1 Samuel 3:1–21 The Lord Calls Samuel

[Study Aired January 19, 2026]

The study for today highlights the call of Samuel by the Lord. It also touches on the Lord’s pronouncement of judgment on Eli’s house. Finally, it shows us how Samuel was growing spiritually as the Lord continues to reveal Himself to him through His word.

The Lord Calls Samuel

1Sa 3:1  And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision. 

As indicated in the previous study, Samuel ministering before Eli is the same as him ministering before the Lord. This is because whatever we do for any of the Lord’s elect, we have done it for the Lord. It implies that as we minister to one another, we are ministering to the Lord.

Mat 25:37  Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 
Mat 25:38  And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
Mat 25:39  And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 
Mat 25:40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ 

Samuel being referred to as a child means that he was not mature in the things of the Lord. In today’s jargon, we will say that Samuel was a baby in Christ. We may be ministering to the Lord and yet are babies. This is what it means to be babies in Christ:

Heb 5:12  For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 
Heb 5:13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. (ESV)

In verse 1, we can see that Samuel’s immaturity in the Lord is because he had not been exposed so much to the word of the Lord since the Lord’s words were rare during Samuel’s early stages of life. In other words, there was famine of the word of the Lord. Samuel’s early walk with the Lord is the same as our early walk with Christ in the sense that we also experienced famine of the word of the Lord since the church system of this world or Babylon, with which we started our walk is starved of the word of the Lord. 

Amo 8:11  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 
Amo 8:12  And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. 
Amo 8:13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.  

Apart from the word of the Lord being rare in Samuel’s childhood days, there was also no open vision. According to Strong’s Dictionary, vision in this sense means revelation, and open here can mean to increase or grow. What this implies is that during our time in the churches of this world, there was no increase in revelation of Christ. In other words, what we knew about Christ when we entered Babylon had not increased. Actually, we became worse off due to the false doctrines which we imbibed. 

2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 
2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
2Pe 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 

If we are to grow in grace, then our knowledge of Christ or His words, must increase. Fortunately, in our time, knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom has increased tremendously as we get closer to the end of this age. This was prophesied by Daniel as follows:

Dan 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 

As indicated here in Daniel 12:4, this knowledge, which will increase at the time of the end, does not pertain only to the word of the Lord. In the field of science and other areas, there have been major breakthroughs in knowledge resulting in the use of artificial intelligence to solve many problems that we were grappling with for many centuries. All of these show us that the end of this age is almost here with us. Indeed, the time is at hand!!

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. 

1Sa 3:2  And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; 
1Sa 3:3  And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; 

The eyes of Eli becoming dim represent the fading glory of the law of Moses which makes it difficult for us to see the law of the spirit of life which sets us free from the law of sin and death, when we were in Babylon. 

2Co 3:7  Now if the ministry of death (the law of Moses), carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end
2Co 3:8  will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 

2Co 3:12  Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 
2Co 3:13  not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 
2Co 3:14  But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 
2Co 3:15  Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 
2Co 3:16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 

As shown in verse 3, the lamp of the Lord had not yet gone out in the temple of the Lord as Samuel laid down to sleep. Samuel, in this case, represents the Lord’s elect during our time in the church system of this world. The lamp of God signifies the word of the Lord. 

Psa 119:105  NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. 

Therefore, what verse 3 is suggesting is that even though we, as the Lord’s elect, were spiritually becoming more bankrupt (laid down to sleep), in our hearts and minds (the temple of God), the word of the Lord had not fully gone out of us. It is this word in our hearts and minds that makes us answer to the Lord’s call in our spiritually dead state.

Job 14:15  You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.

1Sa 3:4  That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. 
1Sa 3:5  And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down. 
1Sa 3:6  And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.
1Sa 3:7  Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.  

In verse 4, the Lord calling Samuel signifies the Lord coming to us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness when we were in the church system of this world or Babylon. 

2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 

This coming of Christ to us during our time in Babylon is usually not something spectacular like what happened to Paul when He was going to Damascus to arrest the Lord’s elect. Usually, the Lord comes to us through His elect who speak to us the truth of the Lord’s word. However, just like Samuel, we mistake the voice of the Lord through His elect and think that it is the voice of our pastors of the churches of this world. If we are given to realize the voice of the shepherd through His elect, that is when we are given to say that blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Mat 23:39  For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. 

As stated in verse 7, the reason we were not able to hear the voice of the Lord is because during our time in Babylon, we did not know the Lord yet because we have not yet been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. We were part of the multitude that came to hear Jesus but heard parables which we did not understand. 

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.  

Most of us experienced the call of the Lord several times before we began to pay attention to Him. For example, Abraham, our father in faith, had to be called twice before he responded to the Lord’s call. The Lord appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia and also in Haran before Abraham moved to the promised land. Calling Abraham twice signifies that the Lord always leaves a witness of His relentless pursuit of His elect. As His elect, nothing shall separate us from the love of the Lord.

Act 7:1  Then said the high priest, Are these things so? 
Act 7:2  And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 
Act 7:3  And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. 
Act 7:4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.   

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 

Gen 12:4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. 

Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1Sa 3:8  And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child. 
1Sa 3:9  Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
1Sa 3:10  And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.

The calling of Samuel three times by the Lord and Samuel still thinking that it was Eli calling is to show us that Samuel had not gone through the process of becoming spiritually mature through the Lord’s judgment (the significance of three). It means Samuel was still a baby in Christ. That was our situation when we were in the church system of this world before the Lord came to us to begin the process of our exit from Babylon.

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 fact that Eli, who represents the fading glory of the law of Moses, was able to instruct Samuel about how to engage the Lord in a conversation means that the law of Moses was needful at a certain point in our walk with Christ, when we were in the church system of this world.  

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. 
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 

It is through the law that we come to know that of our own, we can do nothing. It is this knowledge which serves as the basis of our relationship with Christ as we begin to walk by faith in Him or His word.

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 

In verse 4, Samuel finally answered the Lord’s call. It was at the fourth call by the Lord that Samuel was able to respond appropriately. The number four means the whole of the matter under discussion. Therefore, Samuel responding to the Lord’s fourth call implies that as His elect, the Lord will use the whole of His communication arsenal to get our attention at the right time. 

Joh 10:27  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 

This is what the Lord is doing in this age. He is standing at our door and knocking and it is only the Lord’s elect that are hearing Him, just like Samuel and not Eli, who also represents the leaders of the church system of this world. Therefore, the door is being opened to us to come and dine with the Lord. 

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

The Judgment of the House of Eli

1Sa 3:11  And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. 
1Sa 3:12  In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end.  

It is only the Lord’s elect who are aware that the church system of this world or Babylon shall be destroyed in the fullness of time. What the Lord will do, which will tingle the ears of the people of this world, is the destruction of Babylon. Babylon within each of us must be destroyed first before we can be set free to worship the Lord in truth and in spirit. In verses 11 and 12, the Lord was telling Samuel what He was going to do regarding the church system of this world. 

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

On the other hand, there is also the physical or outward destruction of the church system of this world or Babylon through the judgment of the Lord in the fullness of time.  

Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, 
Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. 
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: 

1Sa 3:14  And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever. 

According to Brown-Driver-Briggs Dictionary, the word “forever” in verse 14 means as far as, until, up to, etc. Therefore, it means that the iniquity of Eli’s house which represents the church system of this world or Babylon will not be cleansed by the sacrificial blood of Christ in this age. 

1Sa 3:15  And Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel feared to shew Eli the vision. 
1Sa 3:16  Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, Here am I. 
1Sa 3:17  And he said, What is the thing that the LORD hath said unto thee? I pray thee hide it not from me: God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide anything from me of all the things that he said unto thee. 
1Sa 3:18 And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good. 

Samuel fearing to tell Eli the vision is to remind us that our communion with the Lord should not be proclaimed at the house-tops – it is private. Unlike Samuel, who represents the Lord’s elect, our brothers and sisters in the church system, especially their leaders will always talk about how the Lord is always communicating with them. Many times you will hear them saying, “the Lord told me …”, when the Lord has not said anything.

Eze 22:27  Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. 
Eze 22:28 And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken. (ESV)

Jer 23:16  Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 
Jer 23:17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” (ESV)

When the Lord wants us to share what He has shown us by way of vision, dream, etc., He will create the circumstance which will make us share what He has shown us, just like the case of Samuel. 

Eli’s response did not show any remorse, after Samuel told him everything about the evil the Lord would bring to his house. Compare this with the behavior of the people of Nineveh when they realized that the Lord would destroy them in forty days. They put on sackcloth and repented of their evil ways. The Lord therefore did not destroy them. As indicated earlier, Eli’s house will not be given the opportunity to repent and be cleansed by the blood of Christ. This means that the church system of this world will not repent in this age and therefore will not be cleansed in this age by the blood of Christ.

Jon 3:4  And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 
Jon 3:5  So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
Jon 3:6  For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 
Jon 3:7  And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water: 
Jon 3:8  But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 
Jon 3:9  Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 
Jon 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. 

Samuel Continued to Grow in the Lord

1Sa 3:19  And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. 
1Sa 3:20  And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD. 
1Sa 3:21 And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD. 

Just like Samuel, the Lord is with us, and therefore we must feed on the word of the Lord to grow. It is very instructive to note that the Lord did not let any of His words fall to the ground. This means that the Lord will surely fulfill every promise He has made to us. 

Psa 138:8  The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. 

The Lord establishing Samuel as a prophet of the Lord in the eyes of the people of Israel in verse 20 is to let us know that the unbelief of the house of Eli or the church system of this world or Babylon has resulted in the Lord showing mercy to His elect in this age. This implies that in the fullness of time, through the mercy we have obtained, the whole of humanity shall also obtain mercy.  

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

As we are aware, Samuel later became like a ruler to the Lord’s people as He was consulted in all key issues pertaining to Israel. For example, when the people of Israel wanted a king, it was to Samuel they referred the matter. This is all to show us that our obedience to the Lord is preparing us to rule over the kingdoms of this world at the end of this age when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. 

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

It is important to note in verse 21 that the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. Our eyes being opened to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven is the same as the Lord revealing Himself to us, just like the case of Samuel. It is therefore not through signs and wonders that we perform or the size of our followers that authenticate the fact that we know Christ. 

We cannot therefore thank the Lord enough for favoring us in this age to know Him through His word. May His name be praised. Amen!

Matthew 21:23–46 The Parable of the Tenants

[Study Aired September 22, 2025]

Our discussion for today is centered on the authority of Jesus challenged by the chief priests and the elders. The study also highlights the parable of the two sons and that of the tenants. 

The Authority of Jesus Challenged

Mat 21:23  And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? 
Mat 21:24  And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. 

It is when Christ comes into His temple or our hearts and minds that as His elect, we come to see the hypocrisy of the leaders of the church system of this world who are represented in verse 23 as the chief priests and the elders of the people. These leaders wrongly think that they are the ones that represent Christ here on earth and therefore think they have the mandate or authority from God. Prior to this question of who gave Jesus authority to do the things He does, they had seen Jesus speaking with authority and using His authority to cast out devils and heal the sick. They therefore became jealous of the way Jesus teaches and performs miracles.

Mat 7:28  And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: 
Mat 7:29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 

Luk 4:36  And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. 
Luk 4:37 And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about. 

We know that Jesus’ authority was given to Him by God, and it is this same authority that Jesus has given to us as He sends us into this world.

Joh 5:26  For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
Joh 5:27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

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

Although these leaders asked Jesus about who gave Him authority to do the things He does, they were not prepared to hear the truth of the word of the Lord as they were filled with idols of the heart. Being filled with idols of the heart prevents us from knowing the truth. We are therefore deceived according to the idols in our hearts and minds. 

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

Mat 21:25  The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?
Mat 21:26  But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. 
Mat 21:27  And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. 

We can see from these verses that the chief priests and the elders of the people were not sincere in their response to Christ. Our Lord Jesus already knew these leaders were not willing to hear the truth as they were fixated on having something with which to accuse the Lord. What this implies is that the leaders of the church system of this world do not want the truth. Here in these verses, Jesus is showing us that when people are not willing to know the truth, we should not waste our time trying to tell them the truth. As the word of the Lord says, people who refuse the love of truth are sent a powerful delusion to believe lies, leading to their destruction. 

