Rev 12:1-6, Part 1 – The Woman And The Manchild

[Study Aired Nov 17, 2024]

As we continue our study we must remember that chapters 11-16 are all part of the work of the seventh trumpet within our lives, which work begins to finish within us the mystery of God:

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 seventh angel begins to sound in:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.

The words “art, was, and art to come” and the words “hast reigned” are all in the aorist tense signifying that what follows has begun to happen in our lives in every generation of the lives of the Lord’s elect:

Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

The hail shall wipe away the refuge of [all the] lies of our Babylonian past and it is a traumatic earthquake in our lives when this seventh trumpet “begins to sound”:

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
Isa 28:18  And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

We are commissioned to “read, hear, and keep the things written in the prophesy of this book” (Rev 1:3), because we are this “manchild”, and we are “the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God, and [who] have the testimony of Jesus Christ”:

Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. [‘The man child’, God’s elect].

The Lord and His Christ both are “in heaven” even while being on this earth:

Joh 3:13  And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down [Greek, aorist tense] from heaven, even the Son of man which is [Greek, present tense] in heaven.

The “appearance” of the woman, and the “appearance” of the “great red dragon”, are both in the Greek aorist tense, signifying the ongoing fulfillment of this prophecy in every generation since Christ. The pain of the woman and the casting of the stars of heaven to the earth, are also both in the aorist tense and are being fulfilled in this very generation in the heavens of the hearts and minds of the Lord’s Christ:

Rev 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Rev 12:2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Rev 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days.

Introduction

Chapter 11 deals with those who bear witness to this revelation of Jesus Christ within each of God’s elect. It details, in signs and symbols, the experience our Lord foretold us we would have as those who bear witness to His Words. So the hatred and death of those witnesses is nothing less than fulfilling of Christ’s prophecy that we “shall be hated of all men for my names sake…”

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

This “hatred of all men” is signified and symbolized by these words:

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

This rejection by all of our families and friends and “all men” is “they of the people and kindreds and tongues, and nations”. It is this rejection of all men which the scriptures refer to as being ‘dead and crucified with our Lord’, and “lying dead in the streets of the great city… where also our Lord was crucified”. This symbolic ‘death’ is central to the revealing of our Lord within us thoughout the New Testament:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

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

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.

Gal 2:19  For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Both phrases, “I… am dead to the law”, and “that I might live unto Christ” are in the aorist tense, signifying that this is taking place in every generation of the Lord and His Christ since the death and resurrection of Christ.

Col 3:3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

All those verses describe the “life” we have when we “fall into the ground and die”. All those verses and many others reveal that life comes only “through death”. All these verses reveal the blessing of being found “dead in the streets of that great city… where also our Lord was crucified”:

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

It is after this symbolic death and crucifixion “in the streets of that great city” that we are raised up from the dead just at the time “when the seventh angels begins to sound his trumpet”. This is what Paul was speaking of when he wrote: “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live… [when] the seventh angel sounded”. This is a process that takes many “days”.

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

Rev 11:11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Rev 11:14  The second woe is past; [and], behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
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.

It is after we are told that the seventh angel sounded that we find this twelfth chapter, with all that is revealed in it. It is followed by chapter thirteen, which deals with the beast in all of his manifestations, followed by the fourteenth chapter dealing with the revelation of the 144,000 firstfruits of God, followed by another grand introduction in chapter 15 of the seven angels who are given seven vials, or bowls, in which are filled up the wrath of God under which we are all born and live our entire lives, until we are brought to cry out to the rocks to fall on us and hide us from the face of the lamb.

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

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

Col 3:3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Col 3:4  When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

In other words, we have a complete summary of story of Adam before we are introduced to the actual event that is this seventh trumpet in chapter 16.

When is this chapter fulfilled?

Rev 12:1  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

The woman, the manchild and the great red dragon, are the three main principles in this twelfth chapter of Revelation. This is a chapter which we will see makes very clear the absolute necessity of God’s elect “keeping of the things written therein” in every generation since Christ. This woman is the same woman who says:

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

This is the same woman who says of herself:

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

This is the great harlot of Revelation 17 and 18. Christ was born of this harlot, and each of us “come out of her”:

Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

It is this seventh trumpet which is fulfilling this verse in the lives of God’s 144,000 firstfruit elect who are:

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

When we forget this admonition, we inevitably are forced to apply these words to someone else at some time other than “the time [which] is at hand”.

“Another wonder in heaven” means another miraculous revelation of what it means for Christ to be revealed in our heavens. The point is that this is just one part of an ongoing process that is being read, heard and kept by those to whom it is addressed.

The spiritual meaning of the woman, the sun and the moon in this verse is explained to us in the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis, where a woman and the sun and the moon are all mentioned. Let’s let the scriptures themselves show us what these symbols signify.

Gen 37:3  Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
Gen 37:4  And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Gen 37:5  And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
Gen 37:6  And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
Gen 37:7  For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Gen 37:8  And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
Gen 37:9  And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10  And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

While it is true that there is no indication that Jacob or Rachel ever hated Joseph, they are nevertheless used in this instance as the types of “your father the devil” and of our mother when we were “the children of the bondwoman”. What we are told in this story of Joseph’s relations with his own family members is that we too, “shall be hated of all men”, especially of our own flesh and blood and especially by those of our own household, and we will, in the end, bear rule over our own flesh and over all those of our own household.

Rev 3:9  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Gen 37:4  And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

Gen 37:9  And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10  And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

The ‘sun’ is Jacob, and the ‘moon’ is Rachel. These are Joseph’s physical parents, just as the the devil and his doctrines and the bondwoman and her doctrines are our first physical parents in this world.

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Gal 4:21 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.

Sinai, where the law was given, “answers to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”. Who was the apostle Paul before he was struck down on the road to Damascus? He was Saul of Tarsus, the son of the bondwoman, persecuting Jesus of Nazareth, the son of the freewoman, the manchild who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord [son of the freewoman], went unto the high priest,
Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

Hagar and her son, Esau, “answers to [physical] Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”. Saul of Tarsus, spiritually speaking, was ‘of the son of the bondwoman’, before he became the ‘son of the free woman’. We all have to fall into the ground and die before we can be “resurrected in newness of life” as “the son of the freewoman”, and before we can say that, we “were in time past children of wrath, even as others.

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

But just as the last Adam is of the first Adam, and just as the eighth is of the seven, so also does Saul of Tarsus, this manchild, and all who are in Christ, come first through this woman who is first a harlot before she is destroyed and is resurrected with Christ to become the bride of Christ, and “Jerusalem above, the mother of us all”. The church is her doctrines, more than she is those who are in her. The reason those who are in her are there, is because they believe her doctrines. Abraham had two wives, and it is true that we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free. But when we are granted to understand that there is one event to all men (Ecc 9:2), that mankind must all live by every word of God (Mat 4:4), that this generation will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled (Mat 24:34-35), and that all things are ours, life and death, the world, and things present and things to come (1Co 3:21-22), only then we will understand that we are the “manchild who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron”, and we are the children of the freewoman only because we were first “in bondage” with our old mother as “the children of the bondwoman”.

What this all tells us is that “I, and your mother and your brothers” in Gen 37:10, are the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and that even that the ‘sun’ and ‘stars’ of Rev 12:1 are symbols of our first parents, who we once considered to be the source of all light and sight and understanding and knowledge. We now see them revealed as nothing less than our first father, the devil, and his wife, the bondwoman, and now even he, along with our bondwoman mother and our first physical brothers in Christ, are now all bowing down to us and being made subject to us. This must all be done within before it will be seen without.

That we are all first “carnal… in Christ” is made clear in these verses:

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

Who is the woman, the twelve stars, and the manchild?

