is needed to overcome and endure unto the end of this life, in which we are told we will scarcely be saved (Jas 4:12, Rev 14:12, 1Pe 4:17-18).

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

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.

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 

Jonah was such a prophet who had to endure patiently as we read “which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher” and his life is symbolic of the life-long struggle we have with sinful flesh that needs to go through much tribulation (Act 14:22) in order to end up in Nineveh as a true witness of God (Jon 2:10, Jon 2:3). 

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.

Jon 2:10  And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Jon 3:3  So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.

Even still, the end of the book does not leave us with a clear understanding of what was going to happen to Jonah. What we are being instructed by those actions is to not take anything for granted (1Co 10:12), and also to be encouraged that you have been apprehended by the Lord (Php 3:11-13) (symbolized by Jonah in the great fish), and we are to continually be brought back to remembrance that it is only because of the judgment in our ‘earth, earth, earth’ that we can overcome and have boldness at this time (Jer 22:29, 1Jn 4:17) symbolized by Jonah’s three days in the great fish, which symbolizes Christ’s three days in the heart of our earth (Mat 12:40), where we are being judged today and brought to perfection on the third day (Luk 13:32).

Php 3:11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 
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, 
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 

Jer 22:29  O [1] earth, [2] earth, [3] earth, hear the word of the LORD.

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

Mat 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

2Ki 14:26  For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. 
2Ki 14:27  And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

In the positive sense of being restored, we are brought back to the point of how all things are for our sakes and how God knows all the conditions on the face of the earth and the heart and intention of every human who has ever lived, because He is working it all according to the counsel of His own sovereign will. The “LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel” means just that, he knows the heart of man that it is deceitful and desperately wicked, making us “very bitter“. It takes the life of Christ within us who is our “helper” (Mat 20:28, Christ in us makes us helpers of each other’s joy, 2Co 1:24) to take away the bitterness that would naturally just grow and overtake us except for the gifted grace-through-faith process to whichGod’s elect have been blessed to be called (Eph 2:8).

Mat 20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

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

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 

All men will be saved, all the world, symbolized by Israel, “And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven“. Not physically saved indefinitely “by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash” (Gen 6:3), but yes, preserved for God’s purpose of ultimately reserving the rest of humanity to be judged in the great white throne judgment. One of the main reasons God physically preserves humanity from total annihilation prior to the thousand-year reign of the saints is to reveal the natural saving of humanity before the spiritual, and to leave a witness of how God seeks an occasion against flesh and blood that cannot inherit the kingdom of God (Mat 24:22, Rom 1:20). So the elect will save the world from total physical destruction at first and then save all of Israel, which symbolizes the whole world, from spiritual destruction in the lake of fire “the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven” (1Co 15:22, Rev 20:11).

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.

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 

2Ki 14:28  Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 
2Ki 14:29  And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead.

It all sounds just sounds like great progress, Jeroboam warred and recovered Damascus^H1834 [“silent is the sackcloth weaver”] and Hamath^H2574 [“fortress”], but we know this represents the preservation of the flesh which is happening to the glory of God, knowing that overall arching principle in God’s word that states “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh” which cannot inherit the kingdom of God (Gen 6:3).

Gen 6:3  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

In the end, “Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead.” He is no different than David and all the other kings good and bad who have come and gone, in that none of their flesh will inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 15:50). However, they will serve us in their unbelief and give us great hope of what the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has been setting out to do all along from the foundation of the world (1Pe 1:12, 1Co 10:11, 1Co 15:22).

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 

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

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: [Gen 6:3] and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die [Gen 6:3], even so in Christ shall all be made alive. [1Jn 2:2, 1Ti 4:10] 

[Study Aired August 1, 2022]

Exo 19:1  In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. 
Exo 19:2  For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount. 
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. 
Exo 19:5  Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 
Exo 19:6  And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 
Exo 19:7  And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. 
Exo 19:8  And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD. 
Exo 19:9  And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD. 
Exo 19:10  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, 
Exo 19:11  And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. 
Exo 19:12  And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: 
Exo 19:13  There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. 
Exo 19:14  And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes. 
Exo 19:15  And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives. 
Exo 19:16  And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. 
Exo 19:17  And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. 
Exo 19:18  And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. 
Exo 19:19  And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. 
Exo 19:20  And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. 
Exo 19:21  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish. 
Exo 19:22  And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them. 
Exo 19:23  And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it. 
Exo 19:24  And the LORD said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he break forth upon them. 
Exo 19:25  So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them. 

Exodus chapter 19 is about the preparation needed to meet the Lord as the people of Israel encamped near Mount Sinai. Our walk in Christ here on this earth is exemplified by the journey taken by the people of Israel when they left Egypt. They experienced hunger at a certain point in their journey, and later they also were without water. These are all part of the process the Lord takes us through to become mature sons. This process of maturity through judgment is symbolized by three days. 

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.

Today’s study reveals what is required of us in order to meet the Lord. Internally, meeting the Lord means the Lord coming to us to judge us. This happens when we come to see that we are the beast!! That is when the Lord comes with His brightness to destroy the wicked one within us so that we learn righteousness.

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:

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

Outwardly, meeting the Lord will occur when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. That is when the purchased possession shall be redeemed.

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Exo 19:1  In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. 
Exo 19:2  For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.

It was in the third month that the people of Israel reached Mount Sinai after departing from Egypt. The number three means the process of spiritual completion or maturity through judgment.  The coming of the people of Israel to Mount Sinai was for the express purpose of meeting the Lord. Thus, our spiritual perfection will occur when we meet the Lord at the turn of a new age. As our Lord is, so are we. The Lord Jesus Christ was perfected when He resurrected from the dead. The first resurrection will result in the perfection of the saints.

1Co 13:9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 
1Co 13:10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 

Rev 1:7  Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. 

Inwardly, our meeting of the Lord at Mount Sinai is when He comes with His judgment to destroy the old man or the flesh.

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.

It is when our eyes of understanding are enlightened, and our ears hear the words of the Lord, which is symbolized by Moses meeting the Lord on the mountain, that we begin to see how the Lord has been with us all along as He carried us on eagles’ wings to Himself. Eagles are very powerful birds that have great strength and are very caring parents. They protect their young with a high nest. Both parents bring food to the eaglets and teach them to fly. If an eaglet struggles in flight, a parent will swoop under the young bird and carry them, so they don’t fall.

Here in verse 4, the Lord compared His strength and power and His caring to that of an eagle. We may feel frail, powerless and not cared for in this life, but the good news is that our Lord’s strength and power is what is carrying us in this life to Himself – not ourselves. Are you weary? Are you weak and frail? Are you going through health or financial challenges that there is no end in sight? Receive the strength and power of the Lord in the name of Jesus!! May the Lord help you to lift up your eyes from your circumstances and look up to the hills, from whence comes your help!! He will bear you on eagles’ wings and bring you to Himself, Amen!

Psa 121:1  A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 
Psa 121:2  My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 
Psa 121:3  He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 
Psa 121:4  Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 

Isa 40:26  Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. 
Isa 40:27  Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? 
Isa 40:28  Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 
Isa 40:29  He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 
Isa 40:30  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 
Isa 40:31  But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Who are those who wait upon the Lord? They are those who have come to realize that of themselves they can do nothing and therefore focus on the mercies of the Lord. They are the ones the Lord will carry on eagles’ wings. That is when we can run and not be weary, walk and not faint!!

Psa 123:2  Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

Exo 19:5  Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 
Exo 19:6  And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Being called and chosen is what qualifies us to become a peculiar treasure of the Lord above all people. How do we know that we are His peculiar treasure? When our eyes see and our ears hear, then we are blessed to be part of His peculiar treasure. The tribulation we all go through is all part of the process of possessing the kingdom of God or becoming part of His peculiar treasure. Being His peculiar treasure is the same as being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Our obedience will have to be complete to possess the kingdom of God. This is not the work of man. It is the work of God, and we have confidence that He who has started with us, will see to its completion!!

1Pe 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 
1Pe 2:10  Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Exo 19:7  And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. 
Exo 19:8  And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.

When we start our walk with the Lord, we think we can obey the Lord by our own strength. This is all because of the false doctrine of us possessing our own will in our heavens. The Israelites also taught that to obey is within their means and so they unanimously told Moses that they will do all that the Lord commands. Let’s see what the Lord think about this assertion:

Deu 5:27  Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it.
Deu 5:28  And the LORD heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the LORD said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken.
Deu 5:29  O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

As we can see, in the eyes of the Lord, we do not have what it takes to obey Him. Our hardened hearts must be softened by His judgments before we can obey His voice.

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.

Psa 119:67  Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

Exo 19:9  And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD. 

His coming to us in a thick cloud means Jesus coming to us is through His elect who are symbolized by the thick cloud of witnesses. In this dispensation, it is through us, His elect, that the Lord speaks to His people since we are Jesus whom the world is persecuting.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Heb 1:1  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 
Heb 1:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 

Act 9:4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 
Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Exo 19:10  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,
Exo 19:11  And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.

As we have indicated in previous studies, Moses represents Christ. It is the Lord who comes to us with the spirit of His mouth (His words) to sanctify us with His judgments. Sanctification means to be cleansed or purified. Jesus Christ is our sanctification.

1Co 1:30  But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

The whole process of being sanctified takes a symbolic three days. The first two days indicated here in verse 10 as today and tomorrow refer to our sanctification through judgment while we live in this tent of flesh. The third day is when we are perfected as we meet Christ face to face just as the Israelites were being sanctified to meet Christ on Mount Sinai on 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 today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. 

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: 

Washing our clothes in verse 10 is the same as making them white in the blood of the Lamb, which means being sanctified through Christ.

Rev 7:13  And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 
Rev 7:14  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Rev 7:15  Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 

Rev 22:14  Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

As indicated, it is on the third day that we shall be perfected as we meet the Lord. This is what Paul said about this:

1Co 13:9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 
1Co 13:10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 
1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 
1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Exo 19:12  And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: 
Exo 19:13  There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. 

To understand why the Israelites were forbidden to go up the Mount and to touch the border of it except Moses, we need to know what the people of Israel represent and what Moses represents in these verses. On a negative note, the people of Israel represent Babylon, the mother of harlots. Moses on a positive note stands for the elect. It is the elect that have access to the Mountain of God or the presence of the Lord. Our brothers and sisters in Babylon are forbidden to go up the mountain of God or even to touch it. The reason they cannot come before the Lord or touch anything Holy is that they have been carried away by false doctrines, thus making them unable to eat at the altar.

Heb 13:9  Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. 
Heb 13:10  We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

The attempt by our brothers and sisters in Babylon to come to the Lord, signified by the Israelites trying to come up the Mount, or touch it is met with death. This mountain of God represents the Lord’s dwelling which is our body. To come up the mountain or to touch the mountain is to touch us and therefore Christ who is the word. To Moses (the elect), the experience of meeting the Lord brings him to know the Lord through His words. To our brothers and sisters in Babylon, the experience of meeting the Lord (His words) brings darkness which brings them into spiritual death.

Exo 14:19  And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: 
Exo 14:20  And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

Exo 19:14  And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes. 
Exo 19:15  And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.

As we indicated earlier, Moses coming down to sanctify the people is Christ coming to us with His judgment to teach us righteousness as we wait for our perfection on the third day. In the twinkle of an eye, we shall be raised incorruptible from the dead. 

1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 
1Co 15:54  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

In verse 15, we are told that as part of sanctification, the people of Israel must not come at their wives. This is another way of saying that if we are to be sanctified, then we must leave Babylon, symbolized by wives. In other words, we must have no union with Babylon.

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. 

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.

Pro 7:10  And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. 

Pro 7:17  I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 

Pro 7:18  Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. 

Pro 7:21  With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. 
Pro 7:22  He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; 
Pro 7:23  Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

Exo 19:16  And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. 
Exo 19:17  And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

Outwardly, the third day is when we redeem the purchased possession. That is when we shall be raised incorruptible.

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.

Here is what Apostle John has to say about this:

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Inwardly, meeting the Lord is when He comes with His judgments to destroy all that is within us that resists Christ from establishing His kingdom within us. As we are aware, thunder and lightning are all indications of His judgment of our old man or the beast within.

Exo 19:18  And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. 