2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 

This was our situation when we were in the churches of this world or Babylon. We did not love the truth as we turned to fables. 

2Ti 4:3  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2Ti 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 

The Lord not telling the chief scribes and the elders about His authority is therefore another way of saying that the leaders of the church system of this world are not given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven. If the leaders do not know the truth, then you can just imagine the level of ignorance of those who are serving under them! This is all to show us how blind we were, when we were in Babylon.

Isa 42:18  Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
Isa 42:19  Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant? 
Isa 42:20  Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not. 
Isa 42:21  The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. 
Isa 42:22 But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. 

The Parable of the Two Sons

Mat 21:28  But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard.
Mat 21:29  He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. 

Our understanding of any of the parables of our Lord Jesus Christ is what unlocks our understanding of all the parables of Jesus. Our Lord Jesus told us that if we are able to comprehend the parable of the Sower, then we can understand all parables. 

Mar 4:13  And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables? 

To illustrate this principle of understanding the Lord’s parables, let’s use the parable of the prodigal son to help us understand this point. The man having two sons is the same as the man in the parable of the prodigal son who had two sons. The younger son left the father with his portion of the father’s inheritance and went to a far country where he wasted all the resources the father had given him with lawless living. In verse 28, we can see that the father wanted the son to work in the vineyard, but he refused. Working in the father’s vineyard is serving the Lord’s house or His people.

Isa 5:7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

The son’s refusal to work in the father’s vineyard is the same as the prodigal son going into a far country to spend His father’s inheritance on lawless living. We, His elect, were the prodigal son or the son who initially refused his father’s request to work in His vineyard. We ended up in riotous living in the churches of this world. As the prodigal son became worse off in a far country, we also became worse off in the churches of this world as we were like pigs that were washed but came wallowing in the mire. 

2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 
2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 
2Pe 2:21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 
2Pe 2:22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 

In the fullness of time, the Lord came to us and brought us to Himself. The coming of the Lord to us was when we repented and decided to come and work in His vineyard. It is the same as the prodigal son coming to Himself and deciding to go back to his father and work as a servant. 

Luk 15:17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 
Luk 15:18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 
Luk 15:19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 

Mat 21:30  And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. 

The second son represents our brothers and sisters in the churches of this world who need no repentance because they think they are born again. They assume that they have put no foot wrong as they had said yes to the Lord to do His bidding. However, as the parable says, they had not followed through with their yes to work in the Lord’s vineyard. This second son is the same as the elder brother of the prodigal son who thought that he deserved a better treatment from his father.

Luk 15:25  Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. 
Luk 15:26  And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 
Luk 15:27  And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 
Luk 15:28  And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.
Luk 15:29  And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 
Luk 15:30 But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 

Mat 21:31  Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. 
Mat 21:32 For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him. 

As indicated in verse 31, it is the first son, who initially refused to serve in his father’s vineyard, who did the will of his father. By implication, Jesus is showing us that the first son was a publican and a harlot, who has been given the right to enter the kingdom of God.  In the Bible, a publican was a tax collector, a figure despised by their fellow Jews for working for the occupying Roman authorities and for their corrupt practices. As shown in the parable of the prodigal son, it was the son who wasted his father’s resources on lawless living and therefore signifies a publican and a harlot. We, His elect, were first like a publican and a harlot before Christ came to us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness, to make us His beloved sons who are working in His vineyard. 

Eze 16:13  Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. 
Eze 16:14  And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. 
Eze 16:16  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. 
Eze 16:17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them.

We can see from these verses that we were first harlot and publican; A publican in the sense that we took the Lord’s fair jewels of gold and silver and made ourselves images of men, just like the Jewish publicans who used the money (taxes of the Jews) belonging to the Roman emperor for their own corrupt practices.

As shown in verse 32, John came preaching the way of righteousness and the people did not repent. Here John symbolizes the Lord’s elect who come to preach the way of righteousness by faith. However, our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world do not repent. At a certain stage of our walk, we also did not repent when the Lord sent His elect to speak to us. In the Lord’s mercy, we were given a heart to repent and to believe in Him at a later time. The son who said yes to the Lord to work in His vineyard but did not follow up with action represent our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world. In the parable of the prodigal son, this son who did not follow his words with action signifies the elder brother who thought he was doing well and did not need to repent.  

The Parable of the Tenants

Mat 21:33 Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: 

The householder in this case represents God the Father who worked through His son, Jesus Christ to set up the vineyard, which as indicated earlier is the house of Israel. This house of Israel is the church system of this world. The Lord gave the church all the resources to prosper. 

Isa 5:1  Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 
Isa 5:2  And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
Isa 5:3  And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
Isa 5:4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 

Mat 21:34  And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.
Mat 21:35  And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 
Mat 21:36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. 

The husbandmen here are the vinedressers or gardeners or farmers who took care of the vineyard. The Lord’s people are the husbandmen who are required to work in His vineyard or assembly of His people. The Lord’s servants here represent His prophets who, as husbandmen, had their messages rejected and killed. It is important to note that the servants in these verses signify all the Lord’s messengers up until John the Baptist. 

Luk 11:47  Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
Luk 11:48  Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. 
Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: 
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 
Luk 11:51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. 

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

As shown in these verses, as husbandmen, we represent this generation which is guilty of the blood of all the prophets including our Lord Jesus Christ.  

Mat 21:37  But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. 
Mat 21:38  But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. 
Mat 21:39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. 

The son in these verses signifies Christ and His Christ, that is, His elect. As we are aware, it is we, His elect, who are the sons of God and therefore represent Christ. We are therefore heirs with Christ. To persecute the Lord’s elect means to persecute Jesus Christ. 

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

Gal 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

As He is, so are we. Just as Christ’s message was rejected by the church system of His day, our message of the cross is rejected by the churches of this world or Babylon.

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.  

1Co 1:18  For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 
1Co 1:19  For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 
1Co 1:20  Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 
1Co 1:21  For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 
1Co 1:22  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 
1Co 1:23  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 
1Co 1:24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.  

Mat 21:40  When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? 
Mat 21:41 They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. 

Verse 40 asks a question of what the Lord will do with the husbandmen who slew His son, that is, Jesus and His elect. We know from the word of the Lord that the husbandmen, who represent our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world, will be judged for shedding the blood of the Lord’s messengers during the lake of fire age by our Lord Jesus Christ and His elect. 

Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: 
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 

The Lord will miserably destroy those wicked men means that the old man with his fleshly desires will be destroyed through the Lord’s judgment in the lake of fire age. The Lord letting out His vineyard to other husbandmen is another way of letting us know that the mercy we have received from the Lord is at the expense of our brothers and sisters in Babylon. It is we, His elect, who shall render to the Lord the fruits in their season. 

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

It is the tree that is planted by the rivers of water that bears forth fruit in its season. The tree planted by the rivers of water is the Lord’s elect who are given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven. Bringing forth fruit in its season means bearing the fruits of the spirit in this age through the Lord’s judgement of our old man or flesh. 

Psa 1:1  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 
Psa 1:2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Psa 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.  

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 

Mat 21:42  Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 
Mat 21:43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 

The stone in verse 42 refers to Jesus Christ who is rejected by the church system of this world or Babylon. The stone becoming the cornerstone means that Jesus Christ is the foundation that holds together the building of every man. This building is our temple, which is our body. What this means is that without Jesus, we can do nothing. 

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 

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

As He is, so are we. Rejecting our message as His elect is rejecting Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. We all at a certain stage of our lives, had rejected the Lord, the chief cornerstone and therefore were like the builder, who built his house on sand. When the storm came, our building crumbled. Later, the Lord came to us in His mercy to help us build our lives on the rock which is Christ. 

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

It is important to note in verse 42 that our rejection of the Lord is the Lord’s doing. In other words, it is Jesus who caused us to reject Him at a certain stage of our walk. If we are privileged to know this, then our eyes are being opened to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, which is what is marvelous in our eyes. 

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

It is also insightful to observe in verse 43 that the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ by the church system of this world, is our acceptance into the kingdom of God, to bring forth fruit that abides. 

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

Mat 21:44  And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 

Falling on this cornerstone is our attempt to worship Jesus Christ. We get broken in the process. What this means is that certain aspects of sins in our lives are dealt with, but the man of sin or our flesh still reigns in our body. This was what happened to Jacob when he wrestled with the Lord. He left limping. In other words, he could not walk properly. That is to say that our walk with Christ was not fully pleasing to Him. This explains our walk in the churches of this world. However, if Christ comes to us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness, we shall be grounded as powder. That is to say that the man of sin or our old man shall completely be destroyed.  

Gen 32:24  So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until dawn. 
Gen 32:25  When the man saw that he could not win against Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that it was dislocated as they wrestled. 

Gen 32:30  So Jacob named that place Peniel [Face of God], because he said, “I have seen God face to face, but my life was saved.” 
Gen 32:31 The sun rose as he passed Penuel. He was limping because of his hip. (GW)

Mat 21:45  And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. 
Mat 21:46  But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet. 

As indicated earlier, the chief priests and the Pharisees represent our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world or Babylon. What verse 45 is suggesting is that the parable of the two sons and the tenants all focused on our lives as His elect, in Babylon, until the Lord came to us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness. That was when we answered the Lord’s call to work in His vineyard and became welcomed in the kingdom of God at the expense of our brothers and sisters in Babylon. 

Our refusal to hear the voice of Jesus through His messengers at that stage of our walk in Babylon, is the same as trying to kill Jesus and His elect. However, the people fearing to lay hands on Jesus because of the multitude shows us that the Lord knows how to protect His own in this world. We therefore need not fear. This reminds me of this popular hymn: Oh God our help in ages past. The second stanza reminds us of the Lord’s divine protection as follows:

Under the shadow of your throne

Your saints have dwelt secure

Sufficient is your arm alone

And our defense is sure

May His name be praised. Amen!!

Rev 12:10-13 – Part 1 – Now Is Come The Kingdom

[Study Aired Dec 20, 2024]

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
Rev 12:11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Rev 12:12  Therefore rejoice, [ye] heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Rev 12:13  And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man [child].

This carnal physical realm was created to be the enemy of God and God is a worthy opponent of this realm of corruption:

Exo 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

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

Remember as we begin this study, that chapters 12-15 are all interjected, with good reason, between the introduction of the seventh trumpet and the revelation of what that seventh trumpet is. The reason these chapters follow the introduction of the seventh trumpet 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.

…The reason is the seventh trumpet is the pouring out of the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God upon all of our ungodliness and sins, “and no man can enter into the temple of God until the seven plagues of the seven angels is being fulfilled” in that man’s life. Let us never forget that it is the overcomers who will “keep the things written in this book”. Chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15, are one and all concerned with and are an integral part of the seventh trumpet:

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

These are called “the seven last plagues” because they fill up the wrath of God against all unrighteousness and ungodliness within each of us.

It is not given to the multitudes of Christianity to see and understand these mysteries of the kingdom of God. Keeping those mysteries hidden from the multitudes of Christianity is the very function of all of Christ’s parables:

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

How few it is who are given to see and understand that ‘all things come alike to all… all things present and to come are ours, and all of ‘man[kind] shall’… live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’:

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

In these verses concerning the woman and the manchild here in Revelation 12, the Lord is showing us to ourselves as we are when we first begin to realize that Babylon is not the true body of Christ as we were once led to believe it was. It is in these verses that we learn both to hate the doctrines of Babylon as the doctrines of the great harlot, and it is in these verses that we also come to realize that Babylon with all her false doctrines is still an essential and integral part of coming to be a part of the true body of Christ. But just as the law of Moses is so often mistaken for the law of God, so too, those who subscribe to that law of bondage are easily mistaken for the body of Christ. The Truth is that when we were in Babylon we hated the doctrines that Christ taught, doctrines like… “love thine enemies… turn the other cheek… resist not evil”, etc.

Here is a section of scripture which comes as a bombshell for anyone who is not aware that the titles of ‘believer’ and ‘disciple’ are not necessarily referring of a true ‘believer’ nor a true ‘disciple’ any more than the words ‘bread from heaven’ refers to the “true bread from heaven”.