Rev 12:2  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Who is this woman and who are these 12 stars? They are of course, primarily within us, and secondarily they are round about us in the form of all who are the “first man Adam”. They are primarily each of us as we sit in the temple of God, proclaiming ourselves to be God, and demanding the complete and total dedication of our flesh to the service of the pleasures of our flesh. That is why her manchild son is caught up to God’s throne, while the woman herself goes into the wilderness. Here is another symbol of this woman and her sons who will bow down to Joseph as the symbol of God’s elect.

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.

We have already demonstrated with the scriptures that each of us is that “temple of God”, and each of us is that “man of sin [who] sits in the temple of God showing ourselves to be God”.

The “woman clothed with the sun” signifies the church out of which the manchild must come:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

The ‘sun’ signifies the light of the fading law of Moses. The Pharisees in that sense were “clothed with the sun”:

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

The twelve stars signify Joseph and his brothers who one and all signify outward Christians claiming to be the “one seed… the [spiritual] seed of Abraham” even as they hate God’s elect just like Joseph’s brothers who hated their own brother, Joseph, and wanted to kill him. The hatred of Joseph by his brothers signifes the Old Testament shadow of these verses:

Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.

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

The woman’s ‘child’ signifies “the Lord and His Christ”. Here is this spiritual truth in the form of its old Testament shadow:

Gen 37:18  And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.
Gen 37:19  And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.
Gen 37:20  Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

They certainly were right about the “evil beast” part, but not as they meant those words.

Christ Himself “was made of a woman, made under the law”, and just as Christ came out of “the church in the wilderness”, so we also, must we come out of the church that is in the wilderness, where she is fed by God for the exact same period of time that we spent in the wilderness wanting our Lord and His doctrines dead.

Act 7:38  This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:

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:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it [she was “clothed with the sun”]; but now murderers.

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.

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

We will pause our study at this point and resume it in our next gathering.

The Book of Joel – Chapter 2:28-32, Part 4

For the holy spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus. – Act 8:16.

[Study Aired Sept 7^th 24]

In the last Study of Joel Chapter 2:18-27, it concluded that our Aholibah-like cringeworthy shame for our graphically depicted spiritual whoredoms, is to be somehow cleansed from our hearts when our Lord said,

Joe 2:27  And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 

In the subsequent verses studied today, the Bride deeply reflects upon her Aholibah-like nature and is given by God to see his mysterious “spirit” is not given to Joel or any other prophet before the cross to see how God’s power might actually work. All Joel and slow-bellied Israel (Tit 1:12  evil Cretians typifying Israel) see is further ambiguity in parables. Just as we once did, Cretians, Israel and our unconverted families today throw up their hands in despair that the Lord’s word is too convoluted to understand and, anyway, parrot the deluded doctrine that they are saved by Christ dying in their stead (1 Cor 15:31 throws another spanner in the gears).

Joe 2:28  And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 

The Lord’s “pity”, currently studied, is best expressed in his giving of himself in the form of the holy spirit, that is, God himself unified as Christ and his Father. That same unity is first bestowed upon his Bride in this age since the cross and for the most part understood by the following verses.

Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments. (1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous). 
Joh 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter [the holy spirit; Christ within!], that he may abide with you for ever [so that we by his power can keep his ‘comforting’ commandments];
Joh 14:17  Even the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Joh 14:18  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Joh 14:19  Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you [one spirit]. 
Joh 14:21  He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

The holy spirit is NOT an entity or individual spirit being; it is the nature of Christ and the Father, who are one spirit. “He” is a pronoun, and scriptures personalise all sorts of things, such as sin and wisdom being “she,” a fountain being “she,” etc.; as such, the holy spirit is called “he.”  

Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Joh 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

Pro 1:20  Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

Jer 6:7  As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

Christ and the Father are the holy spirit as is his word and truth; it is HE that does the work within us and not some third person of the Godhead making up the diabolical trinity lie:

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

1Jn 2:22  Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son [Facetiously, no mention of an ‘uncle holy spirit’!].
1Jn 2:23  Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
1Jn 2:24  Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father [with no mention of another entity in the Godhead called the holy spirit].

Here is God’s spirit, his intrinsic holy spirit in Christ: 

Gal 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 

Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ [the same spirit as the Father!], he is none of his. 

Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy spirit of God, [That is the Father and Christ!] whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

The Lord’s Elect are the people who are increasingly satisfied by the works Christ does in them through the much-awaited holy spirit that is Christ and his Father, creating the New Man within. The work of the holy spirit, fulfilling the will of God in this New Adam, starkly contrasts with the works of the flesh, which make men dreadfully insufficient and ashamed. Our efforts without the holy spirit always result in the shame of not being able to keep His word.

Joh 5:38  And you have not kept his word in your hearts, because you have not faith in him whom he has sent.
Joh 5:39  You make search in the holy Writings, in the belief that through them you get eternal life; and it is those writings which give witness about me.
Joh 5:40  And still you have no desire to come to me so that you may have life.

Why had we “no desire to come to Christ”? Because we had insisted in our own fabled ‘freewill’ that we are responsible for every action and sin the holy spirit subsequently quenched from doing its progressive work.

1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit.

Eph 4:30  And grieve not [restrain its power] the holy spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

However, when Joel wrote his Book, the understanding of this inscrutable spirit of God no doubt remained a talking point among the dedicated believers for another 865 years before the Cross.

Act 8:16  For the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them [Mostly the Apostles; and unidentified believers]; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.
Act 8:17  Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the holy spirit. 

A Frequently Asked Question: “Is the holy spirit a person?”

Study Significations

The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit

Joe 2:28  And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 
Joe 2:29  And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. 
Joe 2:30  And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 
Joe 2:31  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 
Joe 2:32  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. 

The meaning of the term “afterwards,” stated in the first verse of our Study, Joel 2:28-32, begs the question, after what will God’s holy spirit be poured out on all flesh? In fact, that statement covertly introduces Pentecost, scheduled to be fifty days after the cross in the process of seeding the New Covenant with the spirit of God, enabling “all flesh” to learn to keep all of Christ’s commands.

Here is a link to understanding the meaning of Pentecost: They Were All Filled with the Holy Ghost

The Body of Christ is highly familiar with the physical, termed in scripture as the “natural” that manifests in all created things before all physical things identify the mirror of the spiritual.

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.

To all curious believers, upon reading Joel 2:28-30, they are not much further ahead in understanding this nebulously expressed “spirit”. After all, for thousands of years, prophets and great men and women, bonded and free of God, prophesied, dreamed dreams and had startling visions that they directly and fearfully attributed to God. All of Israel and surrounding nations were very familiar with what the Lord demonstrated, most frighteningly with wonders in the heavens, mass killings of Israel’s enemies until their blood flowed, and huge columns of smoke issuing from Mt. Sinai with terrifying signs and astonishments.

There remained a still enigmatic key of clouded understanding in verses 31 & 32 that reads,

Joe 2:31  The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD. 
Joe 2:32  And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has promised, among the remnant called by the LORD. 

The prophets Zephaniah and Malachi didn’t much help either, but they amplified the reader’s foreboding. The only consolation is Joel’s statement that “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved”—but how, when all they ever knew was a physical ‘saving’? Besides, God had ‘saved’ Israel physically heaps of time before, yet He seemed still not satisfied!

Zep 1:14  The great Day of the LORD is near— near and coming quickly. Listen, the Day of the LORD! Then the cry of the mighty will be bitter.
Zep 1:15  That day will be a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,
Zep 1:16  a day of horn blast and battle cry against the fortified cities, and against the high corner towers.
Zep 1:17  I will bring such distress on mankind that they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung.
Zep 1:18  Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.