Smoke is an indication of burning by fire. As the scriptures say, every man’s work shall be burnt. However, in this age, it is the elect that are being judged. All that is hay, stubble and wood shall be burned out of our lives when the Lord comes to us. As indicated, Mount Sinai represents figuratively the habitation of God which is our body. In order for Christ to come and live in His temple, it must be cleansed, and the smoke is an indication of the burning that is going on in our lives as we are being judged.

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

Exo 19:19  And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. 
Exo 19:20  And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. 

When the Lord comes to us with His judgment, one significant result is that we end up hearing the voice of the Shepherd clearly as we come to understand more of the mysteries of the kingdom of God. This is what it means when the Israelites heard the voice of the trumpet sound louder and louder. As we are aware, the voice of the trumpet is the voice of Christ or His words.

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 1:11  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Outwardly, when we meet Him face to face we shall know Him fully.

1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Exo 19:21  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish. 
Exo 19:22  And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them. 
Exo 19:23  And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it. 
Exo 19:24  And the LORD said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he break forth upon them. 
Exo 19:25  So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them.

As we have observed earlier, the camp of the Israelites represents Babylon while Moses and Aaron represent the elect. This is made clear when the word of the Lord in Hebrews compared the camp of Babylon to that of the general assembly of the firstborn as follows:

Heb 12:18  For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
Heb 12:19  And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 
Heb 12:20  (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 
Heb 12:21  And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) 
Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 
Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

We thank the Lord for delivering us from Babylon and bringing us to the church of the firstborn. May He grant us the grace to know Him more as we go through the fiery trials marked out for us. Amen!!

Jer 33:14-26  David Shall Never Want For a Man on His Throne

[The False Doctrine of British Israelism Explained]

[Study Aired March 20, 2022]

Jer 33:14  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
Jer 33:15  In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
Jer 33:16  In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.
Jer 33:17  For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
Jer 33:18  Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.
Jer 33:19  And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 33:20  Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
Jer 33:21  Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.
Jer 33:22  As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.
Jer 33:23  Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 33:24  Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.
Jer 33:25  Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;
Jer 33:26  Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.

Our study this week here in Jeremiah 33 will demonstrate with the spirit and power of the Word of God that he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is not outward in the flesh, but circumcision also is of the heart, inward by the spirit and power of the Word of God:

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in 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 God.

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

“The power of God” is “not with enticing words of man’s wisdom”. The power of God is in His “hidden wisdom” which we are told is “a mystery… which God ordained before the world unto our glory.”

1Co 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the  hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

Two other verses confirm that there is spiritual wisdom “hidden… [in a] mystery which God ordained before the world began… unto our glory”:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Paul is speaking to us who, before Christ came into this realm, were “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world”:

Eph 2:11  Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

There was a “hidden wisdom” and a “demonstration of the spirit and of power” which was not capable of being seen or discerned in the words of Christ in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. It was there all along from “the beginning”:

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

When the Lord heals us, He does so through “His Word” (Psa 107:20) Whose name is “the Beginning and the End”. It was “in the Beginning [that] God made the heavens and the earth”:

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

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

For those to whom it is given, we see Christ right here in the first verse of scripture. It is very instructive for us to know that the word translated as “beginning” is the Hebrew word:

H7225
ראשׁית
rê’shı̂yth
ray-sheeth’

From the same as H7218; the first, in place, time, order or rank (specifically a firstfruit): – beginning, chief (-est), first (-fruits, part, time), principal thing.

This is the same Hebrew word which is translated ‘firstfruit’ in this verse:

Deu 18:4  The firstfruit [H7225: ‘reshiyth’] also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first [H7225: ‘reshiyth’] of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.

The holy spirit wants us to know that Christ is the beginning, the end, and everything in between. That is why we are told:

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Col 1:14  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

“The firstborn” were to be counted as “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”:

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

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

In Christ “we [are] a kind of firstfruits”:

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

It is “with the Word of Truth” that we are ‘begotten’. It is also through His Word that we are healed and cured of all our diseases:

Psa 107:19  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

The Lord, the Word, speaks of us His people as “this city” in verse 5 in this very chapter. We were told in last week’s study:

Jer 33:6  Behold, I will bring it [us, “this city” (vs 5)] health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth [through the power of His spirit, which is His Word].

Yes, “the demonstration of the spirit and of power” is the revelation of things we did not know were right there in the Word of God:

Job 26:13  By his spirit [His Word (Joh 6:63)] he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
Job 26:14  Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? But the thunder of his power who can understand?

We know the answer to that rhetorical question:

Mat 13:9  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

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.

“The things of the spirit” are not understood by simply getting a dictionary and paying close attention to the context of the words. “The things of the spirit” are understood only by those to whom “it is given… to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven”.

The words we read here today must be understood “in demonstration of the spirit and of power” and not in the wisdom of men. If we understand these words “in the wisdom of men”, we will be declaring that the Lord is a liar and not capable of working all things after the counsel of His own will because the words of this study declare that King David will never want for a man to sit on His throne nor for a priest to minister before the Lord.

Before we begin this study, I want to share with you how this chapter of scripture was used by the Lord to lead me and many hundreds of thousands of others to believe the false doctrine of British Israelism. It was easy to do because I could not at that time see that the scriptures are written “in demonstration of the spirit and of power.” I ‘saw but did not perceive’ those words of 1^st Corinthians 2 at that time. All I could see was “in the wisdom of men”, who declare in all their seminaries that “If the scriptures can be understood naturally, then that is the way to take it.” That was the mantra of Ambassador University, Dallas Theological Seminary, and many other orthodox Christian seminaries. Contrast that guiding mantra of the theology departments of so many seminaries with these words which guide the understanding of those who are given to see and hear “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven… the things of the spirit”:

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

What does Christ mean when He tells us, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life”? What exactly is “words [which] are spirit”?

The best way to answer that question is with examples which the Lord Himself gave us to explain what He meant when He said, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit.”

A few examples will suffice to demonstrate how the Lord’s words are spirit.

Example #one:

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

Those burying their dead were not physically dead, but they were spiritually dead.

Example #two:

Mat 16:5  And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
Mat 16:6  Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Mat 16:7  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
Mat 16:8  Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
Mat 16:9  Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
Mat 16:10  Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
Mat 16:11  How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
Mat 16:12  Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

False doctrines puff us up against the Word of God just as leaven puffs up bread. False doctrines spiritually blind us and make us spiritually dead by robbing us of spiritual life which comes to us only through the Lord’s spiritual, life-giving words:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, are are life.

Example #3:

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.

The Pharisees were not physically blind. They were spiritually blind and could not see the things of the spirit.

We could continue and use every single parable Christ spoke as an example of how His words are spirit, with a spiritual message which transcends their natural outward meaning, but this will suffice for now.

Again, the apostle Paul tells us:

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
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.

Notice closely that it is not the natural man’s fault that He does not receive “the things of the spirit”. Rather, it is because “they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.”

The following verses of our study here in this 33^rd chapter of Jeremiah are a perfect example of Christ’s words which “are spirit and… life” and of “the things that are freely given to us of God”:

Jer 33:14  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
Jer 33:15  In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.

The natural man reads the words, “In those days, and at that time”, and he just naturally places everything about to be read off into the future. The new man, the man who has been granted to understand “the things of the spirit”, knows that the Lord is speaking of this very moment and every moment in the lives of His saints since Christ came to this earth and died for our sins. It certainly was a future event from the time of the penning of this prophecy because it speaks of “the Branch of righteousness to grow unto David.” However, “the Branch of righteousness” came to this earth over 2,000 years ago, and He has been with His Kings and priests in every generation since.

The natural man reads the words “He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land” and places those words off into a future kingdom, while the spirit of Christ within His saints discerns that our physical bodies are ‘the land’ of the “kingdom of God…  within you” upon which judgment has already come:

Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

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

Christ within us knows that His kingdom is within us now, and that “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house [and kingdom] of God” [which is within us now]. That is the time frame of the words of this prophecy:

Jer 33:16  In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.

To the natural man, Judah and Jerusalem are to be understood as speaking of physical Judah and Jerusalem. The mind of Christ immediately understands that if the kingdom of God is within us, then Judah and Jerusalem are part of that kingdom which is within.

The mind of Christ within His saints calls us “the Lord our righteousness” because Christ in us knows that He can do nothing of Himself:

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

Those in whom Christ dwells know that He considers us to be as Himself:

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

The Lord repeats this doctrine to Saul of Tarsus who became the apostle Paul:

Act 22:7  And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

The natural man cannot receive the Truth that the kingdom of God is within His saints. Therefore the natural man has no idea how he is to apply these next verses:

Jer 33:17  For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
Jer 33:18  Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.
Jer 33:19  And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 33:20  Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
Jer 33:21  Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.
Jer 33:22  As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.
Jer 33:23  Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 33:24  Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.
Jer 33:25  Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;
Jer 33:26  Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.

There we have it. This is known among Biblical scholars as ‘the Davidic covenant’, and it was first given to king David in:

Psa 89:3  I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,
Psa 89:4  Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.

Skipping down to verse:

Psa 89:28  My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
Psa 89:29  His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
Psa 89:30  If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
Psa 89:31  If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
Psa 89:32  Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
Psa 89:33  Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
Psa 89:34  My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Psa 89:35  Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
Psa 89:36  His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
Psa 89:37  It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

There it is! It cannot be stated more clearly. To the natural man, God has very clearly promised King David:

Psa 89:34  My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Psa 89:35  Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
Psa 89:36  His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
Psa 89:37  It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.

The Lord does not lie, therefore my natural mind was easily misled to believe that there must be a throne of David somewhere on this earth today. In my teens I was a very “natural man” and simply overlooked the clearly defined timeline of these prophetic words:

Jer 33:14  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
Jer 33:15  In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
Jer 33:16  In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.

“In those days” refers to “that time [when] I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David.”

It certainly is not referring to the time of wicked King Zedekiah who was the last king to sit upon the outward throne of King David. “The days come when I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and the house of Judah” certainly is not referring to the time of their being carried away into captivity. There was no way for Judah and Jerusalem to be saved before the coming of “the Branch”, who even Babylonian scholars acknowledge is a reference to the coming of Christ into this natural, physical realm:

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

The rest of this entire prophecy concerning the throne of King David is speaking of that same time when Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell safely:

Jer 33:17  For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
Jer 33:18  Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.
Jer 33:19  And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 33:20  Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
Jer 33:21  Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.
Jer 33:22  As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.
Jer 33:23  Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 33:24  Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.
Jer 33:25  Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;
Jer 33:26  Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.

I have since taken note that while the British Israelism doctrine makes such a big deal out of the need to preserve the physical throne of King David, they conveniently ignore the promise that there would always be a priest offering physical offerings.

Jer 33:18  Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.

By not giving heed to the timeline plainly laid out before me, and knowing that God could not lie, I was ripe for the picking.

The timeline of scripture was:

Jer 33:15  In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.

This is further qualified with these words which speak of this same time:

Eze 21:26  This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Remove your turban! Take off your crown! Things aren’t going to remain as they used to be. What is lowly will be exalted, and what is lofty will be brought low.
Eze 21:27  A ruin! A ruin! I’m bringing about ruin!’ But this also will not happen [the exalting of the lowly and the abasement of the lofty] until he who has authority over it arrives, because I’ll give it to him. (ISV)

With a total inability to discern the things of the spirit when I read The United States and The British Commonwealth in Prophecy by Herbert W. Armstrong, that man really did at that time appear to me as a messenger and an angel sent by God:

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.

When Mr. Armstrong pointed the words of ‘the Davidic covenant’ out to me, and spun a fairy tale about Jeremiah taking the royal daughters to Ireland and from Ireland to Scotland and from Scotland to England and tied that all in with that prophecy of:

Eze 21:25  And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,
Eze 21:26  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.
Eze 21:27  I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.

I really believed that I had found a great man of God, and I wanted to be a part of the work of God.

With no spiritual understanding, and being completely unaware that “the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, this false doctrine appealed to my natural man who became even more puffed up in identifying myself as a physical Israelite. The throne of England had been ‘overturned’ three times, and it has been in England ever since. My poor spiritually blind eyes thought that the throne of the king of England was surely the throne which God had promised King David He would preserve as long as the moon was shining in the night skies.

I now understand that anytime the number three is involved in a prophecy, the process of judgment is also involved. “Oh earth, earth, earth” (Jer 22:29) demonstrates this principle. Jeremiah 22 is addressed to the Lord’s own people, and the whole chapter concerns the Lord’s judgments upon His people:

Jer 22:1  Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

Jer 22:7  And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

Again, the Lord begs His people to hear His words, and He calls them “earth, earth, earth” three times, signifying the process of judgment His people must endure while in these clay vessels:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Jer 22:30  Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Look at how similar the words of Ezekiel 21 are to the words of Jeremiah 22:

Eze 21:24  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.
Eze 21:25  And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,
Eze 21:26  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.

