​Hi Mike,​

One last thing… 

​Re:  the woman (or man):  you will not be clean again until…

​T​his doesn’t seem to be the devil as God said in the bible he doesn’t help angels but the descendents of Abraham (or was it Israel?).  Anyway​,​ whoever she/he is but sinful and need major cleansing so much so they are (it seems) cleansed until they pass.

And re: King Saul

​God said one (or more) demonic spirits bothered him…they “came and went” as they choose, from him.  So…it seems He was not the devil or Satan but was perhaps allowed to be attacked this way.

May God Bless You in all ways.

T____​

Hi T____,

​Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

​I am excited to see you are trusting the Lord to do what He wills because He knows what is best for you and for all of mankind.

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

​The words “firstborn among many” is referring to those who​m​ “He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son”, as the very next verse in Ephesians 1 confirms:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

​Those who are predestined to be to the praise of His glory are not those who are cast into the lake of fire and experience the second death. It is only those who experience death first and “who first trusted in Christ” that are “to the praise of his glory”.

​But you would think that the blindest person in the world could see that the word “first” clearly intimates and demands that there is a second death and a second resurrection and a second group who will also “trust in Christ” at a later date. But that is not possible for a person whom the Lord Himself has blinded to see​ at this time.

​As for the evil spirit that troubled King Saul, it does not matter whether that spirit was Satan himself or one of his legions. Just as Christ identifies with us, so “the god of this world” identifies with his own:

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

Joh 15:19  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

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. 

This is that “glorious gospel”:

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

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.

1Ti 4:9  This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.
1Ti 4:10  For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

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

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

​What you may not realize is that through Christ, “in the dispensation of the fulness of times [the Father] might gather together in One, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are one earth, even in Him”​ (Eph 1:10)​

Notice the context of that verse:

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

​Lest we somehow miss what is being said to us here, let’s add another ‘precept’ to make it a little clearer:

Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

​”All things” is defined for us in the previous verses:

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

​”All things” which will be “reconciled… unto Himself” include all “that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be throne, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.​” That certainly includes the “powers and principalities… the rulers of the darkness of this world… [the] spiritual wickedness in high places”​ [Greek:​ the heavens], against whom we strive:

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

​And so it should be because Satan really is nothing more or less than a tool in the Lord’s hand, as the verses to which you allude demonstrate:

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

​Satan and his legions are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone/the second death/the white throne judgment, to be judged and reconciled to God along with all of mankind:

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

​I hope you find all these verses to be positive and uplifting. 

Your brother in Christ, Mike

Isa 36:12-22 The Lord Will Surely Deliver Us - Discussion

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Isa 36:12-22 - The Lord Will Surely Deliver Us

Isa 36:12  But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?
Isa 36:13  Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
Isa 36:14  Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.
Isa 36:15  Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Isa 36:16  Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;
Isa 36:17  Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
Isa 36:18  Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Isa 36:19  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
Isa 36:20  Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
Isa 36:21  But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.
Isa 36:22  Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

The adversary is "more subtle than any beast of the field", and he knows just how to attack us at our weakest point. When we seek to have him deal with our strongest assets, he makes it clear that he has no intention to show any mercy whatsoever:

Here is what Hezekiah's representatives, types of us, had requested of Rabshakeh, Sennacherib's captain:

Isa 36:11 Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, unto thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.

But our adversary knows the advantage of speaking our language, and using our own language to draw us away from our fear of the Lord. So he answers us in this way:

Isa 36:12  But Rabshakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?

The message of this verse is contained in these verses in the New Testament:

Mat 4:8  Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
Mat 4:9  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

But Christ knew the heart of the adversary because He made him as he is, and he knew what the king of Assyria had done to Hezekiah after demanding tribute from Hezekiah. What the king of Assyria did, as we read last week, was to send Rabshakeh and a great host to destroy Jerusalem. That was how Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, expressed his gratitude for Hezekiah's submission, and the huge tribute he had placed upon Hezekiah. That is also how the adversary treats us every time we try to reason with him or seek to appease him in any way. Unlike Hezekiah who submitted to the tribute Sennacherib placed upon him, Christ did not for one moment succumb to the temptation to depend upon mankind for His welfare, and He immediately told the devil:

Mat 4:10  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Christ was in the same situation Hezekiah was in when He stood before Pilate, and Pilate, in the spirit of Rabshakeh, made this statement to our Lord:

Joh 19:10  Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
Joh 19:11  Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

We are told that Christ had cried out to His Father to deliver Him and He was heard in that He feared:

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

Christ was heard and delivered from death while Pilate and the Jews who accused Christ are all dead and are all awaiting their resurrection to judgment.

The Lord wants us to have the same mind of Christ and put the things of the spirit before the ease and pleasures of our flesh. This is how we are to think as Christ:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. ["The Christ"]
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

These words are Christ who is also crying out to us a message promising to deliver us from our oppressors. His Words and His promises directly contradict every word of Rabshakeh:

Isa 36:13  Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. Isa 36:14  Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you.
Isa 36:15  Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Rabshakeh is the captain of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. These words are blasphemous against the Lord, and they are an assault upon the Lord's people by others who know "the Jew's language". Speaking in an unintelligible language which "the people on the wall", meaning "the watchmen" of Israel, could not understand is the last thing in the world Rabshakeh intends to do. His very purpose is to draw away as many of Hezekiah's people to himself as he can. There is no man of God at this point, sent to tell them to submit themselves to the king of Babylon or to seek the peace of that city. That is not the message of these chapters of Isaiah. There is a time for that message, but the message of Isaiah 36 is that the Lord will deliver us from the king of Assyria and from all the powers of Babylon's lies and false doctrines. Rabshakeh is aware that Hezekiah is clearing out of the land all of the false prophets and ungodly high places in Judah, but he is appealing to the hearts of those who have had their idols taken from them and destroyed, and He is asking them to give up without a fight, as so many do and so many have done. We have just recently been told 'You have to believe what we are saying or you will end up in the second death'. Like Hezekiah we are purging out of our land the false doctrines such as there will be no thousand year reign, and therefore there will be no first resurrection preceding that thousand year reign, and that there will be no second death for the judgment of all those who are not partakers of the first resurrection. The priests of the high places were secretly teaching against everything being taught by those who were faithful to the Lord's commandment to worship only in Jerusalem. That commandment is applicable until this very day as it is applied to the church of the firstborn to which we are all still commanded to come and worship the Lord:

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

Isa 36:16  Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me: and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern;
Isa 36:17  Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

"Come out to me... until I come and take you away" is like telling us we must pay a huge unbearable tribute if we do not wish to be destroyed, and as soon as the tribute is paid, Sennacherib still sends "Tartan, Rabsaris and Rabshakeh... with a great host" to destroy Jerusalem. It makes no difference at all if we and Hezekiah submit to the adversary. Rabshakeh will still demand more and will still rob us of our crown of life. Rabshakeh typifies our rebellious old man, who tells us we cannot make war with him, and at the same time we are told, and Rabshakeh admits, that he is intent upon our destruction.

Rom 6:21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Our rebellious old man is a heartless taskmaster, and it is true that of ourselves we cannot make war with the beast, which we are by nature. It is a Biblical doctrine that we sin even when we don't want to do so:

Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

"It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me" is the power which Rabshakeh, speaking for Babylon within, has over us. The northern kingdom of Israel, allied with Syria against the Lord's people in Judah under Hezekiah, symbolizes our helplessness and our hopelessness in fighting against Babylon within us. Of ourselves the battle is lost before it begins, and it is all by God's design.

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

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

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

The power of the beast within us, and Babylon's power over us, is derived from the great red dragon, that old serpent the devil, and Satan (Rev 12:9).

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

That power is given to the serpent through the food he is given to eat. He is given 'dust' to eat, and that 'dust' is our flesh:

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

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Serpents do not literally "eat... dust". Serpents are carnivores, and without Christ in us, Satan really does spiritually have us for lunch day in and day out. Christ Himself, our own Creator, has placed within our members a law against which, as we read here in Romans 7, we really are helpless and hopeless except for what comes next here in Romans 7:

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

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

...As well as these encouraging and edifying words of Truth:

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

Our carnal nature is so sure of its dominion over us that it treats us with disdain and as the utter slaves to our flesh that we are by nature. However, just like Goliath, the lies of Assyria and Babylon do not have a chance against the stone that is targeted right at their very head, the father of all lies, "That old serpent the devil... and his angels".

So our flesh and its master tells us:

Isa 36:18  Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Isa 36:19  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

Samaria is the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. In other words, Samaria symbolizes all those who were part of us only yesterday, and have now allied themselves with Syria, a Gentile nation like Sodom, the city the Lord had destroyed with fire back in Abraham's day.  The destruction of Samaria, Judah's and Hezekiah's own people at one time, is now being accomplished through Assyria, the same people as Babylon, and it is occasioned for this reason:

Isa 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine [the Lord's] indignation.
Isa 10:6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

2Ki 18:11  And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:
2Ki 18:12  Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.

The law of Moses typifies "the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2) just as the first man Adam typifies Christ, who is called "the last man, Adam":

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

The physical northern kingdom of Israel, worshiping the idols of Jezebel, signifies each of us professing Christ and His doctrines while at the same time refusing to "hear them, nor do them". Hence, because of the idols of our hearts, we were 'Babylonians' at heart even before we are carried away into the great harlot Babylon and her daughter harlots. Spiritually we are all born into self-worship, so we just naturally "worship the beast", and the beast is just naturally drawn to the great harlot whose commission from God Himself is to seduce His people.

Pro 7:11  (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
Pro 7:12  Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
Pro 7:13  So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,
Pro 7:14  I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
Pro 7:15  Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

We have all fallen for the lies of the great harlot, but by the mercies of God we are "coming out of her" (Rev 18:4), and by those same mercies we will not "crucify the Lord afresh and put Him to an open shame" by  falling prey to the lies of the great harlot.

Isa 36:20  Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

The fact that Ahaz, Hezekiah's father, and then Hezekiah himself had subjugated themselves to the king of Assyria and had voluntarily made themselves tributaries to his sovereignty demonstrates that "all men, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond" submit themselves to and worship the beast and his image; the religious beast whose deadly wound is healed (Rev 13:3) and who is now in bed with the great whore of Babylon. Hezekiah and Judah, in this historical event, symbolize the Lord's remnant who "come out of her" and declare their dependence upon the Lord and upon Him only.

Isa 36:21  But they held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, Answer him not.

"Answer him not" is the king's commandment until this very day. Rabshakeh is the spokesman for the great whore, and this is what the Lord's remnant are commanded to this very day:

2Jn 1:7  For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh [in our flesh - vs 9]. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
2Jn 1:8  Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
2Jn 1:9  Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
2Jn 1:11  For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

Verse nine is just another way of repeating what this same apostle tells us in his first epistle:

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Our faith and our heavens must endure a fiery trial and be purified of any and all wood, hay, and stubble before we will be accepted of God, who is doing all of this within us by the counsel of His own will.

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.

Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

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.

The trial of our faith is revealed to us when we are faced with the demands of our flesh under whose sovereignty we have placed ourselves.

So we read:

Isa 36:22  Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Rabshakeh and his master, the king of Assyria, are rich in the things of this age. They even have the gold and silver and treasures of the Lord's house, because we give it to them. Yet spiritually the king of Assyria is "wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked", and as such Assyria and Babylon are the type and shadow of our own outwardly "rich man" whose treasures are not in heaven and are very corruptible. Our own personal "rich man" is anything within us which, like Rabshakeh, exalts itself against the knowledge of God. That is what will keep us out of the kingdom of God if we are not shown His mercy. Christ warns us against trusting in our own 'riches', our own understanding, and our own doctrines, and in the idols of our own heart as in this story about a young rich man who came to inquire of Christ:

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

The law of Moses serves as Rabshakeh, and as the king of Assryia to us. It essentially teaches that if we are physically rich, then we must be righteous, because that is the promise given to those who are obedient to the law. Paul informs us that the righteousness that is within the law "is not for a righteous man" (1Ti 1:9), and produces self righteousness (Php 3:6).

Rabshakeh was full of his own "law of the Gentiles" self righteousness, which comes from keeping the law:

Deu 7:12  Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:
Deu 7:13  And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
Deu 7:14  Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
Deu 7:15  And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

We do not generally see ourselves as physically 'rich', and therefore this story seems to be targeted at some few rich Christians. But this section of scripture is really speaking to all of us when we possess huge idols of our own hearts which we value so much we are willing to appropriate the Lord's riches, His words and His doctrines, as cover for those idols of our heart. It is in that state of mind that we think we are "rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing". In that state of mind the Lord lays upon His elect "all sickness, and...the evil diseases of Egypt" as He drags us to Himself.

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

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

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Because Christ's disciples were taught that being rich was the result of being obedient to God, they were dumbfounded when Christ told them that our riches keep us from knowing Him, and that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God:

Mat 19:23  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 19:24  And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Mat 19:25  When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

Christ knew in advance what would be the impact of His words concerning how we esteem ourselves to be rich in His Truth, even when we are really "wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked". Nevertheless, when He made this statement, He was speaking to and admonishing His own disciples. The rich young man was not even there at that time.

So He reveals just how any and all of us are saved:

Mat 19:26  But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

It is only through Christ that any of us can "sell all [we] have", all our "idols of [our] hearts", and be converted into little children wanting to please their heavenly Father.

In spite of the false doctrine of some, the truth remains that Christ created us to be motivated by both pain for disobedience and by rewards for obedience, as Peter here demonstrates and as Christ reaffirms:

Mat 19:27  Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
Mat 19:28  And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration [G3824, paliggenesia] when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:29  And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Mat 19:30  But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

Peter wants to know what is the reward for being faithful to Christ and His doctrines and Christ tells Peter that the reward is beyond his wildest dreams. In essence Christ tells Peter that it will be through him and all others who will remain faithful "to the end" "the whole house of Israel" will be saved (Eze 37:9)

Let's notice that in verse 28 Christ uses this word to let us know when we will receive our reward:

G3824
παλιγγενεσία
paliggenesia
pal-ing-ghen-es-ee'-ah
From G3825 and G1078; (spiritual) rebirth (the state or the act), that is, (figuratively) spiritual renovation; specifically Messianic restoration: - regeneration.
Total KJV occurrences: 2

This word appears but just two times in all of the scriptures. It is here in Mat 19 and again in Titus 3:

G3824
παλιγγενεσία
paliggenesia
Total KJV Occurrences: 2
regeneration, 2
Mat_19:28, Tit_3:5

Tit 3:4  But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
Tit 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration [G3824, paliggenesia], and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Tit 3:6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

When we put the words of God "line upon line and precept upon precept" we find that what Christ is promising Peter really is far beyond his wildest dreams, because the physical twelve tribes of Israel will be "obtain mercy... through [Peter's and our] mercy... [only] when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in":

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Rom 11:28  As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.
Rom 11:29  For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

The "as touching the election" here is the physical election of the physical nation of Israel, and not the spiritual election of the spiritual "Israel of God" of :

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

When will "the fulness of the Gentiles be come in"? We need not guess because we are given the timeline of these events:

Eze 16:48  As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.
Eze 16:49  Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
Eze 16:50  And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
Eze 16:51  Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.
Eze 16:52  Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.
Eze 16:53  When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
Eze 16:54  That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
Eze 16:55  When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

Where is "the whole house of [physical] Israel" until the regeneration, the 'paliggenesia'?