Mal 4:1  “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
Mal 4:2  “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.
Mal 4:3  Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Vernacularly, who on earth is able to stand before those aforementioned terrifying images? Nonetheless, there is hope in the still-veiled statements of Malachi,

Mal 4:5  Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.
Mal 4:6  And he will turn the heart [H3820] of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.” [‘NO! Not another curse; they are endless’, I hear the old Israelites say]

Heart H3820 Leb – Phonetic: labe – Definition: 1. inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding a. inner part, midst 1. midst (of things) 2. heart (of man) 3. soul, heart (of man) 4. mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory 5. inclination, resolution, determination (of will) 6. conscience 7. heart (of moral character) 8. as the seat of appetites 9. as the seat of emotions and passions 1a 2. as the seat of courage.

The hope is in understanding the yet-to-be-ascribed ‘new heart’ of the inner man that we, since the Cross, know as the New Adam drinking in the spirit of God that gradually changes a man’s heart to be one with Christ and our Father.

Eph 3:14  For this cause [being incredibly grateful that we do not have to rely on our own strength] I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph 3:15  Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is [‘was and will be’] named, 
Eph 3:16  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his pirit in the inner man; 
Eph 3:17  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Eph 3:18  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
Eph 3:19  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 
Eph 3:20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Eph 3:21  Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

However, Joel, in the final chapter three, continues with a complex hope that generates even a level of faith (Gen 15:6. Rom 4:3) in all who read and cannot perceive that they will be dead in their graves for close to a symbolic and maybe literal 3,865 years before the Resurrection to Judgement (865BC to the cross + 2,000 to the First Resurrection + 1,000 years Rule with the Rod of Iron to the Second Resurrection).

So, are Aholah and Aholibah’s outrageous ‘porneia’ (Fornication: G4202 – Porneia – Phonetic: por-ni’-ah- Definition: 1. illicit sexual intercourse a. adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc. G4203 – Porneuo) connections just to damnably perverted for them not to be condemned to the contemporary (and deludedly) named “eternal hell fire” since in Joel 2:28 the ascribed “afterwards” seems to exclude all before the coming of this mystifying ‘spirit’ of God? And, are they, along with Jezebel, Cain, the sons of Belial (H1100), Judas, and the cryptic ‘man of perdition’ just too evil and ‘worthless’ to be included in the meaning of “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh”?

Belial H1100. Transliteration: B@liya’al – Phonetic: bel-e-yah’-al – Definition: 1. worthlessness a. worthless, good for nothing, unprofitable, base fellow. b. wicked c. ruin, destruction (construct)

The last verse, Joel 2:32, states clearly that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.” To the Israelites, unwittingly without the holy spirit, the only way they can believe in that deliverance is a physical ‘saving’ from their enemies, being witless of the dreadful irony that their (as are our) enemies are spiritually within. To them, symbolising the contemporary ‘Jews’ of today, covertly identified as Babylonian Christians, unconsciously believing in “another Jesus”, that the Aholohs and Aholibahs of the world are destined to burn forever in the delusionary hell fire. Even the Apostles initially didn’t fully realise that Christ didn’t come to be the mighty force to rout the Romans. But they, along with an undisclosed “remnant”, the Lord’s “little flock”, would, in Christ, go before the rest of the world of old Jerusalem, Egypt, Sodom, Tyre and Babylon in and as spiritual sacrifice exemplars for the world’s ultimate ‘deliverance’ in the Lake of Fire.

(A recounting of Joel 2:32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.)

The point is that there are two primary “afterwards” (Joel 2:28) of many biblical ‘afterwards’ that almost all reflect a spiritual event after its physical representation.

The first is a physical ‘remnant’ under Zerubbabel, who went back out of the captivity of Babylon to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the temple (Ezra 3:1-13). Inscrutabley, they depict the second “afterwards”, a spiritual “remnant” after the cross and particularly Pentecost who are the Lord’s ‘remnant’, a little flock who alone the Lord hears them calling on the name of ‘THE Lord’ as opposed to “whosoever”, implying anyone, suggesting multiple millions of Christians unwittingly calling upon ‘another Jesus’ (as expressed in 2 Cor 11:4) will be delivered.

Rom 11:5  Even so then at this present time [since the cross] also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
Rom 11:6  And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
Rom 11:7  What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election [the Remnant] hath obtained it, and the rest [the world/earth] were blinded
Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them [the world/earth symbolically Babylon] the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day [for the world before the cross and the world after the cross, bar the “remnant”].
Rom 11:9  And David saith, Let their table [the Old Covenant of circumcision without the holy spirit] be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:
Rom 11:10  Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.

1Co 1:23  But we [The Bride of Christ] preach Christ crucified [in the power of the holy spirit], unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

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

And so, even to this day, the Babylonian Christian ‘Jews’ and the Greeks who represent the entire world can read that the Lord’s spirit has come into the world but are not given of it to believe in its power through Christ. The final chapter 3 of Joel powerfully states that it will come to pass, that whosoever calls on the Lord’s name will gain understanding to be saved. There is a massive time lag in the statement that “it shall come to pass” and until the deliverance actually comes. Israel remembers endless accounts of them calling on the name of God to deliver them from their enemies, so what is going to be different with this perplexing and expected superior deliverance? Without faith, no wonder the weary physical labourers became cynical when failure to keep the Laws consistently was a chasing of the wind. So, this new and mysterious hope of keeping the Lord’s word didn’t seem to offer any startling consolation.

Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

What Israel and Solomon, in his creation of the Shulamite, couldn’t fully appreciate was that their Lord did build Israel’s physical house with intrinsic failure of man’s powerful bias for faith in himself.

Psa 127:1  A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

There in Psa 127:1 lies the double-edged message that the very same “Lord” that built and destroyed Old Israel would come in person in far greater amplification of the same spirit to build the new Heavenly Jerusalem; the still enigmatic “remnant”, as “black” as the curtains of Solomon’s Temple (Son 1:5) in for understanding of the Lord’s New Wife.

Joel and the ‘minor prophets preceded what the Lord told Daniel to “seal up the book until the time of the end” (Dan 12) since nobody could understand how the house of each person could be built without knowing the great “tarrying” in Babylon, Egypt, Sodom depicting Old Jerusalem for the much later “helper” (John 15:26-27), the holy spirit.

And, the last Chapter 3 of Joel next week for Babylonian Christianity, for Jews who say that they are Jews and are not, and say that they see, and don’t, “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand” – Mat 13:13, except for the mysterious “Remnant” who see how that last Chapter correlates perfectly with Revelations.

The Book of Joel – Chapter 2:1-11,  Part 1 – The Day of the Lord

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD” –  Mal 4:5

[Study Aired July 27^{th 20}24]

The Day of the Lord

Joe 2:1  Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; 
Joe 2:2  A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 
Joe 2:3  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 
Joe 2:4  The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. 
Joe 2:5  Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 
Joe 2:6  Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. 
Joe 2:7  They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 
Joe 2:8  Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. 
Joe 2:9  They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 
Joe 2:10  The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: 
Joe 2:11  And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? 

Introduction

The sequential step from “Repentance” studied in last week’s Chapter One of Joel is in rigid lockstep with the dreadfully enigmatic “The Day of the Lord”, the revelation of Jesus Christ signified in Revelations. For our former Babylonian selves, the obscure meaning of that term remained fearfully unsolved, regardless of our masking joyfulness with endless affirmations that “Jesus loves us” as we choked down the glazed death rings (doughnuts) and drank the awful coffee.

Rev 1:1  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
Rev 1:2  Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. 

For the Berean student of Christ (Acts 17:10-15), and as far as joyfully receiving repetitive verses go, the following one in Matt 13 holds the key, yet it is equally baffling to the Babylonian mind. Even though Matt 13:10-17 was referring to the parable of the sower, Jesus’ answer to his Elect, primarily represented as the Apostles, though not solely named as such, ‘is, was, and will be‘ an ‘earth’ shattering realisation that it is only a very, very limited few who will be given to understand The Mysteries of the Kingdom of God. It is they, alone, who in this age since the cross, and stealthy hidden in Gideon’s physical account, are given to go and fight the spiritual enemies within themselves as individual joints constituting the Bride of Christ.