The sins of the Lord’s own people are the same subject in both passages, and the throne of King David is again threatened with judgment for the sins of the king and his people:

Eze 21:27  I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.

As it turns out, the word translated as the verb “overturn” is actually a noun and should be translated as a noun:

H5754
עַוָּה
‛avvâh
av-vaw’
– Original: עוּה
– Transliteration: `avvah
– Phonetic: av-vaw’
– Definition:

1. distortion, ruin

– Origin: intensive from H5753 abbreviated
– TWOT entry: 1577b
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine

We are told that the noun ‘avvah’ is derived from its verb form H5753:

H5753
avah
– Original: עוה
– Transliteration: `avah
– Phonetic: aw-vaw’
– Definition:

1. to bend, twist, distort
2. (Niphal) to be bent, be bowed down, be twisted, be perverted
3. (Piel) to twist, distort
4. (Hiphil) to do perversely
5. to commit iniquity, do wrong, pervert
6. (Qal) to do wrong, commit iniquity
7. (Hiphil) to commit iniquity

– Origin: a primitive root
– TWOT entry: 1577
– Part(s) of speech: Verb

Since Ezekiel 21:27 is the only place in scripture when this Hebrew noun ‘avvah’ appears, we must look to its root verb to discern its meaning, and this is what we see as the above definition demonstrates:

H5753
עוה
‛âvâh
Total KJV Occurrences: 16
commit iniquity, 2
2Sa_7:14, Jer_9:5
Committed iniquity, 2
Psa_106:5-6 (2), Dan_9:5
perverse, 2
1Sa_20:30, Pro_12:8
perversely, 2
2Sa_19:19, 1Ki_8:47
perverted, 2
Job_33:27, Jer_3:21
amiss, 1
2Ch_6:37
crooked, 1
Lam_3:9
troubled, 1
Psa_38:6
turneth, 1
Isa_24:1
wickedly, 1
2Sa_24:17
wrong, 1
Est_1:16

In the original Hebrew, the word order is 5754, 5754, 5754, followed by 7760… “Ruin, Ruin, Ruin, I will…”. The King James translators put the ‘I will’ first turning the ‘overturn, overturn, overturn’ into a verb, instead of a noun.

Properly translated there are three nouns followed by a verb, and the only verb in the sentence is the Hebrew word:

H7760
שִׂים    שׂוּם
śûm    śı̂ym
soom, seem

A primitive root; to put (used in a great variety of
applications, literally, figuratively, inferentially and elliptically): –    X any wise, appoint, bring, call [a name], care, cast in, change,
charge, commit, consider, convey, determine, + disguise, dispose,
do, get, give, heap up, hold, impute, lay (down, up), leave, look, make (out),
mark, + name, X on, ordain, order, + paint, place, preserve,
purpose, put (on), + regard, rehearse, reward, (cause to) set (on, up), shew,
+ stedfastly, take, X tell, + tread down, ([over-]) turn, X wholly, work.

Total KJV occurrences: 580

The King James translates this word as ‘I will”. The LITV comes very close to a translation that accords with the sum of God’s Word:

Eze 21:25  And you, O slain, wicked prince of Israel, of whom has come his day in the time of iniquity of the end,
Eze 21:26  so says the Lord Jehovah: Remove the diadem and lift off the crown. This shall not be as this was. Lift up the low one, and make the high one low.
Eze 21:27  Ruin, ruin, ruin! I will appoint it! Also this shall not be until the coming of Him to whom is the right, and I will give it.

This is the very same message of:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth! Hear the Word of Jehovah!
Jer 22:30  So says Jehovah, Write this man childless, a man who will not prosper in his days. For not one from his seed will succeed, a man sitting on the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah.

When the holy spirit teaches us comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we can now see that ‘overturn, overturn, overturn’ has more to do with destroying the physical throne of King David and replacing it with Christ on the spiritual throne of our hearts judging all of our self-righteous false doctrines and destroying them with the brightness of His coming:

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

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
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.

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

The Old Testament is just as much the Words of Christ as are the words of the New Testament. That doctrine “is foolishness unto… the natural man”. The natural man cannot glean from the Old Testament the spirit which Christ tells us is in His words. It is foolishness to the natural man to discern a spiritual message along with the context and the natural meaning of the scriptures. Yet that is exactly what Matthew does when he quotes Hosea 11:2 and applies those words to Christ being brought up out of Egypt by Joseph and Mary:

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

Israel is not Christ, and yet Matthew applies these words to Christ:

Mat 2:15  And was there [in Egypt] until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

Isaiah certainly did not have the virgin Mary in mind when he was comforting King Ahaz with these words:

Isa 7:10  Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,
Isa 7:11  Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.
Isa 7:12  But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.
Isa 7:13  And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
Isa 7:14  Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isa 7:15  Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Isa 7:16  For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

The context has to do with Isaiah’s wife bearing a child as a sign to King Ahaz that the two nations coming against him would be destroyed by the Assyrians “before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good”. That is exactly what happened as the very next chapter reveals:

Isa 8:3  And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
Isa 8:4  For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

In the mind of the natural man, it is the height of foolishness to discern a spiritual message which does not fit into the context of an historical event. Context alone is all the natural mind can see or hear.

There is no denying that the historical stories of the Old Testament happened to the people of that dispensation, and they are written for our admonition because the scriptures plainly teach that doctrine.

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.

If indeed “they are written for our admonition” then they were written for the sake of applying the spiritual lessons which are so clear to those who have been given to be ‘taught of the holy spirit [by] comparing spiritual things with spiritual’.

The argument of the natural mind is that if an Old Testament verse is discerned spiritually, then it has no application to the people of that time. Nothing is further from the Truth. The Lord really did call Israel out of Egypt at that time, and Assyria really did conquer the enemies of King Ahaz before Isaiah’s son could say ‘my Father, and my mother’. Having a natural and a spiritual application is how scripture is intended to be used, and yet so few are given to see or hear the things of the spirit in the words of Christ which “are spirit” in the Old and in the New Testaments.

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Christ made this statement to the hate-filled, self-righteous Saul of Tarsus:

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

The all-powerful risen Christ who rules in the nations of this world (Dan 4:17) is simply confirming to Saul of Tarsus what He had taught while He was imprisoned in a clay vessel when He taught us all this spiritual Truth:

Mat 25:35  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
Mat 25:38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Mat 25:39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

The name ‘Christ’ is itself spiritually intended to apply to both the natural physical Christ as well as Christ in the realm of the spirit dwelling within His spiritual body, yet how few people think of Christ in that way.

The title ‘Christ’ means ‘anointed one’. Christ was indeed anointed and sent forth from His Father. Spiritually you and I are also anointed and sent forth by Christ Himself as His anointed:

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

[Study Aired December 30, 2021]

1Ki 8:14  And the king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel: (and all the congregation of Israel stood;) 
1Ki 8:15  And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it, saying,
1Ki 8:16  Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel. 
1Ki 8:17  And it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 
1Ki 8:18  And the LORD said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart. 
1Ki 8:19  Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name. 
1Ki 8:20  And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 
1Ki 8:21  And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 
1Ki 8:22  And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven: 
1Ki 8:23  And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart: 
1Ki 8:24  Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. 
1Ki 8:25  Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.
1Ki 8:26  And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father.
1Ki 8:27  But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
1Ki 8:28  Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:
1Ki 8:29  That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.

The title of our study is taken from John 14:12 which reads “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” It is with this statement of Christ that we are being reminded of the certainty of the fruit in our lives that has been prophesied to come forth (Joh 15:16) as a result of the life of Christ within us (Col 1:27). It is “because I go unto my Father” which was expedient for Christ to do (Joh 16:7) we can be assured that what God has predestined to be fulfilled in our lives will be accomplished through Him who is the vine. As we abide in Him, we will bring “forth much fruit” (Joh 15:5).

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. 

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

[Who brings forth much fruit within the gentile flesh that I abide in through spiritual circumcision (Rom 2:28-29) “that ye should go and bring forth fruit“]

Joh 16:7  Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

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.

The temple of Solomon is now complete, and Solomon, who is a type of the elect, typifies those who have Christ’s spirit within them. Solomon is now proclaiming, in type and shadow, the blessing that is ours unto which we have been called (1Pe 3:9) and that is to be God’s workmanship who will be a blessing for the rest of the world, given as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1, Joh 3:16).  We are ordained to bring forth much fruit through the faith of Christ (Joh 15:16, Rom 7:4, Rom 7:24-25, Luk 22:32), having become the apple of God’s eye through Christ, and a light unto the Gentiles (Act 13:47) as a result of His life in us (Rom 8:9).

1Pe 3:9  Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son (1Jn 4:17), that whosoever believeth (Joh 6:28-29) in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

It is those who believe and abide, or continue, in the truth (Joh 8:31-36), who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear where our hope resides (Mar 4:11, Col 1:27). Then, with these things in mind, we will look at this section of Kings which points to that hope of glory within, via the typical language of king Solomon. Solomon is now able to bless the nation of Israel from the completed temple that represents the mature life of Christ in us which will be used to bless all the nations of the world in time.

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? [Mat 24:13]
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. [“If ye continue^G3306 in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (Joh 6:44)]

1Ki 8:14  And the king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel: (and all the congregation of Israel stood; ) 

The whole or “all the congregation of Israel stood” is typical of all the world beholding the salvation of God as they stand (Act 1:10-11, Exo 14:13, Deu 18:6-7).

Act 1:10  And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 
Act 1:11  Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven [in time into the hearts and minds of all of God’s creation].

Exo 14:13  And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. 

Deu 18:6  And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose; 
Deu 18:7  Then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the LORD.

It is when “the king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel” that they were told of the blessing that God was bringing to them that came about by His choosing, “David to be over my people Israel“. David represents Christ, and Solomon represents those who have been granted to turn their faces about and see what God is doing within our lives which is represented by the temple (Rev 1:10-12).

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 1:11  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. 
Rev 1:12  And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

1Ki 8:15  And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it, saying, 
1Ki 8:16  Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel. 
1Ki 8:17  And it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

Solomon’s blessing, given before the congregation of Israel, is a shadow of these words in Revelation 4:10-11 and 1 Chronicles 29:14 that God’s elect will profess before all the world and that we declare to each other as we witness His power working in our lives (Rev 11:3).

Rev 4:10  The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 
Rev 4:11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

1Ch 29:14  But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. 

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.

It is David, who is a type of Christ, through whom the Father spoke (Joh 1:1-4), and so when we read of this event, it is typical of our heavenly Father speaking through Christ, the YAHWEH of the Old Covenant. “The LORD God of Israel” who “spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it.” Christ came to reveal the Father and was speaking only what the Father had predestined Him to say (Joh 12:49-50).

Joh 12:49  For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
Joh 12:50  And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

What David spoke was a declaration of what Christ would declare while He was on earth, and that is, “Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.” This statement is symbolic language telling us that many are called and few are chosen. God “brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein” represents the many called but not chosen to have the life of Christ within them, and “but I chose David to be over my people Israel” represents Christ and His body who are chosen^G1588 out of the called^G2822 (Mat 20:16).

Mat 20:16  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called^G2822, but few chosen^G1588.

G2822klētos klay-tos’

From the same as G2821; invited, that is, appointed, or (specifically) a saint: – called.

Total KJV occurrences: 11

G1588 eklektos ek-lek-tos’

From G1586; select; by implication favorite: – chosen, elect.

Total KJV occurrences: 23

Then we’re told in 1 Kings 8:17 that “it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel” which further confirms that David is a type of Christ whose desire was to drink of the fruit of the vine with the body of Christ but plainly said “For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.” It is when the kingdom of God comes within us (Luk 17:21) that a “house for the name of the LORD God of Israel” is built by Christ (Psa 127:1). However, it is Solomon who typifies the elect through whom God builds this new creation, doing greater works than Christ as Solomon did greater works than David, typified by the building of the temple which we are (Joh 14:12, 1Co 3:16). The words  “greater works than these shall he do” means God’s elect are blessed to be able to be instrumental in the conversion of someone which Christ, while he was in the flesh, never did (1Ti 4:16).

