[Posted May 3, 2024]

Thanks Mike,

That cleared it up well for me.

As far as what’s going on over in the middle east, I guess all we can do is follow our Lord’s will Psalms 122:6   Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.

Always in the love of God,
K____

Hi K____,

I am thankful you were helped.

I do need to point out who the ‘Jerusalem’ is for whose peace we are instructed to pray. The Lord reveals to us that from His perspective “Jerusalem which now is… is Agar [Hagar], and is in bondage with her children [and] will not be made heir with the son of the free woman… Jerusalem above the mother of us all”:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we [Gentile converts], 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.

From God’s perspective it is those who are in Christ, with absolutely no regard to physical descent or physical pedigree, who are the children of Abraham. It is not the physical Jews nor is it physical Christians who say ‘Lord, Lord’ but will not do the things He says’, like “Love thine enemies… resist not evil… turn the other cheek”, etc. etc.

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

Christ goes on in the very next verses to 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.

The whole Christian world who believes we are to fight and kill our enemies and the enemies of Israel are building their “house… without a foundation” and the coming storm will cause that house to fall and the ruin of that house will be great”.

There is not one Christian minister in a thousand who would dare say that “Hagar answers to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”, simply because God has not given them eyes that see nor ears that hear… the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven:

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 [Jews who believed on Christ but had no use for His words (John 8)]
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

These are the same ‘Jews’, signifying the Christian churches, who tell us to support physical Israel, or we will be cursed. These are the same Jews who were Abraham’s physical descendants, and who believed on Christ, and yet they wanted to kill him:

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many [Jews] believed on him.
Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, [we are Christians, we support Israel], and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin [Whoever ignores ‘Love your enemies, resist not evil, turn the other cheek].
Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you [The same as saying, ‘I know you claim to be Christians, but my word has no place in you’].
Joh 8:38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father [You are of your father the devil (Christians or Jews who say ‘Lord, Lord’ but do not do the things He says Luk 6:46)].
Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father [‘We are Christians, we support Israel’]. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father [‘Go fight and kill for God and country and ignore what Christ says’]. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Joh 8:42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Joh 8:45  And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.
Joh 8:46  Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
Joh 8:47  He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

“You cannot hear My Word” does not mean they did not literally hear. It means they are not given to do what Christ says to do.

If we are not “given” to understand that the Jewish religion of Christ’s day signifies the Christian religion of our day, the New Testament will mean nothing to us. If Christ were to return in the weak flesh He came in two thousand years ago, with the same doctrine He brought at that time, it would be professing Christians who would be the first to say, as our presidents all believe… “Turn the other cheek is not good foreign policy.”

One of our presidents said those very words and was given a standing ovation. Another president said that he would be the hero of both the Christian community and the LGBTQ+ community. The Truth is:

Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Luk 16:13  No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Without fail, the rejected master in this age will always be Christ and His uncompromising doctrines.

The ‘Jerusalem’ for whose peace we are to be praying is to be found in these words which instruct us for whom we are to be praying:

Joh 17:9  I pray for them [“Jerusalem above” (Gal 4:26) those who do what Christ says to do (Luk 6:46)]: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

Paul urges us to pray that we, those who do what Christ says, can live in peace in this present Christ-rejecting world. It is in complete accord with what Christ prayed to His Father the night of His apprehension by the Jews in John 17:9:

1Ti 2:1  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2  For kings, and for all that are in authority [Pray “for kings and for all in authority” to be saved in this present time? That is not what Paul is saying at all. Read the rest of this verse]; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
1Ti 2:3  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth [Via “Your mercy” which they will receive “when Sodom… returns to her former estate” (Rom 11:31-32, Eze 16:55)].

This reveals “the peace of Jerusalem… Jerusalem above, the mother of us all” (Gal 4:26) for whom we are instructed to pray… “Not for the world but for those You have given Me” (Joh 17:9).

Praying you are given eyes that see and ears that hear,

YbiChrist, Mike

The Book of Hosea – Part 1, Hosea 1:1-11  Hosea Marries a Prostitute

[Study Aired April 13]

The Book of Hosea is the first of the so-called twelve Minor Prophets who, to our Lord, are far from being ‘minor’! The Hebrew scholars considered these twelve books to be one book, and that concept seems to hold a lot of validity since the themes of sin, chastisement, repentance and redemption consistently portrayed in those twelve books reflect the same pattern in the entire Bible. 

A significant point to which the esteemed scholars are utterly blinded is the momentous meaning of the number twelve. Since the holy spirit deemed it good to include only twelve books of an unknown possible number of other writings hidden from inclusion in the Bible, that number represents Christ and His foundational Body of Elect.

Rev 21:16  And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal [a perfect cube representing unity in Christ and the Father].
Rev 21:17  And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. 

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

1Pe 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Of course, particularly in the Darby bible version that inspired Schofield’s heretical machination with his version, the Lord deliberately included them among the vast array of other Bible versions to sustain a very few mostly hidden irregularities to nourish an exceptionally strong delusion that salvation is of the Old Covenant Jews in these seeming dying days of Zionism. 

Additionally, Christian Zionists and Orthodox Jews alike are looking for the nirvana of a physically restored world with their non-scripturally worded ‘millenium’ where the Jews will rule from their new temple on the apparent original temple mount in Jerusalem. The orthodox Christians, referred to as Babylonian Christians since they remain unwittingly in symbolic Babylon today, are looking for a ‘rapture’ where they, the imagined true believers, will be spirited away triumphant and in contempt for the rest of the world headed for the lie of eternal hell fire.

The temple site in Israel and the ‘perfect red heifer’ sacrifice for temple dedication are, at this time of writing, ready to go. Unrealised by the harlot world of Christians, the Jews still hate Christ, the reformer, and as one existing Jewess gnashed her teeth, would again ‘nail Christ up in a heartbeat!’ (q. S. Silverman) It is not the Jews or their literally 40,000 + supplementary Christian harlot churches of Babylon’s fault for their strong delusion (Mat 13:10-11). The Lord made them utterly witless of the spiritual meanings of the twelve minor prophets’ prophecies. Both Jews and Christians in these seeming end times are itching to increase ‘wars and rumors of wars’ (Mat 24:6-13) to unconsciously fulfill ‘every man’s hand against his neighbor’ (Zec 14:13), and ‘except for the Elect’s sake, no flesh would be saved alive’ prophecies (Mat 24:22).

Satan, our first father, so easily ‘eats dust’ of which man is derived since our unity is first in him, and the likes of Cryus Ingerson Schofield are his tool to sustain a deceived Judeo-Christian world. The Schofield Reference Bible was first published in 1909 and revised in 1917, right at the prominent re-birth and amplification of the ‘Jews who say that they are Jews and are not’ for the contrivance of the state of Israel. https://stephensizer.com/2021/06/cyrus-ingerson-scofield-charlatan-and-heretic/

Rev 2:9  I know thy [the twelve representing the Body of Christ, the Elect, the Bride] works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art [spiritually] rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

The synagogue of Satan is perfectly synchronous with Christianity, believing that salvation is of the physical Jews; thus, both belong to the collective “synagogue of Satan” as secondarily does the world ‘outside the camp of Israel’.

Isa 53:6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him [Christ] the iniquity of us all [First with the ‘foundational twelve, the Body of Christ, and secondarily and just as significantly, the world]. 

Rev 3:7  And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

The Church of Philadelphia is one of the Seven Churches of Asia representing the entire Church of God, yet potently represents her final representation, having endured chastisement and about to be given the crown of life and rulership in Christ with the rod of iron in the One-Thousand Years, commonly called in Babylon, ‘the Millenium’ (Rev 1: 2, Rev 1:11, Rev 1:20, Rev 2:27).

Rev 3:8  I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength [yet, the strength of a mustard seed], and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 
Rev 3:9  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan [Pointedly Judaism and Babylonian Zionist Christianity], which say they are [unconsciously spiritual…] Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 
Rev 3:10  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 
Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 

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

Mat 24:3  And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? 
Mat 24:4  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 
Mat 24:5  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 
Mat 24:6  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 
Mat 24:7  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Mat 24:8  All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Mat 24:9  Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
Mat 24:10  And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 
Mat 24:11  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 
Mat 24:12  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many [hopefully not for the Body of Christ, though, being a small Church, the few that have left are effectively “many”] shall wax cold. 
Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure [Chastisement with joy since changed hearts are elated hearts] unto the end, the same shall be saved. 
Mat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Babylonian Christianity has preached in the heat of the day to the entire world as a strong, delusional witness to all nations since her doctrine is of the flesh. However, spiritually, the primary purpose of the twelve minor prophets, as is the entire Bible, is spiritually discerned.

Mat 24:23  Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not [His sheep hear the voice of the true shepherd]. 
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 [an Elect can be deceived since he is deceived by design since the foundation of the world, the “very Elect” of God are not deceived]. 

Joh 6:56  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

We eat and drink spiritually the commandments of Christ and not the blasphemy of ritually performing that act at the Old Covenant Passover. 

Joh 6:57  As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 
Joh 6:58  This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead [Old Covenant physically kept laws]: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever [Christ is the spiritual bread from the Father].
Joh 6:59  These things said he [Ironically and highly relevant] in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. 
Joh 6:60  Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? [The Apostles were spiritual babes in training to eventually become fully fledged Christ’s Christs ~ plural, His Bride. Rev 11:15] 
Joh 6:61  When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? 
Joh 6:62  What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? 
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. 
Joh 6:64  But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. 
Joh 6:65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. 
Joh 6:66  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 
Joh 6:67  Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 
Joh 6:68  Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 
Joh 6:69  And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
Joh 6:70  Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? 
Joh 6:71  He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

Judas was the ‘fall guy’ representing the twelve Apostles, just as every joint in the Bride of Christ has betrayed her Lord a number of times while enduring her chastisements, “But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled” – Mat 26:56. Without our spiritual understanding of scripture, we all are guaranteed to deny Christ, and even then, we sometimes still reject him only to later acknowledge our sins (Jer 3:13).

As such, Babylonian Christianity and the Jews, the collective ‘synagogue of Satan’, unintentionally believe that they bathe as the Full Moon unwittingly in the brightness of Satan, the angel masquerading as light. They all believe that the minor prophets herald the remaking of the physical Israel of God and will increasingly violently fight in these apparent latter days only to have their ideology burned with symbolic fire, though, in war, quite likely some supportive states literally.

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

2Co 11:14  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.

Hosea is one of the twelve minor prophets, all of whom echo Isaiah’s vision in Isaiah 6:1-3 and effectively call to each other the exact same prophetic message of doom, destruction, exile and redemption. The Assyrian army in the North (judgment comes from the north – Jer 1:14, Jer 51:48, Eze 9:2, Eze 26:7) was almost at Israel’s door, rattling its war machine for invasion of the northern tribes of Israel when Hosea wrote his message approximately in 755–715BC. It is only understood in the age since the cross and to a very, very small group of God-chosen Elect to know that they are the Seraphims who call to each other; not just the meanings of the prophecies of these twelve prophets but every Biblical meaning. As with all those books of the twelve, they all mostly end in a glorious outcome following their prophecies of doom.

Isa 6:1  In the year that king Uzziah [highly synonymous we will see with Hosea 1:1] died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 
Isa 6:2  Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Isa 6:3  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

King Uzziah was a relatively righteous king in Judah in the South who, as a king, unrighteously took it upon himself to hold some of the oracles of God since he was a Kohathite. As king, he represents us in our formerly proud, self-righteous and imagined rich understanding of God’s word (2Ch 26:16), entering the temple and insolently burning incense with strange fire and paying scant regard for the impending destruction Hosea was proclaiming within us.

Uzziah – `Uzziyah – Phonetic: ooz-zee-yaw’- Definition: Uzziah = my strength is Jehovah 1. son of king Amaziah of Judah and king of Judah himself for 52 years; also ‘Azariah’. 2. a Kohathite Levite and ancestor of Samuel 3. a priest of the sons of Harim who took a foreign wife in the time of Ezra.

Hosea H154, Phonetic: ho-shay’-ah- Definition: Hosea or Hoshea or Oshea = salvation 1. family name of Joshua, the son of Nun.

Hosea and possibly Jonah were apparently the only authoring prophets to have lived in the northern tribes of Israel during the eighth century BC.

To Hosea’s no doubt initial humiliation and despair, God commanded him to marry a prostitute named Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. Gomer is the only female in the Bible to bear that name. The other five occurrences for the name Gomer is the eldest son of Japheth, grandson of Noah and represents the rest of the world as seen in Genesis 10:1-32…

Gen 10:1  Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. 
Gen 10:2  The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.

 … and summarized in verse 32:

“These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.”

Although Hosea’s wife Gomer bore him three children, she, being a prostitute, must have kept Hosea somewhat doubtful that those children were his. Apart from bearing children with Hosea, Gomer’s name is dreadfully silent. Her presence and the implications of her whoredoms are what counts, and her name is only mentioned once in Hosea. Since she represents our former prostituting ways in Babylon and we, being told to come out of her (Babylon), it strongly indicates Gomer didn’t regress to her former ways since she had a secure relationship with the symbolic Christ, represented by Hosea. Additionally, she is mirrored in the Elect, who come out of Babylon and are expected not to return to whoredoms that spiritually are false doctrines.. We know from experience and potently backed up by Scripture that we do look back at Babylon similar to Lot’s wife looking back at the appalling imagery of Sodom and her sister cities going up in dense black smoke and fire. Even Jerusalem is aligned with Egypt, Sodom, Assyria and Babylon since they all represent our Gomer-like doctrinal whoredoms, ‘the giants of our land, that not always just don’t disappear in a puff of smoke.

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

Exo 23:29  I will not drive them [the giants, the delusional lies of our land; whoredoms] out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee [and the baby we initially are is overwhelmed and chokes on strong meat].
Exo 23:30  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. 

Our Lord’s most tender woos of the Gomer that we were, causes us later to come out of Babylon. However, for now, Gomer, we shall see in chapter two, most certainly does go a-whoring!

Hos 2:14  Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. 

Hos 2:19  And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 
Hos 2:20  I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know [have spiritual connection] the LORD.

Gal 6:15  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but [the beginnings of… ] a new creature.
Gal 6:16  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God [the Elect of God].

The fact that Israel has been through the initial wilderness and become a great nation in the Promised Land, Hosea emboldens the Synagogue of Satan to believe that they are espoused in their involuntary self-righteousness that they are the chosen of God “forever.”

Now, and with that lengthy prelude, we hope to see that we represent Gomer, the prostitute. We are astonished and paradoxically incredibly pleased that darkness comes before light and death before life to understand that we are Gomer and greet her “comfortably” for the ultimate joy she brings upon us for our God-given repentance and Husband’s forgiveness.