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed [‘We are Christians’], and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.[We reject His Doctrine]

Joh 6:30  They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
Joh 6:31  Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Joh 6:32  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

So chapters 12-15 are interjected between the introduction of the seventh trump and the revelation of the pouring out of the seven vials or bowls of God’s wrath, which are that seventh trumpet, in chapter 16, because we, as carnal babes in Christ, abide in God’s wrath as long as we “believe not” and as long as we act in any manner which demonstrates our lack of faith. These chapters show us what we are as we are shedding these vessels of clay through the process of decreasing our old man as Christ in us increases. This twelfth chapter also concerns the revelation of a great red dragon who is identified as our first spiritual father (Joh 8:44), “that old serpent the devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world”:

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye [Jews who believe on Me but do not do the things I say, Luk 6:46] 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.

This chapter is also concerned with the woman who “brings forth a manchild who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron”. Therefore this chapter will involve both of those parts of our walk. We will see behind us that part of our walk which finds us as this woman, out of whom God’s elect, pictured by this “man child” must come, and then, Lord willing, we will see ourselves as this “man child” who is seated in the heavens in Christ.

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 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.

Is this ‘man child’ speaking of Christ Himself? Inasmuch as it is He who does the overcoming, and the ruling with a rod of iron through us… Yes. This “man child” signifies all of the Lord’s people who all “come out of her”… come out of Babylon.

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

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

Rev 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.

But the emphasis here is on “Our Lord AND His Christ, because we are Christ’s Christ, and the word ‘Christ’ means ‘anointed’:

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

2Co 1:21  Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;

There are two verses which specifically tell us that we ‘uihos’, adult sons, who are presently seated with Christ in the heavens, and we will be “sitting with Christ in His throne”:

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

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

It is very instructive that even though we are told that the dragon seeks to devour the ‘man child… as soon as He is born’(Rev 12:4), the Greek word translated ‘child’ in Rev 12:5, is ‘uihos’, meaning a mature son, as opposed to the Greek word ‘nepios’, which means an infant or a toddler. This “man child” signifies the Lord’s elect who have matured to the point of being prepared to “rule all nations with a rod of iron”.

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child [G5207. ‘uihos’], who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

Here is who this ‘man child’ signifies:

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

We saw last week that the man child who comes out of the woman is “caught up to God and to His throne, while the woman herself, who brings Him forth, flees into the wilderness where she has a place “prepared of God” where she is “fed of God” for 1,260 days, or three and one half years. Those who are not “seated with Christ in the heavens” (Eph 2:6), are of necessity being “fed of God” in a “place prepared for them” with “manna from heaven” which is “not that true bread from heaven”, but is rather bread from God which does not give life, but which does produce “carnal… babes in Christ”:

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?

The Lord loves and provides for both the righteous and the wicked:

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Mat 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Here is why the woman who brought forth the man child is not caught up unto God and to His throne with the manchild who came out of her:

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

This ‘woman’ signifies the unfaithful wife of our Lord and this is what she does within us even as He is in the process of delivering us from our own bondage to sin:

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

The woman being taken to the wilderness signifies us as we rebel against our husband, Christ. Yet that rebellious part of our walk is as much a work of God as our coming out of her and becoming her man child and being caught up to God and to His throne.

“All things are of God”:

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.

2Co 5:18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Four times in the first four verses of 1Co 3, we are taught that there is such a thing as “carnal… babes in Christ” and as always, these are words which we each must be the first to live and keep, before we are capable of becoming mature sons of God, a man child [G5207, ‘uihos’, a mature son]. No one who is “under the law” is a spiritually mature son:

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child [G3516, ‘nepios’, an immature toddler], 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.

There is only one set of “statutes… and judgments” given by God to Israel in the Old Testament, and according to Christ they were not “the true bread from heaven” (Joh 6:32). Peter calls those statutes and judgments “a yoke which neither we nor our parents could bear”.

Act 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

Paul in the very next verse of Galatian 4 is so bold as to call them “bondage under the [weak and beggarly, vrs 9-10] elements of the world”

Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

It is with good reason that the woman is not “caught up to God and to His throne.” There is a very big difference between being in the wilderness, in “a place prepared of God”, and being seated with Christ in the heavens. The story of Israel coming up out of Egypt is a forerunner of us coming up out of Babylon, thinking that being Abraham’s spiritual seed makes us immediate spiritual adults, while in reality we are still spiritually “children… in bondage under the elements of the world”. Here is what we all first do according to Hosea, and here is what we must do according to the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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

Rev 12:5  And she [the carnal “church in the wilderness”, Act 7:38] 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.

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.

None of this will ever make any sense to us until we learn that it “is all ours, things present and things to come… every word… of the things written therein”. It is our own “old man” who is consumed by God’s wrath, and it is our infidelity and forsaking of our God as our rightful husband, which made us the harlot we once were, while we were still “in the wilderness”. It is while we are “in the wilderness” that we are still struggling against all the false doctrines instilled in us while we were in Egypt, the forerunner of Babylon. While this wilderness experience is where we learn how to approach God and how to worship Him, it is also where we rebel against Him ten times, and it is “in the wilderness” that we “abide in His wrath”and we begin to experience the pouring out of His wrath upon our sins and our “ten rebellions”.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
Num 14:23  Surely they [our own ‘old man’] shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

Exo 32:10  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

2Ki 22:17  Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.

We are in no condition to be fighting a “war in the heavens” while we are yet in the wilderness. This is all given us, in type, in the account of Israel’s rebellions against God even as He was calling them out of Egypt.

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

The only child who has never rebelled against His Father is Christ:

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The adversary makes certain that the Lord is aware of this fact:

Rev 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

In this verse we have gone past God’s wrath and we no longer abide in it (Joh 3:36). This is one of three verses in the New Testament where we see this phrase “the Lord and His Christ”.

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

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 12:10  And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

“The casting down of the accuser of our brothers which accused them day and night” signifies that we have at long last been given the dominion over sin in our lives.

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

Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

But as the story of King David demonstrates, the ‘sword’ of the Lord’s chastening grace will always be in our house. After being given the throne of Israel, King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and murdered her husband to cover up his adultery and the Lord chastened and scourged him all “for our admonition” (1Co 10:11). That all happened to King David “and it is written for our admonition”, to show us that His chastening hand will minister to us, even as those who are seated with Christ on His throne in heaven (Eph 2:6). When we need God’s chastening, it will always be there, and the pain of that chastening will always bless us. It is because He loves us that the sword of His word will never depart from us even after we are no longer “abiding in His wrath”.

2Sa 12:10  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

Psa 118:23  This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

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.

Until we can see ourselves as “chief of sinners”, no better than a Pharisee who looks down on the publican, we will never understand what the Lord meant by telling us that “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4 and Luk 4:4). The few chosen will be those who acknowledge that even after being placed on the throne of Israel, they can and will commit sins which will demonstrate that “all things are theirs, things present and things to come, all are theirs” (1Co 3:21).

But in this verse of Rev 12 we have gone beyond abiding in God’s wrath, and have been given salvation, strength and a kingdom. The “inheritance… of the purchased possession” is yet to come, but we are already an older son, and we have been granted strength and have been given dominion over sin in our lives.

1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

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

Rom 6:18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

What does “free from sin” mean? Does it mean we are no longer in corruptible flesh? Absolutely not, and yet we can truly claim that “sin no longer has dominion” over us because:

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

That is what “ceased from sin” means, and the Lord knows those who have “suffered in the flesh… for His name’s sake”. That is those who are always being “accused by the accuser of our brothers”, the great red dragon. It is out of their heavens that the great dragon has been expelled, and they are now free to serve their God and to suffer with their Lord as He carries on “His wonderful works to the children of men”.

Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Rev 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

The “they” of this verse is the Lord’s Christ, and the “him” of this verse is the great red dragon, that old serpent called the devil and Satan.

This has nothing at all to do with physical warfare, and all who take up a physical sword have at that moment lost any hope of overcoming their enemy. The weapons of the Lord’s Christ are not carnal, but are powerful to the “pulling down of strong holds” which no physical sword can reach.

2Co 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
2Co 10:6  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

“The power of the Christ of our God” by which they overcome the great red dragon and cast him out of heaven is “by the word of their testimony”, and by the fact that they value spiritual life over this physical life. “They loved not their lives unto death” tells us that Christ’s Christ is willing to die with Him instead of spitting on His doctrine while claiming to be fighting for Him.

Mat 26:51 And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear.
Mat 26:52  Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

“All they that take the [physical] sword shall perish with the sword”, which proceeds from the mouth of the Lamb.

Rev 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

Rev 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

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

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

This is the sword that will outlive and destroy every other sword which comes against it. This is the weapon of choice of our Lord with which He wages war.

Exo 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.

We will pause here and continue our study of the spiritual significance of this woman and her man child son in our next study.

[Study Aired February 20, 2022

Jer 31:21  Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
Jer 31:22  How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.
Jer 31:23  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.
Jer 31:24  And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.
Jer 31:25  For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.
Jer 31:26  Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
Jer 31:27  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
Jer 31:28  And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.
Jer 31:29  In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
Jer 31:30  But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
Jer 31:31  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:32  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Jer 31:35  Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
Jer 31:36  If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
Jer 31:37  Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
Jer 31:38  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.
Jer 31:39  And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath.
Jer 31:40  And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.

In line with the principle of ‘the dream is one’ let’s take note that in the last verse of our previous study, the Lord addresses His people with the name ‘Ephraim’:

Jer 31:20  Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.

Gen 41:25  And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.
Gen 41:26  The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.

The Lord’s ‘bowels are troubled’ for His people. The fact His people apostatized in stages, the northern kingdom first and the southern kingdom later, signifies the stages of our own apostasy. It does not make us two different ‘people of God’. The fact that the Lord goes on in this same chapter to refer to His people as ‘Israel’ and as ‘Judah and Jerusalem’ demonstrates He has but one “special people”:

Deu 7:6  For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

The Lord is married to us, and He calls us by the name of “the virgin daughter of Israel”:

Jer 31:21  Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

“Waymarks” show us “the way [we] went” into Babylon. When we see the lies and false doctrines and the self-righteous iniquity which took us there, then by recognizing those same waymarks and repenting, we will also see clearly how to return to the Lord… to our own cities which He gave us when we first came to know Him.

Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

Addressing Israel as His wife demonstrates that this prophecy is directed primarily to His elect who are granted repentance in this present time despite our “backsliding ways”:

Jer 31:22  How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.

The question the Lord is asking us is, “How long will” we go from one false doctrine to the next false doctrine as we continue in our backslidden ways? How long will we cling to our own self-righteous iniquity and our own false doctrine of our fabled ‘free will’? How many different churches must we attend before we realize the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water have been “taken away” from all the churches of Babylon.

This “woman” is His “backsliding daughter” to whom He is married. The “Man” in this verse refers to Christ and His Christ who “come out of” this woman to rule this world with a rod of iron.

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

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.

We are not “ruling the nations” within or outwardly as long as we are being ruled over by this great self-righteous harlot, Babylon.

Jer 31:23  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.

“Their captivity” is our time we all spend in Babylon, who is our harlot mother by the Lord’s preordained spiritual design. We cannot change ourselves from what the Lord has made us to be:

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

Jer 13:22  And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare.
Jer 13:23  Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

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 [within me. (Rev 1:3)]:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Rev 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.

Just as the Lord was married to His “backsliding daughter”, He caused Hosea to marry a harlot and bear children by that harlot to demonstrate that His own children were the children of a harlot:

Hos 1:2  The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
Hos 1:3  So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.

Then the Lord drags a few of His backslidden children out of Babylon and back to Himself:

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

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.

The billions of people who are living under the yoke of Babylon can hardly be counted as ‘few’. It is with the few chosen to whom the Lord is married, and through those few chosen, He will ultimately bring forth ‘many… children’, meaning all of mankind as we will see shortly in John 6.

Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

This prophecy of Jerusalem above having “more children than she which hath an husband” is telling us that the Lord’s work through His “bride”, His elect, will in time bring all men to Himself. The Great Whore, “Babylon the Great”, in “this present time” has the whole world in her family while she is committing fornication with the great red dragon. However, Babylon will be destroyed, and the great red dragon will be imprisoned for a thousand years before being purified in the lake of fire (Revelation 17 and 20).

Jer 31:24  And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.
Jer 31:25  For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.
Jer 31:26  Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.