Joh 14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

1Ti 4:16  Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue^G1961 in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

1Ki 8:18  And the LORD said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart. 
1Ki 8:19  Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name.

These two verses (1Ki 8:18-19) are saying the same thing as 1Kings 8:16-17, that it was in Christ’s “heart to build an house unto my name” (Luk 22:15) as it was in David’s. That desire would be accomplished in time but was not going to be accomplished while Christ was in His flesh (Joh 16:7). The true spiritual communion we have in Christ was not going to be realized until the holy spirit was given on Pentecost, making it then (and only then) possible for Christ’s disciples to be as Him (1Jn 4:17) having the same desire “to eat this passover with you before I suffer” which is how the spiritual house is built (Luk 18:34, 1Co 10:16). Breaking bread and drinking wine at the Passover were symbols that revealed how the word of God nourishes the body and prepares our hearts to endure the suffering required in this life if we are going to mature in Christ and rule with Him in the next (2Ti 2:12-13). It sounds like the scriptures are saying that David of himself did well to have this desire in his heart to build the temple, but the sum of God’s word tells us otherwise: “thou didst well that it was in thine heart” (Pro 16:1).

Luk 22:15  And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:

Luk 18:34  And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken. 

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

2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: 
2Ti 2:13  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself [Joh 10:28-29, Mat 16:18].

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

“Nevertheless” is a word that means ‘never what we want in our fleshly desires, but God’s will be done’, which Christ always submitted to while He was on the earth, and this is what God’s elect pray is being accomplished in our lives now as it was in His (Luk 22:42, 1Jn 4:17). So Christ himself would “not build the house” which was not God’s will for him, but His sons “thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name” (Joh 16:7). Abraham, who is a type of Christ, reminds us of this point (Gen 15:2-6). We are so few now who are being used to build that house with God’s spirit within us, but we know that in time Christ’s other fold will be saved, and God will ultimately be all in all (Joh 10:16, Gal 4:27, Rev 19:7, 1Co 15:28).

Gen 15:2  And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? 
Gen 15:3  And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. 
Gen 15:4  And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. [“thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins” (Gal 3:16)]
Gen 15:5  And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be [Gal 4:27].
Gen 15:6  And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

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 [1Co 15:28].

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

1Ki 8:20  And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 
1Ki 8:21  And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 
1Ki 8:22  And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:

The first section of this verse reminds us that we are raised in heavenly places with Christ: “I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel” (Eph 2:4-7), Solomon, being a type of the elect, “risen up in the room of David my father” and David being a type of Christ our Olam^H5769 Father. (Deu 32:39-40, Eph 2:6)

With Christ as our high priest (Heb 4:15-16), we are promised we can be more than conquerors through Him, just as the covenant of the Lord being within the ark is symbolic language telling us we will overcome through the exceedingly great and precious promises of God (2Pe 1:4). We will overcome the powers and principalities we wrestle against through Christ, which overcoming is typified by the covenant (‘promise’ Exo 19:5, Luk 24:49) that the LORD “made with our fathers” when “he brought them out of the land of Egypt“.

2Pe 1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust [Tit 2:11-12].

“Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven” is a shadow of God’s elect that tells us when we are before the altar of God which is symbolic of the cross, we can then spread forth our hands toward heaven to bless others as a wave sheaf offering (Lev 23:17), or like the cherubim that sat on the ark with wings that were “spread forth” symbolizing the mercy that God will extend to all the world one day as a mother hen does her chicks (Mat 23:37).

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!

1Ki 8:23  And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart: 
1Ki 8:24  Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand^H3027, as it is this day.

We serve a merciful God who “keepest covenant” meaning what God has promised to do, He will do (Heb 6:18-19), and what He has promised to God’s elect in this age is that He is going to show “mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart“. That mercy is expressed through “the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering” that leads us to repentance in this age, which we are not to despise (Rom 2:4) as we seek the Lord with all our hearts (Heb 11:6-7, Jer 29:13-14). The corruption of this world is escaped by giving all diligence and following these steps outlined in 2 Peter 1:4-12.) Do we rip the veil with Christ in us (Rom 5:10)? The answer is yes, and we are called to believe that the One who we are committing our ways unto is faithful, and promises we will be more than conquerors through Him (1Pe 4:19).

Heb 6:18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: [Rom 8:25]
Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

[God turns away our captivity by blessing us to move with fear as we build the ark which is represented by the church, Christ’s body (Col 1:24), that is being led by God’s holy spirit (Rom 8:14)]

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet [Rom 8:25], moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

David is again mentioned, in context with this covenant of mercy, as a type of Christ who brings to the body of Christ the understanding that we have been given promises which are exceedingly great and precious (2Pe 1:4). “Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand^H3027, as it is this day” tells us that all of God’s desire is going to be fulfilled in each of the elect’s lives by God’s power (Heb 10:7, 1Jn 4:17, Php 2:12-13). As God accomplishes His will through the body of Christ, we are told not to murmur which is the bad fruit of despising “the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering” that leads us to repentance.

Heb 10:7  Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 
Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

1Ki 8:25  Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me. 
1Ki 8:26  And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father. 

If the LORD God of Israel will keep “with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him“, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church (Mat 16:18), which is what this symbolic statement means: “There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel.” Why this must happen is “so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me“, meaning because of God’s purpose being fulfilled in the body of Christ through God’s power, the world will in time “take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.

Solomon, who is a type of the elect, goes on to say “And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified^H539, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father“, demonstrating the right desire to want to see God’s plan move forward through the judgment of the rest of His creation brought about by God’s word being spoken, which words are the fiery words of eternal life (Rom 10:1, Num 11:29, Rev 6:10, Jer 5:14).

verified  H539  ‘âman  aw-man’

A primitive root; properly to build up or support; to foster as a parent or nurse; figuratively to render (or be) firm or faithful, to trust or believe, to be permanent or quiet; morally to be true or certain; once (in Isa 30:21; by interchange for H541) to go to the right hand: – hence assurance, believe, bring up, establish, + fail, be faithful (of long continuance, stedfast, sure, surely, trusty, verified), nurse, (-ing father), (put), trust, turn to the right.

Total KJV occurrences: 108

Rom 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

Num 11:29  And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them! 

Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? [Our blood is avenged by fulfilling its purpose of washing the sins of the world, seeing our blood has now become the blood of Christ, his bones and flesh that will devour all carnality in time (Eph 5:30, Oba 1:21, Jer 5:14)]

1Ki 8:27  But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? 

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth?” was answered to Philip with this verse (Joh 14:9), written for our sakes to help us understand our relationship with our heavenly Father and Christ “at that day” (Joh 5:30, 2Co 3:5, Joh 14:20). We work out our own salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is God who is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Php 2:12-13).

If ever there was a verse that witnesses to the fact that we have God’s spirit in earnest (Eph 1 :14) this would be the one: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?”. We are those marred vessels that must be made new again (Jer 18:4), weak and “not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof” (Luk 7:6). Yet “he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust” (Psa 103:14). “The mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. The LORD hath prepared His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all” (Psa 103:17-19, Heb 12:2, Php 1:6).

It is only by the power of God that we, as His body, can be partakers with Christ and strengthened “in the inner man that Christ may dwell in [our] hearts by faith” (2Co 13:4, Eph 3:16-19, Joh 15:5, Col 1:24, 1Pe 1:3-5).

2Co 13:4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

Eph 3:16  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 
Eph 3:17  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 
Eph 3:18  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 
Eph 3:19  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 

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.

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: 

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1Pe 1:4  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 
1Pe 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1Ki 8:28  Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:

The verses that show us God would have “respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication” can be found in 1 John 5:14 and John 16:23-24, to name a few. David is typified as Christ through whom our prayers are accepted, which is what “respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication” is a shadow of (Eph 1:6).

1Jn 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 

Joh 16:23  And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
Joh 16:24  Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

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

1Ki 8:29  That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. 

This last verse of our study reminds us again that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church if we are the apple of His eye (Zec 2:8). He is wakeful over His word so “that thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place“, symbolized also by the sparrows that over which He watches, and whether they live or die, it is unto the Lord because of our belief (Jer 1:12, Mat 10:29, Rom 14:8). This concept ties in with our title for this study taken from John 14:12,  which reads, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Jer 1:12  Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

Mat 10:29  Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father [“The works that I do shall he do also” (Lev 14:5-7)].

Rom 14:8  For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

God is the one who is making a holy people unto Himself which is what “my name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place” symbolizes, and this is being done for the purpose of perfecting praise within us as we worship Him in spirit and in truth for the wonderful works (Rom 2:4, Pro 3:11, Gal 6:9) He is doing unto the children of men (Joh 4:23-24, Psa 107:8, Psa 107:15, Psa 107:21, Psa 107:31), which we will look at more closely next week, Lord willing.

Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh [1Pe 4:17], and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Psa 107:8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 

Psa 107:15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 

Psa 107:21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 

Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 

Jer 19:1-15  I Will Bring Evil Upon This Place That Will Make The Ears Tingle

[Study Aired October 3, 2021]

Jer 19:1  Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
Jer 19:2  And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
Jer 19:3  And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
Jer 19:4  Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
Jer 19:5  They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
Jer 19:6  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
Jer 19:7  And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 19:8  And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
Jer 19:9  And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
Jer 19:10  Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
Jer 19:11  And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
Jer 19:12  Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
Jer 19:13  And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
Jer 19:14  Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people,
Jer 19:15  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

The Lord is very clear that the “evil in the city” comes at His hand and with His “foreknowledge”. Here are just two of many examples given in scripture:

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Amo 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

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

What Amos 3:7 is saying is that the Lord always reveals His judgments to His servants the prophets. The “evil in the city”, regardless of its apparent cause, is the fruit of our sins, and the fruit of our sins is the result of being made of dust, being “marred in the Potter’s hand”.

Pro 26:2  As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

“The first man Adam” was “made to be taken and destroyed” by the judgment of the Lord.

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that  might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

‘Babylon’ is the Biblical symbol for the Lord’s apostate people, and in that sense this 19^th chapter of Jeremiah introduces the Lord’s fiery judgments upon that corrupt, rebellious, apostate system which has deceived the whole world. The Lord uses a very graphic depiction of what He is doing to that hypocritical system within us and what He will do to Babylon when He appears to rule the kingdoms of the world:

Jer 19:1  Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;

As we saw in the previous chapter, the “potter’s earthen vessel” is all mankind who are “marred in the Potter’s hand”. The point the Lord is making is that the clay and the pot are in the Potter’s hand, and this clay has absolutely nothing to do with what the Potter is doing with the clay that is in His hand:

Jer 18:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2  Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

There is no room for the Babylonian false doctrine of “free moral agency” in the symbolism of clay in the hand of a Potter. In this 19^th chapter we are being shown what the Lord intends to do to the “the vessel of clay [which] was marred in the hand of The Potter”, and the Lord is demonstrating the purpose for which He created this “marred… vessel of clay”. Jeremiah is instructed to “get a potter’s earthen bottle [and take along] the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests” and go to the valley of Tophet with these witnesses to hear the words of the Lord concerning the judgment He is bringing upon His apostate people.

Jer 19:2  And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,

“The valley of the son of Hinnom” is called ‘Tophet’ earlier in this prophecy:

Jer 7:31  And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
Jer 7:32  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
Jer 7:33  And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.
Jer 7:34  Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

This entire chapter is really just repeating what the Lord told Jeremiah in chapter 7. This same message concerning the judgment upon the apostate sins of His people… that would be each of us… was repeated earlier in:

Isa 30:33  For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

Look at those words! “Tophet is ordained of old”. What is Tophet’s ordained function? For God’s (“the king’s”) preordained judgment of our old man. If we take the words “the king” to be our rebellious old man who sits in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God, the message is the same. Taken either way, the message is the same. It is “ordained of old” by the Lord… “made deep and large” to consume all the ‘wood, hay and stubble’ that is our flesh. The fire and brimstone, which kindles the consuming of all the wood, hay, and stubble of our flesh, is “the breath of the Lord”, His “inspired…God breathed” Word.

Here is the meaning of the name ‘Tophet’:

H8613

– Original: תּפתּה
– Transliteration: Tophteh
– Phonetic: tof-teh’
– Definition: Tophet = place of fire

1. a place in the southeast end of the valley of the son of Hinnom south of Jerusalem
2. same as 8612

– Origin: probably a form of H8612
– TWOT entry: None
– Part(s) of speech: Proper Name Location
– Strong’s: Probably a form of H8612; Tophteh a place of cremation: – Tophet.