Hosea 1:1-11

Hosea’s Wife and Children

Hos 1:2  The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD. 
Hos 1:3  So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son. 
Hos 1:4  And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. 
Hos 1:5  And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. 
Hos 1:6  And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
Hos 1:7  But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. 
Hos 1:8  Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. 
Hos 1:9  Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. 
Hos 1:10  Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. 
Hos 1:11  Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

—————

Hos 1:1  The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

Of great significance is Hosea’s reference to Jeroboam as our Lord molds His Bride as He pleases from clay into spirit in the love affair from Genesis to Revelation. Figuratively, midway in the chronicles of the creation of His new Bride, the Lord divides Israel into two parts. Jeroboam’s significance is that he is central to Israel being divided into Judah in the South and greater Israel, represented in the northern ten tribes. Tony Cullen presented an excellent understanding of the events here and particularly in the Study, 1K 11:26-43: Jeroboam

The very same pattern and theme of sin, chastisement, repentance, and redemption Hosea repeats by him being commanded to marry Gomer, a known whore, to most graphically etch in his Elect’s minds how she, the ‘faithful city, has become a harlot.’ Hosea’s marriage to Gomer and the resultant children are precisely what the Lord, the husband of old Israel, felt and experienced in us before covering our nakedness with a “new garment.”

1Ki 11:29  And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field: 
1Ki 11:30  And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces: 
1Ki 11:31  And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee: 
1Ki 11:32  (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel)

Now, those above verses outstandingly point to two major events; the coming division of Israel in the North and later in the South and the spiritual application of Deuteronomy 24:1-2!

Clearly, the twelve pieces of Jeroboam’s chic new garment represent the entire nation of Israel’s imagined beauty, yet dismissive of Hosea and the other prophet’s warning for the whole nation’s tarted-up whorish ways full of her many lover’s dead men’s bones.

Pro 2:18  For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. 
Pro 2:19  None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

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

Mat 23:27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 
Mat 23:28  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Mat 23:29  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 
Mat 23:30  And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 
Mat 23:31  Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 

Gomer’s pre-marriage uncleanness with Hosea’s righteous spirit and mind for his Lord potently reflected Deuteronomy 24:1-2 for its much future spiritual representation of Christ’s Elect being a figurative Gomer, from whom he warmly pleads repentance. Since we know that the Bride of Christ does repent of her whoredoms and remains faithful, we concede that Gomer, upon marriage, likewise repented and remained faithful (Hos 2:20).

Hos 2:19  And I will betroth thee [Gomer by Hosea by works, and we for Christ by his faith and spirit] unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
Hos 2:20  I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou [the Body of Christ in Christ’s faith] shalt know the LORD.

Deu 24:1  When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 
Deu 24:2  And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. 

Mat 19:7  They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
Mat 19:8  He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 
Mat 19:9  And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. 
Mat 19:10  His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
Mat 19:11  But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.

Hosea and his contemporary prophets plead with Israel to repent of her ‘unclean’ ways, and we know in the future account that the Lord, in creating His Bride, does cause her to return again to rebuild the New Heavenly Jerusalem within and “take hold of the paths of life.”

The pictorial portrayed by Jeroboam’s split of Israel powerfully sustains the Biblical narrative of two women representing our Lord’s marriages, first to a whore (formerly us) who wore her own garments, and following, a beautiful girl designed by His very hands to wear His clean white garments of learned purity.

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? [As today’s Jews and Schofield’s ilk unwittingly fight to retain] 
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and [still] is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Hos 1:2  The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD. 

Notice that the Lord says that Gomer’s children are of whoredoms. Since Gomer is married to Hosea, her children to him are no longer born bastards. Nonetheless, since Gomer had sexual intimacies with an unspecified number of men, they all were, by law, her husbands. We shall see in Chapter 2, tragically, for the Elect’s sake and immense spiritual understanding, Gomer does delight in a multitude of different Jesuses and not solely in Hosea.

Hosea’s and Gomer’s ‘children of whoredoms’ obviously depict our disappearing spiritual engagements with ‘another Jesus.’ As such, our land represents our mind and body polluted by a multitude of considered small, children-like sins we imagined Christ overlooked while we sat in the pews of the synagogue of Satan. Some of the most belligerent Christian pastors in the USA and other Western nations are currently advocating bombing the daylights out of any who oppose Israel in the traditions of Old Covenant genocide. Only in the Resurrection to Judgment will they look back in abject horror for their strong delusions.

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. 

Deu 20:16  But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: 

Eze 9:5  And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: 
Eze 9:6  Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. 

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 [since they didn’t have the holy spirit to keep any law], 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 [“speak comfortably unto her”], 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.

Of course, those figuratively bastard children from our whoredoms of having many husbands are given to us by God, and the name, Jezreel, Gomer’s first child allegedly to Hosea, means “God sows.” He sows both good and evil ‘children’ for His purpose of evil experiences that humble us and eventually bring us to perfection in Christ.

Hos 1:3  So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son. 

The definitions of Gomer and her father, Diblaim, identify the house of Israel split into two nations and, subsequently, the incipient Elect of God powerfully representing us being ‘completely’ sold out to whoredoms. While in Babylon today, God has split the world of figurative Babylon, most pointedly as Jeudeo Christianity seeking salvation by the Jews who say that they are Jews and are not, and the second ‘cake’, His Bride. They represent the “two cakes” of Diblaim and our first father, the Devil, with the second ‘cake’ representing the Elect of God fleeing Babylon to their holy Father in Christ and His Father.

Hos 1:4  And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

Jesreel H3157, Gomer’s first son. Jezreel = Definition: Jezreel = God sows n pr m 1. a descendant of the father or founder of Etam of Judah.

The Lord sows both good and evil for His purpose to specifically show His Elect that their path of evil is first classically signified by Judah and the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel.

Loruhamah H3819, a daughter of Gomer’s second child. Definition: Lo-ruhamah = no mercy.

Loammi H3818, a third child and another son, Definition: Lo-ammi = not my people.

A pattern of understanding is relatively easy to be seen in the meanings of Gomer’s children. God sows our good and evil experiences without mercy on our self-righteous harlot ways of eating our own bread and wearing our own clothes, and we thus become not His people. Two males represent the division of Judah in the South and Israel in the North, who should know better and overall represent the Loruhamah, Gomer’s only daughter representing ‘no mercy’ upon our disappearing unrighteousness from whence the Bride of Christ is being created of her harlot mother church she is, the only daughter, showing no mercy on greater Israel and likewise God showing no mercy on them.

The house of Jehu represents the collective synagogue of Satan and particularly us within when we are elevated to think more highly of ourselves than what Christ has initially made us. We are represented as Jehu, who was entrusted by God with the highest function and blessed as King in the land of Israel. 

Mike, in his fine study Being Elevated by God is not Enough provides the best rendition of Jehu’s escapades:

“Again, Jehu demonstrates his knowledge of prophecy and awareness of his purpose. After each instance of executing God’s commandment, Jehu is able to readily justify it with the words of the Lord. In chapter 10, Jehu goes on to destroy seventy of Ahab’s sons, “all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining” (2Ki 10:11). And as if killing the king of Judah along with Joram wasn’t enough, Jehu wipes out a band of Ahaziah’s brethren who had come to salute Joram’s family. Finally, as the coup de grace, he gathers and executes all the devotees of Baal that are in Israel. Talk about an over-achiever! Jehu’s zeal is unquestionable. His accomplishments are more than considerable. His obedience is complete and without hesitation. All that we’ve seen thus far, other than that which can be gleaned from symbols and types, suggests that Jehu belongs amongst the ranks of the great Israelites to have served God well. If we have any doubt of this, there remains this statement from the Lord himself:

2Ki 10:30 And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.

Yet Jehu’s end was much like most of the kings of Israel; we’re told that, like so many before him, “he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” The only examples we’re given pertain to golden calves in Bethel and Dan. A token of this summation can also be seen in the fact that Syria again began to seriously encroach on Israel’s territory. Jehu, so accomplished in overcoming the foes within, was a failure when it came to the foes without. The final word from the Lord on Jehu’s reign: [Hence…]

Hos 1:4 And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.”

[Mike, end]

The lesson for the Lord’s Elect is that he ‘sows’ both good and evil for His purpose of creating His Elect. Representing Jehu’s cunning exuberance, we formerly bathed in the glory of self-proclaimed righteousness for obeying the Lord in ridding the house of Ahab, Jezebel, and associates within ourselves, yet still went the way of most of the unrighteous kings of Israel. Jehu went way beyond his commission through trickery and deceit and avenged the blood of Naboth many times more than God assigned and then for personal glory.

Israel’s sins were not the least bit absolved because of Jehu’s singular successes. Jehu wasn’t commissioned nor able to provide Israel with the strength to stop Assyria’s coming invasion from the North because the Lord had ordained before the foundation of the World that Israel would go into Babylon. It all thus avenged the blood of Jezreel by being overrun by Assyria and eventually scattered and sown throughout the world into many nations. It all was the long and slow beginning of the end of physical Israel and the establishment of the distant Heavenly Jerusalem in the Lord’s Elect.

Continuing are the verses in the first chapter of Hosea to substantiate the interpretations. 

Hos 1:5  And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel 

Unknown to Israel, life comes from the death of the pride of their physical power for the creation of the spiritual Israel of God. 

Hos 1:6  And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
Hos 1:7  But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. 

Judah represents the Lord’s Elect and makes His Priests who go forward, not with the might and self-righteous physical power of the Jehu within, but by Christ’s strong spiritual arm and faith.

Hos 1:8  Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. 
Hos 1:9  Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. 

Loammi pictures the slow finish of the Old Covenant of death that the whorish nation of Israel portrayed so well in poorly done works of the flesh and Gomer-like prostitution. However, the Lord always provides the guarantee of hope so that the giants of our lands within do not overrun us. He says,

Hos 1:10  Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. 

The fact that the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered, does not correlate to the very small number comprising the Bride of Christ. “In the place where it was said unto them [fleshy Israel], Ye are not my people” the Lord gives them the absurdity of hope in the face of exile and deep distress and dismay that the Lord should seemingly abandon them with such a saying. What Israel doesn’t yet know is that they will spawn the spiritual “sons of the living God” to deliver greater Israel as children of His Bride numbered as the sand of the sea to likewise become the “sons of the living God.”

Luk 12:32  Fear not, little flock; [The Bride of Christ, the first ‘sons of the living God’] for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 

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

Hos 1:11  Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

When the blood of Naboth, who represents Christ’s blood and his vineyard of Israel, is avenged, it is the “day of Jezreel” when Christ ‘sows’ (Jezreel = God sows spiritual Judah) His spirit first in His Elect and then on Israel, the sand of the sea.

Lord, please hasten the day.

Lam 4:1-22 Part 4, Scattered Like Dry Sun-bleached Bones

[Study Aired September 2, 2023]

Our Lord has drawn out His little flock from every nation on Earth. Initially, they were unwitting dry bones, temple stones collapsed, dead in a heap until the Lord began raising them to life in Him. There are 120 accounts of scripture using the term “scatter/scattered”, and almost all refer to the Lord’s people in the Wilderness and having come out of Babylon. (Please see Ezekiel 37, The Valley of Dry Bones)

Jas 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

Joh 2:18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? 
Joh 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

That is the Lord’s modus operandi; he destroys our flesh and then sets about rebuilding the new man in his spiritual image.

The Holy Stones Lie Scattered

Lam 4:1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. 
Lam 4:2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! 
Lam 4:3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. 
Lam 4:4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. 
Lam 4:5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. 
Lam 4:6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
Lam 4:7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire: 
Lam 4:8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. 
Lam 4:9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field. 
Lam 4:10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. 
Lam 4:11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. 
Lam 4:12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the World, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
Lam 4:13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, 
Lam 4:14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. 
Lam 4:15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.
Lam 4:16 The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders. 
Lam 4:17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us. 
Lam 4:18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. 
Lam 4:19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. 
Lam 4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen. 
Lam 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked. 
Lam 4:22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins. 

Interpretations

The Holy Stones Lie Scattered

Lam 4:1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. 

Our gold is changed to ‘dim’ when we uphold our righteousness. Self-righteousness makes it hard to authenticate integrity without others, particularly Christ, seeing through our falsehoods. While building our temple under our strength in high places, the stones will likely remain crying out, a rubble heap without foundation at the top of every street in our city. Outwardly, Babylonian Christian denominations, and particularly Roman Catholicism, built their churches on the highest point in each town. At the beginning of the One Thousand Years, every edifice enabling magic arts will undoubtedly be made a ruinous heap of stones and wood at the top of their street.

Christ is the stone cut out without hands that will smash the idols of those He has chosen in this age, leave them in a heap, and break our self-made pot by his hand to pieces at the top of our street.

Luk 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Luk 14:29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him.

Mat 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 
Mat 7:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 
Mat 7:26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Mat 7:27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. 

Jer 9:11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps [expressed outwardly by the Romans, and now his Elect within], and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. 
Jer 9:12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through? 
Jer 9:13 And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
Jer 9:14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

Lam 4:2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Our Lord knows His precious sons of Old Jerusalem within are weak-framed earthen vessels we at first believe are so valuable as we journey to becoming the heavenly Jerusalem, fine gold, at the hands of the Master Potter [Rom 9:20, Jer 18:2-6].

Isa 64:8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. 

2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
2Co 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Lam 4:3 Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. 

We are the “sea monsters” coming out of the abussos, the deep, the bottomless pit (Rev 13), all representations of one and the same. We suckle the breast of the harlot and give seed to more evil children within. We become like our former mother from Mt. Sinai who, like female ostriches, abandons her eggs, never to look back, leaving the male (a zoological fact), the other Jesus, Satan, to brood and raise us.

2Co 11:3 But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, so your thoughts should be corrupted from the simplicity due to Christ. 
2Co 11:4 For if, indeed, the one [you and I in Babylon] coming proclaims another Jesus, whom we have not proclaimed, or if you receive another spirit, which you did not receive, or another gospel, which you never accepted, you might well endure these [… and we did]. 
2Co 11:5 For I judge myself to have come behind the highest apostles in nothing.

‘The Jesus’ chooses His disciples, the Elect of God, to be His Church, vagabonds in ragged clothes of no worldly prestige. We were left in the field in our blood, and He found us (as if we never knew we were there) and raised us to become His own beautiful young woman to be His wife.

1Co 1:26 For you see your calling, brothers, that not many wise men according to the flesh are called, not many mighty, not many noble. 
1Co 1:27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the World to confound the things which are mighty; 
1Co 1:28 and God has chosen the base things of the World, and things which are despised, and things which are not, in order to bring to nothing things that are; 
1Co 1:29 so that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Eze 16:2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.
Eze 16:3 And say, So says the Lord Jehovah to Jerusalem, Your origin and your birth is of the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite. 
Eze 16:4 And as for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you. And you were not salted, nor swaddled at all. 
Eze 16:5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these to you, to have compassion on you. But you were thrown out into the open field, because your life was despised in the day that you were born. 
Eze 16:6 And when I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood, I said to you in your blood, Live! Yes, I said to you in your blood, Live! 
Eze 16:7 I have caused you to multiply like the bud of the field, and you are grown, and you are great; and you come in the finest ornaments. Your breasts are formed, and hair is grown, yet you were naked and bare. 
Eze 16:8 And I passed by you and looked on you, and, behold, your time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over you and covered your nakedness. And I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Jehovah. And you became Mine.