Eze 37:9  Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
Eze 37:10  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
Eze 37:11  Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

Should we not all tremble before the inspired words "when" and "then"? All we must do is believe what the scriptures tell us, and we will know the timeline of the salvation of physical Israel and all outward Jews. They will be redeemed "when Sodom... and Samaria" are redeemed, and "when your sisters Sodom and her daughters return to their former estate". "Return to your former estate" is simply speaking of being redeemed from our sinful state, and returning to our very Creator. In other words, outward Israel will be saved when all the rest of mankind returns to their Creator. That will be after Christ's elect are raised from the dead at the beginning of the thousand year reign, and only after the short season of rebellion which follows the thousand year reign of Christ and His resurrected elect. The Lord's mercy to them will come only through Peter and through all of us as His elect:

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

And that is some of the blessings, "and the glory and the honor", which will be awarded all those who "give up all" as Peter put it, to follow Christ. After the thousand year reign, followed by a short season of rebellion, fire will come down from God out of heaven and will annihilate all flesh on the earth. That will be the beginning of the destruction of mankind's "last enemy [which] is death":

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

All those who are in the first resurrection at the beginning of the thousand years had to first be judged, and their old man had to be destroyed outwardly (1Pe 4:17) by dying daily (1Co 15:31) and by presenting themselves as a "living sacrifice" (Rom 12:1) in the Lord's service and by being "crucified with Christ" (Gal 2:20). Only then will we be given "the crown of life" (Jas 1:12 and Rev 2:10-11) of being "kings and priests" (Rev 1:6 and Rev 5:10) in that "blessed and holy... first resurrection" (Rev 20:4-6). In that same order, meaning the natural must always precede the spiritual (1Co 15:44-46), all natural flesh must first be destroyed outwardly before the "manifested sons of God" (Rom 8:18-19), the rulers of the thousand year reign, can then begin to judge all of mankind from Adam to the end of the thousand year reign, spiritually and collectively as "Satan and his angels" in the second death/lake of fire/ white throne judgment:

Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

So there it is. We are made to know of some of blessings and the rewards for those who overcome the fear of what Babylon can do to us, and who are granted to ignore all the words of the spirit of Rabshakeh, and are given to "cast down every thought which exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ" (2Co 10:5), and to depend solely upon the Lord's mercy for our salvation:

Joh 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Joh 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

Here is how Paul feels about how the things we must suffer, compare to all the blessings to be bestowed upon us as the Lord's bride, His friends and His chosen "very elect":

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

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they [of "the first resurrection" (vs 6)] sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

There are but two resurrections, and Christ Himself makes that very clear:

Dan 12:1  And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
Dan 12:2  And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Dan 12:3  And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

As it turns out, "thy people" are actually Abraham's spiritual "one... seed", (Gal 3:16) who are "inward... Jews" (Rom 2:28-29), "in Christ... neither Jew nor Greek" (Gal 3:26-29)), and they are called "the Israel of God" (Gal 6:15-15). "Your people" are those who "have overcome the wicked one" in this age and who win "a crown of life" in this age (Rev 2:10-11), and have their names written in heaven (Luk 10:20 and Heb 12:23). It is "the firstborn [whose] names are written in heaven". It is most certainly not those to whom Christ will say "Depart from me you cursed, into everlasting fire... the lake of fire/second death... prepared for the devil and his angels":

Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Christ repeats this same message in John 5:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment. (ASV)

The people involved in these two resurrections are separated by a "great gulf" which cannot be bridged.

Luk 16:26  And beside all this, between us [first resurrection] and you ["they that have done evil"... 2nd resurrection] there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

There is a thousand years of the Lord's elect ruling over the kingdoms of this world which separates these two resurrections. It is not possible to bridge that gulf and bring those who will be judged after the thousand years over into the first resurrection. Neither is it possible for those who are blessed of the Lord and given a kingdom, and who are given to take part in that "blessed and holy... first resurrection", to be hurt of the second death:

Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom [Rev 11:15] prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

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

All of this is summarized in the first six verses of Revelation 20:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The Lord is so gracious as to reveal even more of His work to us:

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.

Then the very next thing revealed to us immediately following this ultimate deception and rebellion of "the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth" is:

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

When the book of life is opened at the great white throne, it will be revealed for all to see those whose names were written in that book and who will be judging angels in this "great white throne... resurrection to judgment".

Those whose names are written in the book of life are those "who first trusted in Christ" (Eph 1:12). They are also called "the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven". This is the group who were judged in this age and who died with Christ first and whose names will appear in that "book of life" at the great white throne judgment:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

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

This concludes our study today on how we are to wage spiritual warfare.

Next week, Lord willing, we will continue our studies on this topic of spiritual warfare and we will see what Hezekiah, a type of who we are, did when He was confronted with the threats of Rabshakeh, the captain of Sennecharib, the king of Assyria.

These are our verses for our next study:

Isa 37:1  And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
Isa 37:2  And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
Isa 37:3  And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
Isa 37:4  It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.
Isa 37:5  So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
Isa 37:6  And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
Isa 37:7  Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
Isa 37:8  So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah: for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.
Isa 37:9  And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come forth to make war with thee. And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Isa 37:10  Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Isa 37:11  Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?
Isa 37:12  Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?
Isa 37:13  Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?

If the kingdoms mentioned in Daniel were real kingdoms, is there to be another as it says in Daniel?

G____

Dear G____,

The ten toes of Daniel 2 are symbolic of the flesh of mankind at the time of the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ:

The number ten always symbolizes the flesh, and this is what we are told of those ten toes:

Dan 2:42  And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
Dan 2:43  And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
Dan 2:44  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Dan 2:45  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

Here is this same “kingdom… of heaven” as it is referenced in Revelation 11:

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.

So, yes, there is yet another kingdom to come. It is called “the kingdom of heaven… the kingdom of God” in the various gospel parables. It is prophesied to last a symbolic thousand years to be followed by a “short season” of rebellion, which will eventuate in the annihilation of the armies in the four quarters of the earth:

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

The very next verse informs us of “a great white throne” judgment.

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

It is not a black throne, it is a white throne judgment, and:

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 “great white throne judgment” is the “lake of fire”, and “when [God’s] judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness”. So contrary to what we have been taught by the churches of this world, judgment is chastening to beget repentance and salvation:

1Co 11:32  But when we are judged [in this age], we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world [to a later white throne judgment].

I hope this helps to answer your question. There will be a physical kingdom of God on this earth.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Last week’s study was broken up into several sections, and we started off by looking at how God looks at all sinful flesh in which we abide in (Rom 7:5-6, Gal 5:17). We also looked at how the physical feeding and nourishing of the flesh of mankind found in these two sections of scripture, Luke 9:14-17 and Mark 8:6-9, are a parable describing the judgment that God’s word is going to work in the lives of all those who will receive His word in time, a word that is likened unto bread (Joh 6:55-58).

We looked at how all men will be saved through a process of judgment which is unfolding little by little as each man in his own order receives that bread of life, those words of eternal life that won’t return void until it has accomplished what God has determined it to do (Joh 17:20, Isa 55:11).

We then dissected those parables a little further (Luk 9:14-17, Mar 8:6-9) to see how all men, represented by the 4000 who sat down and ate bread (Mar 8:6-9), will be saved through judgment that unfolds in two stages: a physical baptism first, because that which is natural is always first (1Co 15:46). That experience is preceded by a spiritual baptism by fire, represented by the 5000 who sat and ate bread at Christ’s feet in this parable in Luke 9:14-17. Together the two stories add up to around 9000 people, the number which we know represents judgment showing us that judgment is something that unfolds in a very specific process.

The salvational experience of all of mankind as a whole can be likened to the twelve baskets full of the fragments that are gathered up after the multitudes ate at the feet of Christ, and it is that foundational event of twelve baskets which God uses in this parable of the 5000 being fed (Luk 9:14-17) that reminds us that none will be lost, but all will be saved through grace and faith (5000, Eph 2:8). The foundation of how God is going to save all mankind starts with God’s elect as these verses witness – Mat 10:2, Rev 7:4, Eph 3:10, 1Co 15:23.

There is significance to the 4000 being fed seven fish and then seven baskets of fragments which were gathered in this parable in Mark 8:5-9, and what we have been learning is that these fragments which are gathered are the complete (7) experience of mankind that needs to be understood as our experience, our one event which is common to all men (Ecc 9:3). When we’re granted to ruminate on this experience of evil (Ecc 1:13) by which we are humbled, we become sorrowful at this event of the dead burying the dead within ourselves, if God is working with us (Luk 9:60, Rom 2:4). This experience in our first Adamic seed is what God uses to prick our hearts and lead us to a repentance which must precede our being born again so we can inherit the kingdom of God within (Rom 6:4, Gal 3:16, Joh 12:24, Joh 3:3).

This week we will look at how God reserves all mankind unto judgment through the law (2Pe 3:7, Heb 10:27) or the schoolmaster where we are “under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father”, the time when we will be judged with a fiery baptism (Gal 3:24, Gal 4:1, Mat 3:11).

We will also look at some parables that point to the need for the preparation which each of us will experience in our lives prior to the ultimate rest in the Lord that will occur in the first resurrection. God is always preparing our hearts and making us ready for what is coming (Pro 16:9, Pro 16:1), and so we can rejoice in knowing that He is our helper Who is helping us overcome and endure through the fiery process of preparation so that we can be made ready to serve and save the rest of humanity (Rom 8:31, 1Ti 4:16).

The last part of our study will conclude in an email that I will read which witnesses to another example of the order that God reveals to us in His word in regard to how judgment must unfold in each life, and how it is by God’s ordained wisdom and order described in this parable found in 2 Peter 3:8 that we can see there truly is one event unto all men (Ecc 9:3). No one will be excluded from that order and process, even those who died in the womb, or any other instance where life was cut short, through war, for example.

Judged by the law for the lawless until we are judged with fire (Mat 3:11)

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

Giving an accounting or confession ‘in the lake of fire’ for the powers and principalities to which we have been subject even in ignorance is typified in the time when we are judged by the school master, the law for the lawless, and the gentiles (within and without) are not excluded from that time, being a law unto themselves.

Rom 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound [the law is that first baptism]. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound [grace that did much more abound is the fiery baptism we go through that changes the heart]:
Rom 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death [Rom 8:2, 1Ti 1:9], even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
Rom 7:8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

1Ti 1:13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Rom 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

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

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,

There is a negative way to compare among ourselves which is not wise, but there is also a positive way to compare that God will use in judgment to bring people to see that He was the one Who gave different cultures or groups of people at specific times, a specific spirit, which required specific works done in it if they were going to repent.

2Co 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

The wisdom of man, or the vanity of mans flesh compares fleshly wisdom with fleshly wisdom and this is the time when we are not going from glory to glory by faith because we are not granted to look to Christ who is our wisdom and the finisher of our faith.

2Ti 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2Ti 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
2Ti 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Luk 10:8 And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:
Luk 10:9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
Luk 10:10 But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say,
Luk 10:11 Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
Luk 10:12 But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.
Luk 10:13 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
Luk 10:14 But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.
Luk 10:15 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.
Luk 10:16 He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

This judgment or these comparisons which Christ draws are part of the process of letting the dead bury the dead, that must precede the lake of fire baptism where those within that fire will be giving an accounting for all of those things that were done in their body. Those things will be brought to their attention, just as Christ did in the type and shadow event of comparing Chorazin and Bethsaida, which represents that time in the second resurrection when the world will start to be convicted of all of the wickedness of mankind and the sovereignty of God over the sins of the Amorites that must be seen as something that is fulfilled within us.

Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Gen 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

This event of giving an account is common to all men and is typified by the court where we are trodden under foot for 1260 days [under the law] (Rev 11:2), where we become convinced of our need for not just this ‘baptism by water’, but we begin to understand more clearly what the fearful waiting for of fiery judgement in the lake of “fiery indignation” will conclude in Heb 10:27, Mat 10:28, Rev 11:3 and Rev 11:7-8.

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Ecc 9:3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23 And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

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?
1Co 6:4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.

Rev 11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

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.

Joh 1:26 John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;

Heb 10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

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

The judgment in the lake of fire will be brought about by men being dragged into the temple of God to be tried with fire, after an accounting is given in the court, typified in the example of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, where these three men gave an accounting of their confidence and faith and ability of God to deliver them, only to then be purified in the fiery furnace with Christ, where there are now four in the fire. The four represents all the world which will be saved yet so as by fire (Joh 6:44, 1Pe 1:7), and the elect have been granted to be the first to abide in that fire through the grace and faith process which will save us in advance of the world so we can judge angels (Mat 13:11, 1Co 6:19, Eph 2:8). It is in the temple where that baptism of fire will unfold for the rest of the world after the dead have buried their dead and the Lord deems it time to add another to the church through the temple which we are.

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.
Dan 3:20 And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
Dan 3:21 Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Dan 3:22 Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Dan 3:23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Dan 3:24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
Dan 3:25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

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

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

Exo 26:37 And thou shalt make for the hanging five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold: and thou shalt cast five sockets of brass for them.

Exo 36:38 And the five pillars of it with their hooks: and he overlaid their chapiters and their fillets with gold: but their five sockets were of brass.

1Co 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

In other words, in the resurrected body of a spirit-being in the second resurrection, there is a symbolic time in the court, and there is a symbolic time in the temple, and that time concludes in the seven typified years which are needed to complete (7) the process of judgment that God will bring upon all of humanity, each man in his order. We must live by all these words (Mat 4:4) and ultimately be found lying dead in the street for three and a half days, which symbolizes our dying daily process that is needed in order to “fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church”.

Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Rev 11:9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

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

Preparation needed to rest in the Lord

There was a preparation taking place for the physical body of Christ that is a type of the preparation which all of humanity must go through in our heavens before we can rest in the Lord (Luk 23:56).

Joh 12:7 Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.

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

God deems the time and order for every individual person to be judged and to have his flesh trodden under foot for 1260 symbolic days before they can enter into “the holiest” within the fiery confines of the temple of God, and our Father shows us that Christ’s flesh was sinful flesh, that was symbolically anointed to remind us that through the anointing of the holy spirit we can endure all thing “against the day of my burying hath she kept this”.

Zec 2:5 For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.

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

Joh 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was

Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

We are as Christ and are being prepared to enter into our eternal rest with God and Jesus Christ. For God’s elect this process is unfolding as we are anointed in this life through Christ, Who is our hope of glory, Who enables us to go through the fiery trials of this life that burnish our feet, Christ’s feet. Christ’s feet represent the body of Christ that was anointed and able to endure the trials, or drink the cup that was given to him and is given to us. We can rest in the Lord and die daily and be raised into heavenly places with our Lord where we are anointed with the holy spirit.

2Co 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts

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

Rev 1:15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

Mat 20:23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

2Co 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

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

For the rest of creation, it will unfold in the second resurrection starting with an earnest (downpayment) relationship that will grow to a fullness which the elect will have already attained by the grace and faith process we will have gone through and that Christ has gone through as our forerunner (1Jn 4:17, Eph 2:8).

Heb 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
Heb 6:20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Knowing that the physical reveals the spiritual as stated in Romans 1:20, and that that which is natural is first and afterward that which is spiritual (1Co 15:46-47), these verses in 1 Corinthians 15:21-23 give clarity regarding how God will resurrect all men and judge all in a specific order.