This is what we see when we look up H8612:

H8612
תֹּפֶת
tôpheth
to’-feth
The same as H8611; Topheth, a place near Jerusalem: – Tophet, Topheth.
Total KJV occurrences: 9

This Hebrew name appears in three different forms all meaning the same thing… “a place of burning”.

The Hebrew word for ‘breath’ here in Isaiah 30:33 is:

H5397
נְשָׁמָה
neshâmâh
nesh-aw-maw’
From H5395; a puff, that is, wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration,  intellect or (concretely) an animal: – blast, (that) breath (-eth), inspiration, soul, spirit.

This word is not ‘ruach’, the Hebrew word for spirit, yet we are told in Psalms 18 that this ‘neshamah’ comes “of the breath (Hebrew: ‘ruach’, spirit) of Thy nostrils”:

Psa 18:15  Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast [H5397: ‘neshamah’, physical “breath of life” (Gen 2:7)] of the breath [H7307: ruach, spirit] of thy nostrils.

This is what “the breath of His nostrils “discovers” to be our judgment:

Jer 19:3  And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.

These are the same words the Lord used to describe the effect of His judgment upon the house of Eli the priest many years earlier:

1Sa 3:11  And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.
1Sa 3:12  In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end.
1Sa 3:13  For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.

Then the Lord reiterates the list of our sins:

Jer 19:4  Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
19:5  They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it;  neither came it into my mind:

This is the second time the Lord has made this statement… “neither came it into my mind”. Here is the first time earlier in this same prophecy of Jeremiah:

Jer 7:31  And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

This statement, like many others in scripture, appears to our natural mind to make the scriptures contradict themselves. If indeed it is God who “works all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11) how can He then tell us “neither came it into my mind… to burn their sons… and their daughters… with fire for a burnt offering unto Baal”?

The answer is the same in every case where the scriptures appear to contradict themselves. The Lord had to give Himself an adversary, a ‘Satan’, in order to have an evil foil against which to contrast the goodness of His heart and His intentions for all of mankind. He must let us know He is sovereign and full of mercy even as He works all the evil in this world “after the counsel of His own will”:

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:

‘The sum of the Lord’s words’ (Psa 119:160 ASV), reveals that everything, including every “power… and principality” were created by and consist only in Christ:

Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

This sovereignty of Christ extends to “the fruit of [our] lips” which comes from “the abundance of [our] heart”:

Isa 57:19  I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

Mat 12:34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

The Lord Himself ‘makes us to err from His ways’ so He can judge us and drag us through that fiery judgment to Himself:

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.

The Lord sends evil spirits to incite our rebellion against Him and His ways, so He can tell us, “neither came it into My mind… to burn [our] sons unto Baal”.

Here are a couple more examples of how the Lord is orchestrating all things after the counsel of His own will:

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

1Ki 22:23  Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

Knowing it is all of God does not make it any less of a fiery trial requiring the Lord’s judgments upon us:

Jer 19:6  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
Jer 19:7  And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 19:8  And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
Jer 19:9  And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

The sword is the Word, and the Word is “the sword of our enemy” just as the Lord was Job’s enemy when Job ignorantly made this self-righteous statement:

Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

This was Job’s iniquity which brought these fiery words of the Lord down upon him:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
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?

Here is how the Lord inspired Jeremiah to describe what God did to Job. Here is what the Lord is doing to each of us:

Jer 19:10  Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
Jer 19:11  And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
Jer 19:12  Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
Jer 19:13  And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.

This ‘burning of incense unto the host of heaven’ is the keeping and observing of the traditions of all the men about us in this world and in this present society. This is what the Lord says to us concerning our strong desire to be accepted by this world by keeping its traditions:

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

But we do ‘add to’ and ‘diminish from’ the Words of the Lord to make them conform to the idols of our hearts. So, the Lord sends Jeremiah back to the capital of Judah to reaffirm His impending judgments upon us and all our ‘towns’… all the idols of our hearts.

Jer 19:14  Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people,
Jer 19:15  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

Again, it is simply undeniable that when the Lord says, ‘because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words”, “they” do so because:

Exo 7:3  And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

Joh 12:40  He [the Lord] hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

It is natural that we all react to this knowledge with the question: “Why have you made me thus?”

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?

We just naturally despise the Lord’s answer to this question:

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?
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction [our old man]:
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy [our new man], which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Rom 9:24  Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Rom 9:25  As he saith also in Osee [Hosea], I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
Rom 9:26  And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
Rom 9:27  Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

Outwardly Israel is physical Israel. Inwardly ‘Israel’ is spiritual religion in opposition to Christ and His Truth. The doctrines of outward ‘Israel’ are “as the sand of the sea”, whereas the Truths of Christ are comparatively few. Truth stands firm in itself, whereas lies require more lies to bolster the original lies. That is why the curses of Deuteronomy 28 are almost four times more numerous than the blessings.

That chapter has 68 verses in it. The first 14 verses give us the blessings for obedience to the Lord. The remaining 54 verses give us the curses which come upon us for being disobedient to the Lord.

Rom 9:28  For he will finish the work, and cut  it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
Rom 9:29  And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
Rom 9:31  But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness [Physical Israel, “the son of the bondwoman” (Gal 4:25-26)].

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.

Rom 9:32  Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
Rom 9:33  As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

“Jerusalem above” signifies “the mind… of Christ” within “the children of the freewoman”.

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 and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Php 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

“The son of the bondwoman” is our own flesh and blood which “cannot inherit the kingdom of God”:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Our own old man, and the same carnal mind of others, will always hate and persecute our new man, “Christ in [us] the hope of glory”.

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:
Col 1:25  Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

That is our study for today, and these are our verses for our next study:

Jer 20:1  Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
Jer 20:2  Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
Jer 20:3  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib.
Jer 20:4  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
Jer 20:5  Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
Jer 20:6  And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
Jer 20:7  O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
Jer 20:8  For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
Jer 20:9  Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
Jer 20:10  For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
Jer 20:11  But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
Jer 20:12  But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.
Jer 20:13  Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
Jer 20:14  Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
Jer 20:15  Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
Jer 20:16  And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;
Jer 20:17  Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
Jer 20:18  Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Jdg 20:1-24 Judah Shall go up First Against Gibeah

Jdg 20:1  Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh. 
Jdg 20:2  And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword. 
Jdg 20:3  (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness? 
Jdg 20:4  And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. 
Jdg 20:5  And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead. 
Jdg 20:6  And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel. 
Jdg 20:7  Behold, ye are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel. 
Jdg 20:8  And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house. 
Jdg 20:9  But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it; 
Jdg 20:10  And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel. 
Jdg 20:11  So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man. 
Jdg 20:12  And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you? 
Jdg 20:13  Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel: 
Jdg 20:14  But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel. 
Jdg 20:15  And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men. 
Jdg 20:16  Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss. 
Jdg 20:17  And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
Jdg 20:18  And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.
Jdg 20:19  And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
Jdg 20:20  And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
Jdg 20:21  And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.
Jdg 20:22  And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.
Jdg 20:23  (And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.)
Jdg 20:24  And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.

This Chapter is the continuation of the previous Chapter dealing with the death of the concubine of the Levite and the consequences of the actions of the Benjamites in Gibeah in the death of the concubine. This scenario is the raising of the storm by the Lord which brings us to our wits’ end, and God finally comes to our aid to lead us to our safe haven.

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!

Today’s study focuses on the struggles within that we go through when we are being judged.

Jdg 20:1  Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh.
Jdg 20:2  And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.

All the Israelites gathered at a place called Mizpah to deliberate on what needed to be done with their fleshly brother Benjamin’s crime against the Levite. Mizpah means watchtower. It is at the watchtower that we come to see what God is telling us all along – that is, the flesh must be destroyed.

Hab 2:1  I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
Hab 2:4  Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
Hab 2:5  Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:

The description here in Habakkuk 2:4 and 5 refers to our old man as he lifts himself up. Our time at the watchtower is therefore a time in our walk with Christ that our Lord gets our attention to let us know who we really are and His intent in destroying the flesh within. The four hundred thousand footmen here signify the whole of the human race getting the attention of the Lord as to who we really are, but each in his own order.

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

Jdg 20:3  (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?
Jdg 20:4  And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.
Jdg 20:5  And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.
Jdg 20:6  And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.
Jdg 20:7  Behold, ye are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel.

The narration here is to let us know our struggle against sin within. Nowhere in the scriptures are we required to give reasons as to why we sin. However, the word of God enjoins us to give account for our sins. At a certain point of our walk with Christ, we come to see our struggle with sins just like Paul saw as follows:

Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
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.

It is when every elect come to see his or her spiritual poverty due to our sins that we all declare with one mind this war against our old man represented here by the men of Gibeah.

Jdg 20:8  And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house.
Jdg 20:9  But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it;
Jdg 20:10  And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.

This declaration of war within our members is when we come to see the following:

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Gal 5:18  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

In verse 10 of Judges 20, multiples of ten men are taken from every tribe in Israel to fetch victuals for this war within. The number ten means the fullness of the flesh. Those selected to fetch victuals are the elect of every generation who come to see their spiritual poverty as their eyes begin to open and they hear. This opening of our eyes and ears is the same as going to fetch victuals or making provisions to wage a good warfare.

1Ti 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Jdg 20:11  So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
Jdg 20:12  And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?
Jdg 20:13  Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:
Jdg 20:14  But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

This fight against the enemies within is not won by easy surrender. Victory only comes through the defeating of our enemies or our flesh. It does not come through the willing cooperation of our flesh.  In other words, these works of our flesh must be totally annihilated before victory is won.

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20  Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Jdg 20:15  And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men. 
Jdg 20:16  Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.

As indicated earlier, on a positive note, the tribe of Benjamin is another symbol of God’s elect as demonstrated by the fact that Benjamin was given food five times more than his brothers and was loved dearly by his father Jacob – more than his other brothers except Joseph.

Gen 43:34  And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin’s mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.

It is we the Benjamites, or God’s elect, whose sins have reached the heavens and we are being judged in this life.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Among the Benjamites, a key characteristic is that seven hundred of them were left-handed. Two places in the Book of Judges (Judges 3:15 and Judges 20:16) succinctly note the extraordinary left-handed abilities of the tribe of Benjamin. This characteristic of the tribe of Benjamin is significant and symbolic. We can understand what the left hand stands for in Genesis 48:18 where Jacob was blessing the children of Joseph but chose to place his left hand on the older and the right hand on the younger grandson. What Joseph said there was very insightful.

Gen 48:17  And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.
Gen 48:18  And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.

What these verses mean is that the right hand corresponds to being first born and therefore being privileged with the birthright or double portion. The flip side of this is that the left hand represents those without the birthright. So the seven hundred Benjamites being left-handed means that they were not called and chosen to lead Israel, but God chooses the stupid things of this world to confound the wise. In our case, we were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel (Because we were “left-handed” and therefore do not have any birthright), but by the grace of God, we who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ!!

Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

A key feature of the left-handed Benjamites was that they can sling stones at a hair’s breadth.

Jdg 20:16  Among all this people (the Benjamites) there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.

The seven hundred left-handed Benjamites represent the elect in every generation. The stone we are slinging is Christ, who is the word of God, and by this we are able to subdue the enemies within as stated in Zechariah 9:15. To sling stones at hair’s breadth means to be able to handle the word of God such that one can divide the soul and the spirit and of the joints and marrow, and be able to discern the thoughts and intents of one’s heart. That is the weapon we need to defeat the enemies within.

Zec 9:15  The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Jdg 20:17  And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
Jdg 20:18  And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.
Jdg 20:19  And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.

The four hundred thousand men of Israel can also represent the whole of the people of the earth who God uses as His sword to judge His elect.

Psa 17:13 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

This war within, must be fought and won according to God’s principles. The principle here is that in this fight against the old man or flesh, Judah must go up first to start the fight. The question is, “What is the significance of Judah going up to engage the enemy?” In order to understand the significance, let’s look at the following story of the birth of Jacob’s children:

Gen 29:31  And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.
Gen 29:32  And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the LORD hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me.
Gen 29:33  And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.
Gen 29:34  And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.
Gen 29:35  And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.

Leah felt that her husband Jacob (here representing Christ) would love her for what she was doing – giving Jacob sons. In verse 35, she came to the painful realization that it was not what she does that pleases the Master, and therefore she ceased from her own strivings (stop bearing children) and decided to focus on what God does. That is what brings praise, and that is the meaning of the name Judah. So what wins the war is not what we can do but what God does through us as we appreciate His works in every aspect of our lives through the ceasing of our own strivings!!