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 [Jehovah’s help], which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 
Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
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.

Jdg 7:2  And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. 

Gideon’s army (Jdg 7:18) is severely stripped from 32,000 to 300 men to fight the relatively massive Midianite army. In this case, the number 3 (3 x 100) carrying trumpets and lamps represents the progression of the Lord’s Elect, who see by the light of Christ’s spiritual word, the enemy in the dark and gloomy night approaching within and blow the war trumpet alarm to fight the giant enemies by Christ’s power and might, not by their strength.

Jdg 7:7  And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped [like dogs, signifying faithful devotion] will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place [home, effectively back to symbolic Babylon].

Isa 58:1  Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

This prelude brings us to the incredibly exciting understanding of “The Day of the Lord.”

Heb 3:15  As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.”
Heb 3:16  For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
Heb 3:17  And with whom was God [their Husband] angry [symbolically “bitter” – Col 3:19] for forty years? [because they couldn’t understand that He needed Shulamite-like kisses of espousal devotedness – Son 1:2] Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
Heb 3:18  And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest? Was it not to those who disobeyed?
Heb 3:19  So we see that it was because of their unbelief that they were unable to enter.

Significations:

The first verse of today’s Study in Joel, Chapter Two, describes our formally fearful anticipation of “The Day of the Lord” in him being our enemy! In ancient Israel, an enemy was announced by blowing a trumpet. Today, after the cross, it is represented by Christ’s spiritual message to all to whom he has given ears to hear the trumpet and eyes to see the enemy and to spiritually divide the truth. It is the day of judgement first, “nigh at hand” for the Bride of Christ while she is in the flesh and for the remainder of the world represented as Gog and Magog, their ‘day of the Lord’ as unrefined spirit beings in the Resurrection to Judgement, the Lake of Fire.

Rev 8:12  And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
Rev 8:13  And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth [Gog and Magog as numerous as the stars of heaven] by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Joe 2:1  Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

Christ’s Bride is the heavenly New Jerusalem above, who inherits Christ, him being “the holy mountain”; they, now in marriage, are unified as one ‘holy mountain’.

Isa 57:12  I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.
Isa 57:13  When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain; 

Zec 8:3  Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and [New] Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain. 

Our Lord’s holy mountain is established by much violence in our earth as Michael and his angels, meaning Christ, fight our battles within since Christ’s strength is made manifest in the ‘weaker vessel’ (1 Pet 3:7), the Woman, the Bride of Christ we hope and pray to be.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I [Christ] am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 
Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36  And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

Eze 33:2  Son of man, speak to the children [The Bride of Christ] of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land [you and I], if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
Eze 33:3  If when he  [you and I] seeth the sword come upon the land [our spirit; our conscience], he blow the trumpet, and warn the people [Primarily, first judge yourself before you are capable of warning others, but not limited to your hypocritical self – 1 Cor 11:30];
Eze 33:4  Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword [God’s word] come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 
Eze 33:5  He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Eze 33:6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. 
Eze 33:7  So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

In the Gideon scriptures mentioned above, he represents Christ, and his 300 men are the selected Elect, having come out of the 32,000 men of Israel representing the world, fleeing Egypt and, later, Babylon, similarly and all spiritually representing Assyria, Sodom and Old Jerusalem. With three aspects of lust written in their hearts, they are the Lord’s selected faithful Elect, all remaining subject to (1) the lust of the eyes, (2) the lust of the flesh, and (3) the pride of life. This symbolises the progression (Number 3) of the Bride of Christ and the forgiveness of her lofty sins (pride) by her Lord’s faith and spirit.

Rev 11:8 And their [the joints of the Bride] dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city [Old Jerusalem, the disappearing Whore within each of us], which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where [Spiritually today if you hear his voice] also our Lord was crucified.

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he [the Bride alone since the cross] that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Isa 2:12  For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

Isa 13:4  The noise of a multitude in the mountains, [Babylon within and the world] like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle [within the incipient Bride’s.
Isa 13:5  They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land [of the Elect of God]. 
Isa 13:6  Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 

To the anxious Babylonian who unknowingly believes in “another Jesus” (2 Cor 11:4), ‘the day of the Lord’ is seen as one event of the outward return of Christ being witless of the obscure inference of a Second Resurrection, meaning, the Resurrection to Judgement. Even though he erroneously believes that Jesus loves him as he is, a certain doubt dogs his conscience because of verses such as Joel 2:2, and he dismisses it as a terrifying day for some other far worse sinner. Unwittingly for him, that day is the return of Christ, not for him, but for the Lord’s “little flock” Elect.

Rom 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Rom 10:13  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved [in one of the two resurrections]

Of course, ALL Christians confess their sins and call upon Christ’s name, not knowing that they worship “another Jesus” (2 Cor 11:4) since they insist upon eating and drinking their own doctrinal bread and water.

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves [from Adam to the end of the One Thousand Year reign] shall hear his voice, 
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [the First Resurrection]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920 – meaning “judgement”, the Resurrection to Judgement resulting in salvation].

As former Babylonian Christians, verse 13 was all we needed to understand, as it speaks plainly, yet we did not grasp the meaning of “grace” in the following verse, which represents chastisement.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them [and not after the other Jesus’ doctrine modelled in our image]. 

Grace is God’s “gracious love and favour.” But what does grace do for us? Well, when we sin, grace does much more abound with God’s loving Fatherly chastening and scourging until we are brought to see that it feels so good when we finally quit banging our heads against the wall of “turning grace into lasciviousness.” As formally did we, lasciviousness is precisely what our Babylonian brothers and sisters do. They think that they are solely saved by Christ’s work on the cross and that they don’t have to do anything because “Christ died for us, so we don’t have to die”! THAT IS LASCIVIOUSNESS – colloquially expressed as greasy grace.

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

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12 Teaching [G3811 – Paideuo- Phonetic: pahee-dyoo’-o – Definition: 1. to train children a. to be instructed or taught or learn b. to cause one to learn 2. to chastise a. to chastise or castigate with words, to correct] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Apart from the Bride of Christ, the entirety of mankind ever to exist, having unwittingly cast themselves as royalty and been thrown into the Lake of Fire, will most torturously, yet temporarily, while ‘chastising grace’ works its utterly devouring work, will assuredly give God the glory for its molten re-casting them as God’s fine gold.

Lam 4:1  How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
Lam 4:2  The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! 

Zec 9:3  And Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets [Having cast her own righteousness]. 
Zec 9:4  Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire

Rev 18:16  And saying, Alas, alas, that great city [Ephriam, Israel, Old Jerusalem, Egypt, Sodom & Babylon – The Great Whore; you and I], that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
Rev 18:17  For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
Rev 18:18  And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

The Elect of God today, the Bride of Christ, has had her day of gloominess and thick darkness and is now joyfully receiving the ‘gloomy foreboding’ chastisement and eagerly being re-cast as her Lord’s fine gold in his image. At the First Resurrection, when Christ’s Bride ascends into Christ, her sisters and brothers remaining on Earth will, with loin loosening fear (As was King Belshazzar’s in Dan 5:1-7), bitterly lament for their day of darkness remaining throughout the One Thousand Year reign by Christ and his Christs (plural) rod of iron on into the early stages of the Resurrection to Judgement. Only then, and upon their acknowledgement of their waywardness, will their dawning glory break forth in Christ.

Luk 23:45  And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
Luk 23:46  And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Luk 23:47  Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly [the Bride of Christ] this was a righteous man.
Luk 23:48  And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.
Luk 23:49  And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things. 