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

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

Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead [which is a spiritual statement telling us that as kings and priest we can know a tree by its fruit that they are yet spiritually dead and in need of judgement], 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.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Man and the flesh of man are equated with death, a body of death (Rom 7:24-25), and the second resurrection, “the resurrection of the dead”, is just that; it is the resurrection of those who are yet spiritually dead and in need of being judged. It is only through judgment that we can be “made alive”, and that judgment must proceed from Christ and His body (1Co 6:3, Mat 22:28-32) and is what it will take for the world to be raised in heavenly places where we are known of God and Christ through judgment (Eph 2:6, Mat 7:21-23). God’s elect have been blessed to know God’s love through that process of judgment (1Jn 4:17, 1Jn 3:1, Heb 12:6-8) which is upon us today in advance of all those who will, in their own order, be judged of those saviours who will come up on mount Zion.

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

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.

I would like to conclude this study by reading an email which I believe will help reiterate what we have looked at tonight in regard to the second resurrection and the order in which God will judge all of his creation in time.

Clearly, we have an incredible inheritance in Christ and a blessed and holy family through which God is giving us the support and love so that we can all obtain to that joyous time when we will be able to judge all of God’s children and in so doing wipe away all the tears of sorrow that come with being born in the flesh.

Job 5:7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Thank you for the questions and for your grateful spirit for what the Lord is doing in our very midst both to will and to do as he prepares us for our Lord’s return and the preparation period that will come upon all the earth when the Kings and Priest of our Lord reign during the millennium.

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

2Pe 3:8  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 

Just for the sake of clarity I want to reiterate that no one is converted during the millennium, and no one is resurrected. Christ was resurrected and revealed Himself to His disciples, and in like manner if we are as our Lord (1Jn 4:17) blessed and holy in an earlier resurrection, we will be known as teachers like Christ was. Yes, sometimes people will serve angels unawares as the disciples did Christ, but that specific period will be a time of preparation for the elect, and prior to the lake of fire experience there will be preparation for those who are spiritually raised in the second resurrection, just as there was a time period for us prior to coming to know Christ on our pentecost.

So those who are being worked with during the millennium may come close to the character of which Jesus spoke of John the Baptist, if God allows that of anyone, but the least of us will still be greater than all those who we work with during that time that only typifies the preparation time prior to the lake of fire which all men will experience, including those whom we will rule and reign over during the millennium, each in their order, in the second resurrection. Your question has really helped me see that all the main work of converting the world is not done in the flesh, but in the second resurrection. 

Some men’s sins will come before them and others will be less obvious, but we know that no standard is greater than Christ. Only Christ can be Christ, and therefore the least of us will always be greater than John, and it is only through the process of a schoolmaster and then becoming an heir by way of the lake of fire, that anyone can mature and be saved.

It’s an interesting race which God has written for all men to learn that God is not a respecter of persons, and the race is simply given to those who are blessed to be dragged unto the Lord, and as we know each man will be in time. I like to contemplate that thought, because as I know you know, we are guilty of all, and are represented by every other wheel of creation whether that wheel is being quickened or not at this hour, or dead or alive, etc…

In some ways the remnant which will remain on this earth after all the wars and rumours of wars (and however few there is left on this earth) are a very blessed people who will have the benefit of Christ’s reign on this earth. No one will be converted, and we know that all things are for our sakes, so they really are serving us during this period in their unbelief. We will shepherd them and feed them and miracles will abound, but no conversion will take place, just like Christ with the loaves and the fishes. Amazing how God wants that point to be very, very loud for all of humanity, and as I said they serve us in their unbelief out of which we are blessed to come. 

That second resurrection will occur after the  millennium and not during it, and not until Gog and Magog come down and surround the camp of the saints, only to be destroyed by fire which comes down from heaven and typifies what is to come in the lake of fire after they are prepared for that period. Gog and Magog are from the four corners of the earth and represent all the world that comes up against Gods’ elect, being hated by all men for His name’s sake.

It is still needful for them to be raised and experience a time of judgment or preparation prior to going into the lake of fire. Humanity will one day see themselves, along with all of us, as an offering being made to God, and the preparation that goes into bringing that meat to the altar is something that must precede the lake of fire. There are so many examples of that preparation in the court, and it is all very instructive to tell us how God is in the process of saving all men through fire.

Christ was resurrected and revealed himself unto his disciples and prepared them for pentecost. When we are resurrected like Christ, we will be the gardener preparing God’s vineyard to receive the seed, the word that will eventually be tried in the lake of fire (Joh 20:15). We will also be Christ on the shore feeding the unwashed masses with food who will eventually be tried in the fire (Joh 21:10-12). And we will also be entering into the hearts of men’s lives breaking down their philosophies and ideologies like Paul with Agrippa, knowing that only the lake of fire will convert those whom we have prepared for the altar, like Christ going into a locked room and standing in the midst of the disciples after he was resurrected. We will do the same, but that will occur in that time of preparation in the resurrection prior to the lake of fire.

Everything we do prior to the second resurrection is training for us to be able to judge those spirits which will be raised and judged, each man in his order, and yes, there is symbolic meaning to our rule during the millennium, just as there was in Christ’s time, both when He was on the earth as the Son of God, and when He was raised as a spirit being who appeared in flesh for the sake of His yet unconverted disciples. Symbolically, the disciples could not open the door at this time when Christ went through the locked door, and we all lock Christ out of our hearts until we finally are blessed to hear His voice and have a relationship by opening the door and not just experiencing the miracle of Christ in our presence. The resurrected masses will experience Christ, and we will help prepare them through judgment to be able to finally see them “hear my voice, and open the door”. We are facilitators, or helpers of their joy, even as we are to each other today (2Co 1:24).

Joh 20:15 Jesus saith unto her,  Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?  She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 

Joh 21:10 Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. 
Joh 21:11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. 
Joh 21:12 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.  And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

Joh 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

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

If we are as Christ in this life (1Jn 4:17), we will be as Christ in His resurrected state when He came back to the disciples before pentecost. That means we will not convert anyone during the millennium, just as Christ did not before He was resurrected. So what about those who are raised in the second resurrection like our son Gabriel who died in an ectopic pregnancy, and how will he experience his millennium? He will have to have a time of being prepared for the lake of fire. 

The millennium is typified by the symbolic 1000 years of the verse that says a day is as a thousand and a thousand is as one day (2Pe 3:8). The ‘one day’ in that verse is the day of the Lord, and all men must experience the 1000 and the 1. The 1000 is simply a time of preparation, and not a specific 1000 years, 10x10x10=1000. Then the day of the Lord or lake of fire which is the ‘one’ is also not ‘one day’ as we know, but symbolic of the most important day of all days; the day when we find ourselves in the lake of fire.

Just to be clear there is a time period after Christ returns called the thousand years, which is a symbolic time and not a time of converting, just as Christ’s time with the disciples prior to Pentecost. It is also an is, was and will be statement (to say the saints will reign a thousand years) which can be applied to those who come up in the second resurrection seeing God’s words are eternal and are not limited in where God uses them according to the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11).

So this really does lend to the thought that there is a fearful waiting for of judgment as the ‘one’ day approaches, especially if we have lived lives that are deserving of many stripes, which God’s elect come to see is true of themselves being the chief of sinners of all men. Moses, John the Baptist, and others have experienced their fleshly experience of 10x10x10 while others have not yet, but everyone will experience some form of preparation before the ‘one day’ of the Lord in the lake of fire, and everyone will experience a 1000 symbolic years in a resurrected body prior to the lake of fire, everyone except those who are being judged today.

One could see the 1000 as John’s baptism and the ‘one’ as Christ’s baptism with fire. They are both needed (born of water and of spirit). We must have both baptisms at some point, and if we don’t experience it in the flesh because we were aborted, then we most certainly will experience that 1000 years in the resurrection. Then we will experience the lake of fire. This is all about the ‘one’ and the 1000 and the 1000 and the ‘one’ of Peter 3:8. Again, not to be a broken record, the millennium period is not a time of judgment, but a shadow of the preparation of that work we will do on all men’s hearts in the second resurrection, each man in his own order.

2Pe 3:8    But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day  is  with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

 

I see that what is common to all men is that, all men must be prepared, whether in this life or the next. There are many who will be raised as aborted children, infants who died in war etc., and they must experience the 1000 and the 1. That has to happen to all men, and where and how it unfolds is all according to the counsel of God’s will. If I’m raised as a child who was killed in war, God will give me that time of 1000 10x10x10, and then I will be given my ‘one’, which is really the time when all that I have experienced in the 1000 will be purified in the ‘one’1, but that also must be true of everyone who comes up. If it is true for the one, it is true for all. The days of our youth are when I was a child and thought like a child under the 1000. I can only put away childish things through the ‘one’ day of the Lord to which these verses below point. We are experiencing that purifying today as God’s elect by being crushed under the stone, but everyone must also stumble unto Christ at first knowing him after the flesh (carnally-minded in a spirit body) for the 1000 year symbolic period so to speak.

Ecc 12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; 

Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. 

2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his  body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Someone who is not considered the elect of God, a king and priest in the first resurrection, cannot be said to have not lived by every word of God just because they were not the elect.

Neither can I say that I’m not Jesus Christ even though I was not born of Mary.

My point is that those who don’t experience being in the first resurrection will experience that through (dia) the Christ. The same is true for our filling up what is behind of Christ’s affliction. We are experiencing His suffering on the cross as we die daily. Everyone who is not in the first resurrection must be prepared prior to the lake of fire experience. That preparation is symbolized by the law and order that the schoolmaster brings. As resurrected beings, there is a schoolmaster within the process that God has ordained which leads to the lake of fire. The only thing that will ever convert any one of us is the lake of fire or the ‘one’ day of visitation, but God has ordained some milk doctrines, so to speak, before we are made an heir by being matured in the lake of fire where we finally hear the voice, the words of the true Shepherd, the meat of His word.

All men will go from glory to glory is in the lake of fire, but prior to that event everyone must experience a type a millennial rule or baptism by water, or stumbling unto Christ before they are crushed by the stone.

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 62 Discussion

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Isa 14:24-27 I Will Break The Assyrian In My Land,​ ​and Upon My Mountains Tread Him Under Foot

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Isa 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
Isa 14:25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
Isa 14:26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
Isa 14:27 For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

This second part of the study of these verses of Isaiah is necessary because we need to understand who these nations symbolize -​​ ​e​specially the nation of Israel. If we miss that message, then these words are nothing more than a history lesson, whereas they are meant to be lived by each of us because:

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.

As we learned earlier in this prophecy, the Assyrians and the Babylonians are the same very religious Chaldean peoples. The Assyrians were the earlier of the two empires with their capital of Nineveh.

Isa 23:13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.

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

It was the king of Assyria who​m​ the Lord used to punish the northern​ nation of His people which the Lord had given to an evil servant of King Solomon, a man named Jereboam,​​ ​the son of Nebat.

Isa 8:1 Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz. [Hasting to the booty, swift to the prey]
Isa 8:2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.
Isa 8:3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
Isa 8:4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

Later the king of Assyria also conquered the southern kingdom of Judah and took its king, Manasseh, captive to Assyria:

2Ch 33:11 Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
2Ch 33:12 And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,

It is because of the part the Assyrians played in Israel's punishment that we have these words at the beginning of this 14th chapter:

Isa 14:1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
Isa 14:2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

This entire chapter is meant to be understood in its spiritual sense because it is the Word of God,​ and "the Word [of God] is spirit":

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

Christ would not have bothered to inform us, "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit..." if He had intended for us to take them literally. The words "kingdom of God" themselves were to be taken primarily in their inward, spiritual application, and not as an outward physical kingdom.

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

The day will come when those who at this time have the kingdom of God within them will "judge the world" (1Co 6:2; Rev 11:15), but until that day God's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom within us.

In like manner Assyria and Babylon are not meant to be taken literally. Both typify the entire religious world standing in opposition to the Israel of God, and those religious kingdoms are also within us and are being used by God to judge and punish His people, Israel. But Israel is not meant to be taken literally either, and it is important to know that "the Israel of God" (Gal 6:15) is not outward Isra​e​l, but is simply all those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear, and the faith to endure the hatred of Assyria and Babylon until the end of this life.

Who is the author of "replacement theology"?

For those who are given to receive it, this is the "Israel" whom​ the Lord will "yet choose [and upon whom] He will have mercy":

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

This was not the first time Paul had preached this doctrine. The first time he wrote about the replacement of physical Jews and physical circumcision with spiritual Jews and spiritual circumcision was:

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.

Contrary to what some theologians teach,​ Paul uses the words 'Jew' and 'Israelite' interchangeably, as these verses demonstrate:

Act 21:39 But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.

Act 22:3 I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.

Rom 11:1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Yet it is this same apostle who explained who it is that lives under the influence of the capital city, Jerusalem, with this same 'replacement theology' mindset in these words:

Gal 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman 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.

"For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children" I submit to you is the very definition of replacement theology. Hagar's descendants in these verses are replacing Sarah's descendants as "Jerusalem above, [and as] the son of the freewoman", and this 'replacement theology' is one of, if not the most, hated doctrines of New Testament theology!

These Galatians are physical Gentiles, and here we have the most prolific writer of the New Testament, under the inspiration of the holy spirit, replacing "Jerusalem that now is" with "Jerusalem above... which is the mother of us all", and replacing the descend​ants of the physical son of the freewoman with the descendants of the son of the physical bondwoman, Hagar. Lest we miss his point​,​ he goes so far in making clear His "replacement theology" to tell us that the bondwoman wife of Abraham, 'Agar' or 'Hagar',​ "answers to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children".

God has simply blinded the eyes of all the ministers of "Babylon the Great", from Messianic Jews to Protestants and Catholics, to Muslims, from seeing this "mystery of the kingdom of God... within us" (Luk 17:20-21 and Mat 13:9-15).

The Original Replacement Theologian

But where did Paul get this doctrine? Here is the original "replacement theologian":

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15 For this people's heart [the heart of His own people "according to the flesh", Rom 9:3] is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Who are those to whom Christ was speaking parables? It was His own physical, "according to the flesh", Jews and Israelites. It was the multitudes of physical Jews who came to hear his parables, and to eat of His loaves and fishes. Christ plainly tells us that He spoke in parable for two stated purposes, 1) "Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to them it is not given", and 2) "lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart, and should be converted and I should heal them."

Christ proclaimed His "replacement theology" in the very first recorded sermon of His ministry in His home-town synagogue in Nazareth, and it came close to getting Him killed, just as it does to this very day:

Luk 4:25 "I can guarantee this truth: There were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time. It had not rained for three-and-a-half years, and the famine was severe everywhere in the country.
Luk 4:26 But God didn't send Elijah to anyone except a widow at Zarephath in the territory of Sidon.
Luk 4:27 There were also many people with skin diseases in Israel in the prophet Elisha's time. But God cured no one except Naaman from Syria.
Luk 4:28 Everyone in the synagogue became furious when they heard this.
Luk 4:29 Their city was built on a hill with a cliff. So they got up, forced Jesus out of the city, and led him to the cliff. They intended to throw him off of it. (GWV)

Here we have Christ Himself using the fact that God sent Elijah to a Gentile woman for her deliverance instead of sending him to any of Elijah's many fellow Israelite widows. He had Elisha to heal a Syrian leper instead of any of the many lepers in Israel, as proof that He intended to replace physical Israel with "inward Jews" who were "circumcized of heart in the spirit and not in the flesh" (Rom 2:28-29).