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.

Jdg 20:20  And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
Jdg 20:21  And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.

On the first day of the battle, twenty-two thousand men of Israel fell. The number twenty and two thousand signifies all our fears as we come to the new Jerusalem. These fears must be destroyed within us by the word of God.

Jdg 7:3  Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

As the word of God says, perfect love drives out fear because fear hath to do with torment which does not auger well if we want to establish a meaningful relationship with Christ. That is why all our fears must be destroyed first.

1Jn 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

The number twenty and two thousand can also denote all we think we can offer God, as demonstrated by Solomon’s offering of twenty and two thousand oxen for sacrifice. What we think we can offer must also be destroyed in this relationship so that we come to know that Jesus is our offering and sacrifice. As long as we are in Him, we are offering Christ as our sacrifice.

2Ch 7:5  And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep: so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

Gen 22:7  And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
Gen 22:8  And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Jdg 20:22  And the people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.
Jdg 20:23  (And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.)
Jdg 20:24  And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.

This struggle against the flesh is for a lifetime. Losing a war today does not mean that we have lost the battle. Currently, we all are going through all kinds of trials and temptations.  We may be losing some ground, but we have not lost the fight!! God is encouraging us, just like He encouraged the Israelites to come up against the enemies within even in the face of defeat. Our situation is not unique. David and his men who gathered unto him were in great distress after losing their possessions at Ziklag. Nevertheless, the Lord urged them to continue to engage the enemies as they were destined to recover all they had lost. Just like David and his men who represent the elect, God is urging us on to continue irrespective of what ground we have lost. Victory is surely on the horizon.

1Sa 30:1  And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
1Sa 30:2  And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way.
1Sa 30:3  So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.
1Sa 30:4  Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
1Sa 30:5  And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
1Sa 30:6  And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
1Sa 30:7  And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.
1Sa 30:8  And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.

Let us take hold of the strength of the Lord in this fight of our lives as He admonishes us as follows:

Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Heb 12:12  Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
Heb 12:13  And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
Heb 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

Heb 8:7-13 “Ye are our Epistle Written in our Hearts, Known and Read of all Men” – Part 2

[Study Aired November 19, 2020]

Heb 8:7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 
Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 
Heb 8:9  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 
Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 
Heb 8:11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 
Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 
Heb 8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. 

The title of this second part of our study of Hebrews chapter eight is taken from 2Corinthians 3:1-6 (verse 2) which is a very telling section of scripture regarding how and where the new covenant is being written, which reads, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men.”

This chapter of Hebrews is again another opportunity for us to see the contrast that God is demonstrating through those who have been called to witness (Rev 11:3, Joh 13:35, Joh 14:15) to the world of what God is capable of doing through the sufficiency we receive from Him.

2Co 3:1  Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2Co 3:2  Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
2Co 3:4  And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
2Co 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us [Rev 19:7] able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. [Why is God saving the elect in this manner? 1Co 2:5, Joh 13:35, Joh 14:15, 1Jn 5:3-4]

Joh 13:35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

The old covenant and the laws within it are called a “ministration of death” (2Co 3:6), and the law itself is a law for the “lawless and disobedient” (1Ti 1:9, Rom 5:20) created to make manifest the sinful nature within us which can only be changed by having God write upon our hearts the new covenant (Heb 8:10). This writing of the new covenant on the hearts of God’s people is the great act of mercy He is showing to the remnant (Rom 11:5) whom He has predestined to be recipients of that goodness in this age (Rom 2:4, Rom 11:22).

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

Rom 5:20  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

[Gods grace or favor, “charis^G5485“, is demonstrated in judging us in this age (1Pe 4:17) so that we can learn to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts” and “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” which is what happens when He writes these things “in their hearts” (Tit 2:12, Heb 12:6-7). God’s love is being perfected through His chastening grace (1Jn 4:17, 1Pe 4:17).

Tit 2:12  Teaching^G3811 us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth^G3811, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening^G3809, [2Ti 3:16, Pro 6:23] God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth^G3811 not?

2Ti 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction^G3809 in righteousness:

Pro 6:23  For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction^{H4148 = G3809} are the way of life:

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

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

Rom 11:5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace^G5485 [“charis” (Luk 1:28)].

Luk 1:28  And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favouredG5487,”charis” the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

[the church, the body of Christ is highly favoured^G5487,”charis” to be filling up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ (Col 1:24)]

highly favoured^G5487
– Original: χu945 ρu953 τu959 ́u969 
– Transliteration: Charitoo
– Phonetic: khar-ee-to’-o
– Definition:
1. to make graceful – [Rev_19:7] – “hath made herself ready.G2090 G1438” [Mat_20:23] “but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is preparedG2090 of my Father.”
a. charming, lovely, agreeable
2. to peruse with grace, compass with favour
3. to honour with blessings
– Origin: from G5485
– TDNT entry: 15:12,1
– Part(s) of speech: Verb
– Strong’s: From G5485; to grace that is indue with special honor: – make accepted be highly favoured.  – [Eph_1:6]
Total KJV Occurrences: 2
•accepted, 1
Eph_1:6
•favored, 1
Luk 1:28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured^G5487, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

Having God write this new covenant “in their hearts” so that he can be to us “a God, and they shall be to me a people” is what makes His children in this dispensation of grace (Eph 3:2) the generation that has no confidence in our flesh. We are chastened and scourged to that end so we lean less and less on our own flesh (Heb 12:6-8) as we are received of our Father and assured in our newly fashioned hearts that the gates of hell will not prevail against us in this relationship of trust and faith given to us by God (Rom 8:38-39, Mat 16:17-19, 2Co 1:9, Php 3:3, 1Jn 5:4). Saying “grace did much more abound” of Romans 5:20 is just another way of reminding us that we must continue to fight a good fight of faith as we “continue in the faith” and that we must “through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God”, which we will if God permits (Act 14:22, Heb 6:3).

With all this in mind let’s look at this highly favoured relationship that God is forming in us through Christ Who is writing on our hearts His laws and commandments, expressed this way in scripture, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men, Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” (2Co 3:2-3) All of this is happening so we can be presented as a chaste virgin (Rev 19:7) who has learned of His faithfulness through the church, through the body of Christ that is typified by Christ’s mother, Mary, who supplied (Eph 3:10) all that Christ needed in her womb to bring forth the son of God unto maturation (2Co 11:2-4, Isa 66:9, Isa 9:6, 1Jn 4:17).

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^G3834, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity^G572 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.

In order to become a chaste virgin to Christ, we must have His new covenant written on our hearts, a covenant that will make us of one mind (Php 2:2), having a simplicity^G572 or singleness of mind that will keep us undefiled from this world and able to overcome the subtilty^G3834 of the devil who is always trying to deceive us and destroy that unity if it were possible, which God tells us is not going to happen to His little flock (Mat 24:24, Luk 12:32).

Php 2:2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

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

Simplicity^G572
– Original: αu788 πu955 οu769 τu951 ςpar – Transliteration: Haplotes
– Phonetic: hap-lot’-ace
– Definition:
1. singleness, simplicity, sincerity, mental honesty
a. the virtue of one who is free from pretence and hypocrisy
2. not self seeking, openness of heart manifesting itself by generosity
– Origin: from G573
– TDNT entry: 07:26,6
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine
– Strong’s: From G573; singleness that is (subjectively) sincerity (without dissimulation or self seeking) or (objectively) generosity (copious bestowal): – bountifulness liberal (-ity) simplicity singleness.
Total KJV Occurrences: 8
•bountifulness, 1
2Co_9:11
•liberal, 1
2Co_9:13
•liberality, 1
2Co_8:2
•simplicity, 3
Rom_12:8; 2Co_1:12; 2Co_11:3
•singleness, 2
Eph_6:5; Col_3:22
subtilty^G3834
– Original: πu945 νu959 υu961 γu953 ́u945 
– Transliteration: Panourgia
– Phonetic: pan-oorg-ee’-ah
– Definition:
1. craftiness, cunning
2. a specious or false wisdom
3. in a good sense, prudence, skill, in undertaking and carrying on affairs
– Origin: from G3835
– TDNT entry: 17:02,8
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine
– Strong’s: From G3835; adroitness that is (in a bad sense) trickery or sophistry: – (cunning) craftiness subtilty.
Total KJV Occurrences: 5
•craftiness, 4
Luk_20:23; 1Co_3:19; 2Co_4:2; Eph_4:14
•subtlety, 1
2Co_11:3

Heb 8:7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 
Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 
Heb 8:9  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 

These first three verses are revealing that the law for the lawless and disobedient of 1Timothy 1:9 cannot perfect anyone, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.” Also, that old covenant law is used to bring us to see our need for a new covenant law, “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers”, but rather a new covenant that is founded upon better promises; (Heb 8:6) promises which tell us that we can be more than conquerors through Christ (Rom 8:37) as we gain dominion over sin in our members little and by little as we go from glory to glory in the Lord at the hand of “a fit man” (Rom 6:14, Eph 2:6, 1Co 6:14, Exo 23:30, 2Co 3:18, Lev 16:10, Lev 16:21).

Heb 8:6  But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

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

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

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

1Co 6:14  And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

Exo 23:30  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

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.

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

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

The fault that is found with “them” “for finding fault with them, he saith, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah“, is speaking of the old covenant and not the law itself, which, if used properly is good (1Ti 1:8). However, our inability in our minds to live by the spirit of the law, which only Christ can come and fulfill within our hearts and minds so that we can overcome the wretchedness of sinful flesh, cannot use the law properly (Rom 7:24-25). The new covenant head is Jesus Christ represented by Judah and Melchisedec, and the new covenant body is “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16), the body of Christ, the church, represented in the old covenant as the “house of Israel” (Col 1:24).

1Ti 1:8  But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;

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.

The two laws are being discussed in this section of scripture (Rom 7:24-25), and it is only through Christ that we can “serve the law of God” which is speaking of this law spoken of in Galatians: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ“(Gal 6:2). “The law of sin” is governed by the law that is not made for a righteous man, but for that lawless old man in me who is potentially “lawless and disobedient” and is guilty of all. That was the point of these scriptures, not just to remind us of the depth of God’s mercy which will be extended to all the world, but also to remind us of what would manifest within any human at anytime if God did not stay the hand of Satan and strengthen us through Christ (1Ti 1:9-10). God determines the times and seasons when that hedge must come down in the life of His children so that we never lose sight of the fact of this verse that comes right after what we just read: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1Ti 1:15).

Christ is the one who enters into our temple to give us the ability to live by the spirit and no longer by the letter that kills (Mat 5:17, 2Co 3:6, Joh 8:36 – to be free indeed is to be able to fulfill the spirit of these commandments of Christ which new commandments (Joh 13:34-35) were earmarked with Him saying to those who could receive it: “But I say unto you” (Mat 5:28-48).

Mat 5:17  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Mat 5:28  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Mat 5:32  But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Mat 5:34  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:

Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Notice the language that describes how the Lord worked with us when we were yet carnal and being led out of the wilderness, “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord”. It was written this way for our admonition to show us that we were being dragged by God to Christ (Joh 6:44) and yet the rebellious spirit was still there coming along for the ride. This murmuring and rebellion took place at this time by Israel of old and was written to cause us to move with fear knowing that it is only because of God’s mercy, God’s chastening grace and faith, that anyone of us can ‘come out of her my people’ and be led by the spirit of God (1Co 10:10-11), not going where our flesh would like to go, but regardless, still going (Heb 3:17, Rev 18:4, Rom 8:14-16, Joh 21:18).

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 [This is the end of the world of which God is speaking to elect (1Jn 2:16-17)].

Heb 3:17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

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.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Joh 21:18  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not [“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”].

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 
Heb 8:11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 

The day will come when the outward dispensational fulfillment of these verses will happen, but for God’s elect today, these things are happening every day as we die daily and fight a good fight of faith that will result in God putting His “laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts“, provided we are granted to keep under ourselves and continue to see the need to move with fear as Noah did to the saving of his house (1Co 9:27, Heb 11:7).

1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

This is the covenant relationship that we have with our Father today, and it is his good pleasure to give us this opportunity today (Luk 12:32) as we give thanks unto Him who has made us “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints” (Col 1:12).