“Upon this” means upon realizing that the Lord’s sovereign will is certain and will not be denied:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

When the Lord wakes us up, it is and will be “sweet” indeed. It is only when we are awakened that we see the glorious future which is before us, and we are made aware that “He performs the thing that is appointed for [us].”

The horse and His rider are one in battle and in scripture:

Jer 51:21  And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;

Zec 12:4  In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.

When the Lord smites the horse, he smites his rider, and when He blinds the horse, He strikes His people with blindness. The Lord is not in the business of smiting or blinding dumb animals. He is in the business of blinding mankind from understanding the mysteries of the kingdom of God which is within us at this very moment in down payment form:

Isa 44:18  They have not known nor understood: for he [the Lord] hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.

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.

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear) unto this day.

Only those in whom the King of His kingdom lives are given to see His kingdom within us:

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation [“until the redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph 1:1: 14)]
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest [G728: ‘arrhabon’ – security, pledge, down payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Being the “first to trust in Christ” was predestined for a “few chosen”:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

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

That is the message of our next few verses:

Jer 31:27  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.

These words are addressed to “the house of Israel and the house of Judah”. The fact that ‘Israel’ apostatized before ‘Judah’ does not divide the Lord’s people into two separate camps of saints. Here is a verse referring to this same situation:

Jer 3:18  In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.
Jer 3:19  But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.
Jer 3:20  Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:21  A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.
Jer 3:22  Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.
Jer 3:23  Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

“Those days” (vs 18) refers to “this present time” when the Lord is dragging “[His] people out of [Babylon]”:

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

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.

Everything is being done right on schedule. When “the iniquities of the Amorites [are] full” in our own life, the Lord Himself drags us out of Babylon:

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

Jer 31:28  And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.
Jer 31:29  In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
Jer 31:30  But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

“Every one shall die for his own iniquity” is a time of great change, a “time of reformation”, because this is the law of Moses at the time these words were penned:

Exo 20:5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

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

Num 14:18  The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

Deu 5:9  Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,

Nevertheless a “time of reformation” was on the way when Jeremiah made that statement:

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

Jer 31:31  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

This is a prophecy of a time of great change. It is foretelling “the time of reformation” brought in by our Lord. Moses had already made this same prophecy:

Deu 18:15  The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Deu 18:16  According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
Deu 18:17  And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
Deu 18:18  I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
Deu 18:19  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

Christ made it clear that “[His] words”, not the words He gave to Moses, would indeed judge those who refused to listen to them:

Joh 12:48  He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

If this “new covenant” were the same as the covenant the Lord made with Israel to obey the law of Moses, then there would be no need to tell us, “Whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.” However, this New Covenant does not accord with the law of Moses and the law of the old covenant:

Jer 31:32  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

The book of Hebrews agrees with this prophecy:

Heb 7:12  For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

Obedience to the law of Moses is called “[our] own righteousness”:

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

The book of Hebrews calls the law of the old covenant “a carnal commandment”:

Heb 7:14  For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
Heb 7:15  And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,
Heb 7:16  Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

You and I do not have “the power of an endless life” within us of ourselves. The only way we can have “the power of an endless life” is if the Lord Himself takes up residence within us and becomes the ruler of the throne of our hearts and minds. That is exactly what we are told He does:

Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

It is the Lord’s law ‘written in our hearts’ that demonstrates whether the King of “the kingdom of God is within [us].” (Luk 17:20-21)

Jer 31:34  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

We have been taught in Babylon that our evangelistic efforts will determine how many are saved in this age, yet here we have a prophecy of this present time telling us there is a present application to “they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD.”  The Lord Himself is referring to this very prophecy here in Jeremiah 31 and to these verses in Isaiah:

Isa 54:13  And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
Isa 54:14  In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
Isa 54:15  Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.
Isa 54:16  Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
Isa 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

“Every man… that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father comes to me” because the Father now speaks through Christ and His Christ, as the Ethiopian eunuch demonstrated with these words:

Act 8:30  And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
Act 8:31  And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

The holy spirit had already prepared this eunuch’s heart and had him reading the very words in Isaiah which refer specifically to Christ and His crucifixion. Then the holy spirit sent Philip to witness to the Truth of what he was reading about Christ in the book of Isaiah:

Act 8:29  Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
Act 8:30  And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?

Christ has made it clear here in this prophecy of Jeremiah that “…they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.” This prophecy does not refer exclusively to the thousand-year kingdom neither exclusively to the lake of fire. Rather, according to Christ Himself, it also has a present application. This is the doctrine of Christ concerning the meaning of this prophecy found in Isaiah and Jeremiah:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: ‘helkuo’, drag]: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Joh 6:45  It is written in the prophets, [Isa 54:13, Jer 31:34] And they shall be all [G3956: ‘pas’, everyone] taught of God. Every man [G3956: ‘pas’, everyone] therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

Christ is telling us that we are now His spokesmen. We are to speak for Him as He spoke for His Father:

Joh 12:49  For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

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

John 20:21 is a repetition of what Christ said earlier when He told us that He is sending us to speak for Him:

Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
Joh 17:19  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

The Father sent Christ to speak for Him. These are His words concerning how He performs the thing He chooses.

Jer 31:35  Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
Jer 31:36  If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
Jer 31:37  Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

If we are in Christ, then we are “the Israel of God”:

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

If we are “the Israel of God”, then all these promises apply to us:

2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Co 6:18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

There are no chapter breaks in the Greek, and these are the very next words in the Greek manuscripts:

2Co 7:1  Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved [Gentile Corinthians], let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Oh yes, “it is Christ working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Php 2:12-13), but if indeed He is living His life in us, He will strengthen us to “work out our own salvation”, and He will strengthen us to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit… in the fear of God”.

Jer 31:38  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD [“and now is… within (Luk 17:20-21, Joh 5:25)], that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.
Jer 31:39  And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath.
Jer 31:40  And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.

Instead of “dead bodies and ashes” the whole city “shall be holy unto the Lord, and it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down [and filled with dead bodies and ashes] any more for ever”. The Lord alone is capable of ‘turning the curse into a blessing’.:

Deu 23:5  Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee.

Jer 31:13  Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

Christ alone can “turn the curse into a blessing [and] turn [our] mourning into joy”. That is exactly what He is in the process of doing, and the glory and joy of that change will be more than worth the suffering of this present time:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

“Delivered from the bondage of corruption” is the same as being “made… again a new vessel” (Jer 18:4) sown in corruption; raised in incorruption (1Co 15:42), “changed… in a moment in the twinkling of an eye”:

1Co 15:42  So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
1Co 15:43  It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
1Co 15:51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
1Co 15:55  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
1Co 15:56  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
1Co 15:57  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

These promises are all peculiar only to the “new covenant with the house of Israel”. None of these blessings are found or offered anywhere in the old covenant, which concerned itself only with physical blessings for “[our] own righteousness, which was of the law”:

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

That is our study for today. Here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 32:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.
Jer 32:2  For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house.
Jer 32:3  For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;
Jer 32:4  And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes;
Jer 32:5  And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the LORD: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper.
Jer 32:6  And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 32:7  Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.
Jer 32:8  So Hanameel mine uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Jer 32:9  And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
Jer 32:10  And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.
Jer 32:11  So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open:
Jer 32:12  And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
Jer 32:13  And I charged Baruch before them, saying,
Jer 32:14  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
Jer 32:15  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
Jer 32:16  Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the LORD, saying,
Jer 32:17  Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
Jer 32:18  Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name,
Jer 32:19  Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
Jer 32:20  Which hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and hast made thee a name, as at this day;
Jer 32:21  And hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror;
Jer 32:22  And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

Dan 2:24-49  That Thou Might Know the Thoughts of thy Heart

[Study Aired November 15, 2021]

Dan 2:24  Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation. 
Dan 2:25  Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation. 
Dan 2:26  The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? 
Dan 2:27  Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; 
Dan 2:28  But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; 
Dan 2:29  As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. 
Dan 2:30  But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. 
Dan 2:31  Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 
Dan 2:32  This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 
Dan 2:33  His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Dan 2:34  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Dan 2:36  This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
Dan 2:37  Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
Dan 2:38  And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
Dan 2:39  And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
Dan 2:40  And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
Dan 2:41  And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
Dan 2:42  And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
Dan 2:43  And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
Dan 2:44  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Dan 2:45  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
Dan 2:46  Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.
Dan 2:47  The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.
Dan 2:48  Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.
Dan 2:49  Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.

The first part of Daniel Chapter 2 emphasizes the point that it is those who deny themselves the king’s meat and wine and focus on drinking the water of the word who are given the ability to understand deep and hidden things of God. In other words, they are given to know the mind of Christ which is symbolized by Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The religions of this world, including Christianity symbolized in Chapter 2 by astrologers, magicians, sorcerers and Chaldeans, are not given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

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.

Our review last week ended with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream being unveiled to Daniel as he sought the Lord in prayer together with the other three Hebrew men. This resulted in praise and worship of the Lord by the young Hebrew men. As we are given to know the mind of Christ through the word of God, we cannot help but to praise and worship our Lord for this privilege and honor.

Dan 2:19 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
Dan 2:20  Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:
Dan 2:21  And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
Dan 2:22  He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
Dan 2:23  I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king’s matter.

Today’s study focuses on the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ through the dream of Nebuchadnezzar and the reward that is set before us as we continue to be transformed by the renewing of our minds in Christ Jesus.

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

Dan 2:24  Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will shew unto the king the interpretation.

Arioch means servant of the moon god. In this life, we are either serving the devil or Christ. Being a servant of the moon god means Arioch represents all who are not given to know Christ in this life but are ruled by the beast or serve the devil. According to verse 24, Arioch is the one ordained by the king to destroy the wise men of Babylon. This means that Babylon shall be destroyed by those ruled by the beast, who are represented by the ten horns, as they shall hate the whore or Babylon and shall destroy it as the Lord has put it in their hearts to do so.

Rev 17:12  And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Rev 17:13  These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

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

Dan 2:25  Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.

As indicated, Arioch represents those ruled by the beast, that is, the world. Inwardly, Arioch represents the old man, and Daniel represents the new man. As we continue in the Lord, it will become obvious to the old man that the new man is the one who knows the mind of Christ and therefore has come to replace him. This is exemplified by Arioch telling the king that he has found a man (Daniel) to interpret his dream. It is also demonstrated by Saul admitting to David that David is meant to replace him as king.

1Sa 24:16  And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.
1Sa 24:17  And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
1Sa 24:18  And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.
1Sa 24:19  For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the LORD reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day.
1Sa 24:20  And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand.

Outwardly, what this verse means is that a time is coming when people of the world, signified by Arioch, will clamor for God’s elect to come and solve their problems. In other words, they will require the Lord’s elect to come and rule over them.

Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

The fact that Arioch brought Daniel before the king in haste means that our rulership shall be accomplished within the twinkle of an eye.

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

Dan 2:26  The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?

As shown in the Daniel Chapter 1 review, the name Daniel being changed to Belteshazzar is to let us know that it is to through judgment we grow or mature in the knowledge of the glory of God. Being able to know the dream and its interpretation is being able to know the mind of Christ and His ways.

Dan 2:27  Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;

The wise men here represent the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans which symbolize Babylon, which stands for the religions of this world including Christianity. Since those in Babylon are given over to lies, it is impossible for them to know the mind of Christ, much less His ways.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Dan 2:28  But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;
Dan 2:29  As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. 
Dan 2:30  But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. 

For the sake of the Lord’s elect, nothing that is hidden shall remain a secret. Our Lord is willing to grant us access to the mysteries of the kingdom. As the word of God says, it is our Lord’s glory to conceal a matter and it is His joy when we come searching out the matter!!

Luk 8:17  For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.

Jer 33:3  Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

Pro 25:2  It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

In verse 29, we are told that the revelation of the secret things of God will surely come to pass in our lives first. Later, all humanity will experience the revelation of the secret things of God.

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

As Daniel stated, the secret things of God are revealed to us, not because we are wiser than those living, but because we were chosen before the foundations of the world. This revelation that we are receiving of the Lord is for the sake of all humanity including us who are experiencing it first.

Joh 12:30  Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.