Joe 2:2  A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

After the First Resurrection, Babylonian Christianity and the world will realise, with much consternation, that they are not resurrected to eternal life. They will experience fear, as “a great people”, the Bride of Christ keeps them in forced peace during the Thousand Year reign. Their future will remain jittery since they will see the apostles and other long-dead truthful followers of Christ now resurrected, similar to how Joseph’s brothers in Egypt felt when they found Joseph alive.

Continuing in the following verses of Joel, there is hidden “one event to all” mankind, beginning first with the Bride of Christ being devoured by her Lord’s fiery word. Upon her resurrection to life and inheriting her Lord as her Husband, she will be His very same fiery sword that prepares the world to be utterly consumed by fire from Eden at the end of the One Thousand Years when fire consumes Gog and Magog, the world.

Joe 2:3  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
Joe 2:4  The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
Joe 2:5  Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

Eze 39:6  And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

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 [the entirety of mankind ever to have lived], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever [age lasting fire until all mankind and the Devil and his angels are refined as gold in a furnace].

Joe 2:6  Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

At the beginning of the Resurrection to Judgment, the entire world will endure immense mental suffering, which will manifest as “blackness.” This is because every jot and title of the previous understanding of the Lord’s word is as dark as the curtains in Solomon’s temple that hide Christ and his Bride, who are likewise depicted as “black” to their understanding. As a result, people will believe that they are about to be engulfed in the lie of a physical eternal fire.

Son 1:5  I [The Shualmite who symbolises the Bride of Christ] am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem [the rest of the world], as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. 
Son 1:6  Look not upon me, because I am black [… it is useless in this day and age to understand me], because the sun [Christ, the noonday sun, burnt black all of her whoredoms] hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards [all symbolic 40,000 plus disunited Christian denominations realising that they are not invited to the wedding supper]; but mine own vineyard have I not kept [since, and now, Christ is her vinedresser and workmanship].

All in the Lake of Fire do not realise that the intense pain they feel is actually a part of their spiritual refinement, not literal burning while they are still alive since spirit bodies cannot die, but rather a much lengthier physical version of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s faith-building firey event (Dan 3:8-30). Those three young children (probably in their teens) no doubt felt dreadful consternation while being bound to be thrown alive into the furnace. Likewise, it is similar to Joseph’s brothers living every day for seventeen years with the expectation that Joseph will exact sudden fiery retribution upon them until their old man, their father, Jacob, died. Only then did they ever come to be at peace with their brother Joseph. The death of their old man signifies the ultimate end of the Lake of Fire coming upon the whole world as they come through that fiery experience, having been purified of the carnal-minded, rebellious old man.

Zep 1:14  The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
Zep 1:15  That day [is] a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
Zep 1:16  A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
Zep 1:17  And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
Zep 1:18  Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

Joe 2:7  They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

It is Christ, our husband, who runs upon our proud walls and its embedded breasts like fortification towers of Old Jerusalem, denoting the formally proud yet, repentant Rahab-like whore we have been before we become purified by our Lord’s fire and made his Bride. The joints of the Bride, the Elect of God are the “they” who “run like mighty men”. Having been saved by Christ, she now goes forth in the Lake of Fire and likewise breaks down her sister Babylon’s proud walls and whorish ways.

Son 8:10  I [The Bride of Christ] am a wall, and my breasts like towers [having powerfully put off her whorish ways]: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.

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

Joe 2:8  Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall [not by chance] upon the sword, they shall not be wounded [H1214 – to cut off; gain by unrighteous violence].

The destruction of the Old Jerusalem we are is done in an orderly manner in Christ’s timing. We look forward to falling upon the sword of God’s word and are most certainly wounded in spirit and gained a contrite heart while yet we live.

Psa 118:16  The right hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.
Psa 118:17  I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
Psa 91:7  A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

Joe 2:9  They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

We are the city of Old Jerusalem being destroyed. God’s word enters through our eyes, which are the windows of the Lord’s spiritual understanding. Even though the wise virgins likewise sleep with the foolish, Christ, under cover of darkness, quietly puts his hand through the hole to the latch of our door.  Yet, and to the collapsing Babylonian world around us today in 2024, and at an undisclosed time of Christ’s imminent return, the Elect of God with him will climb upon the destroyed houses of man’s government and demonic spiritual ideologies. Christ’s wife, in iron rulership with him (Rev 2:27), will have come stealthily like a thief in the night yet in plain sight to force the Beast to submit to Christ.

Son 5:2  I [The wise virgins, the Bride of Christ] sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night [the dew is the ravishing life-giving word of God, enflamed by his kisses better than wine].
Son 5:3  I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? [He died, is resurrected and made pure and is returning to bless his Bride with her inheritance in Him]
Son 5:4  My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels [my heart ‘betwixt my breasts’, my seat of his spirit – Son 1:13] were moved for him.
Son 5:5  I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.

(Myrrh is a dedicated anointing oil only for Aaron and his sons, representing the Bride of Christ and her priestly commission. It represents the pure unadulterated spiritual word of God. She, in unity with her husband, is anointed by him and made holy. Exo 30:32  Upon man’s flesh shall it [Myrrh] not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it, after the composition of it: it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you. Exo 30:33  Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger [Expose Christ’s truth to a heritic], shall even be cut off from his people.)

Joh 10:10  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

1Th 5:2-11  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 
1Th 5:3  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
1Th 5:4  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, [who have perfect vision through the windows of their spiritual understanding] that that day should overtake you as a thief.
1Th 5:5  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 
1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
1Th 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Th 5:10  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
1Th 5:11  Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

Most starkly, the following concluding verses of Joel’s expressions of The Day of the Lord are mirrored in Revelations, where Christ’s word (the sun) has become inky black to our collapsing world, and the 40,000 plus Babylonian Christian churches, depicted as the moon, worshipping “another Jesus” become even darker than the previous 2,000 years since the cross. At this point, Christ’s Christ, the “stars” with their testimony are likewise utterly hidden since their Lord has finished spiritually martyring them beneath him, their altar.

Joe 2:10  The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

Rev 8:12  And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
Rev 8:13  And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Joe 2:11  And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Rev 6:9  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 
Rev 6:11  And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

That “little season” has existed ever since the cross, yet, as seen in the spring growth of the fig tree, it is even at our door (Luk 21:29-33) and is to the Babylonian world, that dreadful Day of the Lord the Bride, paradoxically, has relished since understanding her jaw-dropping calling.

Lord willing, Christ has made the Bride ready for the ‘Return of her Lord’ in next week’s study.

The Book of Joshua – Part 6: ‘The Irony of the Moon Standing Upon a Moon’ for its Destruction – Joshua 6:1-17

[Study Aired March 25, 2023]

In the last study, we reviewed Israel crossing the Jordan and erecting two memorials for the house of Israel’s presence and for any who enquired. One was on the west bank of the Jordan, and the other was in the midst of the Jordan.

The relatively small, yet strongly walled, city of Jericho now confronts Israel’s growing strength through miracle empowerment. As with Israel, our successes, trials and sufferings teach us humility and deep respect for our Lord. A
miraculous win over our small trials likewise empowers us to forge ahead and, disappointedly, can cause us to be puffed up with a sense of having arrived at a full understanding.

For now, Israel is taking baby steps at confronting her enemies and learning the vital principle of trusting in her Lord’s strength to fight her battles. Her physical battles are our daily spiritual battles.