Christ is the original replacement theologian,​ and He was the first to proclaim His "replacement theology" doctrine to the lowly Samaritans​,​ who were considered to be one step below a common Gentile​,​ when He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well in Samaria.

The Samaritan woman said:

Joh 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Joh 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the [spiritual] Jews. [who know that "he is a Jew which is one inwardly"]
Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

And this is the "Truth" to which Christ refers:

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

The kings of Babylon and Assyria spiritually typify our own flesh which places our own attachments to the false doctrines which extol physical Israel and physical circumcision over "Jerusalem which is above" and over "he is a Jew which is one inwardly". Those are the kings of Babylon, Assyria and Edumea which the Lord has "sworn... thought and purposed to break and remove as a burden "from off the shoulders ​"​ of His spiritual 'Israel' and His spiritual 'Jew'.

During the days of the king of Assyria,​​ ​Babylon was​ ​just one of the cities of the Assyrian empire. When the king of Assyria conquered Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel, he sent King Manasseh, and many of Manasseh's subjects, as slaves and as exiles to Babylon, and at the same time he also sent many men from Babylon to occupy the cities of Israel because Babylon, at that time,​​ ​was subject to the king of Assyria. It was for this reason that the Samaritans were so despised as half​-​breed heretics in the days of Christ:

2Ki 17:24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria​ instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

But after God had used Assyria to punish His own people, He then used the Babylonians to destroy the king of Assyria and to usurp rulership over all the cities of the Chaldeans:

Isa 10:12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

These words, too, are spiritual, and we all live them within as we are carried away with the false doctrines of spiritual Babylon. It is this verse of Isa 10:12 to which our study today refers:

Isa 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
Isa 14:25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

What Christ and His Father had "sworn... [and] thought... and [had] purposed", and what they have sworn, thought and purpose to do until this very day is to "punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks" within every man who has ever lived. This 'king of Assyria, is but an earlier symbol of the king of Babylon, who is but an earlier manifestation of the second beast of Revelation 13. The second beast of Revelation 13 comes up out of the earth, and since the "earth" symbolizes God's called out people who cannot hear His Words, this second beast is the symbol of all of the world's religions in rebellion against our Lord, since their rebellion against Him at the tower of Babel.

Here is the symbolism of the King of Assyria in the book of Revelation:

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

This beast is lionized and glorified and worshipped at the behest of the religious leaders of this world who tell us that we have been given a will that is free from God's will and that we are the captains of our own fate. That is the function of the religions of this world, known as "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots [and also known as] another beast coming up out of the earth [with] two horns like a lamb, [but] speaking as a dragon":

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

"Two horns like a lamb" tells those with eyes to see that this beast is masquerading as a great religious leader who, in reality​,​ is speaking for and "as a dragon".

The kings of Assyria and the king of Babylon are both very religious men, but they defy their own Creator. Let's look at what each of these men has said in their hearts in defiance of their Creator:

Here is the boasting of the king of Assyria:

2Ki 18:31 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:
2Ki 18:32​ ​Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.
2Ki 18:33 Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
2Ki 18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
2Ki 18:35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?

Here is the boasting of the king 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?

As we saw earlier​,​ this is the what the beast within every man, everyone of us, does:

Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Rev 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

This is what the kings of Assyria and Babylon did and what they still do within our lives. Just as the king of Assyria is followed ​by ​the king of Babylon here in Isaiah's prophecy, so here in their final scriptural manifestation we again have two appearances of the same 'Chaldean' beast within all men. Instead of being called 'the king of Assyria [and] the king of Babylon', here in his final manifestation he is called "a beast coming up out of the sea, [and] another beast coming up out of the earth".

This study demonstrates the single​-​mindedness of our old man and his kingdom when it comes to "the Lord and His Christ". He is also called "a great harlot", and that 'harlot', we are told​,​ has many daughter harlots who argue with each other as the Pharisees argued with the Sadducees:

Act 23:6 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.
Act 23:7 And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided.
Act 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.

The one thing which united the Pharisees and the Sadducees was the desire to destroy Christ and His doctrine:

Mat 16:1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

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

The Lord mentions the king of Assyria here, along with this "parable against the king of Babylon", to demonstrate to us that these two kings are a single manifestation of the "man of sin" within us, and this "man of sin" is in all flesh of all men:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me ["All in Adam" 1Co 15:22].
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh [Adamic flesh of all men],) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

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

"That man of sin" is just another name for the king of Babylon who thinks "that he is God".

​However, he has to come to see that he is not God​,​ and in coming to that point, he and his kingdom are destroyed by the coming of that knowledge as we are told in:

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked ["man of sin" within each of us] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

​"Every man, in his ow​n order" (1Co 15:23) will be brought to know that he is not a free moral agent, he is not the captain of his own fate, and that "It is not of him that wills" (Rom 9:16), rather "it is God that works in [us] both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Php 2:13), and that it is He "[who is] working all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph 1:11).

Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

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

Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
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:

And that is the message of the last two verses of our study today:

Isa 14:26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
Isa 14:27 For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

God is working all things after the counsel of His own will. Who shall disannul His will or turn it back? No one will change God's mind or change what He has purposed. But there is something in verse 26 which we must not overlook. What we tend to miss is that we are told that God's purpose, the destruction of the kings of Assyria and Babylon within us, is "purposed upon the whole earth: and [that] His hand is stretched out... upon all the nations".

This judgment of "the whole earth" is true of the spiritual battle which is taking place within every man who comes to Christ on either side of the grave, and it is also true outwardly on both sides of the millennium. "There was no more sea" out of which all flesh "rises up", tells us this Truth (Rev 13:1 and Rev 21:1).

We are Christ's Christ, but we live in bodies of flesh and bone, and if the days of being brought to our wits​'​ end were not shortened we would not be saved in this age. But we are promised that the Lord would not lay more on us than we can bear:

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.

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

The Judgment ​o​f Babylon Will Encompass The Whole World

Overcoming the temptations of the beast within is the spiritual application of God's purpose to destroy the kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon, but Assyria and Babylon are also the outward religions of this world, and they have and do control "the whole earth: and... all the nations". Our Lord has also purposed that this outward earth and all the outward nations will be brought to their wits​'​ end, before being given "a way to escape", and that "way to escape" is the thousand-​year reign​ of the Lord's elect. It is for their sake that the nations will not be utterly destroyed until after the saints of God have been given to rule the kingdoms of this world, this kosmos, for a symbolic one thousand years. Those are the words of our Lord Himself:

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.

Mar 13:20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

Speaking of this very same inward and outward event​,​ Luke puts it in these words:

Luk 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
Luk 21:26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Luk 21:27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Luk 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Our hearts fail us when we are brought to our wits​'​ end because of what we see coming upon our lives. That is when the powers of our own heavens are shaken and we are "crushed to powder", and we are humbled before our Creator. Only then can our judgment begin at the house of God, but we then begin to know what is taking place and even better we come to know who it is who is working it all for our good:

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

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

"In the night" is just another way of saying "the sun shall be darkened and the moon turned into blood..." If we are "the called according to His purpose" in this age, we are the "blessed and holy... few... chosen" to be used of Christ to rule the nations for a thousand years and then to bring all men to "learn righteousness" through the "lake of fire".

​In our coming studies we will see more clearly how thorough the work of the fire of the Lord's word is ​within us as well as how thorough is His work in the outward nations of this world. The faults and passions and sins of our flesh, our nearest enemy must also be subdued and punished and destroyed. That enemy which lives closest to us is symbolized by the Philistines with whom Samson committed fornication, and who were a thorn in Israel's side throughout the history of those two nations.

So we are told these words​,​ which will be our study for next week:

Isa 14:28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
Isa 14:29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
Isa 14:30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.
Isa 14:31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
Isa 14:32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 6 Discussion

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Prophecy of Isaiah, Part 6 - Isaiah 1:15-20

If Ye Refuse And Rebel, Ye Shall Be Devoured With The Sword: For The Mouth of The LORD Hath Spoken It

Isa 1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Isa 1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Isa 1:17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Isa 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
Isa 1:20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Before we left on our 'Grace and Peace' tour, we had started this series of studies in the book of Isaiah. In our last study we discussed verse 10-14 of Isaiah one.

Isa 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
Isa 1:11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
Isa 1:12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Isa 1:13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
Isa 1:14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

In that study we were reminded that Babylon the great, with all of her holidays and "appointed feasts", is "that great city wherein our Lord was crucified", and we came to understand that physical Jerusalem typifies that spirit which "spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt". It is the same as the symbol of the great harlot of Revelation chapters 17 and 18. But Jerusalem symbolizes Babylon, and the book of Revelation does not say 'Jerusalem, wherein our Lord was crucified', rather it reads "That great city... where also our Lord was crucified".

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

If we did not understand the principle of "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little" (Isa 28:10), we would never be able to discern that "the great city... where also our Lord was crucified" is the same as "that great city... Babylon" in these verses:

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.

But we do understand the principle of "line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little", and we are given to know that this harlot is also symbolized by Jerusalem, typifying God's own called out people, because of this verse right here in Isaiah one:

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

But how does Jerusalem being called a harlot, tell us that she is the harlot of Revelation 17? Again, our answer is "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little", and we see another verse which tells us who this Babylon is. It was in the last study we did in this book of Isaiah:

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

The holy spirit, by the pen of Isaiah, equates backslid Jerusalem with Sodom, and the apostle John was well acquainted with this verse, which we have already mentioned:

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

What this tells us is that all who claim to be serving God while disobeying His commandments are "Sodom and Egypt", and it is in that sense that...:

Luk 13:33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem ["Sodom... Egypt... Babylon", all who claim to serve God while at the same time rebelling against His commandments].

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

...Which blatant disobedience provokes our Creator to tell us this very sad truth:

Isa 1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

How many of us have begged God for mercy, just to wake up in another day of knowing that because of our unrelenting rebellion, our prayers are falling on the deaf ears of our own Creator who "will not hear"? These words are true both inwardly and individually, and they are also true outwardly and Adamically to all men. These words are true both inwardly and dispensationally. God is not mocked of His children without severe physical and spiritual consequences:

Pro 23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Pro 23:14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

Christ was sent by His Father to save this world (Joh 3:17). In that capacity Christ is called both "the mighty God, the everlasting (Hebrew: olawm) Father" and "the almighty" just as Joseph was 'almighty... over all Egypt... except in the throne':

Gen 41:40 Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Rev 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Christ comes and judges all of us, and His judgment is the just judgment of "the Almighty". It is accomplished inwardly first within His firstfruits, then through those very firstfruits, His judgment of the kingdoms of this world will be accomplished outwardly and dispensationally.

I tell the story with which some of you will identify. When my family was much younger, we were traveling somewhere when our older sons got into an argument in the back seat and were raising their voices to the point that Sandi and I could not hear each other. I told the boys to be quiet, and their pride and animosity toward each other was more than their fear of their father. So when they ignored me, I told them that if they kept disobeying that I would be forced to stop the car and spank both of them. They knew from past experience their father was a man of his word, but pride and animosity were just more than they were capable, at that age, of overcoming, so it was just a few more minutes before I was forced to stop the car and proceed to demonstrate that I was a father of my word. Nothing is more important in dealing with children than consistency and being a parent of your word. At that point both boys started protesting: "Please Daddy, we'll be quiet. Please, Daddy, please don't spank us". But it was too late. I had given my word, and I had to do what I had said I would do. Jesus Christ is our Father, and He too, is not going to fail to keep His words simply because we finally come to see what our disobedience has produced and we do not want to face the judgment which alone will teach us obedience and righteousness:

Isa 1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Jeremiah tells us the same judgment comes upon all men:

Jer 4:24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Jer 4:25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Jer 4:26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
Jer 4:27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
Jer 4:28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
Jer 4:29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
Jer 4:30 And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

All who have been crushed to powder under the "fierce anger... of the Lord", have lived out this prophecy enduring the judgment of God in this age, and this is what that fierce anger of God produces:

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 ["fierce anger"] are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Before the end of this age though, there will be an outward application to the Lord's judgments which will not be an inward application, and will only affect the remaining masses in an outward way, and we are witnessing the beginnings of sorrows outwardly. So far this month alone there have been ten mass shootings here is the U.S. alone, the latest being Thursday evening in Dallas with 5 policemen being killed and 7 other officers being wounded. There was the bombing of the Ataturk airport in Istanbul, Turkey killing 36 and the suicide bomber in Baghdad, Iraq with over 300 being killed. This is all just a few weeks after the mass murder of 50 people in Orlando, Florida, on June 12th. These are not normal times, and the worst by far is just around the corner involving much more than scattered mass shootings of four or more people. This world is on the brink of a financial calamity, while at the same time we are confronting Russia in the Ukraine and in the Baltics and China in the South China Sea. An outward judgment is already under way for the kingdoms of this world.

As with any decent "Father", Christ first gives us, His own children, His 'house rules' because, like every wise parent He knows we are immature, self-centered, "marred" humans (Jer 18:4) who will just naturally be disobedient to His commandments.

So He tells us:

Isa 1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Isa 1:17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

But telling the first man 'Adam' to clean up his act is the same as me telling my immature children to obey my house rules or face the consequences. At times they simply cannot swallow their pride and repent, and so they must be judged and punished for their rebellious, carnal ways. It is all part of God's plan of salvation through which all men must live:

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

The reason we are told "make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil..." is because, we are all spiritual Gentiles before we become spiritual Jews, and Christ calls all spiritual Gentiles 'dogs':

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.

It has recently been pointed out to us all that dogs love to wallow in the most disgusting smelly things they can find. Dogs will wallow in the feces of other animals and enjoy every moment of doing so. The thing they love most to wallow in, and the one thing that is a greater stench than almost anything else, is a decayed and rotting carcass. Rotting flesh just smells so much better to a dog than being "washed and made clean" (Isa 1:16). The fact is that when a dog, a Gentile who is cut off from God, is given a good bath, the first thing he will do is go and wallow in the dirt, the grass, or preferably a dying rotting carcass to get the smell of 'clean' off himself.

'Make you clean' is defined here as "put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." That is what smells good to God. The last thing a dog cares about is how he smells to his master. He just naturally thinks that things that stink the most are the things that smell the best, and the Lord Himself made dogs in that way so we, as spiritual Gentiles, can see ourselves as we are "before [His] eyes".

What, then, must be done?

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

Reading the King James Version it sounds as if all we have to do is to have a little confab with God and everything will just work out, and we will be cleansed of our sins simply because we were willing to "reason together" with the Lord. But notice what we discover when we look at the Hebrew for the words, "Come now, and let us reason together":

Isa 1:18 Come^H1980 now^H4994, and let us reason together^H3198, saith^H559 the LORD^H3068: though^H518 your sins^H2399 be^H1961 as scarlet^H8144, they shall be as white^H3835 as snow^H7950; though^H518 they be red^H119 like crimson^H8438, they shall be^H1961 as wool^H6785.

The Hebrew word translated 'now' is:
H4994
נָא
nâ'
naw

A primitive particle of incitement and entreaty, which may usually be rendered I pray, now or then; added mostly to verbs (in the imperative or future), or to interjections, occasionally to an adverb or conjugation: - I beseech (pray) thee (you), go to, now, oh.