In verse 30, we are given to know that Nebuchadnezzar is being shown the dream and its interpretation for the purpose of knowing the thoughts of his heart. Here Nebuchadnezzar represents us who are being shown the truth of the word of God about us, so we will come to know who we are. This is who we are:

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

Dan 2:31  Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
Dan 2:32  This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 
Dan 2:33  His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. 
Dan 2:34  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

The inward interpretation of this dream by Nebuchadnezzar is as follows:

The image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream symbolizes who we are in Adam. In other words, our old man.  As indicated in verse 30, the essence of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is that he might know the thoughts of his heart. That is to say that we may come to know what is in us, which is our old man or the beast. The stone cut out without hands represents Christ or the word of God which comes to smite the image or the old man. This stone can also be regarded as the new man after the image of Christ which grows to fill our whole being as the old man becomes chaff or destroyed and carried away by the wind of God’s words.

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

Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

The outward application of this image is given to us as follows:

Dan 2:36  This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
Dan 2:37  Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
Dan 2:38  And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.

We must remember that Nebuchadnezzar does not represent an elect and so he could not understand what the spirit was saying about the dream he had. He was therefore given only the outward or the physical interpretation. However, within this physical interpretation, there is the spiritual implication. Once we are ruled by our carnal minds, we cannot understand spiritual things.

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

The head in the dream represents the Babylonian kingdom headed by Nebuchadnezzar. In 625 B.C, his father founded the New Babylonian Empire which became one of the first of the world empires. Babylonian conquest knew no bounds. In 605 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar added the Egyptians to his conquest.

Jer 46:2  Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.

The fact that Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom is described as gold is significant. In our time in Babylon, signified by gold here in the dream, we turn the precious word of the Lord into images of men or idols of the heart which is the same as false doctrines. Thus, we turn the words of the Lord into a stumbling block of iniquity during our time in Babylon powered by the old man (the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream) who is also empowered by the devil.

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

These false doctrines lead us to covetousness as demonstrated by Achan coveting the gold of the spoil.

Jos 7:21  When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

Dan 2:39  And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

The kingdom that came after the kingdom of Babylon was the Persian empire led by Cyrus the great. King Cyrus was the divine instrument for the release of the Jews from the Babylonian exile (Isaiah 44:28 and Isaiah 45:1-14). A few years after the fall of Babylon, Cyrus issued a proclamation which permitted the Jews to return to their own land. He restored the sacred vessels of the temple which had been carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezra 1:1-11).

The Persian kingdom is described as silver.  The Hebrew word for silver, by implication, is money. In addition, the Hebrew root for the Hebrew word for silver (H3700) means desire, be greedy, long or sore. These are negative applications of the word silver. So, as we can see, silver is synonymous with greed. Our time in Babylon was characterized by our greed or desire for the riches of this world or mammon.

Isa 56:11  Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

1Ti 3:3  Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

1Ti 3:8  Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;

After the Persian empire came the Greek empire led by Alexander the great. He was an ancient Macedonian ruler and one of history’s greatest military minds who, as King of Macedonia and Persia, established the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen. His kingdom was divided among his four generals.

This third kingdom was described as brass, which is synonymous with copper in the King James version of the Bible. Copper refers to our state as carnal babes in Christ. In our carnal state in Babylon, Christ’s words have no place in our hearts because we cannot hear them. We end up even trying to kill Christ in our brothers who tell us the truth about the word of God.

Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Dan 2:40  And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. 

The fourth kingdom to succeed the Greek Empire was the Roman Empire, which is symbolized by iron. On a negative note, iron refers to us being instruments of death while in Babylon.

Num 35:16  And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

We therefore become murderers as shown in the scriptures:

Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: 
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. 

Dan 2:41  And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 
Dan 2:42  And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. 
Dan 2:43  And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

In verse 40, we are told that iron breaks in pieces and subdues everything. That is a positive application of iron, which represents the word of God. The clay symbolizes false doctrines or lies of mankind. Mixing iron with clay means mixing the truth of the word of God with lies by the religions of this world to oppress all mankind. However, since naturally, it is impossible to mix iron with clay, what this means is that such oppression will not last as the truth will always prevail. This is spiritually what it means by the statement, “They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men.”

Outwardly and physically, the mixing of iron and clay means the following:

During Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of nations, their practice was to transport the citizens of a conquered nation into Babylon and simultaneously send different nations’ citizens to occupy the conquered cities. The rationale behind this practice was to destroy any sense of patriotism in those who have been conquered. Other empires which came after Babylon also perpetuated this practice. That is what it means by the statement “They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men” in verse 43. (Refer to Mike Vinson’s response: “What does the mingling with the seed of men in Daniel mean?”) As we can see in verse 43, this practice had not worked and will continue not to work.

2Ki 17:23  Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
2Ki 17:24  And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

Dan 2:44  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 
Dan 2:45  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. 

As indicated in verse 44, all these human kingdoms shall not stand the test of time. They will all be destroyed and replaced by the kingdom of heaven when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

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. 

Inwardly, the old man’s kingdom in us shall be destroyed by the stone cut out of the mountain without hands. This stone here represents Christ and His words which will destroy the old man. This is taking place in our lives as the Lord comes into our lives with the brightness of His coming.

2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

The iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold represent all the false doctrines of man’s wisdom that we have learned in Babylon. All these will be removed from our heavens by the brightness of our Lord’s coming to us.

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the dream was certain and the interpretation sure. This is to assure us that whatever our situation is currently, in the final analysis, the old man shall be destroyed. The old man does not pose any challenge to our Lord. He will surely come through for us at the set time. What He starts, He is able to finish!! He will not leave us alone as half-baked believers. Our Lord has the mandate to present us blameless before our God and the zeal for our houses to be cleansed has consumed Him!!

Psa 69:9  For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

Dan 2:46  Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. 

What this means is that in the fulness of time, our brothers and sisters in Babylon will come and worship us.

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.

In another perspective, Nebuchadnezzar here represents us who become enchanted as our brethren expound the secret things of the kingdom of God. We naturally fall to worship those who minister to us just as Nebuchadnezzar fell down to worship Daniel. This scenario is similar to what happened to Apostle John when he was thrilled by the angel who revealed Christ to him. He also wanted to worship the angel, but the angel prevented him because he was just like us, a messenger of the gospel.

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

David showed us the way to give God all the glory and honor when his soldiers risked their lives to get water for him in the enemy’s camp. He poured the water away as an offering to the Lord because he felt that he did not deserve such an act. He recognized that it is only the Lord to whom we have to bow or die or risk our lives.

2Sa 23:14  And David was then in an hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 
2Sa 23:15  And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate! 
2Sa 23:16  And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD. 
2Sa 23:17  And he said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.

Dan 2:47  The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. 

Are we not blessed to be those whom the Lord is revealing all the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to us? Surely, we are blessed beyond measure!!

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 13:16  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.

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

Dan 2:48  Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. 
Dan 2:49  Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. 

The king giving many great gifts to Daniel is to let us know the spiritual blessings that our Lord has bestowed on us so that we can finish the race marked out for us and win the prize.

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 

Eph 4:8  Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

Eph 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Eph 4:12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Eph 4:14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 
Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

This gift refers to all things that pertain to life and godliness. We do not bring anything of ours to the table of our salvation. All is of God!!

2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 
2Pe 1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Becoming partakers of His divine nature through escaping from the corruption that is in the world through lust is what these great gifts from the Lord are achieving in us. That is what will guarantee us the prize, which is also the joy that is set before us. This joy entails reigning with Christ when the kingdoms of this world becomes the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.  In verse 48 and 49, Daniel and the three Hebrew men were made rulers to assure us that we shall also possess the crown of rulership in the fulness of time.

1Co 10:11  Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

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

Isa 3:23-26 Burning Instead of Beauty

Isa 3:23  The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.
Isa 3:24  And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.
Isa 3:25  Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
Isa 3:26  And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground

God has seen fit to let us in on all the wonderful works He is doing to the children of men, and we want to be careful to “sacrifice [to Him] the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.”

Psa 107:21  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22  And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

It is God’s “wonderful works [which bring us] to [our] wits’ end” and bring us to repentance before God sees fit to bring us “to our desired haven”.

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

Here is how God shows us “the richness of His goodness”:

Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

The next wonderful work He is doing to us is that He is taking away from the kingdom of the beast within us:

Isa 3:23  The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.

We will begin by looking at:

The glasses

The Hebrew word translated ‘the glasses’ is:

H1549
גִּלְיוֹן    גִּלָּיוֹן
gillâyôn    gilyôn
ghil-law-yone’, ghil-yone’
From H1540; a tablet for writing (as bare); by analogy a mirror (as a plate): – glass, roll.
Total KJV occurrences: 2

This word appears only twice, but has a root word which will help us to understand more fully what is being told us by the holy spirit. But first let’s read the only other place in the Old Testament where this word ‘gillayon‘ appears:

H1549
גּליון  /  גּלּיון
gillâyôn/gilyôn
Total KJV Occurrences: 2
glasses, 1
Isa_3:23
roll, 1
Isa_8:1

It is translated as ‘roll’ in Isaiah chapter 8:1 which also mentions ‘the pen of a man’.

Isa 8:1  Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll [H1549: gillayon], and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz.

So this thing which must be taken from us, this ‘gillayon’, is a ‘roll’ that is written upon by a man’s pen. In other words, it is a scroll which has something written on it. The reason why it must be taken from us it that we actually think we are capable of writing our own book, our own script, and that we are completely capable of determining our own fate.

This is what we all think of our own capabilities:

Isa 14:13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Many of us will no doubt say ‘I have never had any such thoughts’, but from God’s perspective we all are guilty of worshipping the dragon and the beast which we are every time we succumb to the pulls of our flesh and commit a sin against Him.

From God’s perspective this is what we all just naturally do:

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

Just believing in the false doctrine of man having ‘free will’ is itself blasphemous against God who is at this very moment ruling in the kingdoms of men (Dan 4:17), whether we realize it or not. God doesn’t need us to believe in Him for Him to have His great power. It is only through Him empowering us to do so that we are given the ability to act the fool and say ‘There is no God’. In doing so we corrupt ourselves attempting to make ourselves our own ‘god’:

Psa 14:1  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

The word ‘glasses’ does not convey the definition of “a tablet for writing”. It is obvious that ‘a tablet for writing’ would be better translated as a “roll” for “writ[ing] with a man’s pen”, as it is better translated in Isaiah 8:1.

The root of this Hebrew word ‘gillayon‘ is:

H1540
גָּלָה
gâlâh
gaw-law’
A primitive root; to denude (especially in a disgraceful sense); by implication to exile (captives being usually stripped); figuratively to reveal: –  + advertise, appear, bewray, bring, (carry, lead, go) captive (into captivity), depart, disclose, discover, exile, be gone, open, X plainly, publish, remove, reveal, X shamelessly, shew, X surely, tell, uncover.
Total KJV occurrences: 18

This word appears 188 times. Here is the King James Concordance breakdown of the various KJV translations of this word:

H1540
גּלה
gâlâh
Total KJV Occurrences: 188
carried, 34
2Ki_15:29, 2Ki_16:9, 2Ki_17:6, 2Ki_17:11, 2Ki_17:23, 2Ki_17:28, 2Ki_17:33, 2Ki_24:14-15 (2), 2Ki_25:21, 1Ch_5:6, 1Ch_5:26, 1Ch_6:15, 1Ch_9:1, Ezr_2:1 (2), Est_2:6 (4), Jer_13:19 (2), Jer_29:1 (2), Jer_29:4, Jer_29:7, Jer_29:14, Jer_39:9, Jer_40:1, Jer_40:7, Jer_52:15, Jer_52:27-28 (2), Amo_1:6
captive, 24
2Ki_15:29, 2Ki_16:9, 1Ch_5:6, Jer_1:3, Jer_13:19 (2), Jer_20:4, Jer_22:12, Jer_24:1, Jer_27:20, Jer_29:14, Jer_39:9, Jer_40:1, Jer_40:7, Jer_52:15, Jer_52:27-30 (4), Amo_6:6-7 (3), Amo_7:11, Nah_2:7
uncover, 22
Lev_18:6-19 (17), Lev_20:18-19 (2), Rth_3:4, Isa_47:2 (2)
discovered, 18
Exo_20:26, 1Sa_14:11, 2Sa_22:16, Psa_18:15, Isa_57:8 (2), Jer_13:22, Eze_13:14 (2), Eze_16:36, Eze_16:57, Eze_21:24, Eze_23:10 (2), Eze_23:18 (2), Eze_23:29, Hos_7:1
away, 17
2Ki_17:6, 2Ki_17:11, 2Ki_17:23, 2Ki_17:28, 2Ki_17:33, 2Ki_18:11, 2Ki_24:14-15 (2), 2Ki_25:11, 2Ki_25:21, 1Ch_5:6, 1Ch_5:26, 1Ch_6:15, 1Ch_9:1, 2Ch_36:20, Ezr_2:1, Nah_2:7
revealed, 11
Deu_29:29, 1Sa_3:7, 1Sa_3:21, 2Sa_7:27, Isa_22:14, Isa_23:1, Isa_40:5, Isa_56:1 (2), Jer_11:20, Dan_10:1
discover, 10
Deu_22:30, 1Sa_14:8, Job_41:13, Pro_18:2, Pro_25:9, Lam_4:22, Eze_16:37, Hos_2:10, Mic_1:6, Nah_3:5
uncovered, 10
Gen_9:21, Lev_20:11, Lev_20:17-18 (2), Lev_20:20-21 (2), Rth_3:7, 2Sa_6:20, Isa_47:3, Jer_49:10
captivity, 9
Isa_5:13, Lam_1:3, Eze_39:22-23 (2), Amo_5:5 (2), Amo_5:27, Amo_7:17, Mic_1:16
open, 6
Num_24:4, Num_24:16, Psa_119:18, Pro_27:5, Jer_32:11, Jer_32:14
carry, 5
2Ki_25:11 (2), Jer_20:4, Jer_43:3, Lam_4:22
show, 5
1Sa_20:2, 1Sa_20:12-13 (2), 1Sa_22:17, Isa_49:9
captives, 3
2Ki_24:14, Jer_29:7, Jer_43:3
departed, 3
1Sa_4:21-22 (2), Hos_10:5
opened, 3
Num_22:31, Job_38:17, Jer_20:12
openeth, 3
Job_33:16, Job_36:10, Job_36:15
removed, 3
2Ki_17:26, 1Ch_8:6-7 (2)
revealeth, 3
Pro_11:13, Pro_20:19, Amo_3:7
published, 2
Est_3:14, Est_8:13
remove, 2
Eze_12:3 (2)
reveal, 2
Job_20:27, Jer_33:6
showed, 2
Psa_98:2, Pro_26:26
showeth, 2
1Sa_22:8 (2)
told, 2
1Sa_9:15, 1Ch_17:25
uncovereth, 2
Deu_27:20, 2Sa_6:20
advertise, 1
Rth_4:4
appear, 1
1Sa_2:27
appeared, 1
Gen_35:7
appeareth, 1
Pro_27:25
bewray, 1
Isa_16:3
brought, 1
2Ki_17:27
carrying, 1
Jer_1:3
depart, 1
Job_20:28
disclose, 1
Isa_26:21
discovereth, 1
Job_12:21-22 (2)
exile, 1
2Sa_15:19
gone, 1
Isa_24:11
plainly, 1
1Sa_2:27
shamelessly, 1
2Sa_6:20

When we examine all of these entries we see that ‘galah‘, the root for the word ‘gillayon‘, conveys the thought of carrying away for a good reason like becoming a priest, or being carried away as a captive in shame. It is also translated as an uncovering or revealing. This too, can be a revealing of or uncovering of the Truth, or it can be uncovering one’s nakedness.

2Ki 15:29  In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive [H1540, galah] to Assyria.

As that which must be taken from us this word ‘gillayon‘ takes away from us the ability to persecute the Lord’s people, as King Saul persecuted David, and as Saul of Tarsus persecuted the Lord and His Christ. Those who persecute us truly believe they are exposing us in a way that will shame us before this world. In doing so they are, in reality, taking pride in their own shame.

Est 7:10  So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.

The next thing Christ wants us to know that He is taking away from us is:

The fine linen

Once again the Hebrew word for “fine linen” really does not mean ‘fine linen’ at all.

Here is this Hebrew word:

H5466
סָדִין
sâdı̂yn
saw-deen’
From an unused root meaning to envelop; a wrapper, that is, shirt: – fine linen, sheet.
Total KJV occurrences: 4

Here are the four entries for this Hebrew word ‘sadiyn‘.

H5466
סדין
sâdı̂yn
Total KJV Occurrences: 4
linen, 2
Pro_31:24, Isa_3:23
sheets, 2
Jdg_14:12-13 (2)

Twice ‘sadiyn‘ is translated as ‘linen’, one of those two being here in Isa 3:23, and the other being:

Pro 31:24  She maketh fine linen [H5466: sadiyn], and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.

The other two times this word appears it simply cannot be translated as ‘linen’:

Jdg 14:12  And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets [H5466: sadiyn] and thirty change of garments:
Jdg 14:13  But if ye cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty sheets [H5466: sadiyn] and thirty changes of garments. And they said unto him, Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it.

It is obvious the Lord is not telling us that He is taking ‘linen’ from us, because this is not the Hebrew word used and translated as ‘linen’ when describing the priests’ clothing. This is an entirely different word. The priests were commanded to wear linen clothes which would not cause them to sweat.

Here is that Hebrew word which is correctly translated as ‘linen’:

Eze 44:18  They shall have linen [H6593: pishteh] bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen [H6593: pishteh] breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.

This Hebrew word ‘pishteh‘ appears 16 times in the Old Testament, and it is consistently translated as ‘linen’ and ‘flax’. It is never called ‘sadiyn‘. Therefore ‘sadiyn‘ is better translated as ‘sheets’ instead of ‘fine linen’. ‘Sadiyn‘ is to be understood as a part of our garments which covers our nakedness, inasmuch as the ‘sheets’ are not even mentioned when telling us how Samson went about paying off his debt to his Philistine guests:

Jdg 14:19  And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house.

God is taking away our filthy garments, exposing the shame of our filthy garments and replacing them with garments of “fine linen… pure and white”. Remember what we read about Joshua the high priest in the days of Zechariah:

Zec 3:3  Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
Zec 3:4  And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.

All we are reading about which the Lord is taking from us here in Isaiah 3, whether it is jewels or clothing, both typify our own false doctrines. That is the meaning behind the “tak[ing] away [of] the filthy garments from [us]”.

Notice how the “clothing, the… garments” of the saints are described:

Rev 15:6  And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.

What is the spiritual meaning of being ‘clothed in pure and white linen’?

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

The next thing to be taken from the kingdom of our rebellious, adulterous, sinful old man is:

The hoods,

The Hebrew word for ‘the hoods’ is:

H6797
צָנִיפָה    צָנוֹף    צָנִיףo
tsânı̂yph    tsânôph    tsânı̂yphâh
tsaw-neef’, tsaw-nofe’, tsaw-nee-faw’
From H6801; a head dress (that is, piece of cloth wrapped around): – diadem, hood, mitre.
Total KJV occurrences: 5

This word ‘tsânı̂yph’ appears in the Old Testament 5 times:

H6797
צניפה  /  צנוף  /  צניף
tsânı̂yph  /  tsânôph  /  tsânı̂yphâh
Total KJV Occurrences: 5
diadem, 2
Job_29:13-14 (2), Isa_62:3
mitre, 2
Zec_3:5 (2)
hoods, 1
Isa 3:23

Twice it is translated as ‘diadem’:

Job 29:13  The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
Job 29:14  I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem [H6797: tsaniyph].
Job 29:15  I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

Job’s self-righteousness “was as a robe and a diadem” for which God told Job:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken [Job 29]; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

What God is telling us is that this is what we do, and that self-righteous ‘diadem’ will be taken away from us and destroyed before a new man with a broken and contrite heart will begin to be birthed out of that destruction.

The next verse where this word is translated as ‘diadem’ is:

Isa 62:3  Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

Now we know what this ‘hood’, this ‘tsânı̂yph‘, is. Now we know what it is which must be taken from our rebellious, adulterous, sinful old man. It is his crown. He must be dethroned and taken and destroyed, and his crown must be given to the new man, Christ in us.

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

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

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

The two times this word ‘tsaniyph‘ is translated as ‘mitre’ takes us back to Zechariah 3:

Zec 3:3  Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
Zec 3:4  And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
Zec 3:5  And I said, Let them set a fair mitre [H6796: tsaniyph – a crown] upon his head. So they set a fair mitre [H6796: tsaniyph – a crown] upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.

Joshua was the high priest in Zechariah’s day, and the high priest typified Christ and His Christ, who will all be both “kings and priests” as we just saw in Revelation 4 and 5. It is we, as the Christ of our Lord, who will be given a crown, a fair mitre, a diadem, only after the ‘hood’, the ‘tsaniyph‘, the crown is taken from our old man within us.

The last thing to be taken from us in this study is:

The veils

“The veils” are the English words translated from the Hebrew word:

H7289
רָדִיד
râdı̂yd
raw-deed’
From H7286 in the sense of spreading; a veil (as expanded): – vail, veil.
Total KJV occurrences: 2

No doubt ‘raw-deed‘ is exactly how our old man feels about his whole experience!

The only other entry for this Hebrew word in the Old Testament is:

H7289
רדיד
râdı̂yd
Total KJV Occurrences: 2
veil, 1
Son_5:7
veils, 1
Isa_3:23

Son 5:6  I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
Son 5:7  The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil [radiyd] from me.

In the scriptures the two women who wear veils are both wives and harlots. When Rebekah first saw Isaac she got off her camel and put on her veil:

Gen 24:64  And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.
Gen 24:65  For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.

But many years later, Isaac’s grandson Judah lied to his daughter-in-law, promising her to give her his only son as a husband, and when his daughter-in-law, Tamar, realized that Judah did not intend to give her his son Shelah as a husband, she made herself appear as a harlot by covering herself with a vail:

Gen 38:14  And she put her widow’s garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.
Gen 38:15  When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.

So the veils which must be taken from us are the veils of a harlot, and we must be made to become the bride of Christ.

Rev 19:6  And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Everything is being taken from our adulterous old man and given to the faithful, virtuous bride of Christ which is who we are spiritually:

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

But Christ’s ‘chaste virgin… bride’ is also called “the new man”:

Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

This is who this new man is, as he is described in the next chapter of Ephesians:

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

The new man is the bride of Christ. As Paul tells us:

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

And the revelation of Jesus Christ tells us the same thing:

Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The veils of a harlot will be taken from us, and we will, in God’s own time, become the “bride [of Christ] adorned for her husband”.

Our last three verses are the fruit of having all of these things taken from us while in the rebellious, adulterous, sinful kingdom of our old man:

Isa 3:24  And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.

Here is this same event as it is revealed to us in greater detail in the revelation of Jesus Christ within us.

This is “burning instead of beauty”:

Rev 18:1  And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Rev 18:2  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

Rev 18:14  And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.
Rev 18:15  The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
Rev 18:16  And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, 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!

Rev 18:24  And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

How similar is all that is said in those verses to our last two verses in today’s study of the things that must be taken from us:

Isa 3:25  Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
Isa 3:26  And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.

“Her gates shall lament and mourn” because we are first the daughters of this harlot, and all of this is who we are when the seven vials of the seven angels are poured out upon us.

Remember:

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

It is in the very next chapter we are told that the pouring out of the seven vials is the judgment of Babylon within us spiritually, and the physical destruction of the religions of this world outwardly.

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

Revelation 16:19 lets us know that Revelation 17 and 18 are the same event which is described in Revelation 16 . “The dream [vision] is one… and for that the dream [is] doubled unto [us] twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.”

Gen 41:25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

Gen 41:32  And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

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:

Notice the similarity between Isaiah 3 and Revelation 18:

Isa 3:18  In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon,

Rev 18:14  And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. 

Isaiah 3:26 and 1Co 3:15 are telling us one and the same thing. These two verses are another example of “the dream is one”:

Isa 3:26  And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground [“yet [she her]self “shall be saved; yet so as by fire”].

1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss [He shall suffer “burning instead of beauty” Isa 3:24]: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

God obviously wants us to know what are “all the things… the Lord will take away [and will be] no more at all”. He has hidden from the masses what are these things which He is taking away from us, but “blessed are your eyes for [you] see, and your ears for [you] hear… [these] mysteries of the kingdom of God”.