Jos 6:1 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.
Jos 6:2 And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.
Jos 6:3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
Jos 6:4  And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of ram’s horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
Jos 6:5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.
Jos 6:6 And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD.
Jos 6:7 And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD.
Jos 6:8 And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns passed on before the LORD, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them.
Jos 6:9 And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rereward came after the ark, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.
Jos 6:10  And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.
Jos 6:11  So the ark of the LORD compassed the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp.
Jos 6:12  And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD.
Jos 6:1  And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.
Jos 6:14 And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days.
Jos 6:15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.
Jos 6:16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.
Jos 6:17 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

The Body of Christ is well versed, knowing that in Joseph’s dream, his ten brothers represented the stars, the coming nation of Israel, and the sun represented Issac, their father, and the moon, Rebecca, their mother.

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

In the preceding studies in Joshua, we saw that the meaning of Jericho means “Moon”. How ironic that the developing Woman, the church in the wilderness represented as the ‘Moon’, will stand upon the ‘bowed down’ walls and city of Jericho, the figurative mother ‘Moon’ and one of the heathen nations for whom Israel became a lover.

Jos 6:1 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.

Today, the rejected anointed Moon of Babylonian Christianity is “shut up” and darkens the word of God anytime we ingest her spirit of a different Jesus. Her iniquities are sealed for judgment at the time of her end on the eighth day; she is the negative of the Lord’s little flock who likewise is shut up where nobody other than those the Lord chooses can go out or come in to gain the Lord’s truths (Mar 4:11-12).

Israel, being the Woman, is clothed in the sun of the milk of the word and, standing on the symbolic Moon of Jericho and soon her heathen sisters, is given the power and strength of her Lord to lay flat the strong man’s walls that without the Lord’s miracles, would strike fear in her heart. (Rev 12:1-6, Mar 3:27, Mat 12:29). Ultimately, she becomes a strong man in harmony with her Lord with her enemies under her feet.

Psa 19:1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse proclaims His handiwork.
Psa 19:2 Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
Psa 19:3 There is no speech nor are there words; their voice is not heard.
Psa 19:4 Their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, [The Bride is the Tabernacle of the Lord, the Son]
Psa 19:5 and he comes forth as a bridegroom from his canopy; he rejoices as a strong man to run a race.

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.

The Woman with the Moon under her feet becomes equal in Christ, the strong man, in rulership, not headship, as Joseph was made equal in rulership under Pharaoh’s headship (Genesis 41). So is the Bride of Christ being made to rule all of Egypt within and rout her enemies, starting with the Moon of Jericho, a small representation of the developing Great Whore of lying wonders.

Jos 6:2 And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.
Jos 6:3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
Jos 6:4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.

By our Lord’s power and might alone, we are given to rule over Satan and his demons symbolised as the King of Jericho and his mighty men of valour (Eph 6:12, Jam 4:7, Luk 10:17).

Luk 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
Luk 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Luk 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Luk 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

The significance of Israel’s men of war, once each day marching behind the Priests carrying the Ark of the Lord for six days, represents our flesh (666) for six thousand years torturously living our ways. Even though our trials and heartaches are of the Lord, and we flip-flop between loving and rejecting him, the arduous process, as it will be for Israel, is to teach us to trust in God. Knowing the end of the saga from personal experience, the Body of Christ knows that we are doomed to fail in our battles unless the Lord is going before us on every occasion.

Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

The number 7 mentioned three times is significant since it represents completion, especially judgment. The Lord’s Elect alone is the first, as symbolised by Israel, to work six days depending upon their Lord, and not knowing how He will perform His miracles of conversion for Him to give them possession of Him on the seventh day depicted as Jericho’s fall, the small beginnings of many larger deaths within.

To the Amorites inhabiting Jericho (Jos 5:1), their initial intrigue must have turned into derision for this parade of ‘fools’ marching around their walls each day, and then contempt with underlying foreboding when the memory of Israel’s previous accomplishments come to mind. It mirrors the Body of Christ’s experiences with our brothers and sisters in Babylon as they deride our Christ-given understanding when they all parrot, ‘We are already saved, Christ did it all on the cross, and we don’t have to lift a finger.’

Psa 44:13 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
Psa 44:14 Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
Psa 44:15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
Psa 44:16 For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.

Jos 6:5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

Individually, we are watchmen upon the wall of our city, the New Jerusalem within. Hearing the sound of the trumpet in us and behind us reminds us to call on the Lord to deliver us from our insidious trials and others we see approaching. If we deliberately reject the still, small voice behind us (in our minds), our blood will be upon our heads since we know the Lord’s will and don’t live it.

The people of Jericho represent the world who will see and tremble at Christ’s Christs ruling with the “great shout” of the rod of iron in the One Thousand-Year reign. The people will tremble, and their stubborn walls of self-righteousness will fall flat. Yet, they are not given to repent and appease Israel (the Christs) before they come to rule the world’s city within on the Seventh Day.

In fact, all the people of Jericho with the exception of Rahab and her family, who represent the Elect, the faithful city that too was a harlot, die, as does all flesh die at the end of the One Thousand-Year reign.

Eze 33:4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
Eze 33:5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Eze 33:6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

Mar 3:29 but whoever may speak evil in regard to the Holy Spirit hath not forgiveness—to the age, but is in danger of age-during judgment; (YLT)

Jos 6:6 And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark of Jehovah.
Jos 6:7 And he said to the people, Pass on, and go around the city. And let him who is armed pass on in front of the ark of Jehovah.
Jos 6:8 And it happened when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests bearing the seven rams’ horns passed on before Jehovah and blew the rams; horns. And the ark of the covenant of Jehovah followed them.
Jos 6:9 And the armed men went before the priests who blew with the rams’ horns. And the gathering [H622 – “rereward” gathering; company] army came after the ark, as the priests were going on and blowing with the rams’ horns.

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

That understanding of Romans 8:31 is a foundational rock impacting everything we do in becoming as He is. Plain and simple, if Christ is for us, who can be against us? The vital element identifies the Ark, Christ, as the hidden-in-plain-sight weapon for the entire procession to march around Jericho.

Neither the Israelites nor we should be concerned about how our Lord will demonstrate His power over our enemies as we learn to not be timid when facing difficult trials.

Psa 18:2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

Psa 75:10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

A beast’s horns signify and identify the strength (H7161) of his power.

While most rams’ horns, as opposed to an ox’s, are not deadly in a fight, they still signify strength, and since the Priests are using the seven horns as instruments for sound, their sound announces the coming destruction of Babylon within, and beginning with the Lord’s Passover.

The order of the procession marching around Jericho is this:
Verse 7, first, armed Israelites go before all. Secondly, the seven priests bearing the seven ram’s horns; thirdly, the Ark of the Covenant of God, Verse 8, and bringing up the rear in fourth place is a representative of the whole (Number 4), or camp of Israel named as “rereward” (KJV) H622 – meaning, gathering; company.

For the Body of Christ’s spiritual understanding, we must be armed with all the vital tools of Christ to fight our enemy, having total trust in the Lord to win the battle. We most certainly pick up our spiritual sword of Christ by his word as we strike our enemies within and without anyone enquiring to receive that sword. As such, we all spiritually perish by His sword that ironically gives life.

Mat 26:51 And, behold, one [Peter] of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and he struck a servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
Mat 26:52 Then Jesus said to him, Put up your sword again into its place; for all who take the sword shall perish with a sword.
Mat 26:53 Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?
Mat 26:54 But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?
Mat 26:55 In that hour Jesus said to the crowds, Have you come out in order to take Me with swords and clubs, as against a thief? I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not lay hands on Me.
Mat 26:56 But all this happened that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples fled, forsaking Him.

The Elect of God is those named “let him who is armed” pass on in front of the Ark of God. We know that many Christians claim the Lord’s name and are armed, yet, unwittingly, by a “different Jesus”.

Seven Priests who spiritually go before Israel (Babylonian Christianity within and without) blow the trumpet of war. That is precisely what the Body of Christ has been doing since His death on the cross to all who are given eyes that see and ears that hear those trumpets.