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Even now we don’t “teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest“, in the sense that we have no need that any carnal man teach us (1Jn 2:27). However the sum of God’s word shows us that we need the epistles of Christ to be ministered to us as God provides us what we need through the manifest knowledge that is made known through the church (2Co 3:3, Eph 3:10).

1Jn 2:27  But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

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

Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Our sins and iniquities will “vanish away” by the ripping of the veil in the temple that represents our blind self-righteous flesh that cannot help but operate from the law in its members (Rom 7:23) that God put there as the lawgiver (Jas 4:12). He put that law there and knows we are all naturally subject unto this vanity of self-righteousness that causes us to sin (Isa 63:17, Rom 9:19-21). He will overcome this spirit within us by blessing us to be found with the righteousness of Christ within us (Eze 33:13, Php 3:9).

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.

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

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.

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? [“as seemed good to the potter to make it.” (Jer 18:4)]

The answer to why is simple if we can receive it, and the answer is we were made this way so that we could be fashioned into something new by the hand of the Potter, each man in His order (Jer 18:4, 1Co 15:23).

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.

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
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: [1Jn 5:4]

Overcoming through Christ is precisely what the new convenant is about. It is about God bringing us to see that He is our all powerful Sovereign Father who can take “that which decayeth and waxeth old” to a point where it is “ready to vanish away” so that something new can come out of the old. The old covenant can be thought of as a worm, and the new covenant written upon our hearts is how the beautiful butterfly that God is able to bring out of darkness as “the righteousness which is of God by faith” will be born. The epistles of Christ are being written on our hearts so that we can become that new creation that will one day be revealed to all the world in a moment and in a twinkling of an eye. A brand new creation that was formed out of weakness to the glory of our Father in heaven (2Co 5:17, 1Co 15:52, 2Co 12:9).

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

1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

“The Covenant Renewal”

[Study Posted August 26, 2020]

Today’s study finds us nearing the end of the Awesome Hands series pertaining to “hands” mentioned in the book of Joshua.

Though we will span several of the last chapters in Joshua, most of the study will be a recap on what the Lord has done for Israel in the context of the book of Joshua.

First, we have the Levites coming to the leaders of Israel to request that the lands promised to them be given to them. This is the first mentioning of the word hand for this study which is found in Joshua 21.

Jos 21:1  Then came near the heads of the fathers of the Levites unto Eleazar the priest, and unto Joshua the son of Nun, and unto the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel;
Jos 21:2  And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for our cattle.
Jos 21:3  And the children of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their inheritance, at the commandment of the LORD, these cities and their suburbs.

The Levites requested the land that have been promised, and this sets up the rest of the chapter to be an inventory of sorts of all the dividing up of the lands to the respective tribes to whom the Lord has promised land.

Jos 21:8  And the children of Israel gave by lot unto the Levites these cities with their suburbs, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.

Jos 21:41  All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty and eight cities with their suburbs.
Jos 21:42  These cities were every one with their suburbs round about them: thus were all these cities.
Jos 21:43  And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein.
Jos 21:44  And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.
Jos 21:45  There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.

Obviously all that is transpiring here in this chapter is the culmination of all the events that happened up until this point.

This is the bookend on a very long and arduous process the Lord started Israel on when He first called forth Abraham and promised Abraham a people coming forth from him to serve the Lord.

What we need to note is that this had to be a big event for the people. Even if everyone wasn’t at this event or attentive to it, this was an event that would change the way Israel lived as Israel forevermore.

Next, we move to chapter 22, and we continue the story of the dividing of the lands, but we do so from the perspective of dealing with the tribes that were left on the other side of the Jordan. Remember, not all of the tribes crossed over the Jordan.

Jos 22:1  Then Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh,
Jos 22:2  And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you:
Jos 22:3  Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the LORD your God.
Jos 22:4  And now the LORD your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side Jordan.
Jos 22:5  But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Jos 22:6  So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away: and they went unto their tents.
Jos 22:7  Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given possession in Bashan: but unto the other half thereof gave Joshua among their brethren on this side Jordan westward. And when Joshua sent them away also unto their tents, then he blessed them,
Jos 22:8  And he spake unto them, saying, Return with much riches unto your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.
Jos 22:9  And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go unto the country of Gilead, to the land of their possession, whereof they were possessed, according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.

After this meeting takes place, the eastern tribes on the “other side of Jordan” depart and go back to their lands. However, on their way over to cross the river back home, they erect an altar. This does not go very well. I will read these next verses from the ESV translation.

Jos 22:10 ESV  And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.
Jos 22:11 ESV  And the people of Israel heard it said, “Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.”
Jos 22:12 ESV  And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.
Jos 22:13 ESV  Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,
Jos 22:14 ESV  and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel.
Jos 22:15 ESV  And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them,
Jos 22:16 ESV  “Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, ‘What is this breach of faith that you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the LORD by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the LORD?

What I find interesting is that the tribes on “this side of Jordan” find it a “breach of faith” that has been committed against God and Israel for building an altar. So strong is this belief that they were ready to go to war no sooner than the Lord had given them rest and peace. This is right after the end of chapter 21.

Jos 21:44  And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.
Jos 21:45  There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.

It tells us a lot about the state of the church and how we act initially after being given peace and life in the Lord. We immediately want to lord it over others and declare ourselves as speakers on the Lord’s behalf.

Aren’t the eastern tribes part of Israel? Therefore, are they calling war on themselves as claimed by these other tribes?

Continuing in verse 17, we see some of the details of the concerns of the western tribes:

Jos 22:17 ESV  Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the LORD,
Jos 22:18 ESV  that you too must turn away this day from following the LORD? And if you too rebel against the LORD today then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.
Jos 22:19 ESV  But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the LORD’s land where the LORD’s tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against the LORD or make us as rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God.
Jos 22:20 ESV  Did not Achan the son of Zerah break faith in the matter of the devoted things, and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And he did not perish alone for his iniquity.’”
Jos 22:21 ESV  Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel,
Jos 22:22 ESV  “The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the LORD, do not spare us today
Jos 22:23 ESV  for building an altar to turn away from following the LORD. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the LORD himself take vengeance.
Jos 22:24 ESV  No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?
Jos 22:25 ESV  For the LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the LORD.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the LORD.
Jos 22:26 ESV  Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice,
Jos 22:27 ESV  but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the LORD.”’
Jos 22:28 ESV  And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.”’
Jos 22:29 ESV  Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD and turn away this day from following the LORD by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the LORD our God that stands before his tabernacle!”

I know those are a lot of verses to read, but one can’t get the same feel for the intensity of what is happening by just saying it in one’s own words as to what was inspired to be written down by the Lord.

It is revealing that the first instinct of the larger group of Israel was to assume that the smaller group, made up of the eastern tribes of Israel, was rebelling against the Lord.

It is quite apparent that these eastern tribes were very wise and right on the money with what would be said about them in the future. It is being said about them right here in this story!

In a nutshell, these eastern tribes feared that the Jordan would serve as both a physical and MENTAL boundary to the western tribes as to whether the eastern tribes were really a part of Israel, and they were right to be concerned as proven with this very story.

They simply did something that was not understood by the rest of the tribes, and immediately the western tribes prepared for war.

In truth, the eastern tribes were wanting to make sure that Israel was always united.

Jos 22:30 ESV  When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke, it was good in their eyes.
Jos 22:31 ESV  And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against the LORD. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the LORD.”
Jos 22:32 ESV  Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them.
Jos 22:33 ESV  And the report was good in the eyes of the people of Israel. And the people of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people of Gad were settled.
Jos 22:34 ESV  The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, “For,” they said, “it is a witness between us that the LORD is God.”

This story is a great example of why jumping to conclusions can be so devastating. The Lord has ultimately caused these eastern tribes to build this altar. Phinehas concludes that the hand of the Lord is stayed because the breach of faith they ASSUMED happened had not HAPPENED.

However, the staying of the Lord’s hand happened because the western tribes heard out what the eastern tribes had to say. The eastern tribes NEVER INTENDED to build the altar for the purposes the western tribes accused them. Even with the altar built, the hand of the Lord would not have come against Israel.

We know this to be true because it is recorded as such:

Jos 22:22 ESV  “The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the LORD, do not spare us today

We find ourselves in the last chapter of Joshua that has “hand” or “hands” mentioned in it. This chapter is a good reminder of where it is we have come from, and as a result, what it is we are to do as a result of our remembrance of who delivered us. However, just remembering the work of the Lord in our lives is not enough.

Idle hands are the devil’s playground, as it is said, so let us not be spiritually idle. While this phrase is not exactly found in the KJV or other translations, the concept very much is active throughout scripture.

2Th 3:10 ESV  For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
2Th 3:11 ESV  For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.
2Th 3:12 ESV  Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

1Ti 5:8 KJV  But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
1Ti 5:9 KJV  Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man,
1Ti 5:10 KJV  Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.
1Ti 5:11 KJV  But the younger widows refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry;
1Ti 5:12 KJV  Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith.
1Ti 5:13 KJV  And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.

Pro 10:4 KJV  He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
Pro 10:5 KJV  He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.

Pro 18:9 KJV  He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.

Ecc 10:18 KJV  By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.

Joshua is now going to remind Israel of where they have been brought and what they are to do with this newly found peace and freedom in the Lord.

Jos 24:1 ESV  Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God.
Jos 24:2 ESV  And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.
Jos 24:3 ESV  Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac.
Jos 24:4 ESV  And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. And I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.
Jos 24:5 ESV  And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in the midst of it, and afterward I brought you out.
Jos 24:6 ESV  “‘Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.
Jos 24:7 ESV  And when they cried to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness a long time.
Jos 24:8 ESV  Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you.
Jos 24:9 ESV  Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. And he sent and invited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you,
Jos 24:10 ESV  but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand.
Jos 24:11 ESV  And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand.
Jos 24:12 ESV  And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow.
Jos 24:13 ESV  I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.’

Fear of the Lord means a lot of things, and there has been much written on this topic. Indeed, we have lost brothers and sisters in this fellowship because of this very topic of fearing the Lord.

Nonetheless, the scripture does not say to fear the Lord in vain. We should be concerned with our standing in the Lord above all other things if we desire to be among the faithful elect of God.

The truth is, as we covered in the last study, that the Lord gives the gift of Faith. It is also the Lord that removes His gift as He wills it. So, those that are called, chosen and faithful to the end are only full of faith, to the end because the Lord has caused them to overcome their TRIALS OF FAITH with the faith the Lord has granted them!

Rev 2:14 KJV  But I have a few things against thee, 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.

Heb 3:1 KJV  Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
Heb 3:2 KJV  Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

Rev 17:14 KJV  These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Heb 12:2 KJV  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Here then is our instruction, coming by way of the example set for us by Joshua to the Israelites:

Jos 24:14 KJV  Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
Jos 24:15 KJV  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Joshua starts off by telling the people to put away the gods they are worshipping. Those gods are from their forefathers and from those that came before them. For us, we came from the old man in us. We came from that, but we have also been born again. That way of worshipping the old man is dead and buried in spiritual baptism.

Jos 24:16 KJV  And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;
Jos 24:17 KJV  For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:
Jos 24:18 KJV  And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God.
Jos 24:19 KJV  And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.

Joshua is telling Israel they cannot serve the Lord because they are obviously STILL serving other gods. Isn’t that amazing?

So, if after ALL that we have known to happen in the bible, up to this chapter of Joshua, has happened and the people still worship others gods, what should our conclusion be about the possibility that we, too, are being warned to “choose this day whom you will serve”?

Jos 24:20 KJV  If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
Jos 24:21 KJV  And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD.
Jos 24:22 KJV  And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.
Jos 24:23 KJV  Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.
Jos 24:24 KJV  And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.
Jos 24:25 KJV  So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

The place this covenant is made is in Shechem, which means ridge. The root word in Hebrew is neck, or specifically, the place the burden is placed on.

H7927
shekem
shek-em’

The same as H7926; ridge; Shekem, a place in Palestine: – Shechem.
Total KJV occurrences: 49

H7926
shekem
shek-em’

From H7925; the neck (between the shoulders) as the place of burdens; figuratively the spur of a hill: – back, X consent, portion, shoulder.
Total KJV occurrences: 22

H7925
shâkam
shaw-kam’

A primitive root; properly to incline (the shoulder to a burden); but used only as denominative from H7926; literally to load up (on the back of man or beast), that is, to start early in the morning: – (arise, be up, get [oneself] up, rise up) early (betimes), morning.