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 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

The Keys to The Kingdom of Heaven – Part 8

“The Words I Speak Unto You, They Are Spirit”

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

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Introduction

It is only with spiritual discernment that “the things…we speak” are discerned, and as we have just read, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” How do we go about using spiritual discernment in such a way that we learn from the spirit which teaches us by “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”?

One thing which should be clear immediately is that spiritual discernment is not to be found in a dictionary because we just read: “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” What that tells us is that when we are taught by the holy spirit, it will not be “in words which man’s wisdom teaches.” Whenever we are granted to learn from the holy spirit, it will be only by “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, and we know that when we do that, it will result in an understanding of the Word of God which will immediately appear as utter foolishness to our natural mind because: “…the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.”

In spite of being told in no uncertain terms that “the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, it is still the number one rule of Biblical exegesis in most seminaries in this nation, and around the world, that “If the scriptures can be understood in their natural sense, then that is the way to take it.”

This principle is so commonly accepted that a very widely received Biblical fiction series entitled “Left Behind” which came out a number of years ago, depicted the two witnesses as two literal men who breathed literal fire out of their literal mouths and destroyed their enemies with that fire coming out of their mouths. After all, that is what the letter of the scriptures plainly declares:

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

It simply must be asked, “If indeed ‘the words that I speak unto you are spirit’, then is that any way to handle the ‘spirit’ of the Words of Christ? If indeed ‘the holy spirit teaches [by] comparing spiritual things with spiritual’ is that any way to handle the spiritual Words of God?” It would be comical if it were not so truly sad that “the natural man receives not the things of the spirit, for they are foolishness unto him.”

That this key to the kingdom of heaven is a principle being taught to us “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” is made clear by what we are told in verse 4:

Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

Why would verse four be accepted as trees which are being used as a figure of those two witnesses to the Truth of the words of God, while the fire in the mouth of those witnesses is taken literally? Anyone who is granted by the holy spirit to compare spiritual things with spiritual will discern immediately that such a literal “letter” interpretation is not how those words which “are spirit” are intended by the holy spirit to be understood. Rather, since “the words that I speak unto you are spirit”, the words ‘my two witnesses’, the words ‘two olive trees’, the words ‘two candlesticks’, as well as the words ‘fire proceeds out of their mouths’, are all intended by the holy spirit to be understood as “spiritual things”, which are intended to be compared with other spiritual words of scripture.

Here are those other spiritual words:

Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

The “two witnesses” of Revelation 11 are those in every generation who witness to “the word of the Lord”.

The fact is that the adversary could not have come up with a better way of keeping the Truth of the prophesies of scripture hidden from mankind than to teach, “If it can be taken or understood literally, then that is how it should be understood.” That doctrine is in direct opposition to:

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Comparing spiritual things with spiritual are “not words which man’s wisdom teaches”, so in this study we will be faithful to what the scriptures teach us and show the spiritual principles involved in “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”.

“Comparing spiritual things with spiritual”

How do we go about comparing spiritual things with spiritual? The truth is that spiritual discernment is not a university level class that can be taken and studied from a text book, then bestowed as a degree in spiritual discernment conferred upon men by other men. The discerning of spirits and knowing and understanding the doctrine of Christ comes only to those who are given to love God with all their hearts and who are by God’s sovereignty granted to see the doctrine of Christ with their eyes, hear it with their ears and be obedient to His doctrine from their hearts:

Joh 7:17  If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

2Jn 1:9  Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

Those are the qualifications of being capable of “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” to the point of knowing God and His Son. Only after that gift is bestowed upon us will we be given to remember and apply Christ’s own words in Matthew 13 where He Himself tells us that His parables are intended to keep the multitudes who come to him from understanding His message, while at the same time revealing His doctrine to those to whom He has given “ears to hear”.

Mat 13:9  Who hath [been given, verse 11] ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
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.

There it is! That is the ‘ceremony’ by which we are granted to discern spirits. That is the ‘ceremony’ by which we are given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Of course it is not a ceremony at all, but rather it is a calling which we cannot resist because it was predestined before the foundation of the world whether “it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” or whether “from [you] shall be taken away even that [you] have”.

So the ability to “try the spirits to see whether they are of God” is actually a gift of the spirit, and not a matter of our own free will, as the world falsely teaches us:

1Co 12:7  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

1Co 12:10  To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

It is true that not everyone is given the gift of discerning of spirits, but it is, in time, given to all who are in Christ to know His voice when a brother or a sister who has been given to discern the false doctrines coming from the “many false prophets [who] are gone out into the world” and who come into the body of Christ attempting to spread their insidious false doctrines.

How then is spiritual knowledge imparted?

While spiritual discernment is not a degree conferred upon us from institutions of men, yet God has ordained that the things of the spirit would be gleaned and understood only though “that which is written” by other men and “by the church”.

This is how the holy spirit opens up our understanding of “the things of the spirit”:

Act 8:27  And he [Philip] arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
Act 8:28  Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.
Act 8:29  Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
Act 8:30  And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
Act 8:31  And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
Act 8:32  The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
Act 8:33  In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
Act 8:34  And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?
Act 8:35  Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

The scripture the Ethiopian eunuch was reading was:

Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

The name ‘Jesus’ is nowhere to be found in that verse of scripture, but “comparing spiritual things to spiritual” the holy spirit declares to us that this particular verse is speaking of the crucifixion of Jesus for the sins of all who are in Adam (1Co 15:22). The holy spirit used Philip to guide this man to Christ by teaching him the spiritual meaning of the words he was reading. This is how “the holy spirit teaches [us] by the church… comparing spiritual things to spiritual”. The application of the principle of “comparing spiritual things to spiritual” is actually learned when the holy spirit first prepares our hearts, and then “by the church [sends] some man … [who] guides [us]”. This Truth is reiterated in these verses:

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

There it is again. “The fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world, has been hid in God [is] made known by the church…” When we put Acts 8:31 (“How can I [understand] except some [Godly] man guide me”), together with Ephesians 1:10 (“To make all men… by the church… see what is the fellowship of the mystery…”), we can begin to understand how the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things in scripture with other spiritual things in scripture. The holy spirit had prepared the heart of the Ethiopian eunuch, and then the holy spirit sent Philip as a witness to those verses which the eunuch had been shown by the holy spirit.

No court of trial is held without having the books containing the relevant laws available to those who are involved in that trial. In the same way, those who the holy spirit uses to “guide [us]” must be men of God who have “studied [the scriptures] to show [them]selves approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed… never thinking above that which has been written.”

1Co 4:6  Now these things, brothers, I applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us ye might learn not to think above that which is written, so that ye may not be puffed up, one over the one against the other.

2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

It is made clear by the spirit which uses men like Christ, like Philip and like the apostle Paul to show other men “the things of the spirit [which] are foolishness unto… the natural man”.

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit [the Word of God (Joh 6:63)] and of power:
1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
1Co 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard [Mat 13:9-15], neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit [Mat 13:11]: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
1Co 2:11  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Here we have the entire Godly Biblical system of how “the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” operates. Paul is demonstrating this work of God for us using “my speech and my preaching” as as example of how the holy spirit through Himself and through you and me is “speak[ing] wisdom among them that are [being] perfected”. In one verse of scripture we are told that the “things… which… we speak [are those things by which] the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

That is why it is critical that we all “try the spirits to see whether they are of God” (Joh 4:1) and that we are all able to discern whether the things being spoken to us by any man are ever “above that which has been written” (1Co 4:6).

It is only “those things which have been written [which] are spirit”, and what gives them their spiritual meaning is that they agree with other scriptures “which have been written”. Anything else ‘has no light in it’.

Isa 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

“This word” refers to the law of Moses, which the New Testament reveals to be merely “a shadow of good things to come”, those good things being the spiritual words of our Lord as He Himself made clear to us:

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

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

The law can never make the comers thereunto perfect, but what does perfect us is our daily dying as we experience “the washing of water by the Word [which is] spirit”:

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

The letter versus the spirit

While the natural man teaches us that the words of scripture mean what they say, the scriptures themselves, and Christ in particular, teach us that the words of Christ, which He tells us “are spirit” (Joh 6:63), are actually meant to hide the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven from the multitudes who come to Christ, the “many called”, and at the same time reveal those mysteries to the “few chosen” who are then “given…eyes that see and ears that hear…the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.”

2Co 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2Co 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2Co 3:8  How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
2Co 3:9  For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
2Co 3:11  For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

“Able ministers of the New Testament” while very careful not to think above what is written, are never guilty of taking what is written to mean the letters that are written. If the scriptures were taken in that manner, he would be a Jew which is one outwardly, and circumcision would be that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

However, when the spiritual man speaks of being a Jew, or when he speaks of being circumcised, he does so comparing spiritual types with spiritual realities which are spiritual and invisible to the eyes of the natural man, so that when the holy spirit teaches us in that manner we, too, must conclude:

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

“Not in the letter” tells us that the mantra of the seminaries of Babylon, “If it can be taken literally, that is the way to take it” is “the ministration of death, [and] the ministration of condemnation.”

These are the things which are “not given unto…the multitudes” of natural men who come to Christ to see or hear. These are the words which Christ tells us “are spirit” and which Christ and the apostle Paul tell us simply “cannot [be] received [by] the natural man”:

Joh 8:43. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

How could a person who “cannot hear [Christ’s] word” be expected to “receive… the things of the spirit of God”? He cannot know them, because Christ’s words are not discerned with a dictionary. Rather “they are spiritually discerned” and are foolishness to the natural man.

“We have this treasure in earthen vessels”

2Co 4:3  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
2Co 4:5  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

What we have in earthen vessels are “the words [which Christ] speaks unto [us which words] are spirit.” It is through His Word that He dwells within us. If we do not have His word within us, we do not have Him within us. If the word within us teaches that Christ is part of a trinity God-head who will torment His own creatures for all eternity, Christ is not in us. If the words in us teach us that we are a spirit having a physical experience, instead of an earthen vessel having a spiritual experience, Christ is not in us. If the words in us teach us that Christ did not break the sabbath, did not do that which is not lawful, according to the law of Moses, and that He did not profane the sabbath, then His word is not in us, and He is not in us.

On the other hand, if we know “there is one God, [and that one God is] the Father of whom are all things”, and if we know that besides that one God the Father there is also “one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things”, and if we know that we are beasts, and we have no preeminence above a beast, and that without a resurrection they which have fallen asleep in Christ are perished, and if we know that Christ did break and profane the sabbath and was still guiltless [Mat 12:1-8, Joh 5:16-18] because of His words, as opposed to the law of Moses, then “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ” is beginning to “shine unto [us]”, and is not hidden from us.

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.

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath [Hebrew: ruach – spirit]; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

1Co 15:16  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Co 15:17  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

“Invisible things… are understood by the things that are made”

It is through the understanding of “the things of the spirit” that “the holy spirit teaches [us by] comparing spiritual things with spiritual”, and because “we have this treasure in earthen vessels” God has determined that the invisible things of the spirit are to be understood by the things that are made…”

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

The man who has “the mind of the spirit” sees the mind of the spirit in everything that is made, because He knows that God created all things by Christ, and therefore everything made reveals His mind in some way.

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

Only the mind of the spirit can grasp how life comes only through death by observing that a seed must fall into the ground and die before it can bring forth much more life.

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.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

It is one of the keys to the kingdom of heaven and to life itself to understand that only the man who has the mind of the spirit can see Christ and through Christ see His Father:

Joh 6:46  Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

Joh 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Joh 14:8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

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

“The kingdom of God is within you” (Luk 17:20-21). The keys to the kingdom of heaven are given to you and me to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven and know God and His Son and for the purpose of giving us life eternal, which is in knowing God and His Son whom He has sent to save the whole world (Luk 17:20-21, Mat 16:18, Joh 3:17, Joh 17:3).

[Part nine can be found here.]

The Keys To The Kingdom of Heaven – Part 4

“All… Things… Are Yours”

1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Introduction

Having just answered an e-mail with the question, “How do we say ‘the Lord’s table is contemptible?” I was reminded that very few Christians would confess that they have ever said, “The Lord’s table is contemptible.” The way most Christians understand that verse of scripture (Mal 1:7) is to place that sin upon only the Jews of Malachi’s day and time, or someone else who is evil enough to say ‘the Lord’s table is contemptible’. Many Christians would emphatically deny that such a statement was theirs or that “all things are yours” would include such a sin against our Lord.