Lam 4:4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. 
Lam 4:5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. 
Lam 4:6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

Those verses support and amplify the decoding of the previous ones. Old Jerusalem, Sodom, Egypt and Babylon, all of whom we were sent in slavery, fed us the most unsatisfying food and drink. We believed what we had was the best spiritual food available, yet the Lord annoyed our consciences by the undecipherable aspect of His word, eminently the books of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation, in fact, ‘endless’ aspects of the entire Bible subconsciously niggled us. We fed most sumptuously on Babylon’s richness, not knowing that we were poor, blind and naked, sitting in our dung (Rev 3:17).

Thankfully, our greater punishment and judgment are now, in this age, as we come out of Sodom and her sister cities, Old Jerusalem and Egypt, collectively called Babylon. We learn quickly to be incredibly grateful that we were overthrown in a moment.

1Th 5:1 But of the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that I write to you. 
1Th 5:2 For you yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. 
1Th 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety! Then sudden destruction comes on them, as travail upon a woman with child. And they shall not escape.

Mal 2:1 And now, O priests, this command is for you. 
Mal 2:2 If you will not hear, and if you will not set it on your heart to give glory to My name, says Jehovah of Hosts, then I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. And indeed I have cursed it, because you do not set it on your heart. 
Mal 2:3 Behold, I am rebuking your seed; and I will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your appointed feasts. And one shall lift you up to it.
Mal 2:4 And you shall know that I have sent this command to you, to be My covenant with Levi, says Jehovah of Hosts. 

Php 3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 
Php 3:8 But no, rather, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be dung, so that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9 and be found in Him; not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, but through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith,
Php 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death; 
Php 3:11 if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. 

Lam 4:7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire: 

That verse is the epitome of sarcasm. We were the Nazarites, the priests of God, saying that we had a husband and were not a widow and would not see death. We dressed ourselves in self-righteous purity and decked ourselves in fine jewelry like Jezebel and Queen Vashti for all to see, and we much later saw our nakedness to our enduring shame (Rev 18).

We begin to see that we have been Old Jerusalem sacked by the Romans, correlating to the Babylonians within. Our spiritual understanding was to us just as black as the Shulamite was to Solomon. We learn to delight that the Lord’s sword never leaves the city’s streets within.

In the positive sense, Christ is the ruddy one, whiter than milk, and as he is, so is the Bride outstanding among her ten-thousand sisters in Babylon.

Son 5:10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. 

Pro 3:15 She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. 

Lam 4:8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. 
Lam 4:9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field. 

That verse depicts our judgment today on the household of God in the hope of the First Resurrection. The Lord’s Elect are sustained with oil and wine, the holy spirit that keeps their flame brightly alive for the hope of their marriage to the Lamb of God.

Just as Solomon couldn’t understand the Shulamite’s outstanding purity that defied his God-given wisdom, her visage was black as the tents of Kedar, and she was seen in the streets of Old Jerusalem, Babylon, yet her sisters couldn’t and still don’t know her; she is blacker than coal. She is unknown in their inward streets of Old Jerusalem, and they, like the Elect of God, are slain, each in his own order.

Rev 6:6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

The rest in the “field” is the World since Adam until the First Resurrection, who have no whit that they are stricken while feeding luxuriously on the World’s spiritual bread of wokeness; they will be slain in the soon coming age in the Resurrection to Judgment.

Rev 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 
Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. 
Rev 20:3 And he cast him into the abyss and shut him up and set a seal on him, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little time.
Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast nor his image, nor had received his mark on their foreheads, nor in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. The second death has no authority over these, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him a thousand years.

Lam 4:10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden [Boiled; baked] their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people. 
Lam 4:11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. 
Lam 4:12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the World, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

2Ki 6:26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. 
2Ki 6:27 And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? 
2Ki 6:28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. 
2Ki 6:29 So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. 
2Ki 6:30 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. 

Those three verses of Lamentations continue depicting the physical with the spiritual. The “pitiful women” have been the Lord’s very own people who have “come out of her”, that is, Jerusalem, Egypt, Sodom and collectively Babylon (Rev 18:4), while their brothers and sisters continue spiritually consuming their children in Old Jerusalem to this very day!

Our brothers and sisters in Babylon emphatically believe that salvation is of the Jews since scripture says so. In the sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans, its inhabitants believed that God wouldn’t forsake them, the holy people; until it was too late.

Joh 4:21 Jesus said to her, Woman [addressing our old woman and the Bride of Christ], believe Me, the hour is coming when you shall neither worship the Father in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem. 
Joh 4:22 You worship what you do not know, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 
Joh 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. 
Joh 4:24 God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.

Nonetheless, by the oligarchy of the financial and political World’s Satan-directed design, the Balfour Declaration finally and firmly established the idol of physical Jews leadership in the World. https://www.britannica.com/event/Balfour-Declaration Babylonian Christianity will not suffer its discretion, not knowing that the Beast will “burn her with fire”.

Salvation is through Christ and His spiritual Jews ~ Christs (plural). That event is profoundly spiritually discerned in the following verses and in cursed strong delusion for adherents of the Balfour Declaration.

 Oba 1:19 And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau [Our kin brothers and sisters of Mt Sinai, today’s Christianity]; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
Oba 1:20 And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south [the so-called “holy land”].
Oba 1:21 And saviours [plural] shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Rev 3:8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 
Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 
Rev 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 
Rev 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 

Lam 4:13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, 

In the following verses, Christ speaks of our former ways that morph into the Elect of God by ‘sleight of spirit’ in verse 49.

Luk 11:47 Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 
Luk 11:48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. 
Luk 11:49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: [The “they” is us judging ourselves in this age, slaying our idols within]
Luk 11:50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; [~ the generation within, today if you hear His voice. Heb 3:15].
Luk 11:51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation [~ the Lord’s people right now]. 
Luk 11:52 Woe unto you, lawyers! [Pastors; ministers, our former unrighteousness of being a two-fold child of hell] for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

Those verses above richly depict in hidden minimal detail us coming out of Babylon and seeing that we are becoming the spiritual Jews who were the lying Jews who remain looking to rout the modern Romans from the World’s political establishment.

Mat 26:52  Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

Joh 18:36  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

Lam 4:14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. 

Just as the pure water from Mt Hermon runs down and through the midst of the former physical nation of Israel, so does our righteousness at the top of our streets run down in dead works through Sodom within to the dead sea of our rottenness, purified by salt.

Our spiritual wombs’ “streets” are automatically renewed every four weeks as depicted by the moon’s cycle. Its interior exfoliation has polluted us with blood, and it figuratively purges us of dead works, polluting our spiritual garments by our idols in secret places.

Gen 31:35 And she [Rachel / we becoming the heavenly Jerusalem above] said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images. 

1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he [The Father through Christ] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 

Just as Rachel didn’t confess to her father, we, too, have hidden our idols beneath our self-righteous clothing, denying our sins and shed the Lord’s blood yet again.

Lam 4:15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there. 
Lam 4:16 The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

Israel and we, in our time, departed like deranged King Nebuchadnezzar for his self-importance, figuratively announcing that he is god, and we, sitting in the Lord’s temple, unwittingly stating that we are God. We could not touch the Lord until he said, “Enough”, and blessed our dragging to himself with His spirit, symbolised by Nebuchadnezzar’s restoration to sanity and our God-given spiritual sanity.

Dan 4:28 All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.
Dan 4:29 At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. 
Dan 4:30 The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? 
Dan 4:31 While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.
Dan 4:32 And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. 
Dan 4:33  The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws. 
Dan 4:34 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: 

Lam 4:17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us. 

Watching for a nation that cannot save us is a classic example of seeking answers from our many witches of Endor (1Sa 28). When we have suffered long enough with legions of evil spirits in our tombs within and being fearful of our blindness, as was Saul of Tarsus (Paul), our Lord begins setting us free, and we listen to our Elders in the Body who favour our salvation.

Mar 5:1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 
Mar 5:2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, 
Mar 5:3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 
Mar 5:4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. 
Mar 5:5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. 
Mar 5:6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
Mar 5:7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
Mar 5:8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
Mar 5:9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. 

Act 20:26 Therefore I [Paul, the Elders and each of us] testify to you on this day that I am pure from the blood of all. 
Act 20:27 For I did not keep back from declaring to you all the counsel of God. 
Act 20:28 Therefore take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock in which the holy spirit has made you overseers, to feed the church of God which He has purchased with His own blood. 

Lam 4:18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come. 
Lam 4:19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness. 

Our persecutors are evil spirits sent by the Lord, fouls of the air, represented as eagles generically denoting all kinds of raptors, including falcons (a little trivia), the Peregrine falcon being the fastest creature on Earth (dives up to 300 km (186 mph hr) – Rev 22:12-20, “… I come quickly…” with a ministry of 3 years – 300÷100=3)

2Sa 1:23 Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions. 

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.

Lev 11:13 Of birds these are they which you must not eat, and which are to be avoided by you: The eagle, and the griffon [vulture], and the osprey. [Griffon vulture, incidentally the world’s highest recorded flying bird at 36,000 feet, synonymous with high flying proud- evil spirits]
Lev 11:14 And the kite, and the vulture, according to their kind. (DRB)

Lam 4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

Pits are hollows, dungeons, the depths of the abussos we live with, the wilderness of Babylon’s shadow, yet are not partakers of her unclean bird’s ways. The Lord’s people have come out of her yet remain in the world.

Jer 29:4 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; 
Jer 29:5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; 
Jer 29:6 Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. 
Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. 
Jer 29:8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. 
Jer 29:9 For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD. 
Jer 29:10 For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. 

Zec 2:7 Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. [1Co 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.]
Zec 2:8  For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. 

Esau, whose land is Edom, is the elder brother of Jacob. The daughter of Edom represents the Lord’s people who despised their inheritance, as typified by Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for a pot of red lentils.

Lam 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz [Edom synonymous with Babylon]; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked. 

Esau’s cup, represented by the daughter of Edom, reflects the Lord’s people’s transition to being the heavenly daughter of Zion that is Jerusalem above.

Lam 4:22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins. 

Just as Rachel’s idols hidden under her secret parts were eventually revealed, so will the Lord see under our skirts and discover our sins revealed in humiliation and horror upon our faces.

Jer 13:25 This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
Jer 13:26 Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear. 
Jer 13:27 I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?

Lord willing, that time will consummate for his Elect at the First Resurrection.

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 
Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Acts 2:25-47 And Many Wonders and Signs were Done by the Apostles

[Study Aired December 11, 2022]

Act 2:25  For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Act 2:26  Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
Act 2:27  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Act 2:28  Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
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.
Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

We concluded our last study in the middle of Peter’s first sermon on the day of Pentecost, which was the day of the giving of the holy spirit and the day of the birth of the New Testament church. The gift of the holy spirit had been given and was displayed before all the people in Jerusalem by giving unlearned Galileans the ability to speak the wonderful works of God in all the languages of all the people who were present there that day. Peter had just reminded them of all the incredible signs and wonders which had accompanied the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, including the sun being darkened and the moon appearing to turn to blood. He told them that by “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God [they had] by wicked hands… crucified and [had]slain [their own Lord and Savior]”

Here are the last three verses of our last study:

Act 2:22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
Act 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Act 2:24  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

This first sermon to the Jews after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ took place on the day of Pentecost, and there were many “devout Jews” there from all over the Roman empire:

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

These devout Jews were there because it was required of them to appear at the temple in Jerusalem three times in the year:

Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15  Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, [1] in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt [Passover and the days of  unleavened bread]: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  And [2] the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field [Pentecost, 50 days after the waving of the wave sheaf during the days of unleavened bread]: and [3] the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field [The feast of Tabernacles, and The Last Great Day].
Exo 23:17  Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

Even though Christ Himself had “broken the sabbath” (Joh 5:18) and failed to show up on the first day of the feast of Tabernacles, as required by the law of Moses (Joh 7:8), the apostles of Christ were still keeping the “days, months, times and years” which the law of Moses required to be observed. Reforming any system requires time. This is “the time of reformation” in its early stages.

Heb 9:8  The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
Heb 9:9  Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

Knowing there were many Jews in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost who had never seen the “miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by [Christ]” let us note that Peter’s words concerning Christ and all He did are addressed to the “dwellers at Jerusalem [who had seen] the signs and wonders done by [Christ] among them”, and Peter says these words apply specifically to Christ:

Act 2:25  For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Act 2:26  Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
Act 2:27  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Act 2:28  Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

This is the Psalm Peter quoted:

Psa 16:8  I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Psa 16:9  Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
Psa 16:10  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Psa 16:11  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Peter rightfully attributes this prophecy to the only person in history to whom it could apply. He attributes it to the only person whose body has never seen corruption, and who has been raised from the dead and seen by hundreds of people who simply could not deny what they had witnessed.

1Co 15:3  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:4  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1Co 15:5  And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
1Co 15:6  After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
1Co 15:7  After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
1Co 15:8  And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

Everyone in Jerusalem with any knowledge of current events had heard all of this and had heard that Christ’s apostles were claiming that He had been raised from the dead, and they all knew that there was no cadaver in the grave. All this was such common knowledge at that time that this is what the men on the road to Emmaus had to say to Christ on the day of the resurrection while “their eyes were holden” so they did not know Him:

Luk 24:13  And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. [Over seven miles]
Luk 24:14  And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
Luk 24:15  And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
Luk 24:16  But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
Luk 24:17  And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
Luk 24:18  And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
Luk 24:19  And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
Luk 24:20  And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
Luk 24:21  But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
Luk 24:22  Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;
Luk 24:23  And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
Luk 24:24  And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.

Peter continues to rebuke these “men of Judea” who had called for Christ’s crucifixion, and he calls them to repentance:

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.

Notice, Peter did not say, “David is in heaven, but his body and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.” What he said was “David… is dead and buried…” Later Peter even tells us, “David is not ascended into the heavens” (Vs 34). How could Peter make such a statement if he believed in the fabled doctrine of an ‘immortal soul’? Peter’s whole point is that God did not leave Christ’s ‘soul’ in the grave. If David’s ‘immortal soul’ were in heaven, then Peter’s words “thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” would have no significance and would be a blatant lie, because David’s sepulcher was still with them. The whole point of “his sepulchre is with us unto this day” is that King David’s soul was indeed still in his sepulcher, and therefore this Psalm is “speaking of the resurrection of Christ, that HIS soul was not left in [the grave], neither His flesh did see corruption”:

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 [Greek, ‘hades’, the grave], 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.
Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

Peter’s whole point is that since King David is not in heaven, this prophecy must refer to Christ. If indeed Kind David’s fabled ‘immortal soul’ were in heaven, then the words, “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool” could very well apply to King David. Peter emphasizes the fact that “David is not ascended in the heavens” and:

Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Is it not instructive that not one person said, “What do you mean, David is not in heaven? Of course his body is with us , but we all understand that David is in heaven.” The fact is no one could argue with Peter because “David’s… sepulchre [was with them] unto [that] day.”

Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

It is very instructive that on the first Pentecost where Israel had made themselves a golden calf to worship, three thousand people physically died under “the letter of the law” while on the first Pentecost in the time of reformation three thousand people spiritually began dying to their old man through being converted and being given spiritual life.