Total KJV occurrences: 65

The place that Joshua tells Israel to ‘choose this day whom you will serve’ is in the place of ‘burden’, but it also means to literally load up and start early in the morning. This doesn’t sound like someone who is spiritually idle. This sounds like someone who is ready to fear the Lord and do the service of the house of God.

Joshua’s call was to put strange gods away. For us, we don’t have to worry about worshiping false gods of the Romans or the Greeks or any other religions or culture because that would obviously be wrong.

Our true concern is much more subtle and is with worshiping the god who sits on the throne of God showing himself to be God.

2Th 2:1 KJV  Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2Th 2:2 KJV  That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
2Th 2:3 KJV  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 KJV  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.

We must be diligent to examine ourselves daily to confirm that we are fearing the Lord and putting away any other god that exalts itself against the one True God. That is our covenant and calling.

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Isa 62:1-6 I Have Set Watchmen Upon Your Walls O Jerusalem

[Study Aired July 5, 2020]

Isa 62:1  For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
Isa 62:2  And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
Isa 62:3  Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
Isa 62:4  Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
Isa 62:5  For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
Isa 62:6  I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,

The first verses that came to my mind in picking the title for today’s study were:

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

“Oversee… [watch] all the [Lord’s] flock… therefore watch” and be the “watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem”. This warning and this commission here in Isaiah has little to do with world affairs. Those who oversee the Lord’s flock are watching out for “men who speak perverse things” and bring to us the necessary “heresies among you”:

1Co 11:19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

As I have demonstrated many times, it is typical of Hebrew writers to state the same thing twice using two different items or names to make their point. When we read:

Gen 48:2  And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.

It is obvious that ‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel’ are one and the same person.

When Isaiah says:

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

It is again obvious that ‘Sodom’ and ‘Gomorrah’ are speaking of one and same peoples.

Likewise, when we read in the first verse of this chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 62:1  For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

It is again obvious that ‘Zion’ and ‘Jerusalem’ are again the same people of God.

However, there is a process which ‘Zion’ must endure before she is made righteous.  The fact is that the words ‘Sodom’ and ‘Gomorrah’ are also two more names which refer to Zion as the great Harlot which she must acknowledge herself to be, and of which she must repent before her “righteousness goes forth as brightness and [her] salvation… as a lamp that burns.”

The Truth is that the words, “Ye rulers of Sodom; [and] ye people of Gomorrah” in the introduction to this Isaiah prophecy is also addressed to Judah, Jerusalem and Zion, all types of us as the Lord’s special people.

Let’s return to the first chapter of this prophecy and just look at how the Lord addresses us as His own people:

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

“Judah and Jerusalem” typify the Lord’s elect, but notice closely how the Lord’s elect first appear to Him in His perception of what he first made us to be:

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.

Israel, Judah and Jerusalem are all types of the Lord’s chosen people of Zion, as we see here in chapter 62 where we are being shown the glorious end product of our fiery trials, and where we are being made to know what is the “redemption of the purchased possession” and what is meant by “to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ”:

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

Look at how Paul speaks of our own beginnings. Just as the holy spirit revealed that “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me” was required in Isaiah’s prophecy of Israel, Paul, too, was moved of the same single-minded holy spirit to make us to know that we also, being the true “Israel of God” (Gal 5:16), are first, by our Maker’s design, servants of “the prince of the power of the air”. We, too, must first be the sons “of [our] father the devil” (Joh 8:44):

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.

Gal 6:15  Certainly, it doesn’t matter whether a person is circumcised or not. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.
Gal 6:16  Peace and mercy will come to rest on all those who conform to this principle. They are the Israel of God. (GWV)

Joh 8:44  You come from your father, the devil, and you desire to do what your father wants you to do. The devil was a murderer from the beginning. He has never been truthful. He doesn’t know what the truth is. Whenever he tells a lie, he’s doing what comes naturally to him. He’s a liar and the father of lies. (GWV)

Here we have Christ telling the “Jews that believed on Him” (Joh 8:30-31) they are “of [their] father the devil”. The church of Christ’s day, represents the churches of our day who profess Christ but hate His doctrines. Then we have the apostle Paul, speaking under the inspiration of the same holy spirit, tell us, “We all…were…by nature…the children of wrath even as [all] others.” Then Paul informs us that because God has “predestinated us” to be “to the praise of His glory” that we are now seated with Him in the heavens (Eph 2:6). How is it possible for us to have been “as others, walking according to the… prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience… fulfilling the desires of the flesh… by nature the children of wrath” and yet now be seated “with [Christ] in the heavens” (Eph 2:6)? The answer is that it is all the predestinated work of His own hands fulfilling what He promised to us “before the world began”:

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
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:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [our] works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

“The first man, Adam”, as death-bound, earthy, marred and corruptible as he is, still typifies “the last Adam… a life-giving spirit”:

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.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

We need to notice that it does not say ‘The first man Adam was made a living soul; Jesus Christ was made a quickening’. While that is certainly true, it does not make the point the holy spirit is making, and it doesn’t make the point the holy spirit wants us to understand, which is:

Heb 2:11  For both he that sanctifieth [Christ] and they who are sanctified [all mankind] are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Now look at the preceding verse:

Heb 2:10  For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

“Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things” is “not ashamed to call [us His] brothers”. That is how He sees us, and that is how He wants us to see Him. He is not ashamed of us. We are “His workmanship”, His brothers. We are the work of His hands, and He identifies with us:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Heb 2:15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Heb 2:16  For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Heb 2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Christ made us as we are, and to demonstrate His love for us He emptied Himself of the glory He had with His Father, and took on Himself the seed of Abraham and became subject unto death.

Php 2:7 but did empty himself, the form of a servant having taken, in the likeness of men having been made,
Php 2:8 and in fashion having been found as a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death–death even of a cross, (REV)

It was He who made “the first man Adam”. Of what character and composition are we made by Him?

This is what we are told about what this “first man Adam” is:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

This how Jeremiah makes this same point:

Jer 18:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2  Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

“The vessel He made of clay was marred in the Potter’s hand”, because, as Ephesians two explains:

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; [in the Potter’s hand]
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 [“In the hands of the Potter”] the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
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:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Did any of us vote to be “dead in trespasses and sin”? Of course, we did not ‘vote’ to be “dead in trespasses and sins.” Instead we all “by nature… fulfill the desires of the flesh and the [carnal] mind” whether we wanted to do so or not. We are all “by nature… dead in sins”, and yet the Lord has taken a chosen few in this present time (Rom 8:18) and “made us to sit together in the heavens”.

We have all been led by the great whore and her daughters to believe that “the first man Adam” was a perfected creation of God. We have all been lied to and led to believe that Adam and Eve, of their own free will, rebelled against God and plunged all mankind into a fallen state. Nothing could be further from the truth. “The fall of man” is not a Biblical phrase, nor is it a Biblical doctrine, and yet I have heard a very well known man with an international TV ministry say, “The first thing I am going to do at the resurrection is to walk right up to Adam and punch him in the nose.” This minister and many, many others believe that God Created mankind in a state of perfection from which Adam fell when His listened to his wife who had taken her instructions from the fallen serpent.

The fact is that God, our Creator and Maker, can make us any way He pleases, both in the garden of Eden and right this moment as He continues here in Jeremiah 18 to explain to His adulterous wife, Israel:

Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

It is therefore by our Maker’s decree that we are all, as were our original parents, Adam and Eve, “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the same in hope”:

Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

“Subjected… the creature… to vanity… in hope” does not mean that the Lord hopes in vain to save a few of mankind from death and destruction. Remember, what the Lord wants or hopes for is exactly what He gets!

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

Does the Lord tell us what He desires for mankind? Yes, He does, and He tells us over and over again:

1Ti 2:4  Who [Christ] will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

1Ti 4:10  For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

Does “specially of those that believe” mean ‘exclusively of those that believe’? Absolutely not!

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

The Lord tells us that He is in fact using the unbelief of most of mankind for the occasion He is seeking to keep the vast majority of mankind spiritually deaf and spiritually blind, “lest He should heal them and they should be converted.”

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.

The Lord revealed to the apostle Paul that He intended to use a very select few as the channel and conduit through which He “will have all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the Truth.”

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

In the end, the Lord will “have mercy upon all”, but that mercy of God will come “through your mercy”. In the interim both His elect and the masses of mankind are predestinated to have an experience of evil and misery, groaning and travailing in pain together until now:

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

This “experience of evil… given to the sons of humanity” by the Lord Himself, is the same as being “made subject unto vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the same in hope” as we read earlier:

Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

“The bondage of corruption” is these bodies of sinful flesh and blood which are defined in those very terms:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Let us go back to the first chapter of Isaiah where we read earlier in this study the Lord tells us that we have “rebelled against Him”:

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.

It is in this state of “the bondage of corruption” (Rom 8:21) and rebellion (Isa 1:2) the Lord first begins to speak to us as it was revealed in the first chapter of this prophecy of Isaiah:

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 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Isa 1:6  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Isa 1:7  Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
Isa 1:8  And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Isa 1:9  Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

It is from that sad state in chapter one, having become “a harlot” (Isa 1:21), that the Lord drags us out of that great harlot through ‘falling seven times’ (Pro 24:16), through being tormented day and night in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb (Rev 14:8-12), and by our fulfilling the seven last plagues of the wrath of God (Rev 15:7-8), to the glorious blessing of:

Isa 62:2  And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
Isa 62:3  Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

The Lord reveals all these glorious blessings to us because He knows we need to be encouraged, and lifted up and built up in the spirit.

Isa 62:4  Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.

‘Hephzibah’ means:

H2657
חֶפְצִי בָּהּ
chephtsı̂y bâhh
khef-tsee’ baw
From H2656 with suffixes; my delight (is) in her; Cheptsibah, a fanciful name for Palestine: – Hephzi-bah.

‘Beulah’ means:

H1166
בָּעַל
bâ‛al
baw-al’
A primitive root; to be master; hence (as denominative from H1167) to marry: – Beulah have dominion (over), be husband, marry (-ried, X wife).

“Beulah… Your land shall be married” tells us this:

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

The marriage union is but a type and shadow of Christ and the church:

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
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 every thing.
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

As the wife of our Lord, we must call Him our Lord and obey His doctrines:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

If we do what our Lord tells us to do, then we will “know of the doctrine” whether it is of the Lord or of men.

Joh 7:17  If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

Isa 62:5  For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.

This is one more verse which demonstrates that in scripture a son of God is also the bride of Christ, just as Christ is both the son of God, and at the same time submits to His father “as unto the Lord” as his head (Eph 5:22 quoted above) and:

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

“The head of Christ is God” does not reveal a trinity. What it does reveal is that Christ’s Father is also His husband to whom He submits as a wife to her husband.

Joh 14:28  Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

We are called “the sons of God”:

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

At the same time, we are told we are “espoused to one husband… Christ”.

Like our Lord we are both a son and a wife, and in the spirit that is no contradiction at all.

Isa 62:6  I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,

We are “a chaste virgin espoused to one husband” (2Co 11:2), we are “sons of God” (1Jo 3:1-2), we are shepherds and bishops of the Lord’s flock (Act 20:28). We are spiritual soldiers in the Lord’s spiritual army (2Ti 2:4), and we find that we are also “watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem” and are expected to be ever vigilant and sober and diligent to watch over the Lord’s flock as Paul warned the Ephesian elders:

Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

“Overseers” are “watchmen” who the Lord has placed “on the walls of Jerusalem… [to oversee His flock. The Lord’s true watchmen] shall never hold their peace day nor night: [If we] make mention of the LORD, [we will] keep not silence”.

We have all fallen to the wiles of men arising and speaking perverse things while in Babylon, but we have also “of [our] own selves [had] men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves”.

There is one reason and one reason only why we ourselves are not taken in by such “men… speaking perverse things”, and that one reason is this:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jacob treated Esau worse than Esau treated Jacob. King David’s sins against Uriah and Bathsheba and against Israel were greater than the sins of King Saul. Yet the Lord had already decided who would and who would not be written in His book. These things are types of us in that we take credit for nothing, and yet we can take great comfort and encouragement knowing what is the mind of God and His love toward us.

That is our study for today. Here are our verses for our next study:

Isa 62:7  And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
Isa 62:8  The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured:
Isa 62:9  But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness.
Isa 62:10  Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
Isa 62:11  Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
Isa 62:12  And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.