Here is where this word appears in the Old Testament and the various ways it is translated in the King James Version:
H4994
נא
nâ'
Total KJV Occurrences: 400
pray, 196
Gen_12:13, Gen_13:8-9 (2), Gen_18:2-4 (3), Gen_19:2, Gen_19:7-8 (2), Gen_24:2, Gen_24:12, Gen_24:14, Gen_24:17, Gen_24:23, Gen_24:43, Gen_24:45, Gen_25:30, Gen_27:3, Gen_27:19, Gen_27:21, Gen_30:14, Gen_30:27, Gen_32:11, Gen_32:29, Gen_33:10-11 (2), Gen_33:14, Gen_34:8, Gen_37:6, Gen_37:14, Gen_38:16 (2), Gen_38:25, Gen_40:8, Gen_40:14, Gen_44:18, Gen_44:33, Gen_47:4 (2), Gen_47:29 (2), Gen_48:9, Gen_50:4-5 (2), Gen_50:17, Exo_4:13, Exo_4:18, Exo_5:3, Exo_10:17, Exo_32:32, Exo_33:13, Exo_34:9, Num_10:31, Num_11:15, Num_16:8, Num_16:26, Num_20:17, Num_22:6, Num_22:16-17 (2), Num_22:19, Num_23:13, Num_23:27, Deu_3:25, Jos_2:12, Jos_7:19, Jdg_1:24, Jdg_4:19, Jdg_6:18, Jdg_6:39, Jdg_8:5, Jdg_9:2, Jdg_9:38, Jdg_10:15, Jdg_11:17, Jdg_11:19, Jdg_13:4, Jdg_13:15, Jdg_15:2, Jdg_16:6, Jdg_16:10, Jdg_16:28 (2), Jdg_19:5-6 (2), Jdg_19:8-9 (2), Jdg_19:11, Jdg_19:23, Rth_2:7, 1Sa_2:36, 1Sa_9:17-18 (2), 1Sa_10:15, 1Sa_14:29, 1Sa_15:25, 1Sa_15:30, 1Sa_16:22, 1Sa_19:2, 1Sa_20:29 (2), 1Sa_22:3, 1Sa_23:22, 1Sa_25:8, 1Sa_25:24-25 (2), 1Sa_25:28, 1Sa_26:8, 1Sa_26:11, 1Sa_26:19, 1Sa_28:8, 1Sa_28:22, 1Sa_30:7, 2Sa_1:4, 2Sa_1:9, 2Sa_13:5-6 (2), 2Sa_13:13, 2Sa_13:26, 2Sa_14:2, 2Sa_14:11-12 (2), 2Sa_14:18, 2Sa_15:7, 2Sa_15:31, 2Sa_16:9, 2Sa_18:22, 2Sa_19:37, 2Sa_24:16-17 (2), 1Ki_1:12, 1Ki_2:17, 1Ki_8:26, 1Ki_14:2, 1Ki_17:10-11 (2), 1Ki_17:21, 1Ki_19:20, 1Ki_20:7, 1Ki_20:31-32 (2), 1Ki_20:35, 1Ki_20:37, 1Ki_22:5, 1Ki_22:13, 2Ki_1:13, 2Ki_2:2, 2Ki_2:4, 2Ki_2:6, 2Ki_2:9, 2Ki_2:16, 2Ki_2:19, 2Ki_4:10, 2Ki_4:22, 2Ki_4:26, 2Ki_5:7, 2Ki_5:15, 2Ki_5:17, 2Ki_5:22, 2Ki_6:2-3 (2), 2Ki_6:17-18 (2), 2Ki_7:13, 2Ki_8:4, 2Ki_18:23, 2Ki_18:26, 1Ch_21:17, 2Ch_18:4, 2Ch_18:12, Neh_1:11, Neh_5:10-11 (2), Job_4:7, Job_6:29, Job_8:8, Job_22:22, Job_32:21, Job_33:1, Psa_119:76, Isa_5:3, Isa_29:11-12 (2), Isa_36:8, Isa_36:11, Jer_21:2, Jer_32:8, Jer_37:20 (2), Lam_1:18, Eze_33:30, Jon_1:8, Mic_3:1, Mic_3:9, Hag_2:15, Mal_1:9
now, 170
Gen_12:11, Gen_15:5, Gen_18:2-3 (2), Gen_18:21, Gen_18:27, Gen_18:31, Gen_19:2, Gen_19:8, Gen_19:19-20 (2), Gen_22:2, Gen_24:42, Gen_26:28, Gen_27:2, Gen_27:26, Gen_31:12, Gen_33:10, Gen_33:15, Gen_37:32, Gen_47:29, Gen_50:4, Gen_50:17 (2), Exo_3:3, Exo_4:6, Exo_10:11, Exo_11:2, Exo_33:13, Exo_34:9, Num_12:6, Num_12:13, Num_20:10, Deu_4:32, Jos_7:19, Jos_22:26, Jdg_6:17, Jdg_6:39, Jdg_12:6, Jdg_13:3, Jdg_14:12, Jdg_19:9, Jdg_19:24, Rth_2:2, 1Sa_9:3, 1Sa_9:6, 1Sa_14:17, 1Sa_17:15-17 (4), 1Sa_20:36, 1Sa_22:7, 1Sa_22:12, 1Sa_27:5, 2Sa_2:14, 2Sa_7:2, 2Sa_13:7, 2Sa_13:17, 2Sa_13:24-25 (2), 2Sa_13:28, 2Sa_14:2, 2Sa_14:15, 2Sa_14:17-18 (2), 2Sa_14:21, 2Sa_17:1, 2Sa_17:5, 2Sa_18:19, 2Sa_24:2, 2Sa_24:14, 1Ki_13:6, 1Ki_18:43, 1Ki_20:31, 1Ki_22:13, 2Ki_2:16, 2Ki_4:9, 2Ki_4:13, 2Ki_5:8, 2Ki_5:15, 2Ki_6:1, 2Ki_9:12 (2), 2Ki_9:34, 2Ki_18:19, 2Ki_20:3, 1Ch_21:13, 1Ch_22:5, 1Ch_29:20, Ezr_10:14, Neh_1:6, Job_1:11 (2), Job_2:5, Job_5:1, Job_12:7, Job_13:6, Job_13:18, Job_17:3, Job_17:10, Job_22:21, Job_38:2-3 (2), Job_40:7, Job_40:10, Job_40:15-16 (2), Psa_50:22, Psa_115:2, Psa_116:14, Psa_116:18, Psa_118:2-4 (3), Psa_118:25 (2), Psa_122:8, Son_3:1-2 (4), Son_7:8, Isa_1:18, Isa_5:1, Isa_7:3, Isa_7:13, Isa_19:12, Isa_36:4, Isa_38:3, Isa_47:12-13 (2), Isa_51:21, Jer_4:31, Jer_5:1, Jer_5:21, Jer_5:24, Jer_7:12-13 (2), Jer_14:10, Jer_17:15, Jer_18:11, Jer_18:13, Jer_25:5, Jer_27:18, Jer_28:7, Jer_28:15, Jer_30:6, Jer_36:15 (2), Jer_36:17, Jer_37:3, Jer_38:12, Jer_38:25, Jer_45:3, Eze_8:5, Eze_8:8, Eze_17:12, Eze_18:25, Mic_6:1, Mic_6:5, Hag_2:2, Hag_2:11, Hag_2:15, Hag_2:18, Zec_1:4, Zec_3:8, Zec_5:5, Mal_1:8, Mal_3:10
beseech, 26
Exo_33:18 (2), Num_12:11, Num_12:13, Num_14:17, Num_14:19, 1Sa_23:11, 2Sa_13:24, 2Sa_24:10, 2Ki_19:19, 1Ch_21:8, 2Ch_6:40, Job_10:8-9 (2), Job_42:4, Psa_80:14, Psa_119:108, Isa_64:9, Jer_38:4, Jer_38:20, Jer_42:2, Dan_1:12, Dan_9:16, Amo_7:2, Amo_7:5, Jon_4:3
oh, 6
Gen_18:30, Gen_18:32, Gen_19:18, Gen_19:20, Psa_7:9, Jer_44:4
go, 2
Jdg_7:3, Jer_18:11

I will give just two examples of how this word is translated in the King James Version:

Gen 47:29 And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now^H4994 I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee^H4994, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee^H4994, in Egypt:

Gen 50:17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now^H4994, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee^H4994, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.

It is clear that the word 'now' can most often be translated as 'pray' or 'beseech' without changing the message or the thought.

So this verse so far would better be translated as "Come I pray thee..."

But now let's examine why we have "and let us reason together", five English words, to translate the one Hebrew word:
H3198
יָכַח
yâkach
yaw-kakh'

A primitive root; to be right (that is, correct); reciprocally to argue; causatively to decide, justify or convict: - appoint, argue, chasten, convince, correct (-ion), daysman, dispute, judge, maintain, plead, reason (together), rebuke, reprove (-r), surely, in any wise.

Here are the entries in the Old Testament for this Hebrew word 'yakach':
H3198
יכח
yâkach
Total KJV Occurrences: 58
reprove, 16
2Ki_19:4, Job_6:25-26 (2), Job_13:10, Job_22:4, Psa_50:8, Psa_50:21, Psa_141:5, Pro_9:8, Pro_19:25, Pro_30:6, Isa_37:3-4 (3), Jer_2:19, Hos_4:4
rebuke, 8
Lev_19:17, 1Ch_12:17, Psa_38:1 (2), Pro_9:8, Pro_24:25, Isa_2:4, Mic_4:3
reproved, 4
Gen_20:16, Gen_21:25, 1Ch_16:21, Psa_105:14
plead, 3
Job_16:21, Job_19:5, Mic_6:2
reason, 3
Job_15:2-3 (3), Isa_1:18
rebuketh, 3
Pro_9:7, Pro_28:23, Amo_5:10
reproveth, 3
Job_40:2, Pro_15:12, Isa_29:21
appointed, 2
Gen_24:14, Gen_24:44
correcteth, 2
Job_5:17, Pro_3:12
reprover, 2
Pro_25:12 (2), Eze_3:26
arguing, 1
Job_6:25
chasten, 1
2Sa_7:14
chastened, 1
Job_33:19
convinced, 1
Job_32:12
correct, 1
Psa_94:10
correction, 1
Hab_1:12
daysman, 1
Job_9:33
dispute, 1
Job_23:7
judge, 1
Gen_31:37
maintain, 1
Job_13:15
rebuked, 1
Gen_31:42
wise, 1
Lev_19:17

Here are a few of verses which demonstrate how the holy spirit uses this Hebrew word 'yakach':

Gen 31:42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked [Hebrew: yakach] thee yesternight.

Job 5:17 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth [yakach]: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

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

So what the holy spirit is actually saying in Isaiah 1:18 is:

Isa 1:18 Come [I pray thee], and [receive rebuke, reproof and correction], saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ["see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts (Jer 2:19)].

"It is an evil thing and bitter" to disobey and ignore our Creator's commandment to love our enemies, and instead encourage suicide bombers to kill our enemies. It is an evil thing and bitter to claim Christ as a prophet begotten of a virgin but deny His resurrection from the dead and that He is the Son of God. It is an evil thing and bitter to slander the apostles of our Lord, especially the apostle Paul, and still claim to believe in the Christ who called Paul into His service. But if we think that the evil of others justifies the homosexual and LBGT agenda, pornography and the murder of millions of our own children in the name of freedom of choice, we are already being brought to "see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that [His] fear is not in [us], saith the Lord GOD of hosts." Just as the kingdom of God within us is being judged so too will the kingdoms of this world be judged, and that judgment is already in progress.

The words have gone out of the mouth of our Creator, and they will not be repented of:

Isa 1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
Isa 1:20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

We have all "refused and rebelled", and we have all been "devoured by the sword" of God's Word.

Eph 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

But this, too, also has and outward, dispensational fulfillment, and we are already hearing of wars and rumors of wars on an end-time scale, and yet we are very clearly warned:

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?
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.

Our inward 'temple', where our old man sat as God, is "destroyed with the brightness of His coming.

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

But before the thousand years can commence, there must be an outward and dispensational application to the destruction of "the throne of the beast" and the installation of God's elect over the kingdoms of this world (Rev 2:26-27, and Rev 11:15).

Rev 16:10 And the fifth agent poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast, and its kingdom became darkened, and they gnawed their tongues from the anguish.
Rev 16:11 And they blasphemed the God of heaven from their pains and from their sores. And they did not repent of their works. (ACV)

We all first experience these words inwardly as Christ's firstfruit harvest. But there is a cataclysmic outward fulfillment of these words for the nations of this world. We will have brought in over 1,000,000 Islamic immigrants to this country by the time of our next election. That one million, along with the millions already here, are feverishly preparing for the jihad they want to bring to this nation. Those are just a part of the polarized people who hate the corruption and murders and injustices that are extant in our nation, and which are also in all the nations of the world. God has a controversy with all the nations of this world, and He is even now in the process of judging them all:

Jer 25:31 A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.

"All these are the beginning of sorrows" in Mat 24:8 is not a contradiction of "See that you be not troubled" in verse 6. You and I, if we are God's elect, will "lift up our heads [and] rejoice" because we know:

Luk 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Mat 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
Mat 24:45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
Mat 24:46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

If we are sharing the "meat" of Christ's body with His household, then we will be prepared for whatever happens, whenever it happens. That 'meat' is His body, which 'body' we are:

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.

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

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.

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

Theme: Death (Part 4)

(Key Verses: Gen 50:14-21)

The theme of death concludes the book of Genesis which brings such important spiritual aspects to the fore. Through the time of mourning, the preparations for the funeral and the burying of the dead corpse, so much can be spiritually gleaned as to how we are to deal with our old man. The elect of God know that through the baptism into the death of Jesus, dominion over sin and freedom from the bondages of our old man are indeed achieved (Rom 6:9-17):

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of hisresurrection:
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.

Through the death of Christ and our dying with Him, the resurrected life of Christ is working in us to yield our physical bodies to be “servants of righteousness unto holiness” (Gal 2:20):

Rom 6:18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
Rom 6:19 I [Paul] speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

In the process of dying to the old self, we become the instruments of God to bring healing to this broken world, even in establishing more secure relationships, which we see with Joseph and his family. It was with the death of Jacob in Egypt and his burial in Canaan that the rest of the family of Joseph, especially his ten brothers, finally had to come to terms with their guilt and sin:

Gen 50:14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

On their return to Egypt, these brothers of Joseph finally opened their hearts to him about the things which haunted them for seventeen years while they lived in Egypt under his care:

Gen 50:15 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

When death occurs it brings forward the need for healing. In this discussion we will see how Joseph is also the type of those who are chosen by God to heal the broken-hearted:

Psa 34:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.