Exo 32:27  And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.
Exo 32:28  And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day [the first Pentecost] about three thousand men.

Truly “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life”:

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.

Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Going back to verse 39, rest assured that “all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord God shall call” had nothing to do with Gentiles who were “afar off”. In the mind of Peter or any of the other apostles or disciples, and in the minds of any of the devout Jews who came to keep the feast of Pentecost, that was understood. Going into the home of a Gentile or eating a meal with a Gentile was simply out of the question. To Peter and to all who were there on the day of Pentecost, those words were only meant to apply to ‘All Jews who were afar off.’ At this point Peter, and any of the other apostles, would ever have countenanced “going in unto Gentiles.”  As we see many months later, the church itself accused Peter of eating “with men uncircumcised” when the holy spirit had sent Him to the house of the Gentile Centurion, Cornelius:

Act 11:2  And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision [the church at Jerusalem] contended with him,
Act 11:3  Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.
Act 11:4  But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,
Act 11:5  I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:
Act 11:6  Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Act 11:7  And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
Act 11:8  But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
Act 11:9  But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
Act 11:10  And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.
Act 11:11  And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me.
Act 11:12  And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house:
Act 11:13  And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
Act 11:14  Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
Act 11:15  And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
Act 11:16  Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Act 11:17  Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
Act 11:18  When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

That God had granted the Gentiles repentance to life was a revolutionary concept to these devout Jewish Christians. This event in Joppa and Caesarea was long after the day of Pentecost.

Here on the day of Pentecost, when the holy spirit was first given to men, Peter himself was still living under the law of Moses as His response to the Lord shows when he was three times commanded concerning the unclean beasts and creeping things in the sheet, “Arise Peter, slay and eat”. Peter’s response was, “Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.”

This is long after the death and resurrection of the Lord. Peter refused the commandment to “slay and eat” unclean animals three times because to do so was forbidden in the law of Moses:

Deu 14:6  And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat.
Deu 14:7  Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.
Deu 14:8  And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcase.
Deu 14:9  These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat:
Deu 14:10  And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.
Deu 14:11  Of all clean birds ye shall eat.
Deu 14:12  But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,
Deu 14:13  And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind,
Deu 14:14  And every raven after his kind,
Deu 14:15  And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind,
Deu 14:16  The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan,
Deu 14:17  And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant,
Deu 14:18  And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
Deu 14:19  And every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you: they shall not be eaten.

To a devout Jew such as Peter and all the apostles at this time these unclean animals signified unclean Gentiles, as Peter made clear when he arrived at Cornelius’s house:

Act 10:17  Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate,
Act 10:18  And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.
Act 10:19  While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.
Act 10:20  Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.
Act 10:21  Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come?
Act 10:22  And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.
Act 10:23  Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
Act 10:24  And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends.
Act 10:25  And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
Act 10:26  But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
Act 10:27  And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together.
Act 10:28  And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

These events take place long before the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, and years before the Jerusalem council of Acts 15. Yet over 14 years later (Gal 2:1), after being told of the Lord that Peter should consider no man to be ‘common or unclean’, he and Barnabas both still feared what the Jews from Jerusalem would think of them if they saw them eating with Gentiles:

Gal 2:11  But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Gal 2:12  For before that certain came from James [Jerusalem], he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Gal 2:13  And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
Gal 2:14  But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

On the day of Pentecost, when Peter said that salvation had come “to them that are afar off”, he was definitely not thinking that salvation had come to the Gentiles. He is speaking only of Jews who are “afar off” and would never dream at this point that the Lord would send him to eat with and speak to Gentiles. “Never [he said], has anything common or unclean entered my mouth!!”

Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort [all these “devout Jews out of every nation under heaven”], saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

The Lord has begun to ‘build His church,’ but every one of us, the apostles of Christ included, must learn to crawl before we can learn how to walk, and that is exactly what the early church was spiritually doing at the very beginning. We all must “fall seven times” before we learn how to walk.

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Here at its birth on this day of Pentecost, the ‘feast of firstfruits’, the apostles and all those who accepted the gospel they preached were as true and sincere and as humble as the ‘little child’ who Christ tells us we must all first be:

Mat 18:1  At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
Mat 18:2  And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
Mat 18:3  And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

This is not a call to be naive and gullible. The only characteristic of ‘this little child’ Christ admonishes us to emulate is the humility of a little child:

Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 18:5  And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

Christ did not call a sixteen-year-old because even in His day that was not the appropriate symbolism for someone who was humble.

The Gentile converts at Antioch were also just such humble souls, and this is what Christ tells us concerning the weak and humble among us:

Mat 18:6  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Peter had separated himself from the very Gentiles to whom the Lord has first sent him. When Paul rebuked him, he and Barnabas immediately repented of their hypocrisy and went up to Jerusalem with Paul to plead the case of the physically uncircumcised Gentile converts. As we saw last week even Paul and Barnabas “with the holy spirit” agreed that the Jews still had to keep the law of Moses at that time. It simply was not yet the Lord’s time for the Jews to see that God was making “of twain one new man” (Eph 2:15).

Getting back to the events of the first Pentecost of the New Testament dispensation:

Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

We all love and appreciate answered prayers. Nevertheless, the need for “many wonders and signs”, which were needed at this time to signify that this was a work of God, is an indication of the lack of spiritual maturity of the church at its birth. This is what Christ had to say about signs:

Mat 16:1  The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
Mat 16:2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
Mat 16:3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Mat 16:4  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

Christ rebuked “the Pharisees with the Sadducees” for requiring a sign for themselves. In doing so, He pointed out that they had already been given “signs of the times” and had not discerned them. The faithful were given “wonders and signs” at the beginning of the New Testament dispensation to establish the church throughout the Roman Empire. Once the church was established, the time came for ‘the trial of [the] faith’ of the faithful (Jas 1:2-3), and all the healings and speaking with other languages ceased to be so common, as the apostle Paul tells us:

1Co 13:8  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
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.

‘Love’ is defined as obedience to God (1Jo 5:2-3) and is a gift from God which is not an endowment of the natural man whose natural, carnal mind is “enmity against God” (Rom 8:7). Paul is telling us that all other gifts, the gift of prophecy, the gift of languages, and the gift of knowledge, are all “childish things” when compared to the gift of love.

With this great Truth in mind, consider just how applicable those words are to the church in its infancy. They genuinely believed they have the love of God, and in an infantile manner they certainly do. Stephen’s ‘love’ of God led to his martyrdom. Yet not one of the earliest Christians, the apostles included, considered Gentiles to be any different than a common dog, as Christ Himself insinuated, before acting otherwise:

Mar 7:25  For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:
Mar 7:26  The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
Mar 7:27  But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
Mar 7:28  And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.
Mar 7:29  And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.
Mar 7:30  And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

The story of this Gentile woman is included in the scriptures to prepare the Lord’s disciples to later receive things which they could not at that time bear (Joh 16:12). It is this lack of maturity that is on display in the last verses of our study today:

Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

The Lord had commanded his disciples to “go into all the world” just as He had commanded Noah’s family to fill the earth:

Gen 9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.(NET)

Mar 16:15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Every “babe in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4) is slow to leave the nest, and Noah’s descendants preferred to build a tower “lest they [become] scattered upon the face of the earth (Gen 11:4), and the Lord’s disciples preferred to sell all they owned and  have everything in common and stay right there in Jerusalem.

Neither situation surprised the Lord, so He confused the languages at the tower, and He ‘scattered [His disciples] abroad” through persecution:

Act 11:19  Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.

Even after being “scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen”, Luke, the author of the book of Acts, takes note that the entire church still “preached the Word to none but unto the Jews only.”

The overarching point of this entire book is that the entire church of Christ began as spiritual infants who, until the end of this book, were still unable to bear the many things Christ was yet to reveal to them:

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

The time will come when the holy spirit will show us how we are to be the light and the salt of this earth in this dispensation (Mat 5:13-14). However, that time and the revelation that a physical pedigree as Abrahams’s children and keeping of all the rituals surrounding the physical temple are things that are ‘passing away’ will not come to the early Jewish church until after all the events of this entire book have transpired, and the apostle Paul is in prison in Rome where the Lord will reveal to Him and Peter and all the apostles that He is in the process of making one body, one temple and one church of the Jews and the Gentiles, without the letter to the Gentiles of Acts 15 any longer dividing us:

Act 15:19  wherefore I [James the Lord’s physical brother] judge: not to trouble those who from the nations do turn back to God,
Act 15:20  but to write to them to abstain from the pollutions of the idols, and the whoredom, and the strangled thing; and the blood;
Act 15:21  for Moses from former generations in every city hath those preaching him—in the synagogues every sabbath being read.’ (YLT)

Moses being taught in the synagogues every sabbath was sufficient for the believing Jews because they were all still attending the synagogues and keeping the law of Moses. At the time of the events of Acts 15, there was still no concept of Jews and Gentiles being ‘made one of twain’:

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 [affirmed for Jewish Christians by the letter to the Gentiles of Acts 15]; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

It is only after this is revealed to Paul that James refers to the law as “the perfect law of liberty”, and the apostle Peter refers favorably to Paul’s epistles:

Jas 1:25  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Jas 2:12  So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

2Pe 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Esther 9:1–19: Thus, the Jews Smote All Their Enemies

[Teacher’s Choice Study Aired November 23, 2020]

Est 9:1  Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;) 
Est 9:2  The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people. 
Est 9:3  And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. 
Est 9:4  For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater. 
Est 9:5  Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them. 
Est 9:6  And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men. 
Est 9:7  And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, 
Est 9:8  And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, 
Est 9:9  And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha, 
Est 9:10  The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand. 
Est 9:11  On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king. 
Est 9:12  And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done. 
Est 9:13  Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. 
Est 9:14  And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at Shushan; and they hanged Haman’s ten sons. 
Est 9:15  For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand. 
Est 9:16  But the other Jews that were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not their hands on the prey, 
Est 9:17  On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 
Est 9:18  But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 
Est 9:19  Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. 

In Esther chapter 8, we observed that Esther pleaded with the King to come out with a decree to nullify the letters which had already gone out to every province that the Jews must be destroyed, killed and cause to perish on the thirteenth day of the month of the twelfth month called Adar. This decree to destroy the Jews signifies the law of sin and death and the King’s new decree to nullify the first decree represents the law of the spirit of life which sets us free from the law of sin and death. Chapter 9, therefore, focuses on the effect of this new decree (the law of the spirit of life) by the King in the lives of the Jews.

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 
Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Est 9:1  Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king’s commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;) 

According to the law of sin and death, we were destined to be destroyed as a result of our rebellion, which is symbolized by the thirteenth day of the twelfth month. As the scriptures say, the wages of sin are death.  For as long as the enemies within dominated us, we continued to rebel against God. However, God, who is rich in mercy, came up with a new decree which is the law of the spirit of life which has liberated us from the shackles of the law of sin and death with the birth of the new man in us that has rule over them that hated us inwardly.

Outwardly, there is a day of rebellion at the end of the period when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. When the whole of the human race compasses the camp of the saints, fire will come down from God of the heavens and devour them. That is when the last enemy, death, will be destroyed.

Neh 9:17  And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 

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

Est 9:2  The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people. 

As indicated in previous reviews of this Book of Esther, the gathering of the Jews (the elect) is very important. It is through fellowshipping that we strengthen one another to face the day of the Lord in our lives. In the verse above, the gathering of the Jews was to help them to overcome those who sought their hurt (the enemy within). It is also to help them overcome any onslaught from any man. No man withstanding them means that fellowshipping creates the necessary condition for the Jews (the elect) to tread on serpents and scorpions and have dominion over all the powers of the enemy. The question is, “How does fellowshipping help us in overcoming those who sought our hurt and being able to tread on serpents and scorpions?” As we fellowship, we get to know the mind of Christ and therefore become of one mind with our husband, Christ. That is what the scripture is talking about when it says that a man leaves his family to get joined to his wife, and the two become one flesh. As we become one mind, nothing can withstand us as shown in the building of the tower of Babel. In Genesis 11:6, the people were of one mind (the people is one) when they were trying to build the tower of Babel (Positive application).  Until God intervened, nothing could stop them.

Mar 10:6  But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
Mar 10:7  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 
Mar 10:8  And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 
Mar 10:9  What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 

Gen 11:6  And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 

Est 9:3  And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them.
Est 9:4  For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater. 

Verse 3 shows us that the resources of the kingdom of God have been made available to us (the Jews). However, the resources are only in earnest form while we live here on earth, until the redemption of the purchased possession. These resources are available to us through our knowledge of Him through His words. In His words He has given us exceeding great and precious promises that we may overcome the corruption which is in the world through lust.

These resources available to us are exemplified in the story of 2Kings 6:8-11. In this story, the King of Syria sent his men on horses and chariots to surround the town of Dothan in the night in a bid to capture Elisha. When the servant of Elisha woke up in the morning and saw horses and chariots surrounding the city, he was afraid and went to inform Elisha. However, Elisha rather prayed that God should open the servant eyes to see in the spirit. When the Lord opened the servant’s eyes to see, he saw a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha. This portion of scripture shows God’s provision to protect us from our enemies within and without. These passages of scriptures mean that the kingdom of God which is now within, which is represented by the mountain, is possessed through war (symbolized by horses) in our heavens, and our weapon (our resources) for this war is the fiery words of the Lord signified by chariots of fire.

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. 

2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 
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. 

2Ki 6:8  Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 
2Ki 6:9  And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. 
2Ki 6:10  And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. 
2Ki 6:11  Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel? 
2Ki 6:12  And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. 
2Ki 6:13  And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. 
2Ki 6:14  Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. 
2Ki 6:15  And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? 
2Ki 6:16  And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. 
2Ki 6:17  And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 

In verse 3 and 4, the reason the rulers and others were helping the Jews was because of the fear of Mordecai which has fallen on them. Here Mordecai represents the Lord Jesus who is great in the house of the Lord and is waxing greater and greater. The waxing greater and greater of Mordecai represents the brightness of the Lord Jesus coming into our lives and consuming the enemy within with the spirit of his mouth (His words).

Heb 1:8  But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. 
Heb 1:9  Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. 
Heb 1:10  And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: 
Heb 1:11  They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; 
Heb 1:12  And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. 

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:

Est 9:5  Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them. 
Est 9:6  And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men. 
Est 9:7  And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, 
Est 9:8  And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, 
Est 9:9  And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha, 
Est 9:10  The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand. 

Verse 5 begins with the word “Thus”. This word means as a result of or the consequence of what has been said earlier. What has been said earlier is as follows:

1. That the Jews gathered together – Talking about our fellowshipping.
2. The rulers, the lieutenants and the deputies of the kingdom helped the Jews – This is speaking of the resources available to the elect.
3. Mordecai waxing greater and greater and the fear of him causing the Jews to be favored – Here Mordecai represents the brightness of the  Lord Jesus coming into our lives (waxing greater and greater) which will cause the enemy within to be consumed with the spirit of his mouth (His words). 