Next comes the armed people of Israel who “pass on” and encompass the city.

The spiritual order of the physical procession is this:
1. Since Christ’s death, the spiritually armed Christians who hold the word of God unrighteously have born the cross in the heat of the day.
2. The Seven Priests bearing the Seven Rams’ horns were originally part of the body of Israel but sanctified to primarily blow the horns within and not to their brethren; they represent Christ’s Church today. Their brothers and sisters in Babylonian Christianity do not hear neither can they receive their testimony.
3. Thirdly, the Christs bearing Christ, the Ark of the Covenant, are of Israel, but much later, and following Israel becoming a harlot, they come out of her to
remain as the Lord’s chosen few to be his Heavenly Jerusalem above, his Bride.
4. Following behind is harlot Christianity and the mighty mixed multitude of the entire world together in the Resurrection to Judgement, commonly known as the Second Resurrection.

One thing we always noticed in the WCG as we headed off into the night to do the traditions of men at Passover was the incredible sight of a beautiful full moon. Again, how ironic that Israel, who came out of Egypt on a full moon, is now destroying the little city-moon of Jericho. Israel is effectively destroying a part of the Whore (Moon) that Israel is to become since the Canaanites are within and were never entirely routed from her land.

Jos 6:10 And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.
Jos 6:11 So the ark of the LORD compassed the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp.
Jos 6:12 And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD.
Jos 6:13 And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.
Jos 6:14 And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days.

Today for the Lord’s Church, his people, for the symbolic six days (correspondingly six thousand years for the world of humanity) armed with seven rams’ horns, blow their sound within as they work with the Ark of the Lord in their midst to kill their enemies within. During this time, the Lord’s little flock does not proselyte by raising their voice to instruct anyone other than those whom the Lord drags to his Body. His Church alone hears the sound of the ram’s horn within to avoid Satan’s devices.

The six days precede the Sabbath on the Seventh-day and herald the beginning of the Lord’s Feasts that outline the plan of God for the salvation of all mankind, as seen in the book of Leviticus 23.

The Lord’s people encompass their enemies within for six days while hearing their Lord’s warning horn reminding them that the battle is the Lord’s for the coming destruction of their enemies. Marching around the cities “once” daily is required once the enemy is identified, and then its battle is handed to the Lord.

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment,
Heb 9:28 so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And to those who look for Him He shall appear the second time without sin to salvation.
Heb 10:1 For the Law which has a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, appearing year by year with the same sacrifices, which they offer continually, they are never able to perfect those drawing near.
Heb 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshipers, when they had been once for all purged, would have had no more conscience of sin.
Heb 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again of sins every year.
Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Once we have identified our sins, we aim not to repeat them with impunity. However, our Lord knows our frailty and that repeating them is exactly what we will do. Yet, we need a good conscience, with our entire hearts to die daily until the Lord destroys those tenacious sins, each day until the Seventh Day when we receive the fullness of our redemption in Christ. The process is to patiently possess Christ within us, knowing that our Lord will forgive seventy times seven the same sin as we forgive our brothers.

Pro 24:16 for a just one falls seven times, and rises up again; but the wicked shall fall into evil.

1Pe 3:15 but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you, with meekness and fear;
1Pe 3:16 having a good conscience, that while they speak against you as evildoers they may be shamed, those falsely accusing your good behavior in Christ.

The Elect of God alone get up early to prepare their household spiritual food. It is given to them to die daily, having marched around their cities once each day while remaining in the Babylonian Israel camp.

Joh 17:14 I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:15 I do not pray for You to take them out of the world, but for You to keep them from the evil.
Joh 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth.
Joh 17:18 As You have sent Me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.
Joh 17:19 And I sanctify Myself for their sakes, so that they also might be sanctified in truth.

Jos 6:15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.

It is on the Seventh Day, the Old Covenant’s Sabbath, that to us is Christ, that our work is completed in the meaning of the number seven ~ completion, especially for judgment. The Seventh Day represents His Elect, the Bride of Christ, marrying her Lord having had all her sins of the previous six days judged and forgiven.

Jer 29:10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.
Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

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. [The ages of the ages. The thousand years and the lake of fire/ second death]

Jos 6:16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.
Jos 6:17 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

The Israelites are having a lesson in faith and trust in God for their salvation by His strong hands while under the works of the law. That foundational physical lesson to be learned by the Israelites is for our spiritual understanding that is wonderfully easy when we learn to acknowledge our sins and trust in our Lord to do His marvellous life-changing works within.

Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Gal 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Gal 3:12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Gal 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Gal 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

The Body of Christ shouts within and audibly with each other daily as we joyfully bear our Lord aloft by His word for the King He is. She was once Rabab, the harlot, and she and her household were saved ahead of her brethren.

Jer 31:6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.
Jer 31:7 For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.

1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Each of us was hidden by our spiritual Rahab in Christ as we diligently searched the word of God daily, judging the Jericho moon within. Having found Jericho brazenly naked and a precursor to Babylon, we were protected and hidden by Rahab, a type of the Lord’s Church who, by His faith, makes for us a way of escape from the world (Revelation 18).

Col 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.
Col 3:2 Be mindful of things above, not on things on the earth.
Col 3:3 For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.
Col 3:4 When Christ our Life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Col 3:5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness (which is idolatry),
Col 3:6 on account of which things’ sake the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience,
Col 3:7 among whom you also once walked, when you lived in these.
Col 3:8 But now also put off all these things: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, shameful speech out of your mouth.
Col 3:9 Do not lie to one another, having put off the old man with his deeds
Col 3:10 and having put on the new, having been renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,

Sadly, and for our benefit, Israel is only beginning to be the Lord’s first wife who became a harlot, out of whom came His Elect, the Bride. She becomes the final and glorious ‘Moon’ standing on the remnants of herself represented by Jericho. Jericho is the diminutive prototype of the coming massively larger ‘Moon’ of Babylon, the mother of harlots, the great prostitute.

Rev 12:1 And there appeared a great sign in the heavens, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

Rev 17:1 And one of the seven angels who had the seven vials came and talked with me, saying to me, Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot sitting on many waters,
Rev 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and became drunk with the wine of her fornication, those inhabiting the earth.
Rev 17:3 And he carried me away into a desert by the Spirit. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, filled with names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet. And she was gilded 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 on her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

What an astonishing adventure the Lord has given His Elect, beginning with a small win over little Jericho as He gently ramps up our trials for a staggeringly beautiful end.

Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace,

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Awesome Hands – part 167

“The Sun stood still”

April 1, 2020

Our study today finds us joining Joshua and Israel in chapter 10 of Joshua. In this chapter, we will find that the Lord does truly hear us when we pray to Him whether He is answering how we’d prefer or in accordance with what the Lord has planned for us.

This should comfort us because the Lord always has the “new man in us” at the forefront of doing what is best for the new man to continually emerge in us. In other words, Jesus will be increasing, and we will decrease, daily, and that means we are more and more like Him as we experience the things the Lord has prepared for us in our lives.

To set the stage for the study today, I am going to read from a section of the previous study starting in Joshua 9:10-13.

Jos 9:10  And all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth.
Jos 9:11  Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us.
Jos 9:12  This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy:
Jos 9:13  And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.

Our physical senses are so easily deceived. What we see is not always what is there. You can’t fault the Israelites for seeing with their eyes, and holding in their hands, the moldy bread, spent bottles, and used up shoes and clothes.

The fault is in the conclusions they drew  from what they were SEEING.

Moldy bread does not happen due to a long journey, though that can be one reason. Moldy bread happens from, wait for it……., mold.

If an angel suddenly appeared to you, or you suddenly “heard the voice of God”, what would be your first instinct? Naturally, our instinct would be to instantly worship.  However, our first spiritual instinct, Lord willing, would to be to listen for the voice of the True Shepherd in the voice of the one who suddenly shows themselves or speaks.