The natural law versus the spiritual law

When we listen cautiously to what people say, and when we carefully observe their actions, we can detect the condition of the heart. It was Jesus who also declared that from the abundance of the heart “fruit” is brought forth through words and actions (Mat 7:17-20; Luk 6:43-44):

Luk 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

The natural man’s heart is filled with “evil treasures” from its creation by God’s design and purpose, even as the thorns and thistles were part of the six-day creation before their hearts were manifested through sin (Isa 45:7; Gen 1:11-13; Gen 3:17-19; Jas 1:14-15). Like Adam and Eve, we are all ignorant of all the evil in our hearts, which is only revealed to us at the appointed time. The brothers of Joseph also needed to come to see themselves for what they were – marred vessels in the hand of the Potter (Jer 18:1-6). But first we naturally want to do to others as they have done to us, which is just part of the natural law in our evil hearts:

Exo 21:23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
Exo 21:24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
Exo 21:25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

The natural man is an unholy sinful man, and he follows the natural laws of his evil heart (1Ti 1:8-10). This “life-for-life” philosophy, of course, is not what the spiritual law of Christ propagates (Mat 5:38-42):

Pro 24:29 Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I [God] will render to the man according to his work.

These ten brothers of Joseph believed Joseph will act the way they would have done if he were in their shoes. But Joseph was different from them even as the natural law is totally the opposite to the spiritual law of Christ. Joseph is a type of the new man in Christ whom God inspires to do “His good pleasure” according to the law of Christ. This is a strange thing for the world, as they cannot grasp, for example, how anyone can love the enemies who want to kill them. But those who are dead to self and alive in Christ, follow Christ, and they indeed do His commandments which are counterintuitive to the natural mind:

Rom 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
Rom 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Rom 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance ismine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Rom 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Rom 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

In Joseph’s time of rulership in Egypt he actually gave shelter and food to these very brothers who hated and despised him so badly (Gen 37:4-36). Joseph’s journey from the pit in Canaan to the throne in Egypt is a type of the resurrection from the dead for those in the first resurrection. Joseph “kept his soul in well doing” all the time, and this is one of the attributes which they have whom God has chosen to be rulers during the thousand year reign on earth – those who came up in the blessed and holy first resurrection (1Pe 4:19; Rev 20:1-6). These rulers in the first resurrection overcame the hatred and the despising of their enemies through the love of Christ in them (1Jn 5:1-4). Joseph ruled over those whom he overcame with love and obedience, and that applies to the elect of God. It is only the overcomers in Christ who can “keep His works unto the end” and who will rule the nations with a rod of iron:

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

Even as the hearts of those brothers of Joseph were still as evil and deceitful under his rule and provisions for seventeen years in Egypt, even so will be the hearts of those nations and people during the thousand year period of God’s rulership here on earth through His elect in Christ. Joseph’s brothers were in need of correction – their hearts needed to be broken in shivers. Even during the time of the exodus from Egypt, these twelve tribes of Israel were constantly tempting God as they did not obey God’s instructions:

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

It needed a new generation to enter the promised land as the old generation, which typifies the flesh with all its unbelief, must fall in the desert:

Heb 3:17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
Heb 3:18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
Heb 3:19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Acknowledging the sin and evil we are guilty of

Like Joseph, the elect of God is chosen to bring God’s spiritual health to people within their broken relationships. The first thing we see in Joseph’s brothers, which brings a positive step to the healing process, was that they could actually acknowledge the evil which they did to him:

Gen 50:15 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

“…all the evil which we did” is an important step in the salvation process – to give an honest account to God. But acknowledging the evil man of sin in us, and in the process experience shocking revelations about ourselves, is but the “beginning of sorrows”:

Mat 24:3 And as he [Jesus] 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.

Like all of us believed at some time, the ten brothers thought that by asking and receiving forgiveness for their sin that petition will cancel God’s righteous judgment:

Gen 50:16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
Gen 50:17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father.

These instructions of Jacob are not recorded in the scriptures, except here through the mouths of his sons, but we can see how the heart of man works concerning the process of God’s judgment. When the evil of our natural man is revealed to us, we are first obsessed with forgiveness and not with restitution and judgment. Restitution and judgement is part and parcel of forgiveness (Exo 22:1-14; Lev 6:2-5; Psa 37:21; Luk 19:1-10). Forgiveness is not a big problem with God as He actually has forgiven us in Christ. However it is something for which we still need to be asking and also giving to others on a daily basis (Mat 6:12; Eph 4:32; 1Jn 1:8). The purpose for this is to teach us humility which only comes through the whole process of judgment. Humility is indeed an important aspect in the healing of broken relationships (Mat 8:5-10; Mat 9:20-22). This we also see in this approach of the brothers of Joseph after the death of Jacob (this death of Jacob refers to the death of our old man). If we know that God is working all things after His will and He alone is responsible for all things, including the sins we commit, we will know why we need to give an account of that sin when we also acknowledge His sovereignty in all:

Rom 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

It is only through much tribulation that we can enter into God’s kingdom to receive the new heart to walk in His righteousness – His “pure and white linen and having [our] breasts girded with golden girdles”:

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

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.

“…Joseph wept…”

This sounds very familiar:

Joh 11:35 Jesus wept.

We weep indeed when we see the unbelief in them who are not yet given to see what we can see:

Luk 19:41 And when he [Jesus] was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Luk 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

It is actually on the basis of other’s unbelief that we have found how God’s mercy for us works:

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

But the weeping of Joseph and Jesus in these verses mentioned above also shows their compassion – their association with flesh for what it is. Deep compassion drives the words and actions of God’s elect to be His instruments for healing. When we cannot see the loving character of God and cannot see His righteous purposes with all, we will believe a false doctrine which paints God as very confused and puzzled as to why His creatures will not listen to Him or accept His Son. This false doctrine unashamedly propagates that a frustrated God who will burn all these evil creatures for all eternity to His delight and pleasure, but the scriptures are clear that this concept of an eternal hell never entered God’s mind:

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

God is in total control of everything and has a perfect plan which is still working 100% since its inception. It is the “high places” in the pride-filled minds of evil men where this belief that God will burn His sons and daughters in a literal fire “for ever and ever” is promulgated. God in His love indeed recompenses and judges evil and disobedience with His “sore judgments”, which include His spiritual fire (Jer 5:14; Jer 23:29; Eze 14:21; 1Co 3:13-15; Heb 12:29; Rev 20:11-15). Although Joseph tormented his brothers when they came to Egypt to buy food and they could not recognise him, he still loved them and had compassion on them. Joseph could not be this person if he did not go through the very same process of humiliation and judgment ahead of his family – this is the “two-edged” principle of God’s Word (Psa 149:4-9):

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.

What applies to others, indeed applies to us. God’s righteous torment in His judgment is first on our own old man before we are giving the “honour” to execute judgments on others – when the beam is removed from our own eye (1Pe 4:17; Psa 149:9; Mat 7:5). It is the angels, who are the servants and messengers of God, who are carrying and bearing the plagues before it is given to all others to cause them to enter God’s holy temple (Gal 6:17; 1Pe 4:17):

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

We learn through this first-hand experience that His judgment is indeed merciful and loving toward every spiritual son He receives (Heb 12:6). It is not an eternal thing, as Joseph’s brothers also believed Joseph was keeping the evil which they did to him in his heart all those years. This false doctrine that God’s vengeance and anger goes on forever and ever, as some translations have it, is such an evil accusation against a holy and forgiving God. God is purposeful in everything He does. Yes, even His torment has an aim in mind – it does not continue “for ever and ever” as that is not a good translation of the Greek word “aiōn”:

Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever [Greek: “eis aiōn aiōn” = the eons of the eons]: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

The words “here is the patience of the saints” give us an idea what this torment of God will achieve in us. When God’s purposes are fulfilled, the torment also will end – and for all eventually!

Gen 50:17 …..And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
Gen 50:18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.

Every knee will bow before Jesus when they can see what the plan of God was all about – to receive the spirit of God and to be His children:

Php 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
Php 2:11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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

Vengeance indeed belongs to God

God will never leave sin to continue forever in His creation, or go unpunished. We can trust in His righteous, yet merciful judgement. Joseph knew that vengeance is not his, but God’s prerogative:

Gen 50:19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?

We should not fear man, but we do fear God, for vengeance belongs to Him alone:

Heb 10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

These words of Joseph did not give his brothers an escape route. It just confirmed here that judgment will be fulfilled in the second resurrection for all who are not part of God’s elect (Rev 20:11-15). Evil and sin is extremely the opposite of God’s holy character, and this is also what Joseph wanted to emphasize here in these words:

Gen 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me….

It is only God who can use evil for good, as He also warns us in these words:

Isa 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

We fear God alone, and we do not see the hand of evil man as separate from the hand of God. This is how we know that even Satan is God’s hand, as God puts forth Satan to bring torment to Job:

Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

Joseph knew how God worked through them, but his brothers had a limited and restricted view of what God was doing. Their evil thoughts and deeds against Joseph were indeed coming from their hearts, even as God controls the “preparation of the heart of man” and knows our thoughts “afar off” (Pro 16:1; Psa 139:2):

Gen 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me, God meant it [the evil] unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Joseph comforted his brothers

From the viewpoint of the natural man things are out of control and this brings panic to the carnal mind. But from God’s point of view, His heavenly view which He shares with His elect, this is all 100% on track as He planned it before the beginning of this physical or carnal age:

1Ti 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
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.
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Like Joseph, Christ will nourish everyone He created in Adam, and He will speak kindly to them:

Gen 50:21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

When we have come through the trials and tribulations of this life, we are comforted by God to know why it all happened. And with that comfort we reach out to those in sincerity and truth:

2Co 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
2Co 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
2Co 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
2Co 1:6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
2Co 1:7 And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

Audio Links

“All They That Take The Sword Shall Perish With The Sword”

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.

Introduction

Is the above statement always true? I know people who fought in the second world war who died of old age. So how is it possible to say that “all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword? That statement is true only because all who take the sword have, at that very point, lost their life which is only in Christ. It will always be true that all that take up the physical sword will perish under the sword which is the Words of God in Mat 26:52 and the sword that is these words:

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

These words simply do not compute to the natural brute beast within all of us. But that brute beast was made to be destroyed, and through that destruction bring forth a new man to whom the words of Mat 16:25 will resonate:

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

The physical death which has and must come upon all flesh (1Co 15:50) demonstrates that the “earthy… first man Adam… [as a] natural brute beast, [was indeed] made to be taken and destroyed… [and …utterly perish in [his] own corruption”. These words are prophetic words which apply to all men of all time. The corruption of “the first man Adam” is a physical prophecy which “afterward” will bring forth a spiritual “new man” which is a spiritual prophecy of “the last Adam… that which is spiritual”. The natural always precedes the spiritual. Notice how the apostle Paul applies these words to all men:

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Christ’s ministry is a type of the ministry of His Christ during the millennium. Christ told His disciples the Truth, and they said they understood, “but they understood not”.

Luk 9:43  And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered every one at all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples,
Luk 9:44  Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men.
Luk 9:45 But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.

Joh 12:16  These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.

Not one single soul was converted during Christ’s entire three and one half years of ministry. He came down from heaven and ministered to His disciples, and not one of them was converted until after Christ died, and after they too, began to “die daily” to the old man within them on the day of Pentecost, when the kingdom of God of which Christ had prophesied in Luke 17, was established within those 120 people plus the three thousand who were added to them that day.

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

Notice what Christ said to Peter the night He was apprehended by the Jews:

Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

So while “is within you” in Luke 17:21 is in the present tense, Christ was obviously “speaking of those things that [were] not, as though they were” (Rom 4:17). Christ was the only person converted while He was conducting His ministry. The ministry of Christ’s elect will follow that same pattern, and His Christ will be the only converted people on earth during their thousand year ministry. They too, will come down from heaven to live and walk among the kingdoms of this world. They will guide the kingdoms of this world for a thousand years, and not one person will be converted during that time. But when the thousand years are expired, there will be a rebellion against the elect rulers whom God has placed over the kingdoms of this world. Satan will be released from his prison and sent by God to gather all men together to throw off the rulers whom God has placed over them for that period of time. In that day “fire [will come] down from God out of heaven and [will] devour them”, destroying “all the nations in the four quarters of the earth”:

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.

Only after all flesh is destroyed will the new man in every man be birthed through the same instrument which declared the firstfruits of God and the Lamb to be the sons of God. That declaration is made by “the resurrection of the dead”.

Rom 1:4  And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

In our last study we saw that Christ, who does not change, has decreed that He will judge His people and the kingdoms of this world by “[His] four sore judgments”, and He has revealed to us exactly what are those four sore judgments:

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

The first of God’s sore judgments mentioned in this list is “the sword”, and the warning “all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” was given to us through Christ’s admonition to the apostle Peter, who had heard and had agreed with His Lord’s New Testament doctrine:

Mat 5:38  Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Mat 5:40  And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.
Mat 5:41  And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Mat 5:42  Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Mat 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

Peter is but a type of you and me. We hear and we believe our Lord’s doctrines long before we are capable of actually living them out when the physical old man and his world are threatened. In this series of studies we will see that it is physical trials that produce spiritual strength and character within the new man who is being birthed within us.

The negative use of ‘the sword’ in prophecy

By the negative use of “the sword” we certainly include the thought of physical armaments, but we are also including the fact that this word ‘sword’ is used to describe the lying words and false doctrines of the adversary.

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

So “every man’s sword against His fellow” will include “their tongue like a sword… even bitter words” against God’s elect, as well as “Egyptian against Egyptian”:

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

1Sa 14:20  And Saul and all the people that were with him assembled themselves, and they came to the battle: and, behold, every man’s sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture.
1Sa 14:21  Moreover the Hebrews that were with the Philistines before that time, which went up with them into the camp from the country round about, even they also turned to be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan.

Eze 38:21  And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.

One of the sore judgments which will be used to humble mankind to the point of giving their kingdoms over to “the Lord and His Christ” is “the sword”, and “the sword” will be used by God as a physical sword as well as a spiritual sword. It would be hard to imagine the terror of the “great discomfiture” which God will send “throughout all [His] mountains [when He gives] the kingdoms of this world [to] the Lord and His Christ”.

Here is a verse which applies to the prophecies of the scriptures, as much as they apply to anything:

Ecc 1:9  The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

“That which is done is that which shall be done” tells us that the principles by which the Lord has delivered His people in the past are the very principles by which He will give “the kingdoms of this world [to] the Lord and His Christ”. One means of bringing that prophecy to pass will be “the Lord [will] set every man’s sword against his fellow, [and] every man’s sword shall be against his brother”, to the extent that “men’s hearts [will] fail them for fear of the things they… see coming upon the earth”:

Luk 21:22  For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 
Luk 21:23  But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
Luk 21:24  And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Luk 21:25  And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
Luk 21:26  Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Luk 21:27  And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Luk 21:28  And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

“These things begin to come to pass [when] the seventh angel [begins] to sound”, and for any who know, or have known Christ and His Father, that angel begins to sound in their lives in every generation since Christ and leading up to the last generation before the beginning of the millennium.

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

“The redemption of the purchased possession (Eph 1:14) [and] the adoption… the redemption of our body… the body of Christ… [is] the manifestation of the sons of God… at the last trump”. “The manifestation of the sons of God [for whom] the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now [are the] blessed and holy [few who will partake of] the first resurrection. It is “ourselves also which have the firstfruits of the spirit” who will judge the world during the thousand years and then judge angels in the lake of fire:

Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

This is all revealed as the rewards given to “he that overcometh”:

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

It will be through the use of “the sword” as one of the four sore judgments of the Lord upon the outward nations of this world, just as He has been judging the nations within His elect, preparing them to be “give[n] power over the nations”.

Jer 12:12  The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace. 