As a result of these, we are able to smite the enemies within with the stroke of the sword (His words). Remember that the name Shushan means Lily. In the bible, the elect is referred to as a lily (Hosea 14:5). As indicated in Chapter 1 of Esther, Shushan is where the King’s throne is. Thus, the throne of God is in the elect’s heavens (hearts and minds). As indicated in verse 6, it is within (Shushan) that the Jews smote five hundred men of the enemies. Five hundred is equal to 5x10x10. This means that it is by grace through faith that the flesh is put to death. This grace is that which chastens us and brings about the death of the enemies within.

Verses 7 to 9 are the names of the ten sons of Haman. Remember that the number 10 represents the flesh. So, our war is against the flesh. What we need to understand is that the death of Haman did not end the fight against the flesh within. There were the ten sons of Haman to contend with then. It is a war that continues on a daily basis. That is why Paul said that we die daily (1Co 15:31). When the Israelites entered Canaan, they conquered the land one nation at a time. God told the Israelites through Moses that He will drive out the nations before them little by little, and the reason for this is that He does not want Israel to be overwhelmed by the beasts of the field.

Jesus explained to us that the word field means the world. The beasts of the field are therefore the same as the flesh or the old man as they drive us towards worldliness. This worldliness consists of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. This sums up the sins of the flesh.

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

Deu 7:22  And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

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.

Verse 10 mentions that even though the Jews slew their enemies, they did not take possession of the spoil. The spoil represents worldly possessions. We are in this world but not of this world, and therefore our focus is not on worldly prosperity as our brothers in Babylon consider worldly prosperity as a sign of God’s approval. They will quote Deuteronomy 8:18 –  “But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day” as scriptural proof of their belief.

As spiritual Jews, we need to pay heed to Paul’s admonition to Timothy as follows:

1Ti 6:5  Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. 
1Ti 6:6  But godliness with contentment is great gain. 
1Ti 6:7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 
1Ti 6:8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 
1Ti 6:9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 
1Ti 6:10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 

Est 9:11  On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king. 
Est 9:12  And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done. 
Est 9:13  Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. 
Est 9:14  And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at Shushan; and they hanged Haman’s ten sons. 

What these verses teach us is that the slaying of the enemies within is the work of God and not anything we have done. It is the Lord who commands, and it is done. As those seeking the death of the enemies within, we need to continually seek the Lord to command the destruction of the enemies within just as Esther did. Such prayers will surely be answered. However, we need to be patient since the death of the enemies within takes time. Patience is one of the qualities God requires of us as the process of becoming his sons takes time.

Heb 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 
Heb 10:37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Heb 10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 
Heb 10:39  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Est 9:15  For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand. 
Est 9:16  But the other Jews that were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not their hands on the prey, 

The gathering of the Jews on the fourteenth day is a sign that they are progressing spiritually as fourteenth means spiritual progression. This spiritual progression is the result of the slaughtering of the enemies within. In this case 300 (300 = 3x10x10) men were slaughtered. This means that the process of spiritual completion entails putting the flesh (the enemies within) to death.

Again, in verse 16, more enemies were slaughtered by the other Jews. This was possible because the Jews stood for their lives. What does it mean to stand for your life? To stand for your life is to come to a place where you put your life on the line as Esther did when she appeared uninvited in the King’s presence not knowing whether the King would extend the sceptre or she would be put to death. This is the same as losing our lives, which will result in the eventual gain of our lives. This is what Jesus was talking about when He said that the kingdom of God has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. The violent are those who stand for their lives (lose their lives) in a bid to defeat the enemies within.

Mat 16:24  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 
Mat 16:25  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 

Est 4:15  Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, 
Est 4:16  Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. 

Mat 11:12  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. 

In both verses 15 and 16, it is mentioned that the Jews did not lay hands on the prey. The fact that it is mentioned three times in this chapter means that we have to pay attention to it. I will therefore elaborate more on it. The prey is the same as the spoil, and it represents wealth (Mammon). This prey or spoil encapsulates all that is in the world which men and women go after – what we will eat or drink, what we will wear and the provision of shelter. That is what the cares of this world are all about. These have derailed the course of many aspiring men and women of God.

For example, there was this gentleman that Paul, in the early part of his ministry, trusted so much, and his name was Demas. Later on in his ministry, Paul said that Demas has forsaken him because he loved the present world. It is important to also note that the excuses that those invited to the marriage dinner gave were legitimate, but resulted in their exclusion from the marriage dinner. The scripture says that they made light of the king’s invitation and went their way, one to his farm and another to his merchandise. Yes, it is true that we have to work to provide food and shelter for our families, but the enemy can use these legitimate concerns to derail our course. It takes those who have progress spiritually to let go of the spoil. May the Lord help us so that we don’t touch the spoil just as the Jews did when they smote their enemies.

Col 4:14  Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.

Phm 1:24  Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.

2Ti 4:10  For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

Mat 22:2  The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,
Mat 22:3  And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
Mat 22:4  Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. 
Mat 22:5  But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: 

Est 9:17  On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 
Est 9:18  But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 
Est 9:19  Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. 

Verses 17 to 19 focus on what happened after the defeat of the enemies of the Jews. The defeat of the enemies resulted in the Jews having rest; feasting, having a day of gladness and sending portions one to another. Let’s take them one at a time and elaborate on them.

The Jews had Rest

From the verses above, the Jews had rested after defeating the enemies within. As God’s spiritual Jews, our rest only comes from the death of the beast within. As long as the beast within sits in the throne of our hearts, we will always fall short of this rest. Death to the beast/flesh is what grants us the rest from our labors. Now, the question is what does it mean to have rest? The answer is in Hebrews 4:10-12, which says that having rest is ceasing from our own works. Now those who did not believe in His words (Heb 4:11) did not enter into his rest. This means that entering into His rest, or ceasing from our own works, is believing in His words. That is why in Hebrews 4:12, the writer was telling us about the potency of the word of God so that we believe and obtain that rest. When we come to that place where we depend on His words and know that what He has said He is able to accomplish, then we’ve started our rest in Him!! That is when we do not depend on what we do but what He does through His words.

Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead–those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.” (Berean Study Bible)

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. 
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. 

A day of gladness for the Jews

The day of the defeat of the enemies was the day of gladness for the Jews. In Psalm 126, the Jews were glad because God had done great things for them by delivering them from their captivity. The captivity here is our bondage to the flesh or the old man (represented by the enemies of the Jews). For whosoever sins is a slave to sin. So it is only when the Lord delivers us from our enemies within that we experience gladness or joy, and that is when we come to appreciate the great things that God has done for us.

Psa 126:1  A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Psa 126:2  Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. 
Psa 126:3  The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. 
Psa 126:4  Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south. 
Psa 126:5  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 
Psa 126:6  He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 

The Feasting of the Jews

Feasting is about eating and drinking, and it represents how God is enlightening the understanding of the word of God for His elect to know Him. Remember that eternal life is all about getting to know God and Jesus (John 17:3). So feasting is equivalent to being given eternal life. As our heavens are being cleansed through the death of our enemies (the old man), a door is being opened in heaven which is deepening our understanding of the word of God exponentially.

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

Rev 4:1  After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. 

The Jews sent portions to each other

The portions being talked about here refer to properly weighed out food. As we are aware, food represents the word of God based on Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4, which say that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of the Lord. So the Jews sending portions to each other is about His elect sharing the word of God with each other, resulting in the building up of the body through love. That is what Paul was alluding to when he said that the body of the elect is fitted and compacted together by what every joint supplies.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Luk 4:4  And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. 

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

Next time, we will conclude the Book of Esther by looking at the remaining verses of Chapter 9 and also Chapter 10.

Est 8:1-17 The Jews Had Light, and Gladness, and Joy, and Honour

[Study Posted October 24, 2020]

Est 8:1  On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her. 
Est 8:2  And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. 
Est 8:3  And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. 
Est 8:4  Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose, and stood before the king, 
Est 8:5  And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king’s provinces: 
Est 8:6  For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? 
Est 8:7  Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. 
Est 8:8  Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring: for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse. 
Est 8:9  Then were the king’s scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language. 
Est 8:10  And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus’ name, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries: 
Est 8:11  Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey, 
Est 8:12  Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. 
Est 8:13  The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. 
Est 8:14  So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. And the decree was given at Shushan the palace. 
Est 8:15  And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. 
Est 8:16  The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. 
Est 8:17  And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. 

Chapter 7 of Esther ended with the death of Haman (which represents our old man or our flesh).  This death takes place within each one of us after we have gone through fiery trials, representing the seven plagues which bring us to our wits’ end. Fortunately, when we cry to the Lord in our distress, He hears us, delivers us and brings us to our safe haven. Just as the King extended his scepter to Esther, we, too, are being favored and gradually being brought to our safe haven.

Our safe haven is when we dwell in the sacred place of the most high or abide in the shadow of the Almighty. That is when we say that God is our refuge, our fortress and the one in whom we trust!!  In simple terms, that is when we gradually mature in obedience.  When our obedience become complete, we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Chapter 8 focuses on what happens to us when the old man or the beast within dies; that is, the death of Haman.

Psa 91:1  He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Psa 91:2  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Psa 91:3  Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
Psa 91:4  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

2Co 10:6  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Est 8:1  On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews’ enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her. 
Est 8:2  And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. 

Immediately after the death of Haman, the King gave Esther the house of Haman, and she set Mordecai over it. Being given the estate of Haman means to have dominion over the flesh. Sin shall not have dominion over us.

Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Rom 6:8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Rom 6:9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

It was after the death of Haman that Mordecai was able to appear before the King. This means that it is when the beast within us is put to death, through the agency of our fiery trials, that we can have Christ’s presence as He comes to ascend the throne of our hearts. Remember that our bodies represent the temple, and this temple is filled with smoke, and we are not able to enter this temple (that is, we do not have Jesus living in our hearts) until we have gone through the seven plagues which represent our complete judgment. The judgment we go through is what teaches us righteousness.

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

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

The King taking off his ring and giving it to Mordecai means being given authority or power to act in the name of the King. In Genesis, Pharaoh took his ring and gave it to Joseph and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen. The question is, what does it mean to be given power or authority?

Jesus told the disciples after His resurrection that all power has been given to him. This is not for the disciples to just appreciate the exalted position of Christ but for them to know that they are partakers of this power, just as we are partakers of this power. This power avails itself to us through the word of God as we are given eyes to see and ears to hear.

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

Luk 4:32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.

2Co 6:7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,

This power is to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the powers of the enemy (Luke 10:19). Serpents and scorpions are tools God uses in our fiery trials to bring to death our old man as shown in the following scriptures:

Gen 41:42  And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;

Luk 10:19  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Num 21:6  And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Rev 9:10  And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

Thus, having power to tread on serpents and scorpions means that in all our trials, God has given us all it takes to overcome. In other words, we are destined to overcome and to be crowned with the crown of life irrespective of the obstacles we will face if God has written our names as part of the elect before the foundations of the world.

Rev 2:10  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

We are also given power over all the powers of the enemy. The scriptures tell us that we have the enemy within and the enemy without. The enemy within is the flesh which causes us to go against God.  It is also called the old man or the beast. The enemy without is Satan which empowers the beast within (the flesh). So what this means is that we will overcome the flesh and all that Satan and his angels throw at us!! The enemy will bruise our heels. That is, it will hurt our walk with Christ, but we will have the victory over him!!

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

Est 8:3  And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. 

The fact that the old man within is dying does not mean that we are out of the woods yet. It is those who endure to the end who will be saved. As we observed in Esther Chapter 3:13, letters have already gone out to every province that the Jews must be destroyed, killed and cause to perish on the thirteenth day of the month of the twelfth month called Adar. This means that the word of God has already gone out that our old man will be put to death because of our rebellion (Number 13 means rebellion). This was what happened in Chapter 7 when Haman representing our old man was put to death. However, the effects of our old man still linger and that is why Esther continued to plead with the King in verse 3 so that a new law is passed which nullifies the effects of the old man. So, the first law is about the destruction of our old man, but the second law is about restoration. In one of David’s psalms, he said that God should restore unto him the joy of his salvation and make him willing to obey. That is what we need, and that is what Esther is pleading.

Psa 51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Psa 51:11  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Psa 51:12  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Est 8:4  Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose, and stood before the king, 

The King holding out the sceptre means we have found favor with our Lord and that our requests are being attended to. It is the same as saying, “Therefore, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.”

How do we know that the sceptre has been held out for us? I think it is a question that may be lingering in our minds. In Luke chapter 10, when the Lord Jesus sent out the seventy disciples to go to every town and city and preach the gospel, they came back rejoicing because of the miracles they performed and demons they cast out. However, Jesus told them they should rather rejoice because their names are written in heaven, that is, they are part of the elect. How do they know that their names are written in heaven? Jesus told them that they are blessed (In this case, to be blessed means you have been elected) because their eyes can see!! As our eyes are being opened to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God, then Jesus is assuring us here that we are part of the elect, or the sceptre is being held out for us if we continue to the end!!

I want to make mention of the fact that 70 were the ones sent in this episode. The number 70 = 7 x 10. So seventy means complete domination of the flesh. What this is telling us is that those sent were not converted, and therefore the beast was still on their throne. That is, they were dominated by the flesh in view of the signs and wonders that they performed. This is what is happening to our brothers in Babylon. They focus on signs and wonders and think they are a mark of God’s approval.  No wonder they will ask Jesus in the resurrection, “Didn’t we cast out demons, perform miracles in your name?” Then Jesus will respond that He does not know them, for they are workers of iniquity.

Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Luk 10:1  After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

Luk 10:17  And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

Luk 10:20  Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

Luk 10:23  And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see:
Luk 10:24  For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Est 8:5  And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king’s provinces: 

As indicated earlier, the destruction of the old man is to be followed by restoration. The restoration here is not that we were enjoying something and then we lost it and are being given back. No!! What this means is that by the dying of our old man, we are of age now to assume our inheritance which is given to us in earnest form now in this life.

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Est 8:6  For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
Est 8:7  Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. 

Esther asked how can she endure to see the evil that shall come on the Jews? Remember that the Jews represent the elect. Indeed, it is hard to endure these fiery trials marked out for us. When a brother or a sister is going through these trials, it is the body that is hurting. However, the good news is that as we come to our wits’ end and cry to the Lord, He hears us and brings us to our safe haven. In addition, since we are the apple of God’s eyes, no weapon formed or fashioned against us shall prosper. This is what is meant in verse 7 here, when the King told Esther that he put to death Haman because he laid his hand upon the Jews.

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

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!

Psa 17:8  Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

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

Est 8:8  Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring: for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse. 
Est 8:9  Then were the king’s scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language. 
Est 8:10  And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus’ name, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels, and young dromedaries: 

The verses above are to show us that God’s word has gone out and it will not return to Him empty, but will accomplish what He desires and will achieve the purpose for which it was sent. What is the purpose? To let His elect know that no weapon formed or fashioned against them shall prosper. In other words, nobody, including the devil, can lay his/her hands on us!! As I stated earlier, God’s words teach us how our old man needs to be destroyed. He has also given us many promises in His words to counteract the effects of our flesh and the work of the devil.

So the letters being sent out are God’s words who, through his divine power, has given us all we need through His great and precious promises, which are to help us escape the corruption in the world through lust.  This corruption in the world through lust is the effects of the work of Haman (the beast within or our flesh). Remember that Esther petitioned the King to reverse the work of Haman and the answer to this petition is this letter being sent out which is the word of God.