Today, we are continuing to see the consequences of the union that Israel made with Gibeon. As it turns out, Gibeon was a “great city” and they were fairly threatening to their neighbors because their soldiers were highly respected.

As a result, the other kings decided they must band together to take on Gibeon and their new found alliance.

Jos 10:1  Now it came to pass, when Adonizedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;
Jos 10:2  That they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty.
Jos 10:3  Wherefore Adonizedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying,
Jos 10:4  Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.
Jos 10:5  Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.

Given that there was an agreement of peace made between Gibeon and Israel, the other kings then feel threatened due to fear. Fear is a very powerful emotion as it turns out. Fear causes many things to happen in our minds and hearts with most of those things being quite irrational.

When talking about the current coronavirus scare we are going through as a collective world today, I often comment that the fear people have of not having a job, food or shelter will lead many into doing whatever it takes to help themselves and their loved ones survive the current situation.

Getting COVID-19 creates a fear in people that they are going to die when most of the people who get it will have mild cold-like symptoms. That isn’t to say that COVID-19 isn’t deadly for some, because it certainly is, but when you see the numbers, graphs and charts, COVID-19 is being survived by most people.

However, the collapse of societal norms will be what most come to fear and react to.

Bringing this back to the study, these 5 kings fear the union between Gibeon, who they already consider mighty, and Israel who have already proven that they are capable of waging and winning wars.

This fear will ultimately lead to the utter destruction of these 5 kingdoms.

Jos 10:6  And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.
Jos 10:7  So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour.
Jos 10:8  And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee.
Jos 10:9  Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.

While reading Joshua 10:9, I noticed just how closely it is worded to how Jesus comes upon those whom He is going to visit “in the night”.

2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Yet, that isn’t the full “picture” of what the visitation of the Lord means for those who it means something to, i.e. the children of the Lord, the children of the light.

1Th 5:1  But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.

Is it possible that we can apply this knowledge to any situation we encounter today including the current unrest we see the world over with COVID-19?

1Th 5:2  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
1Th 5:3  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

Notice that “they” is being contrasted with “ye” or “you”. “They” are being compared with the children of light.

1Th 5:4  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
1Th 5:5  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

It is always interesting to ponder why certain things are said next to other things that are said in scripture. Notice that those that sleep are being compared with the same group who are also drunken.

Well, we can become drunk on wine. In this case, because we are talking about the day of the Lord and His visitation in the night, we can see the linkage between the day of the Lord and the wrath of the wine of God.

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

Luk 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

In the study titled, “Confidence in the Lord”, we talked about the will of God being directly connected to thinking and speaking as Christ does when He knows that He must go on to be crucified. We too must always have the same mindset of  “thy will be done”. This is what allows us to continue the process described in 1 Timothy 5:8-11.

1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
1Th 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Th 5:10  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
1Th 5:11  Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

We are going to need to have the protection of the Lord in order to get through this war in our heavens that we are in. Faith, hope, and love are mentioned together here for good reason. All of these attributes, our pieces of armor as described, are what protect us from the wiles of the devil and everything else that is going on around us.

The Lord fights for us, so who can be against us? He clothes us with all of the armor that we need. Under that armor, He clothes us with His righteousness, therefore who can stand against the Lord?

The day we are reading about is like no other before or after it. Spiritually, this day of the Lord being visited upon His enemies is the start of the destruction of the old man in those who are visited.

Jos 10:10  And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah.
Jos 10:11  And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.
Jos 10:12  Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
Jos 10:13  And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
Jos 10:14  And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.
Jos 10:15  And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.

The Lord fighting for Israel has never changed. It fought for physical Israel, and He continues to fight for spiritual Israel … those Jews are Jews inwardly.

Jos 10:16  But these five kings fled, and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah.
Jos 10:17  And it was told Joshua, saying, The five kings are found hid in a cave at Makkedah.
Jos 10:18  And Joshua said, Roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave, and set men by it for to keep them:
Jos 10:19  And stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them; suffer them not to enter into their cities: for the LORD your God hath delivered them into your hand.
Jos 10:20  And it came to pass, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter, till they were consumed, that the rest which remained of them entered into fenced cities.
Jos 10:21  And all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace: none moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel.
Jos 10:22  Then said Joshua, Open the mouth of the cave, and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave.
Jos 10:23  And they did so, and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.
Jos 10:24  And it came to pass, when they brought out those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them.
Jos 10:25  And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.
Jos 10:26  And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees: and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening.
Jos 10:27  And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave’s mouth, which remain until this very day.
Jos 10:28  And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he did unto the king of Jericho.

After reading all of these verses, it is easy to conclude that the nations and kings whom the Lord sends us to, for slaughter, are indeed slaughtered. However, as with all things we are considering in scripture, we should be looking to the inside if the cup, toward the heavenly places, and taking the wrath of the Lord to those places within us.

When we read about these southern Canaanite kings, we should be seeing these kings within ourselves. How do we recognize a king or a giant “within the land”?

Well, I am not the best person to consult to figure this out for you. The Lord is the best person to consult because He will reveal to us what it is that needs to be adjusted. It is all up to Him whether or not a giant or a king is slain (they represent the same thing), but we are still in the FIGHT. How do I know this to be true?

Jos 10:25  And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.

The Lord will do the killing THROUGH you to those enemies He has sent you to fight. This is no different than “work out your OWN salvation with fear and trembling”.

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.
Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

Are we not talking about salvation? Does this not sound like the same thing with only the timeline and characters being different? You versus Joshua and your enemies versus the southern Canaanite kings?

Let me remind you:

Jos 10:9  Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.

1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

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:

Joshua came “unto them suddenly at night” tells us that this event is much more than Joshua killing these kings in war. This is about how the salvation process works in the children of the day, the children of the light.

It is the trial of our faith that is precious to the Lord. The “faith part” He gives out freely to those whom He gives it to, but it is the TRIAL and the OVERCOMING which helps that Faith be ALIVE.

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold thatperisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
1Pe 1:8  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Jas 2:20  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Jas 2:21  Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Jas 2:22  Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
Jas 2:23  And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
Jas 2:24  Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
Jas 2:25  Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
Jas 2:26  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Here is this moment in time where the Faith of Israel, in type, was accompanied by works. Now, I do not read the following verses to bore you . I read them to help solidify just how “on your side” the Lord is. However, He is on our side for the benefit of bringing good from evil in our lives.

Jos 10:29  Then Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, unto Libnah, and fought against Libnah:
Jos 10:30  And the LORD delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel; and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain in it; but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho.
Jos 10:31  And Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, unto Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it:
Jos 10:32  And the LORD delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah.
Jos 10:33  Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua smote him and his people, until he had left him none remaining.
Jos 10:34  And from Lachish Joshua passed unto Eglon, and all Israel with him; and they encamped against it, and fought against it:
Jos 10:35  And they took it on that day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.
Jos 10:36  And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:
Jos 10:37  And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that were therein.
Jos 10:38  And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir; and fought against it:
Jos 10:39  And he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.
Jos 10:40  So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.
Jos 10:41  And Joshua smote them from Kadeshbarnea even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon.
Jos 10:42  And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel.
Jos 10:43  And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promises toward us. He will fight for us, but it will be THROUGH us. We are a part of the process according to what He has willed for us.

Our battles are MENTAL and SPIRITUAL. Our fights are in the heavens. We must always be diligent in consulting with the Word of God when we need to gain more Faith or strength so that we can continue to fight the good fight.

The Sun of righteousness still fights for us today. This is obviously something that happened physically for Joshua (the sun standing still along with the moon), but it is something that happens even today spiritually in type because we are the children of the Light and the Lord fights for us to overcome the world in us.