What is “the sword of the Lord” that will devour from one end of the land even to the other end of the land”?

Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword: 
Psa 17:14  From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.
Psa 17:15  As for me, I will behold thy face in     righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

It was “wicked… men of the world” who were used by God to take the life of His Christ, and it has been the same “wicked men” who ever since have been seeking the souls of Christ’s Christ. It must be so  because “that which has been is that which shall be” as the Lord is working all things and is preparing to give the kingdoms of this world over to His elect.

The harlot pastors of God’s own people conspired with other wicked men to destroy our Lord, but after they had done so, the same “wicked men [who are the Lord’s] sword” turned upon the harlot ‘pastors’ and destroyed her and her flock and those in her charge:

Jer 6:10  To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. 
Jer 6:11  Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.
Jer 6:12  And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.
Jer 6:13  For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. 
Jer 6:14  They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. 
Jer 6:15  Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. 

The Lord’s warnings are heard only to those to whom He gives ears to hear. These are those who have “fall[en] seven times and [have been] raised up again”.

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

Only those with “ears to hear” will see and hear that God’s people stumble only on the stumblingblocks God places before them and over which God causes them to stumble. They alone with “return” to Him:

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

Jeremiah agrees with Isaiah:

Jer 6:21  Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.
Jer 6:22  Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.
Jer 6:23  They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion. 
Jer 6:24  We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
Jer 6:25  Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.

Jer 10:21  For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

Jer 23:2  Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.

The ten horns upon the beast symbolize our flesh which hates the hypocrisy of that part of our lives in which we want Christ’s name but not His doctrine or the things He says:

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. 
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

One would have to be physically blind and deaf to fail to notice the hatred of this world toward the harlot that is mainstream, orthodox, historical Christianity in today’s society. That hatred is only beginning, and the only people who are hated more than orthodox Christians are not the Muslims or the Hindus. The only people who are hated of all men are God’s elect who refuse to be party to any of the ten horns of the beast that is our flesh.

Suffering with Christ is our calling, but when we suffer we do so with “the whole creation” (Rom 8:22-23), and nothing is emphasized any more in scripture than that fact:

Luk 23:27  And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. 
Luk 23:28  But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 
Luk 23:29  For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
Luk 23:30  Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. 
Luk 23:31  For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

1Th 3:3  That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.

The Old Testament is filled with information about what will take place in this earth just before “the kingdoms of this world… become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ”. Here are but a few of the verses which tells us what part “the sword” of the Lord will play in bringing that event to fruition. Remember, we have been told, “…that which has been is that which shall be”:

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, 
Isa 3:2  The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
Isa 3:3  The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
Isa 3:4  And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
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. 

Yes, that has been going on for thousands of years, but it is “wax[ing] worse and worse”, and it is coming to a climax.

2Ti 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 

Isaiah continues to tells us what the Lord will be doing just before He gives the kingdoms of this world to His elect:

Isa 9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother. 
Isa 9:20  And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: 
Isa 9:21  Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Isa 10:4  Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 10:5  O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6  I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

The sword of the Lord is not just on His own people who call themselves by His name but hate His doctrines. The Lord’s sword is also on “the whole creation… the whole world”, typified by Egypt:

Isa 19:2  And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

“The thrones… and… strength of the kingdoms of the heathen” will be overthrown… everyone by the sword of his brother”:

Hag 2:22  And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. 

Zechariah was inspired to add to all of this more of the same message:

Zec 8:10  For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbour.

The fear of “the sword” will be so prevalent and the “great power” of God’s elect will be made to appear to be so overwhelming that the nations of this world will be happy to submit themselves to “our Lord and His Christ” when that “appointed time” arrives:

Psa 147:5  Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

Jer 32:17  Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: 

Mar 13:26  And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.

Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.

Rev 18:1  And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

God can, and God will, turn the hearts of the leaders of this world “whithersoever He will”, and at the appointed time He will turn the hearts of the kings of this world to give their kingdoms over to Christ and to His Christ,

Pro 21:1  The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

We will close this study on the function of the sword in giving the kingdoms of this world to our Lord and His Christ by reading the 8th chapter of Zechariah from which that tenth verse is taken:

Zec 8:1  Again the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,
Zec 8:2  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury. 
Zec 8:3  Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.
Zec 8:4  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age.
Zec 8:5  And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.
Zec 8:6  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the LORD of hosts.
Zec 8:7  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;
Zec 8:8  And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. 
Zec 8:9  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. [Meaning God’s elect since Christ “the foundation of the house of the Lord”].
Zec 8:10  For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbour. 
Zec 8:11  But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days, saith the LORD of hosts.
Zec 8:12  For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. [Rev 21:7]
Zec 8:13  And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.
Zec 8:14  For thus saith the LORD of hosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the LORD of hosts, and I repented not:
Zec 8:15  So again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not. 
Zec 8:16  These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: 
Zec 8:17  And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.
Zec 8:18  And the word of the LORD of hosts came unto me, saying,
Zec 8:19  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts;therefore love the truth and peace. 
Zec 8:20  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities:
Zec 8:21  And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also.
Zec 8:22  Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.
Zec 8:23  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.

Rev 21:7  He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

Next week we will see how God’s sore judgment of famine will be used by God to bring mankind to his knees and cause mankind to submit to the Lord’s Christ for a symbolic thousand years.

Audio Links

The Biblical Overview of The Plan of God – Part 9

The Destruction of Death

“And Fire Came Down From God Out of Heaven, and Devoured Them.”

Introduction

We are continuing our studies on the Biblical overview of the plan of God. Last week we said that in our next study we will compare the two different teachings concerning the fate of all flesh, and we will see whether the scriptures we were given to prove that ‘only believers are alive at the beginning of the millennium’ really say that, and whether those who believe in the doctrine of “eternal spiritual flesh” have any Biblical basis for that doctrine. After we demonstrate the fallacy of the doctrine that only believers are alive at the beginning of the millennium, we will go back to the scriptures that deal with the time when “the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ” to discover what the scriptures reveal about how the rulers of this world will be made by God to give the rulership of this world over to God’s elect. We will not get to it today, but in time we will also see these supposedly converted people, in fact it will be all flesh, who will rebel against Christ and our rulership over them, and we will see how that rebellion will provide God with the occasion He is seeking against all flesh to destroy all flesh and thereby to destroy death. In demonstrating all of this, we will again see that everything God is doing will be found to be done “through Christ… by the church”. “By the church” is speaking specifically of those who are “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”, and not of anyone in the Old Testament, and not of anyone who is living during the thousand years when God’s elect will be ruling the nations with a rod of iron. “By the church” is speaking only of those who are honored to be part of that “blessed and holy… first resurrection” to judge this world and to judge angels in the lake of fire. Here is what the scriptures actually teach:

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?

Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in [the] Christ [the first firstfruit and His firstfruits], both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11 In whom also we [His firstfruits] have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose [the plan] of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will [His own plan]:
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

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

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. [“Judge the world” – 1Co 6:2]
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.
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.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. [“Judge angels”, 1Co 6:3]
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. [‘The destruction of death’, 1Co 15:26]
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

But we ended our last study reviewing what is generally taught about the millennium and the last great day in the churches of Babylon. Here again is that doctrine as presented by gotquestions.org:

“At the beginning of the Millennium, only believers will be alive (Revelation 19:17-21), some who live through the Tribulation Period, and some who come back with the Lord at His second coming. It will be a time of peace unparalleled in history (Isaiah 2:4; Joel 3:10; Micah 4:3). Jesus will be ruling on the throne of David, imposing a benevolent theocracy on all of His creation. Jesus will ensure that everyone has every need fulfilled, while not tolerating the sin so prevalent in today’s society (Psalm 2:7-12; Revelation 2:26-29; 12:5; 19:11-16). We can only imagine such a time of “heaven on earth.”

“The believers who live through the Tribulation will be mortal. They will live and repopulate the earth during the Millennial Kingdom. Without the devastation of sin taking its toll, we can imagine the population increase during the Millennium will be enormous, almost incomprehensible. All those who are born during the Millennium will enjoy the benefits and blessings of Christ’s reign on the earth, but they will still be born with a sin nature, and they will still have to freely repent and believe the Gospel, personally choosing Christ as Savior and Lord.

“Yet, at the end of the Millennial Reign, Satan is loosed and is able to deceive a vast multitude to follow him in one final rebellion against the Lord of glory and His saints! It seems that the further humanity gets from the end of the Tribulation and the start of the Millennium, the more they will “take for granted” how good they have it, and some may even harbor doubts about the goodness of God. Even though the number who rebel with Satan are said to be “as the sand of the sea” (Revelation 20:7), they may still be a minority compared to the number who do not rebel. It will still be a large number of souls who join Satan. Undoubtedly, one of the primary reasons God gives us this picture of what will happen in time is to demonstrate the deep-seated sin nature inherent in all of humanity (Jeremiah 17:9).

“Additionally, God is trying to tell us something about His nature as displayed during the Millennium. His grace and goodness will be on display continually. But at the end of the 1000 years, He will have zero tolerance for rebellion. When it happens, He will show no mercy and offer no “second chances.” At that time He will be quick to judge, and the final rebellion of Satan and sinful man will be over in a flash of fire. After this, the final judgment of the dead takes place (the Great White Throne Judgment, Revelation 20:11-15). Eternity can thus begin with every aspect of sin gone for all time.

“Finally, God is trying to reinforce some very important lessons concerning Satan himself, especially for believers. First, that he has been and always will be the enemy of humanity. As God has fixed His love on us, Satan has for us a special hatred. Ever since Satan’s fall (Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28), he has been the adversary of believers, and he is aptly described as the ultimate deceiver of mankind (John 8:44; 1 John 2:22). All he can give or promise man is death and destruction (John 10:10a). Satan is also shown here to be a truly defeated foe, and his ultimate doom is certain, along with the doom of all who follow him. God is trying to remind us that Satan is a created being who is powerless before Him (2 Corinthians 12:7). All this should encourage believers today to take God at His Word concerning our position in Christ with respect to the devil (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 4:1-7; James 4:6-8; 1 John 2:15-29; 1 John 4:1-3), especially as we remember this grand truth: “…greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).” [Cut and pasted from this link: http://www.gotquestions.org/release-Satan.html#ixzz3Kr4TUNoo]

Here are the verses that were given to prove this statement: “At the beginning of the Millennium, only believers will be alive (Revelation 19:17-21), some who live through the Tribulation Period, and some who come back with the Lord at His second coming.”:

Rev 19:17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
Rev 19:18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
Rev 19:19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
Rev 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Rev 19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Here are all the other verses given to establish all the statements that were made in this summary of why God releases Satan after the thousand year reign. Let’s look very closely at them and see if we can find anything that says that the thousand years are a time of God’s grace being poured out on those who live at that time, or that most people will not rebel against the rule of God’s elect at the end of the millennium:

Isa 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
Isa 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Isa 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Joe 3:9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
Joe 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

Mic 4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
Mic 4:2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Mic 4:3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Psa 2:7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Psa 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Psa 2:9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Psa 2:10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Psa 2:11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Psa 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star.
Rev 2:29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

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

Rev 19:11 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.
Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Rev 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Joe 3:1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
Joe 3:2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

“In those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem…” When are we told that God will do this? This is when we are told God will bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem:

Eze 16:53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
Eze 16:54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
Eze 16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

So there it is. We have been shown what the Bible says about the last two steps of the plan of God for all men of all time, and we have reviewed what the churches of this world teach about that subject. I do not generally waste my time with the doctrines of Babylon, but because I am painfully aware of how repulsed the natural man is with the thought of the annihilation of all flesh, even within you and me as God’s elect, I am taking the time to review what men say about the purpose God has for the millennium, and compare that to what God really says. In that process, we will see why mankind will rebel against our rulership, and we will see that God has ordained that rebellion, and we will see how God will deal with that rebellion, and why He deals with it as He will.

Anyone who understands the ‘is, was and will be’ nature of the Word of God has no doubt that, yes, there will be plenty of flesh to be eaten by the fowls at the beginning of the millennium, just as there always has been since Adam:

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent [Satan Rev 12:9]:, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: [‘dust’ is a Biblical symbol for all flesh, and Satan is also symbolized by the fowls of heaven]

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

Mat 13:4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

But where in these verses in Revelation 19 is “the beginning of the millennium” mentioned? Where is it stated in these verses that “only believers will be alive… at the beginning of the millennium”? Of course, it says nothing of the kind, and that thought has to be read into those verses based upon false church doctrines which generally place the battle of Armageddon and everything said about Gog and Magog at the beginning of the millennium, while ignoring the clear instructions we are given to the contrary.

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.

This writer speaks for many Christians when he writes:

“All those who are born during the Millennium will enjoy the benefits and blessings of Christ’s reign on the earth, but they will still be born with a sin nature, and they will still have to freely repent and believe the Gospel, personally choosing Christ as Savior and Lord.”

But where are we ever told such a thing? Where do we find people being converted during this thousand-year reign of Christ and His Christ? The fact is that there are no verses which speak of people being converted during that period of time. While it is true that “There is one event to all” (Ecc 9:2) that ‘one event’ occurs in a different fashion for every person who has ever lived or who will ever live. “There is one event to all” does not mean that the people who are alive during the millennium will be caused to “overcome the wicked one” during that time, because we are specifically told that Satan, “the wicked one”, will be taken out of the picture during that entire age:

1Jn 2:13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
1Jn 2:14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

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

Rev 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

That is very clear language. The “wicked one” will be “shut up [in] the bottomless pit”, (Greek: abussos, the sea, the flesh of mankind] that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled“, and as we have just seen, ‘overcoming the wicked one’ is a prerequisite for conversion and for becoming an ‘overcomer’ who is granted to rule the kingdoms of this world with Christ:

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

So in an outward, dispensational application of our Biblical overview of God’s plan for all of mankind, this “bottomless pit” is Satan’s prison only during the thousand-year reign of God’s elect over the kingdoms of this world. He certainly is not in a prison in any outward way at this time. Where have we read of this ‘bottomless pit’ before? We read of the ‘bottomless pit’ in the description of the judgment of the great harlot.

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

Chapter 16 is the seven last plagues, and it concludes by informing us that Babylon is yet to experience “the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath”. So the outward judgment of “great Babylon” will also conclude in the pouring out of the seven last plagues, which are the seventh trump, which concludes God’s wrath upon all flesh of all time, including the always present, inward, spiritual application for God’s elect.

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.
Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Yes, we know these words all have a primary, present application. But they also have a dispensational, outward, final application “when the thousand years are expired”, and Satan is released from his prison and is granted to go out and deceive the nations one last time:

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.

What this tells us is that the function of Satan is the same “when the thousand years are expired” as it is at this time. In both cases he is given “to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth”. The only difference is what happens at the conclusion of each of these time periods. At the conclusion of this age of grace, he will be placed under a chain and imprisoned for a thousand years. But that is not what happens at the conclusion of the “little season… when the thousand years are expired”. When the “little season… the last great day” is concluded, fire comes down from God out of heaven and destroys “the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth”. There is not so much as a hint of “they may still be a minority compared to the number who do not rebel. It will still be a large number of souls who join Satan.”

There is no intermediate class of resurrected people. All of mankind are in one of these two resurrections:

Dan 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life [“the firstfruits… unto the Lamb], and some to shame and everlasting contempt [all others in the lake of fire”].