Isaiah 55:11 So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (NIV)

2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
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.

Our study of the Book of Isaiah has been a wonderful journey with so much insight. From the study, we can see that God first shows us our sins (Israel’s sins) and then talks about the destruction of our old man as a result of our sins (Israel’s destruction). The latter part of the Book of Isaiah is devoted to our restoration which deals with God’s precious promises through which we become partakers of His divine nature and as a result escape from the corruption which is in the world through lust. Let’s take a look at some of these precious promises which reverse the letters devised by Haman:

Isa 51:3  For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
Isa 51:4  Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.

Isa 65:21  And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
Isa 65:22  They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Isa 65:23  They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
Isa 65:24  And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

Est 8:11  Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey, 

The King granted the Jews in every city to gather themselves together. That is stressing the importance of fellowshipping. What we need to understand is that when we gather, our fellowship is with the Father and His son.

1Jn 1:3  That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

In this life, we cannot defend ourselves and seek revenge on the people who trouble us. That is in a different stage of the kingdom of God which is now within.

Est 8:12  Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. 

In this verse, we are given the thirteenth day of the twelve month as the day that in every province people will rise against the Jews. This is telling us of the final rebellion which is represented by the number 13 (the day appointed to destroy the Jews).  This will happen at the end of the millennial rule when Satan and his cohorts are released for a short time. They are released to deceive the whole world against the elect. The people of the world will encompass the camp of the elect seeking to destroy them. That is when we will stand for our lives to destroy, to slay and cause to perish all that seek to destroy us, including children and women as this story shows. That is when death will be destroyed, and this will usher in the second resurrection and the great white throne judgment.

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Est 8:13  The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. 

This verse emphasizes our readiness for that day – the day of rebellion. How do we get ready? In 2 Corinthians 10:5 we are admonished by Paul that when we completely obey Him, we will be able to punish anyone who refuses to obey (CEV). This means that to get ready is to be in complete obedience. How do we learn obedience? We learn obedience by the things we suffer.  This is what happened to Jesus – He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. We can only obey when the beast within has been removed from the throne of our heart. The beast within must die, and this is accomplished through suffering (the judgment marked out for us).  As we can see, it was after Haman, representing the beast within, was put to death that the Jews are given the mandate to be ready to avenge themselves on their enemies.

2Co 10:6  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
Heb 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Est 8:14  So the posts that rode upon mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. And the decree was given at Shushan the palace. 

This is what the word of the Lord, which has been sent to us Jews (His elect) in every part of the world, is teaching. That is, there is a day of rebellion coming, and it is those who reign with Christ (Jews or those who are resurrected in the first resurrection) who will revenge all disobedience. This is the message being preached by the elect using every means (camels, mules, etc.). The camels and mules here represent our earthly possessions as depicted in several places of the scriptures. This means that God has made available to us all the necessary resources to help us propagate the gospel.

Gen 12:16  And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.

Gen 24:10  And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.

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

1Ki 10:25  And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.

1Ch 12:40  Moreover they that were nigh them, even unto Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought bread on asses, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen, and meat, meal, cakes of figs, and bunches of raisins, and wine, and oil, and oxen, and sheep abundantly: for there was joy in Israel.

Est 8:15  And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. 

Mordecai being given a crown of gold and dressed in a garment of fine linen depicts our coronation during the redemption of the purchased possession. Mordecai’s apparel portrays the following colors – blue, white and purple. In the Old Testament, the door of the tent of the tabernacle had the colors blue, purple and scarlet.  These colors together signify part of our walk as we enter through the veil into the presence of God where we are fed by His fiery words resulting in us being clothed with fine linen, signifying the righteousness of the saints (Refer to studies on colors which is on iswasandwillbe website). The crown of gold represents our holiness to the lord.

Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Exo 39:30  And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Rev 19:14  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

Est 8:16  The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. 
Est 8:17  And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. 

This is telling us that the word of God brings light, gladness, joy and honor. In other words, God has opened the eyes of the Jews to see and their ears to hear.  That is the light the word of God brings. This illumination brings gladness and joy to our souls as we see the great things that God has done for us which will ultimately result in us being honored to rule with Christ when the kingdoms of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ. The verses also talk about many people of the land becoming Jews. Again, this will not happen in this age. In this dispensation, Jesus has told us that many are called but few are chosen, so we know that only a few will constitute the elect. However, during the lake of fire age, many will be converted as the fear of the elect will fall upon them. The many here refers to all human race of all time. Praise be to God!!!

Psa 119:130  The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

Luk 10:23  And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see:
Luk 10:24  For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Psa 126:3  The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.

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

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.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

[Study Posted July 11, 2020]

Est 3:1  After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. 
Est 3:2  And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. 
Est 3:3  Then the king’s servants, which were in the king’s gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king’s commandment? 
Est 3:4  Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. 
Est 3:5  And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. 
Est 3:6  And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. 
Est 3:7  In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar. 
Est 3:8  And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them. 
Est 3:9  If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries. 
Est 3:10  And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy. 
Est 3:11  And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. 
Est 3:12  Then were the king’s scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king’s ring. 
Est 3:13  And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. 
Est 3:14  The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people, that they should be ready against that day. 
Est 3:15  The posts went out, being hastened by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed. 

After seeing the end the Lord intended for our lives as portrayed in Esther’s coronation, we are now ready to endure the cross even as our Lord Jesus Christ, because of the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross. Chapter 3 of Esther which we are reviewing can be summarized as the raising of the storm (the seven plagues) by God using Haman to plan for the extermination of the Jews. This raising of the storm in our lives is what brings us to our wits’ end and that is what qualifies us to become overcomers.

Jas 5:11  Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

Heb 12:2  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.

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.

The details of the raising of the storm are as follows:

Est 3:1  After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. 

One of the revelations we have received when our heavens started opening is that everything that happens in our lives and in the world is in accordance with the counsel of God’s will. Chapter 3 starts with King Ahasuerus promoting Haman above all the princes that were with him. The advancing of Haman is the strengthening of the beast within each of us who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. The question is how does God strengthen the beast within? When we sin, the beast’s control of our lives is strengthened. Since God is the author of every action, including sin we commit, we can say that God is strengthening or promoting the beast (Haman) within.  Outwardly, God has raised Satan (Haman), who influences the beast within as the prince of the power of the air and is also called the god of this world.

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:

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

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:

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Est 3:2  And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. 
Est 3:3  Then the king’s servants, which were in the king’s gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king’s commandment? 
Est 3:4  Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. 

As indicated in our study of Esther Chapter 2, those at the King’s gate are the porters in the company of Levites. So those at the King’s gate include the elect and the Levites. The Levites (Christendom) are those who are joined to us but cannot enter the temple to worship. They serve the tabernacle but have no right to eat at our altar. The reason they cannot eat at our altar is that they have been carried about with divers and strange doctrines. The objectives of these divers and strange doctrines is to bow down to reverence Haman, typifying the beast within. The Levite’s teachings appeal to the lustful desires of the flesh, and we have all in our appointed times imbibed these teachings. When we are carried about by the dictates of the flesh, we are bowing down to Haman. Verse 2 says that the King has commanded all to bow down to Haman. Another way of saying this is that God has created every human being in such a way that we all naturally fulfill the desires of the flesh. This was what God was showing Jeremiah when He took him to the potter’s house to show him the Potter’s work on the wheels.

At our appointed times, we will no longer bow down to these fleshly desires even as Mordecai (representing the elect) refused to bow down to Haman. Mordecai’s refusal to bow down is because he is a Jew (Verse 4).  As we know, a true Jew is not one that is a physical descendant of Abraham but one whose foreskin has been removed spiritually – One whose flesh has been subdued. The servants who were at the King’s gate could not understand why Mordecai would not bow to Haman (verse 3). That was what Peter was talking about when he said that those who bow think it strange that we do not join them in the same excess of riot, and so they speak evil of us (1Pe 4:4).

1Ch 9:18  Who hitherto waited in the king’s gate eastward: they were porters in the companies of the children of Levi.

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.

2Pe 2:17  These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2Pe 2:21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

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

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.

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

Est 3:5  And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. 
Est 3:6  And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. 

Haman’s rage when Mordecai did not bow is similar to the wrath of Nebuchnezzer when the three young Hebrew men (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) refused to bow to the golden image. What we need to understand is that the wrath of the world/church against those (the elect) who do not conform to the standards of this world is worked by God to bring to death the old man. But to us this wrath is what brings us to our wits’ end!! It is not an easy experience to go through!! As Peter said, we should not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which tries us, as though some strange thing happened unto us. Rather we should rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ’s suffering.

Outwardly, Haman targeting the extermination of the Jews is an example of racism. In recent times, racism has been brought to the fore and most parts of the world are calling for solutions. Xenophobia did not start yesterday. It is part of the manifestations of the beast within each of us. In the scriptures, Egyptians racially abused the Israelites. Haman wanted to exterminate the Jews and Hitler’s rise to power was at the back of his propaganda which calls for the extermination of the Jews. The Samaritans were racially abused by the Israelites. Blacks are target of racism in most parts of the world.  Within Africa itself, some tribes racially abuse other tribes. For example, the genocide in Rwanda in Africa about a decade ago was due to racism. All these are part of the heating up of the world, including the Covid 19 pandemic. All these are part of the four sore judgments of God as people shall be oppressed, everyone by another, and every one by his neighbor (Isa 3:5) with the view of ultimately ushering in the kingdom of God.

As those being prepared by Christ as his bride, we should know that the world does not have the solution to curb or eradicate racism. Promulgating laws will only be superficial resolutions. Solutions to racism can only be addressed by the elect during the thousand year reign.  That is why creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God!!

Psa 2:1  Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Psa 2:2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
Psa 2:3  Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
Psa 2:4  He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Psa 2:5  Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Dan 3:13  Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king.
Dan 3:14  Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Dan 3:15  Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Dan 3:16  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Dan 3:17  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Dan 3:18  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
Dan 3:19  Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.

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

Isa 3:5  And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

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

Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Est 3:7  In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar. 

As part of Haman’s plan, a lot was cast to determine when the plan to exterminate the Jews will be carried out, and it fell on the twelve month.  Assuming that the lot fell on the first month, that would have been disastrous for the Jews. There wouldn’t have been enough time for Mordecai and Esther to react, as we will see later. The truth is that God is in control of every situation. The word of God says that a lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord (Pro 16:33). Our timings are not in our hands but in the hands of God. The twelve month chosen by lot here is significant as the number twelve is the number of Christ. Thus, the twelve month chosen for the extermination of the Jews applies to us this way – the death of our flesh as Jews is the birth of the new man in us who is after the image of Christ.

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

Est 3:8  And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them.

Haman’s description of the Jews to the King in verse 8 is interesting. It tells us of the characteristics of the elect (Spiritual Jews). These characteristics are as follows:

• Haman said that they are scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom. Indeed, the elect are scattered all over the world. Both James and Peter’s letters were addressed to the twelve tribes who are scattered abroad. 

Jas 1:1 – James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

1Pe 1:1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

• Haman said that the Jews’ laws were diverse from the people. Yes!! We are operating under the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus that has made us free from the law of sin and death. No wonder our laws are diverse from all other laws. Carnally minded people cannot understand our law. 

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

• Haman said that the Jews do not keep the King’s laws. The question is which of the King’s laws are we not keeping? Remember that in verse 2, the King commanded all to bow to Haman.  As indicated, Haman represents the beast within which according to God’s design (law), all human beings bow down to. That is the law of sin and death. But as we begin to die daily to our flesh through the agency of his judgments, we no longer obey (set free from) this law of sin and death. 

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

• Haman said that the Jews must not be tolerated by the King. From the perspective of the world including Christendom, we are not to be tolerated. That is why in this world we are hated!! Jesus said that we shall be hated of all men but he that endures to the end shall be saved (Matthew 10:22).

Est 3:9  If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries. 
Est 3:10  And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy. 
Est 3:11  And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. 

What these passages are telling us relates to the fact that the beast within and its influence in our lives is all part of God’s plan as we had been given over to the old man (Haman) to do what seems good to him at our appointed times. These passages are another rendition of the story of how God gave over Job to be buffeted by Satan with the view of bringing him to his desired haven. Everything that is happening to us and the world, both good and evil, are all part of the counsel of God’s will. Another way of saying this is that it adds to the king’s treasuries. However, who has ever given to God that God should repay back (Rom 11:35)? That was why the King refused Haman’s offer. What is significant is that Haman wanted to add 10,000 silver to the King’s treasuries. The number 10,000 is equivalent to multiples of 10 (10,000 = 10x10x10x10). The number 10 talks about the fullness of the flesh (refer to The Spiritual Significance of the Number Ten).

The refusal of the King to accept the silver offered by Haman means that once the beast within (Haman) is in control of our lives, everything we do to please God will be in the strength of the flesh, which cannot add to the King’s treasuries or please God. That is the same as the offering of strange fires before the Lord by Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron. It is also the same as the offering of Cain, which was not acceptable to God. Let us pray to God that He will put to death the raging beast within so our works will add to the King’s treasuries and not be refused as that of Haman.

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.
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;)

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

Job 2:6  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

Lev 10:1  And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.
Lev 10:2  And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.

Gen 4:3  And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
Gen 4:5  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

Heb 11:4  By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Est 3:12  Then were the king’s scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king’s ring. 
Est 3:13  And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.
Est 3:14  The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people, that they should be ready against that day. 

Yes, the letters (His words) have gone out clearly to us (Jews) who are in the King’s province that our old man must be destroyed or put to death. That is not good news which carnally-minded people want to hear. However, to us this is the good news that has to be taught to the nations within us according to Matthew 28:19-20. Verse 20 says that we need to be taught to observe all things God has commanded us. Then we will be assured of the Lord’s presence even to the end of the world (when the day of destruction of our world comes), just as the three Hebrew Jews were with Christ in the fire.  The day of slaughter of the Jews being the thirteenth day of the twelve month is no coincidence. It has spiritual significance. What that date means is that our rebellion (the number thirteen means rebellion) will bring about the destruction of our old man but this will result in us bearing the image of Christ (Remember 12 is the number of Christ).

Verse 14 tells us that the people should be ready for that day. How do we get ourselves ready? Let’s hear God’s answer.

Heb 10:25 – Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. So through fellowshipping, we get exhorted and strengthened so that we will be ready for that day. 

Mat 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Mat 28:20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Est 3:15  The posts went out, being hastened by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed. 

Hearing from God’s words about the death of the old man in our lives makes us all perplexed even as the city of Shushan became perplexed when they heard the news of the Jews’ destruction. We all love our lives. The love of our flesh is portrayed by the mourning of David when Saul and Jonathan died in battle. Also, when David and his men returned from battle and realized that all their possessions were gone, including their wives and children, David and his men (representing the elect) all wept until they had no strength in them. To become a son, we need first to lose our lives (the old man destroyed).  That is the only way we can gain our lives!! However, that is not something our flesh wants to hear!!

The raging of the beast (Haman) within us makes us all confused/perplexed but what it means is that its death is near. We have this saying in our local language that when one is just about to give up the ghost (die), he/she struggles. So the struggles we are going through concerning the deeds of the flesh in our lives means that its death is near. That is the good news!! We should keep our heads up instead getting perplexed and frustrated!! Where sin abounds, the chastising grace abounds more.  Our salvation (the defeat of the flesh) is nearer now than when we believed!! Remember, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled!! Do you believe His words that you will be filled when you hunger and thirst for his righteousness?

2Sa 1:11  Then David took hold on his clothes, and rent them; and likewise all the men that were with him:
2Sa 1:12  And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.

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.

Mat 16:25  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Rom 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Mat 5:6  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

[Click here to go to part four in this series of Esther.]

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 7 Discussion

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Isa 1:21-26 - How Is The Faithful City Become An Harlot!

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isa 1:22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Isa 1:23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Isa 1:24 Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
Isa 1:25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:
Isa 1:26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

We have already demonstrated how the first verse of this study (vs 21), reveals how God's own wife has been seduced to become "an harlot". We saw how it is this verse which gives Revelation 17 and 18 its power and its force in bringing us to understand who this 'harlot' is, this 'whore' within each of us when we talk with, socialize with, and in time place the words of men above the words of our own husband. "How is the great city become an harlot???"

The apostle John was inspired of the holy spirit to take these very words to describe what had happened to the seven churches of Asia in his day:

Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
Rev 17:7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

Isaiah wonders:

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

Isaiah wonders how it is possible for a woman who knows and loves her husband one day, to suddenly turn her back on her own faithful husband and become "an harlot" who despises her faithful husband. [Just yesterday] it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers". John was well versed in the words of the prophet Isaiah, and John also wondered how it was possible that the very church Christ had come to establish could do the same thing::

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.

Christ's own churches, the seven churches of Asia, 'seven' symbolizing the completion of the apostasy of the very "murderers... drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the martyrs of Jesus", makes Christ's elect, symbolized by John, wonder how this apostasy could flourish so quickly and so thoroughly.

Many believe Revelation 17 and 18 refer only to Catholics who killed so many Protestants. Others think those two chapters refer to the Pharisees and Jews who hated and rejected Christ. But this book of Revelation is not addressed to Catholics or to Jews who rejected Christ. This book is addressed to "the seven churches". More specifically the book of Revelation is addressed to those who 'have an ear to hear what the spirit says to the seven churches of Asia'.

This statement is repeated seven times in the second and third chapters of Revelation... 'he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the seven churches'.

Our Lord chose the apostle Paul to tell us how this apostasy happened so quickly and so thoroughly. This is what we know from the apostles of our Lord about the churches of Asia:

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

And this is what the other apostles thought of the apostle Paul:

2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

Look at where Peter makes the point of telling us that Paul's epistles are equated with "the other scriptures". It is immediately after telling us this in the previous chapter:

2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2Pe 2:2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
2Pe 2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
2Pe 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
2Pe 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
2Pe 2:6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
2Pe 2:7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
2Pe 2:8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
2Pe 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
2Pe 2:10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

Secondly, the book of Timothy is one of Paul's prison epistles. In the last chapter of this same epistle Paul gives us a few more of the details of those in Asia who forsook him and a few more details about how the great harlot got her start in the new Christian church by placing "Satan's throne" right in the midst of the seven churches of Asia. Paul left Timothy in Ephesus a city in Asia, and this is what he tells us from his imprisonment about what happened there in Ephesus:

2Ti 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
2Ti 4:15 Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
2Ti 4:16 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men [in Asia] forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
2Ti 4:17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
2Ti 4:18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Pergamos was also a church in Asia, and this is what we are told was taking place in Pergamos:

Rev 2:13 I know thy works, and where thou dwell, where Satan's throne is. And thou hold firm my name, and did not deny my faith in the days in which Antipas was my faithful witness, who was killed among you where Satan dwells.
Rev 2:14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou have there men who adhere to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a snare before the sons of Israel, even to eat idol sacrifices, and to fornicate.
Rev 2:15 So also thou have men who likewise adhere to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Rev 2:16 Repent therefore, and if not I come to thee quickly, and will war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Warring against "men who adhere to the teaching of Balaam, who... cast a [spiritual] snare before the sons of Israel, even to eat idol [of the heart spiritual] sacrifices... also... men who adhere to the teaching of the Nicolaitans" is exactly what we are doing at this very moment "with the sword of [Christ's] mouth".

But this apostasy was brewing much earlier, and like Judas himself, the apostasy of the church was coming from within "the seven churches" themselves. It was not Jews who were not believers. Paul knew who were his enemies and he warned Timothy of these men in his first epistle.

This was the doctrine of those who were out to discredit Paul and therefore Christ Himself. This epistle was written before Paul was imprisoned in Rome and the apostasy of the church had already begun:

1Ti 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.
1Ti 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
1Ti 1:6 From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;
1Ti 1:7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
1Ti 1:8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
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,
1Ti 1:10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Why would Paul be compelled to mention "endless genealogies"? He mentioned 'endless genealogies' because those who are under the law of Moses consider genealogy to be of utmost importance. To this day, Messianic Jewish christians refer to physical Jews as God chosen people. For that matter, so do most Protestant and Catholic christians who are completely unaware of these verses of scripture:

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.

Just how much value does the holy spirit place upon one's physical pedigree?

Php 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Php 3:4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
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:

The righteousness of the law of Moses was not "through the faith of Christ" but was rather "our [own] righteousness", because it was not through the spirit and of the heart.

Deu 6:25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.

Which "commandment is charity out of a pure heart"? Here is Paul's own answer:

Tit 1:3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;

Heb 7:18 For there is verily a disannulling of the [Mosaic] commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.

For those who are just learning to recognize the voice of the True Shepherd, another apostle verifies that Paul is "of the same mind" as the mind of "our Savior":

2Pe 3:2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:

It is not Paul, but Peter, who tells us that all of Paul's epistles are "as.. the other scriptures:

Just a few verses later Paul is compelled to name names:

1Ti 1:19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Here we have the names of the men who withstood Paul. Here they are in the order in which we are given their names: Hymenaeus and Alexander (1Ti 1:19-20), Phygellus and Hermogenes (2Ti 1:15) and Alexander the coppersmith (2Ti 4:14). The name 'Alexander' was very common in the Greek world, and the fact that "the coppersmith" is added in this second epistle suggests that this is not the same Alexander of the first epistle to Timothy.

This is the very same theme Paul was dealing with when writing the epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians, the Galatians and the Thessalonians. Look at these three verses to see what Paul was confronting:

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.

Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Gal 3:4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

1Ti 1:7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

From the days of Isaiah and before, God's true ministers have been called false prophets. They were always hated by those who claimed to be righteous through the law. Paul himself started out as just such a person.

Php 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Php 3:4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
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:

It seems impossible that anyone could take these verses and make them say that Paul took pride in being a Pharisee of the tribe of Benjamin. The Lord Himself has blinded them from seeing that Paul considered all physical pedigree, as well as being a Pharisee, as nothing more than a pile of dung. But that is exactly what those who hate the doctrine of Christ do, just as our Lord told us they would:

Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
Luk 6:23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

Luk 6:26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

It is a truly sad day when "a codex which precedes the Bible" is used as proof that the apostle Paul is really Appolonius, which is stretched to equate to the son of the Sun God Apollos, and then made to somehow connect the apostle Paul with the Freemasons! All based on "a codex which precedes the Bible", and that is a quote from a link submitted by a detractor of the apostle Paul. According to our Lord Himself the apostle Paul is a truly blessed man simply because it was Christ Himself who said:
Luk 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

Speaking directly to the great city within us which has so quickly and so thoroughly "become an harlot", the spirit tells us:

Isa 1:22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Isa 1:23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

Just as the 'giants in the land' symbolize the passions of our flesh, so are the false doctrines and false teachings which occupy our minds likened unto "rebellious... princes, and companions of thieves" who rob us of the fruit of our labors in our Lord's service. "An harlot" can hardly expect to be given the favors her husband would just naturally want to shower upon her. As little appreciated as it is, the scriptures teach that we must all reap what we sow.

Gal 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Now let's be very analytical about what it means to "sow to the spirit". This is what Christ tells us about His Words:

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.
Joh 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

Christ's "words are spirit". Therefore His "sayings" are spirit", and it is not those who read His sayings who are building their house on Him, the rock, it is only those who are doing "His sayings" and who "keep the things [He] says":

Mat 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Mat 7:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
Mat 7:26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Mat 7:27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Mat 7:28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
Mat 7:29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

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

But let's not forget what the holy spirit inspired Peter to tell us about what the holy spirit considers all of Paul's epistles to be, and I repeat:

2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

Mat 7:29 tells us Christ's words are authoritative spiritual words. They are not spoken with any hesitation, and Christ and all who speak His words with authority "[will] be hated of all men".

But be aware that when you speak the "many things" which Christ revealed through the apostle Paul, which Christ's own disciples could not bear at the time of His crucifixion, then like Christ Himself, you and I will also be "hated of all men":

Joh 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

But didn't Christ guide His apostles into all truth while He was here on the earth in an earthen vessel? The obvious answer to that is that He did not reveal the "many things [which His disciples could] not bear now"!

John 16:12-13 is pivotal to demonstrating the fallacy of the spirit of "[we] will neither eat nor drink till we have killed Paul".

Act 23:12 And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.

The holy spirit which was to "guide you into all Truth" did not come to men until 50 days after Christ's resurrection. Therefore the anti-Paul doctrine which teaches that Christ delivered the entire message of His gospel while He was here on this earth in a body of flesh and bone, is manifestly not what Christ Himself taught. Rather Christ taught that He had "many things" to reveal to his disciples which would not be done until after "the spirit of Truth is come", that is sometime after the day of Pentecost. As it turned out, Peter's visit to the house of Cornelius, demonstrating that the holy spirit was being given to the uncircumcised Gentiles, was revealed several years after Christ's resurrection. The revelation that the Gentiles did not even need "to be circumcised, and to keep the law of Moses" was not settled until several more years at the conference in Jerusalem in Acts 15.

Act 15:7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
Act 15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
Act 15:9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Act 15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Act 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

But that truth first uttered by Peter in Acts 15, stating that "there [was] no difference between [the Gentiles and the Jews]" but both are being saved by grace through the faith of Jesus Christ and that not even the Jews needed to be circumcised, was not to be revealed until Paul was in prison in Rome, where this great revelation was given him:

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;
Eph 2:16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Eph 2:17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Eph 2:18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Eph 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

Here is that "middle wall of partition between [the Gentiles and the Jews]":

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

Here are James and all the elders at Jerusalem calling Paul "our beloved brother... Paul, and confirming that the Gentiles who were called to know Christ need not "be circumcised and keep the law". He goes to such lengths to proclaim "we gave no such commandment", but it was not, at that time, agreed that the Jews no longer were required to be circumcised and to keep the law. Rather, it was agreed that while the Gentiles need not keep the law of Moses, yet concerning the Jews, "Moses is taught every sabbath in the synagogues:

Act 15:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

The twelve apostles all agreed that they and all Jews must yet "be circumcised and keep the law". This is made crystal clear when many years later this agreement which was made in Acts 15 is reiterated by James in Jerusalem just before Paul is apprehended by the Jews, resulting in his Roman imprisonment where the epistles of Ephesians and Colossians were written revealing "many things" which Christ's apostles could not bear when He was crucified, which they could still not bear when Peter went into Cornelius's home, which the apostles still could not bear when they wrote that letter to the believing Gentiles in Acts 15, and which they still could not bear many years later when Paul had gone up to Jerusalem and was again told this:

Act 21:18 And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.
Act 21:19 And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
Act 21:20 And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law [of Moses]:
Act 21:21 And they are [falsely] informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
Act 21:22 What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.
Act 21:23 Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;
Act 21:24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
Act 21:25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication. [Acts 15]
Act 21:26 Then Paul [because he still "walked orderly and [was still] keeping the law" of Moses] took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

Just as it was Jews which believed on Christ, along with Herod and Pilate, the priests and the multitudes who wanted Him dead, so it was believing Christians, Jews who "[were] zealous of the law" who believed the lie that Paul was teaching the Jews among the Gentiles to break the law of Moses. Many Christians believe that Paul taught the Jews which were among the Gentiles that they did not need to circumcise their children, nor to keep the law of Moses, to this day. So it was believing Jews, along with the multitudes and the priests who once again wanted Christ in Paul dead.

That lying spirit is still very much alive today, but the Lord defended His word in that day, and He is doing so today with His authoritative spiritual words, and all who oppose His words have thrown in their lot with "the great city [which has] become a [spiritually murderous] harlot", and this is all they can now expect:

Isa 1:24 Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
Isa 1:25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

These words are just telling us that we will indeed reap what we have sown, and anything that can be burned up will be burned up, including the dross and the tin.

Here is how the apostle Paul expresses this same concept:

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.

Our study today ends with this same positive outcome for "every man":

Isa 1:26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

The "fiery trials" (1Pe 4:12) are undeniably "fiery", and at the time they are being endured, they seem to last an eternity, but the purified product will prove to be worth enduring the most severe most fiery trial.

Hi Mike,

Something that I recently encountered and it has spun some gears; did Paul bring “another” gospel other than Peter’s?

Gal 2:7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;

Now I know that “second gospel” is italicized so the translators added it; but could it be implied? Paul also says, “my gospel” twice, as if implying a separate gospel.

Rom 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,

Are there two gospels? And what does Paul mean his gospel? Was he preaching different from Peter.

Thank you in advance,

S____

Hi S____,

Thank you for this question.

Having spent ten years participating in the Concordance conferences where this false two-administration doctrine was so prevalent, I can assure you that these verses are the answer to your question:

Php 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

If there is but “one spirit, with one mind” then it follows that there is but ‘one’ gospel, simply because that “one spirit” is the words of Christ.

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.

Those who teach that there are “two gospels”, teach that the four gospels, the words of Christ, the epistles of James, Peter, and John, including the book of Revelation, and the book of Hebrews comprise “the gospel of the circumcision”. “The gospel of the uncircumcision”, according to this false doctrine, is to be found only in the fourteen comparatively short epistles of the apostle Paul, who we are falsely told is the only apostle who ever preached to the Gentiles.

If there were any truth to that doctrine, then these words of Paul to the Gentiles of the church at Ephesus, over which he had ordained Timothy as a bishop, would have been nothing short of contradictory and confusing:

1Ti 6:3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
1Ti 6:4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 1Ti 6:5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

We are told that those who bring this false doctrine “Know nothing”, and we are commanded “from such withdraw thyself”.

Two years ago one of our sisters asked me “Why did Paul shave his head if he were not keeping the law of Moses?”

Act 18:18 And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.

That question provoked a study in which we came to see that Paul and all the apostles were living in a time of reformation.

Heb 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

That “time of reformation” was the time of the writing of all the books of the New Testament. That includes the revelations given to the apostle Paul in Ephesians 2 and Colossians 2.

This e-mail is not the place for that study, but it can be read here.