We will have to stop at this point for today’s study, but we will pick back up at this point and continue to demonstrate, with the scriptures, that there are only two resurrections, and that all men of all time are in one or the other of those two resurrections. We will also see that the reason why mankind does not see the purpose for the millennium and the little season that follows the thousand years is that the beast with us all, recoils at the concept of the annihilation of all physical flesh. It is for this reason that the great benefit to being in the first resurrection is hidden from all the ministers of “great Babylon” (Rev 16:19). God has not given them eyes that see that the second resurrection follows the destruction of all flesh.

I will also be sharing with you a wonderful revelation of what exactly is the spiritual application of the law of the inheritance of the firstborn, and what is the spiritual meaning of the “double portion” of the inheritance which is given only to the firstborn as his right. I want to thank our brother Larry Groenewald for that revelation, and I look forward to sharing that with all of you as we continue our studies in the overview of the plan of God.

[Click here to go to the next chapter.]

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The Biblical Overview of The Plan of God – Part 8

The Feast of Tabernacles

“The Kingdoms of This World Are Become The Kingdoms of Our Lord and His Christ”

Introduction

Thus far we have covered the spiritual meaning and the spiritual functions of the first five of the seven festivals which God gave to ancient Israel. In our last study we saw that the three annual holy days that follow the passover and the days of unleavened bread foreshadow the next three steps in the overview of the plan of God as well as revealing the three functions which are being performed by Christ’s firstfruits. These firstfruits, unlike Christ, are repentant sinners and as such are symbolized by a firstfruit-offering that is leavened, a Biblical symbol which is generally used to typify sin. They are also symbolized by the scapegoat which is another symbol for sin. But again, unlike Christ, “the Lord’s goat”, which is a slain sacrifice, Christ’s firstfruits are symbolized as “a living sacrifice” which is accepted as such only upon the sacrifice of the passover lamb Himself. So the passover Lamb symbolizing the first of the firstfruits, is the same in symbol, as “the Lord’s goat”, which is first slain and offered to God on the day of atonement, before the scapegoat “for a sin offering”. (Rom 12:1)

Lev 16:5  And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.

We are told both goats are part of “a sin offering…. [to] make an atonement [for] all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins” (Lev 16:21). The first goat is Christ in His non-perfected flesh, while the “living sacrifice” is us as the scapegoat of the day of atonement and as the two leavened loaves of the feast of firstfruits.

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

“The third day” symbolizes the completion of the process of judgment which had to be completed in Christ’s Adamic flesh, which is indeed traced all the way back to Adam through His mother. The connection of Christ’s flesh to the flesh of Adam is the very purpose for giving us His long genealogy which ends with these words:

Luk 3:38  Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

That is also the reason Christ is symbolized by a goat in the sacrifices of the day of Atonement. So there we have it. The first Adam is as much a “son of God” as is the last Adam. Both had bodies of sinful flesh, and there is no other way Christ could possibly offer Himself up to His Father as a “sin offering”.

The negative symbolism of goats in scripture is the flesh and the carnal mind of the flesh, which is unworthy to be part of the kingdom of God (1Co 15:50):

Mat 25:33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Making an atonement for sin is the purpose for offering both goats. But the two goats symbolize two separate functions of that atonement process, and those differences are qualified and delineated for us. The first, “the Lord’s goat”, is slain, and then, after and upon the blood of the first goat, the second goat is released alive in the wilderness. This second goat also symbolizes the sin offering, but this second goat is capable of being a trespass offering, which our sinless Savior could not be because He was in a body of sinful flesh which had never sinned:

2Co 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we [we who have trespassed, and who have sinned are therefore, through Christ, now become a living trespass offering] might be made the righteousness of God in him.

That is why these two goats are sacrificed on the day of atonement, when God’s elect as a living sacrifice, must afflict their souls, for the salvation of His body which is the church:

Lev 16:29  And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:
Lev 16:30  For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. 

2Co 1:6  And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

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

The priest “mak[ing] an atonement for you” typifies Christ as our high priest, and if we are in Him and He is in us, then we, too, are now priests making an atonement for others:

Heb 5:5  So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. [God has glorified Christ to be our high priest].

Heb 5:9  And being made perfect [“on the third day”], he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
Heb 5:10  Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec. 
Heb 5:11  Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

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

What made “the order of Melchisedec” different from the Aaronic order? The only difference we are given is that Melchisedec was both a king and a priest as is Christ:

Gen 14:18  And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

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

Heb 8:1  Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;

One of those “many things [which are] hard to be uttered” about Christ as our high priest is that in Him we, too, become “saviors” [who are also] kings and priests. Paul could not utter that fact to the Hebrews at the time of this writing of Heb 5:11, but as we have noted, he did tell the Colossians that we are to “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of the Christ”, and as we just noted, he told the Corinthians that our afflictions are for the salvation of others.

But it was given to the apostle John, in the book of Revelation, to come right out and tell us that we, too, are priests who, like Melchisedec, are now both “kings and priests… unto our God”.

Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

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

These spiritual positions are not just some distant spiritual promise, though they certainly are not yet ours in their fullness. Nevertheless all these promises are already ours in what the scriptures call “the earnest of our inheritance”:

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first [as in “firstfruits”] trusted in Christ. 
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest [Greek: down-payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession [meaning our resurrection to rule and reign with Him], unto the praise of his glory.

So Christ has already given to us a down-payment of our inheritance by giving us His Father’s spirit. In that position we can and must claim and confess who we are in Him and where we stand as His emissaries on this earth. If we deny who we are in Christ, He will deny us before His Father:

Mat 10:32  Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 10:33  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Because that is true here are five verses which bear repetition. These verses tell us why our heavenly Father sent Christ into this world as His emissary, and they also tell us what is the commission which Christ, in turn, has placed upon us as His emissaries.

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

Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

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

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

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

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

Our old man cannot receive the depth of what Christ means when He tells us that He has sent us into the world “as [His] father has sent [Him]”. We cannot, in our flesh, comprehend the depth of “as He is, so are we in this world.” What is Christ “in this world”? The answer is, “He is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world”, and it is as spiritual kings and priests, in “earnest” meaning in down-payment form, that we as the anointed of Christ fulfill the functions of the three steps that follow the passover which we have covered thus far. In Christ as our passover we are 1) the feast of weeks (Pentecost), also called the feast of firstfruits. We are the two leavened loaves offered to God at Pentecost. If there were any difference in these two loaves, we would have been told so as we were with the two goats at atonement. But we are not told that ‘one loaf is Christ and the other is us’ as so many claim. Those two loaves are both Christ within His “two witnesses”, witnessing to and lying dead in the streets of Babylon (Rev 11). In Christ it is we who are the “seven priests” (Jos 6, and Rev 8-11) who fulfill  2) the day of blowing of trumpets, and in Christ, it is we who fill up in our bodies what is behind of the afflictions of the Christ as portrayed in 3) the fasting and afflicting of our souls, as the living scapegoat sin offering on the day of atonement.

The last two steps in the overview of the plan of God

There are yet two more annual holy days that fill out and finish the overview of God’s plan for all mankind of all time. These last two holy days continue to be “types of us”, and they continue to reveal how Christ through us, as “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”, will effectuate the salvation of all men of all time.

Let it be made clear that this study is not intended to deny that mankind must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4). But let it also be made equally clear that this study is declaring that there is an order to God’s plan for the salvation of all and the destruction of death, and that we are focusing on the overview of that plan.

These last two holy days are shadows of how  we will be used by Christ to bring the ages to their predestined consummation with “the church, which is His body, [becoming] the fulness of Him that fills all in all”, by bringing all men to Christ.

Here we read of the work of those two leavened loaves as they are revealed to us again, in the book of Daniel:

Dan 2:34  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.  [“God… all in all”]

Here is this same message concerning God becoming all in all in the New Testament:

Luk 13:20  And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? 
Luk 13:21  It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. [“God… all in all”]

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

Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 
Eph 1:19  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Eph 1:20  Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Eph 1:21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
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. 

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

Christ has been granted by His Father to be the head of the church, which is His body, [which church is] “the fulness of Him that fills all in all”. God being “all in all” is the goal, the ‘telos‘, of His plan. That which “fills [God]” and brings about the goal of God’s plan for all men is Christ and the church. It is we who are the firstfruit fullness of Him that fills all in all”.

But before this can be accomplished, Christ and His body must first destroy death because we are informed that death is “the last enemy to be destroyed”:

1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 

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

This brings us to a revelation from which our old man recoils in utter disgust, and a revelation which I have been unable to find in any commentary.

The simple fact is that to destroy death, you simply must annihilate all flesh that is upon the earth, and it is the destruction of death that is the real purpose for the feast of tabernacles and the last great day. The feast of Tabernacles symbolizes the millennium, and the last great day symbolizes the “short season” which follows the millennium, in which Satan is released from his prison and is sent out “to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth”.

Here is the holy spirit itself giving us the correct order of events as they will take place within each man spiritually and without dispensationally:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

It is all being done through reigning priests, and the purpose for the millennium, which leads mankind into the “short season” of Satan’s deception of the nations, is to give God the occasion He is seeking to destroy death, by the annihilation of all flesh. Death simply cannot be eliminated from this earth as long as physical flesh exists:

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

This “occasion” God is seeking to destroy (death) is symbolized by the feast of tabernacles and the last great day. It is the events that take place in these last two steps in the overview of God’s work with mankind in vessels of clay which provide God with that ‘occasion’. He is seeking to harvest all the rest of mankind who were not part of the first two firstfruit offerings. It is an unbreakable Biblical principle that God always gives Himself “an occasion” to do what He has already “determined before to be done”. Here is are just a few examples of God doing just that:

Gen 15:16  But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

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

God already knows what He is in the process of doing, and it is simply a matter of waiting on him to do what He wills to do:

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

Isa 48:14  All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.

Isa 46:10  Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

In the third and last harvest “in the year’s end”, it is God’s counsel and His pleasure to begin harvesting “all in Adam”. It is the feast of tabernacles with its attendant last great day in which His soul desires to start that final harvest process through which He has declared that He will “destroy death” (1Co 15:26).

Exo 23:16  And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

It is Christ Himself who has revealed to us that “The field is the [whole] world”:

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

Here are all three harvests as they are presented to us in “the Revelation of Jesus Christ”:

Rev 14:14  And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man [Christ the first firstfruit], having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. [The Word of God, also called a fiery sword].
Rev 14:15  And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. 
Rev 14:16  And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. [This angel is speaking to Christ as the first firstfruits harvest]
Rev 14:17  And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. [This is us as “the (second pentecost) firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”, Rev 14:4, Rev 19:10 and 20:8]
Rev 14:18  And another angel came out from the altar [the cross], which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. [Grapes are the third and last harvest “in the end of the year”].
Rev 14:19  And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. [“The lake of fire”]
Rev 14:20  And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. [“Fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them” Rev 20:]

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

Rev 19:21  And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

But this is simply not taught in the churches of the great harlot, Babylon, who are convinced of the false doctrine of “eternal spiritual flesh”. Here is a typical example of what is generally taught in the churches of this world:

“At the beginning of the Millennium, only believers will be alive (Revelation 19:17-21), some who live through the Tribulation Period, and some who come back with the Lord at His second coming. It will be a time of peace unparalleled in history (Isaiah 2:4; Joel 3:10; Micah 4:3). Jesus will be ruling on the throne of David, imposing a benevolent theocracy on all of His creation. Jesus will ensure that everyone has every need fulfilled, while not tolerating the sin so prevalent in today’s society (Psalm 2:7-12; Revelation 2:26-29; 12:5; 19:11-16). We can only imagine such a time of “heaven on earth.”

“The believers who live through the Tribulation will be mortal. They will live and repopulate the earth during the Millennial Kingdom. Without the devastation of sin taking its toll, we can imagine the population increase during the Millennium will be enormous, almost incomprehensible. All those who are born during the Millennium will enjoy the benefits and blessings of Christ’s reign on the earth, but they will still be born with a sin nature, and they will still have to freely repent and believe the Gospel, personally choosing Christ as Savior and Lord.

“Yet, at the end of the Millennial Reign, Satan is loosed and is able to deceive a vast multitude to follow him in one final rebellion against the Lord of glory and His saints! It seems that the further humanity gets from the end of the Tribulation and the start of the Millennium, the more they will “take for granted” how good they have it, and some may even harbor doubts about the goodness of God. Even though the number who rebel with Satan are said to be “as the sand of the sea” (Revelation 20:7), they may still be a minority compared to the number who do not rebel. It will still be a large number of souls who join Satan. Undoubtedly, one of the primary reasons God gives us this picture of what will happen in time is to demonstrate the deep-seated sin nature inherent in all of humanity (Jeremiah 17:9).

“Additionally, God is trying to tell us something about His nature as displayed during the Millennium. His grace and goodness will be on display continually. But at the end of the 1000 years, He will have zero tolerance for rebellion. When it happens, He will show no mercy and offer no “second chances.” At that time He will be quick to judge, and the final rebellion of Satan and sinful man will be over in a flash of fire. After this, the final judgment of the dead takes place (the Great White Throne Judgment, Revelation 20:11-15). Eternity can thus begin with every aspect of sin gone for all time.

“Finally, God is trying to reinforce some very important lessons concerning Satan himself, especially for believers. First, that he has been and always will be the enemy of humanity. As God has fixed His love on us, Satan has for us a special hatred. Ever since Satan’s fall (Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28), he has been the adversary of believers, and he is aptly described as the ultimate deceiver of mankind (John 8:44; 1 John 2:22). All he can give or promise man is death and destruction (John 10:10a). Satan is also shown here to be a truly defeated foe, and his ultimate doom is certain, along with the doom of all who follow him. God is trying to remind us that Satan is a created being who is powerless before Him (2 Corinthians 12:7). All this should encourage believers today to take God at His Word concerning our position in Christ with respect to the devil (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 4:1-7; James 4:6-8; 1 John 2:15-29; 1 John 4:1-3), especially as we remember this grand truth: “…greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).” [This is taken from this link: http://www.gotquestions.org/release-Satan.html#ixzz3Kr4TUNoo]

 

Here are the verses that were given to prove his statement that “At the beginning of the Millennium, only believers will be alive (Revelation 19:17-21), some who live through the Tribulation Period, and some who come back with the Lord at His second coming.”:

Rev 19:17  And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
Rev 19:18  That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
Rev 19:19  And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
Rev 19:20  And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Rev 19:21  And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

So there it is. We have been shown what the Bible says about the last two steps of the plan of God for all men of all time, and we have reviewed what the churches of this world tell us the Bible says.

We did not get to what the scriptures reveal about why the leaders of this world would consider handing over their rulership to us, and we did not get to what leads up to the rebellion against our rulership at the end of the millennial rule. We will, Lord willing get to all these things as time provides.

But in our next study we will compare these two teachings concerning the fate of all flesh, and we will see whether these scriptures we just read are really telling us what we are being told by those who believe in the fallacy of “eternal spiritual flesh”. Then we will go back to the beginning of the millennium to discover how the rulers of this world will be made by God to give the rulership of this world over to God’s elect, and we will also see how that, in time, all flesh will rebel against our rulership over them, and how that rebellion will provide God with the occasion He is seeking against all flesh. In doing so, we will again see that in everything God is doing, He will be found to be doing it “through Christ… by the church”:

Eph 3:9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 
Eph 3:11  According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

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