Read this study, and you will then understand that, yes, for a few decades after the death and resurrection of Christ, there was a time in which there were “many things” which none of the apostles could bear until the appointed time. That appointed time was while Paul was in prison in Rome. Until that time the holy spirit itself had concluded that the Jews were to keep the law of Moses (Act 15:7-29), even as the Gentiles were already delivered from the weak and beggarly elements of the law of Moses.

This was all in complete accord with these words of Christ.

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

It took the appointed time until it was given to the apostles to be able to bear the revelation that Christ was in the proscess of “making of twain one”, and not making of twain two, as the false doctrine of two gospels teaches.

Your brother in that “one body… made of twain”, with the “middle wall of partition”, the letter to the Gentiles of Acts 15, “abolished and… taken away”,

Mike

Act 15:7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
Act 15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
Act 15:9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Act 15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Act 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.
Act 15:12 Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.
Act 15:13 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:
Act 15:14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
Act 15:15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
Act 15:16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
Act 15:17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
Act 15:18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
Act 15:19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
Act 15:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.
Act 15:22 Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:
Act 15:23 And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
Act 15:24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
Act 15:25 It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
Act 15:26 Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Act 15:27 We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
Act 15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
Act 15:29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Thank you, Mike,

You hit the nail on the head with that. I was part of a discussion, and this guy was trying to persuade me of that very thing you said – Jesus, Peter, James and Revelation were to Israel and Israel only; “Books of Circumcision”. And Paul’;s writings were only to us. I can not accept that theory. Trying to split the New Testament up and pick and choose what applies to Gentiles or Jews makes no sense. I’m amazed at so many doctrines, or theories, out here, abouth which I had no clue. Shows how God can reveal to some and blind others by the same light. And I do remember the revelation in the body how Paul matured in His teachings. That makes sense.

I will be sure to “withdraw myself”.

Thank you for the responses,

S____

(Key verses: Genesis 49:8-12)

Nearing His death in Egypt, Jacob called his twelve sons to him to inform them “which shall befall [them] in the last days”:

Gen 49:1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
Gen 49:2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.

The theme of the “last days” is an important aspect of the revelation of Christ, and although there is an outward application of the “last days” (also called “the end of the world”), this applies inwardly to the lives of the elect of God when their old physical temple is being “thrown down” with the coming of the Lord:

Mat 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
Mat 24:2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Mat 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

What Jacob said to his sons, and what happened in the lives of these sons of Israel, are all “ensamples” or types of the lives of God’s elect. We indeed live by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Mat 4:4).

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 [Greek: aiōn = age] are come.

We already touched on the lives of Jacob’s first three sons, Reuben, Simeon and Levi in previous discussions. In this discussion we will take a look at what we can learn of our own lives from the words of Jacob and through the life of Judah, as written down (Mat 4:4).

Judah

Judah was Jacob’s fourth son from his less loved wife, Leah, and the name “Judah” means “praise”:

Gen 29:35 And she [Leah] conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise [Hebrew: yâdâh] the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah [Hebrew: yehûdâh = praise]; and left bearing.

We know from scripture that the number four spiritually points to the whole of a thing under discussion (Isa 11:12; Mat 24:31; Joh 4:35; Act 10:11; Rev 4:6). In Jacob’s words to Judah we also see how Judah’s function within the commonwealth of Israel affected the whole of Israel:

Gen 49:8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.
Gen 49:9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
Gen 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Gen 49:11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
Gen 49:12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

Let us break this up to help us see what these words of Jacob mean to us “upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

Gen 49:8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.”

The word “Judah” is translated from the Hebrew word “yehûdâh” from which the Hebrew word “yehûdı̂y” comes which means “Jew” in English. We know that the whole nation of Israel is called “Jews” (“yehûdı̂y”) in the scriptures, especially from the time of the trouble with Assyria and their period of exile in Babylon (2Ki 16:6; 2Ki 18:26; Ezr 4:12; Neh 1:2; Est 2:5; Isa 36:11; Jer 32:12; Dan 3:8). This naming of the Jews and the link with the name of Judah again highlights the effect this fourth son of Jacob had on the whole of Israel, especially in terms of authority. Judah’s authority among his father’s children typifies the spiritual authority of Jesus Christ and His name within His elect (Joh 14:6; Act 9:4-5; 1Co 2:16; 2Jn 1:8-9). This connects with knowing who the Father and His Son are in terms of their mind and their teaching, which all bring spirit life to us:

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

Joh 17:6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

The natural Jews serve only as a shadow of the real spiritual Jews, who are the true “Israel of God” (Eph 3:4; Gal 6:15-16; Col 2:2; Col 4:3; Rev 10:7). The true spiritual Jew has indeed obtained advantage in “much every way” and profits through the new creation in Christ “chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles 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.
Rom 3:1 What advantage then hath the [spiritual] Jew? or what profit is there of [spiritual] circumcision?
Rom 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them [that is the spiritual Jew] were committed the oracles [the Word] of God.

Inward circumcision points to this Word of God establishing the new heart and mind which God gives to His church in this age whom He has given authority above all other powers as their “hand shall be in the neck of [their] enemies” (Mat 28:18; Luk 10:19-20; Joh 4:24; Php 3:3). This spiritual authority is revealed in having knowledge, understanding and wisdom of the application of God’s will and judgement (Rom 13:1-2; Eph 2:6-10; Eph 3:7-11; Rev 20:4-15):

1Co 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

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

Gen 49:9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up.

Judah is a lion’s whelp…a lion…and an old lion – three stages of spiritual growth and progression. Here in the words of Jacob to Judah, we see the first time in the scriptures that this symbol of a lion is connected to any person. The lion is one of the images associated with the beasts, the elect of God, who are “in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne” of God:

Rev 4:6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
Rev 4:7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
Rev 4:8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

The lion is the symbol which spiritually indicates rulership, whether in the negative or the positive application. In the negative application, this lion is roaring and feasting on flesh having the spirit of the world with all its pride and lusts (1Jn 2:16):

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

This symbolic lion is also a wicked deceitful beast in us who deludes us in our spiritual immaturity as he also thinks he is the ruler of his own destiny with his fabled free will (Pro 28:15; 2Th 2:3-4; Rev 13):

Psa 10:9 He [the wicked] lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
Psa 10:10 He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
Psa 10:11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

After we have lived under the influence of these wicked and evil authorities in our own time, we can appreciate the revelation of the true Lion, Jesus Christ, who is the true spiritual authority and the sovereign Ruler over all that happens in our lives and in this creation from start to finish:

Rev 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

The spiritual tribe of Judah follows Jesus in the spirit “of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” to serve God and others in humility (Pro 28:1; Pro 30:29-31; 2Co 7:4; Eph 3:12; Php 1:20; 2Ti 1:7). A true leader does not rule over others with a domineering spirit, as it was Judah who persuaded his brothers not to kill Joseph (Mat 20:25-28; 2Co 1:24):

Gen 37:26 And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
Gen 37:27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.

Judah and his offspring are also blessed by Moses to be a help to others who need to be freed from their enemies. True leaders are servants and the helpers of the joy of others (2Co 1:24; Col 1:28-29):

Deu 33:7 And this is the blessing of Judah: and he said, Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people: let his hands be sufficient for him; and be thou an help to him from his enemies.

A true leader seeks to benefit others – to preserve life – and is concerned for the welfare of all. This spirit in Judah also helped him to convince his father Jacob to send Benjamin to Egypt to achieve these aims:

Gen 43:8 And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones.
Gen 43:9 I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever.

It was also Judah who negotiated for the release of Benjamin in Egypt after Joseph’s silver cup was found in Benjamin’s sack, admitting their sin and submitting to authority – more signs of true leadership (Rom 13:1-10; Eph 5:21-33; Heb 13:17; 1Ti 3:1-13; 1Pe 3:1-6; 1Pe 5:1-6):

Gen 44:16 And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found.

Gen 44:18 Then Judah came near unto him [Joseph whom they could not recognised at this stage], and said, Oh my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant: for thou art even as Pharaoh.

Judah’s intimate plea moved Joseph to finally reveal himself to the brothers as we are also given to see so much more of Christ when we can submit to His authority:

Gen 45:1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.

This elevation of Judah is also witnessed in his tribe, as they were also first mentioned in connection to the positions of the tribes around the tabernacle in their time in the wilderness:

Num 2:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
Num 2:2 Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard [no comparing among themselves allowed (2Co 10:12)], with the ensign of their father’s house: far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.
Num 2:3 And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies: and Nahshon the son of Amminadab shall be captain of the children of Judah.

“The east side toward the rising of the sun” emphasizes this leadership role of the tribe of Judah as it was also from this position the tribe of Judah was appointed by God to give direction in battle:

Jdg 1:1 Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
Jdg 1:2 And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.

As with the tribe of Judah, it is indeed from this spiritually elevated position “at the east” that the elect in Christ, symbolised in scripture by the Cherubims, which are the four beasts “in the midst…and round about the throne” of God, can do battle in the spirit with the sword of the spirit as they keep His way and do His commandments (Eze 46:1-3; Eph 2:6-10; Eph 6:17; Rev 4:6-8):

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

Eze 10:19 And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD’S house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.

It is from the east gate of the temple that the waters of life issued according to Ezekiel, typifying the words of life coming from the Christ and His elect that will reach everyone in Adam (1Co 15:2).

Eze 47:1 Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.

John confirms this position of those who can see their spiritual inheritance through this tribe of Judah, as this tribe is also mentioned first of those who are spiritually sealed in the book of Revelation:

Rev 7:4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
Rev 7:5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand.

True leadership also admits mistakes as Judah also acknowledged his sin of fornication and self-righteousness to his daughter-in-law, Tamar, with whom he unknowingly slept and conceived twins with her:

Gen 38:26 And Judah acknowledged them [his signet, bracelets, and staff], and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.

Through the twins born from Tamar we see how the two generational lines of Judah typify the two generational lines of Christ. Through Pharez or Phares (meaning “breach”) we see the physical or earthly linage of Christ “after the flesh”, and through his twin brother, Zarah or Zerah (means “rising” or “east”), we see the spiritual linage of the heavenly Christ (Gen 38:27-30; Mat 1:3):

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

The linage through Zarah is obscured in the scriptures, which in itself makes such a powerful spiritual statement of how God indeed reserved His spiritual remnant throughout the church age:

Rom 11:4 But what saith the answer of God unto him [Elijah, who thought he was the only true prophet left]? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Rom 11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

When the kingdom of Israel divided after the death of Solomon, the tribe of Judah played the dominant role in the southern kingdom with their headquarters in Jerusalem. With the destruction of the temple and the death of the last physical king in Judah, Zedekiah and his sons, after seventy years God caused a small remnant to return to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem – again under the leadership of the tribe of Judah. We move from the temporary rule of the flesh, which was typified by the physical kingly lineage through the firstborn Pharez, to the leadership of the spirit, typified by Zarah. This is what the prophet Ezekiel saw when he wrote down these words:

Eze 21:25 And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel [the kingly linage of the flesh, even in Judah], 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 rule of the last Adam, Jesus Christ].
Eze 21:27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose [birth] right it is; and I will give it him [King Christ and His elect].

It is also interesting to note that one of Judah’s offspring through the lineage of Zarah, whose name was Pethahiah, is specifically mentioned in the scripture as being in a position of power with the Persian king, and he was placed “in all matters concerning the people” when the remnant returned to the promised land (Isa 10:22; Isa 37:32-31; Jer 29:10-15; Ezr 1:1-4):

Neh 11:24 And Pethahiah [meaning “God has opened/set free” or “at the gate”] the son of Meshezabeel, of the children of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the king’s hand [Hebrew: yâd = position of power] in all matters concerning the people [of Israel returning to Jerusalem].

It was indeed under the leadership of Zerubbabel that this remnant returned from exile to live in the promised land where the walls of the city of Jerusalem and the temple were rebuilt (Ezr 2:1-2; Ezr 3:8; Ezr 5:2; Hag 1:1-2; Hag 1:14; Mat 1:12). Zerubbabel, also known under his Persian name “Sheshbazzar” in the scriptures, was from the tribe of Judah and was appointed governor over Israel by the Persian king (Ezr 1:11; Ezr 5:14; Ezr 5:16; Zec 4:9):

Ezr 1:8 Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar [meaning “worshipper of fire”/“joy in tribulation”], the prince of Judah.

Gen 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver [Hebrew: châqaq = engrave/enact] from between his feet, until Shiloh [Hebrew: shı̂ylôh = tranquil/ peaceful/secure/successful] come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

The sceptre indeed shall not depart from Judah, as we can see how these sons of Judah and their rulership applies to us. Leadership is necessary to affect the gathering of people. As we know Judah and his offspring typify God’s elect and their spiritual development in terms of leadership. This leadership is all the result of the work of Jesus Christ in us to eventually gather all in Adam in Him (1Co 15:22-28; Eph 2:8-10). Christ, who is the foundation and rock of His church, is first gathering His elect from the four corners of the earth, and through all these centuries He has been focussing on this task at hand without fail:

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

Isa 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Mat 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Jesus Christ and His body becomes this completed “Shiloh”, Mount Zion, to whom the task is given by the Father to gather the rest:

Eph 1:9 having made known to us the secret of His will, according to His good pleasure, that He purposed in Himself,
Eph 1:10 in regard to the dispensation of the fulness of the times, to bring into one the whole in the Christ, both the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth–in him; (YLT)

Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

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

Gen 49:11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk”

The rulership of Christ was typified in the lineage of Judah, the kingly tribe of Israel who was also known as the vine of God in the scriptures, albeit an “empty vine…[which] bringeth forth fruit unto himself” (Mat 1:1-16; Eze 15:6; Hos 10:1; Zec 7:6). It is through the death of this Christ “after the flesh” that the new spiritual lineage of the “Choice Wine” is made available through His resurrection life (Joh 11:25; 1Jn 5:11-12):

Mat 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

It is also by dying daily to the old man in us, and getting the new spirit life through Christ’s righteous mind, that we are born into the spiritual lineage of Christ (Joh 6:63; Joh 15:1-8; 1Co 15:31; Gal 2:20). It is indeed Christ’s body and His blood that is given to all as we all come from physical Edom and in our time of flesh we hate the truth and kill God’s elect. We must die with Christ to this fleshly Edom to receive His glorious righteousness and life:

Isa 63:1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.

The blood is the spirit and life of Christ which produces the white raiment we all need to be in God’s spiritual kingdom as we all will be spiritually translated from the kingdom of darkness into His glorious light:

Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Rev 4:4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

Those who are sitting on these thrones are indeed clothed with white raiment because they overcome this earthly corruption and attachments in this life. They are the ones who indeed follow Jesus and take their own cross moving forward in His strength and righteousness (Mat 10:38-39):

Rev 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
Rev 19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
Rev 19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
Rev 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

It is the elect of God who are that white throne through which He brings judgment to all when their book will be opened:

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.

—————

Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

Revelation 4:6-7 – Part 4
Animals in Scripture – Leopards, Bears, Lions, Dragons – Part 1
Animals in Scripture – Leopards, Bears, Lions, Dragons – Part 2
Colors in Scripture
Numbers in Scripture