That statement comes from:

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

Christ made it clear that the food on His table is the doctrines which He came to give to us:

Luk 24:40  And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
Luk 24:41  And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
Luk 24:42  And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
Luk 24:43  And he took it, and did eat before them.
Luk 24:44  And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luk 24:45  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

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

Of course others have polluted the Lord’s table, but it is a rare person indeed who is brought to see that everything he or she has been taught to believe, and everything we have always taught as the doctrines on the Lord’s table, are in fact the very doctrines which are “polluted bread upon [the Lord’s] table”. When we offer false doctrine as “polluted bread upon [the Lord’s] table” that is how we say, “The Lord’s table is contemptible.” When we teach that we should hate our enemies while Christ’s doctrine is ‘love your enemies’, we are saying, “The table of the Lord is contemptible.” Any and all who “offer polluted bread upon [the Lord’s] altar” have not yet been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven and are not capable of ‘binding on earth that which has been bound in heaven or loosing on earth that which has been loosed in heaven’.

Mat 18:18  Positively, I say to you, whatever [things] you bind on the earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever [things] you loose on the earth will have been loosed in heaven.  (ALT)

“All things are yours”

On the other hand, anyone who understands that “all things are yours” is to be applied personally and inwardly has one of the keys to the kingdom of heaven and will, by using that key, understand how all the rest of the scriptures apply to all who have been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. This key of the kingdom of heaven is in complete accord with our previous key, which taught us that we must live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. Just how all inclusive is this phrase “all things”? It will serve us well to have eyes that see or ears that hear the depth of the spiritual meaning of “all things are yours”.

So let’s take the time to analyze the truths revealed in this verse of scripture:

1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Now ‘Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas…  or life’ does not sound all that bad, but “the world… or death, or things present, or things to come” are all filled with evil, and are not all that pleasant to contemplate as being ours. So let’s take this verse one step at a time and see how this key opens up to us the kingdom of heaven.

I am of Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas

The apostle Paul has already twice chastened these Corinthian brothers for their childish angel worship. This is one of the first problems he addresses in this epistle:

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 
1Co 1:11  For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
1Co 1:12  Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
1Co 1:13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? 

Such respect of persons is not the fruit of a maturing Christ. So Paul explains in the second chapter that he could not speak to the Corinthians of dying with Christ. Instead he spoke only of Christ and Him crucified, which he explains would be understood by those who are maturing in its much more mature sense as a spiritual type of the spiritual crucifixion within all who are maturing in Christ.

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and  him crucified. 

If indeed all things are ours, then “all things”  must surely include the fruit of this angel worship part of “all things” that are ours. Lo and behold, that is exactly what Paul tells us of ourselves at the beginning of our walk. Just as angel worship is condemned twice in the book of Revelation (Rev 19:10, Rev 22:8-9), so here in 1 Corinthians Paul also twice condemns this part of “all things are ours”.

Here is his second admonition against this immature, divisive and destructive spirit which afflicted the church at Corinth as it afflicts all of us at our own appointed time:

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? 

For those who have been given eyes that see and ears that hear, which is just another way of saying they have been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven, Paul is again posing the question, “Is Christ divided?” He has already answered his own rhetorical question when admonishing the Corinthians and you and me, “That ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” That is our goal, and we certainly will not condone those who would divide the body of Christ and actually do so in the name of tolerance and unity. That is a perfect example of each of us offering polluted bread upon the Lord’s altar and saying “The table of the Lord is contemptible”.

Mal 1:6  A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
Mal 1:7  Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.

Those who do not have the keys to the kingdom of heaven have not been given eyes that see and ears that hear “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 13:10-13) will say, “Lord you know it is not possible to keep your words in 1Corinthians 1.”

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Those who do not possess the keys to the kingdom of heaven will argue, “Come on, Lord! You know the best we can even hope for is ‘agreement in the essentials, tolerance in the non essentials, and love in all things’.”

Those “mysteries” of heaven of Matthew 13 concern the King of that kingdom, and the King is still the King even when we fail to know who He is. Here is how Christ reacted to those who failed to recognize him as the King of the kingdom of heaven:

Joh 5:39  You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!
Joh 5:40  Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life.
Joh 5:41  Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me,
Joh 5:42   because I know you don’t have God’s love within you.
Joh 5:43   For I have come to you representing my Father, and you refuse to welcome me, even though you readily accept others who represent only themselves. 
Joh 5:44  No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from God alone. (NLT)

But “all things are yours”, and all things are mine, and you and I have been, and some of us may at this moment be, guilty of angel worship and may still be followers of certain ministers within the body of Christ. We are all guilty of our own angel worship, and we may not even be aware of how divisive such a spirit is. Because “all things are ours” that includes 1Corinthians 1:12-13 and 1Corinthians 3:1-4, and “all things are [ours]” includes these verses in Revelation:

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

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

In time we mature to the point that we, too, realize:

1Co 3:5  Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
1Co 3:7  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
1Co 3:8  Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
1Co 3:9  For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

Until we are given eyes to see the Truth that is revealed in these verses, we are just like Catholics and Protestants and every other religion in the world; we are indeed divided. However, Christ is not divided, and He is neither a Catholic nor a Protestant. The factions and sects of all religions who reject the doctrines of Christ, including all Christendom, testify against all of her daughters that they really are of their mother “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of abominations of the world”. It is this harlot, which harlot is all religions whose doctrines are in opposition to the doctrines of Christ, of whom we must all “come out”:

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.

The spirit of this harlot is the divisive spirit which would sow discord among us by saying “I am of Paul [or], I am of Cephas [or] I am of Apollos”. It takes a miracle from God to keep the daughters of that great harlot, liberal and conservative Catholics, and liberal and conservative Protestants, from seeing themselves as the divided Christ Paul spoke of when He asked, “Is Christ divided?” They are all held together by the false doctrine within their corrupting mantra of “unity in the essentials, tolerance in the nonessentials, but love in all things.” God’s Word has no “nonessentials”, and anyone who thinks it does has no concept of the Biblical definition of ‘love’, which is:

1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

All things really are ours, and there are no ‘nonessential’ words of Christ, and Christ is not divided. Knowing this Truth is one of the many keys to the kingdom of God which is within us:

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

All of Christ’s ministers are ours, and all of His Words are ours.

“The world”

“The world?” Is “the world” really ours? How can that be if we are Christ’s? How does “…the world is [yours]” accord with:

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

How can those words possibly accord with:

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Living in a world which has been under the influence of “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots” and being raised up under the false doctrines of that great harlot, which limits God’s sovereignty to only “every good and perfect gift”, explains why those two verses appear to many to contradict each other.

Jas 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

The fact that every good gift is from God does not deny God also sends evil spirits to trouble us, or that He even “creates evil”:

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

The doctrines of the great harlot and almost all of her harlot daughters blatantly deny the Biblical truths which are found in these verses:

Gen 45:8  So now it was not you [Joseph’s brothers, who sold him into Egyptian slavery] that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

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

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

Those are just three of literally dozens of verses of scripture which declare plainly that God is sovereign over all things good and all things evil, and that there is not one evil deed done in the city which was not “made… for Himself”, as the  scriptures plainly declare:

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

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

The truth of the scriptures is that mankind is not capable of making anything happen of his own will. The truth of the scriptures is that God had all of our decisions written in His book of each of us before we were ever born:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

Pro 20:24  Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. 

The New Testament accords with the Old:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” tells us that we are not even capable of sinning except the Lord has ordained that man must first be a hopeless sinner, desperately in need of a Savior.

That is how “the world… is [ours]”, and that is how the truth of 1Corinthians 3:21-22 in no way contradicts the Truth of 1John 2:15:

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Here in very clear language is what God is in the process of doing in the lives of all men of all time:

Psa 90:3  Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

So yes, “all things are [ours, including] the world, [and] the love of the world”, before we are then “dragged to God” by His spirit:

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

Joh 6:65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

All things are yours, whether… life or death

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Life is ours? Well, if we are enjoying life that is fine. We all want to enjoy life, but how or why would we be told that death is ours? Especially in the light of these words of our Lord to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, just minutes before He raised up Lazarus from the dead:

Joh 11:26  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

What is Christ telling us through this conversation with Martha about her dead brother Lazarus? Is Christ telling us that if we are physically alive and we believe in Him, as Martha did, then she and we will never physically die? Is that what Christ means when He tells Martha, “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

Considering that Christ Himself died shortly after making this statement, it should be obvious that the death and the life under consideration in the mind of Christ when He made that statement was more in line with these verses of scripture which reveal the spiritual life and the spiritual death that are ours as part of this key to the understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of God within us:

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

Luk 20:37  Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Luk 20:38  For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

There it is! All things are ours. That is one more key of “the keys to the kingdom of heaven”. Physical life, without Christ within us, is nothing more than the walking dead to Christ. On the other hand, it is a great key to understanding the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven within us if we also understand that physical death is not death at all to a God to whom all live even though their physical bodies have long ago returned to the dust from whence they came.

Mat 9:24  He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

Joh 11:11  These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

Having a better understanding of this “all things are yours” key to the kingdom of heaven, let’s read again how Christ answered His apostles when they asked why He spoke to the multitudes in parable:

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… [the keys to the kingdom of heaven are] given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [those keys are] 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.

Let’s also remember where Christ tells us that kingdom is at this time:

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

If Christ takes up His abode within us while we are in these clay vessels, then “now are we the sons of God [and we] shall never die… for all live unto him.” If Christ is living His life within us while we are yet in these clay vessels, we will be raised up from among the dead at the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Christ to judge this world during that time, and then to judge angels in the lake of fire which will follow the thousand years of the rule and reign of “the Lord and… His Christ”:

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. [Greek: aions of the aions]

All of this is already done from God’s perspective. Knowing that perspective is one of the keys to the kingdom of heaven within us. ‘Whether life or death, all things [are ours]” to live and to know, but in the end, “all live unto him” (Luk 20:38).

“…or things present, or things to come; all are yours;”

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

What an incredible statement! Which “things present” are ours? The answer is repeated: “For all things are yours… [and then again], all are yours”. Which “things to come” are ours? The answer is the same “… all things are [ours]… whether… things present or things to come; all are yours”.

Most of what is present and most of what is to come in “this present evil age” is just that – ‘evil’. How is it that all the evil of this age is ours? Here is the answer to that question directly out of the mouth of our Lord Himself, connecting this very principle of “all things are [ours]” to “the key of knowledge”, which is the same as “the keys to the kingdom of heaven”.

Luk 11:47  Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
Luk 11:48  Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. 
Luk 11:52  Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

Conclusion

There we have it. We can now add ‘things past are ours’ without adding to the Word of God. All the daughters of the great harlot who persecuted and killed the prophets and the apostles, and who then “build their sepulchres”, also have a day on the calendar on which to honor Him whom their fathers have slain. In doing so, according to Christ they are doing nothing less than “allowing the deeds of [their] fathers”. These words are just as applicable to us today as they were to the church of Christ’s day.

Rom 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures [including “all things are [ours]”] might have hope.
Rom 15:5  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Rom 15:6  That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Will those words in Luke 11, right out of the mouth of our Lord Himself, make that great harlot, or any of her harlot daughters, repent and change their ways in this age? The answer is, absolutely not! Only those who “come out of her” will repent and be delivered from the bondage of the days, months, times and years, which make up the “traditions of men”, who continue to build the sepulchres and celebrate the works of men, past and present.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Those who have not been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven are those who cannot possibly accept the plain statement here in 1 Corinthians 3 that even “the world [and] death” are ours, and that we must all live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, including “yes, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Pro 16:4) in each of us. Those who have taken away the key of knowledge of how to enter into the kingdom of heaven, will never agree that “all things are yours” really means “all things… the world, death, things present and thing to come”. And those who refuse this key to the kingdom of heaven also go as far as to hinder those who are entering into the kingdom of heaven. “…Ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” (Luk 11:52) Even those sad words are “in me that is in my flesh” (Rom 7:18).

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

This is the apostle Paul speaking, and he is simply acknowledging that ‘all things are his’. All that is in Adam was in Paul’s flesh, and all that is in Adam… all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” is in all of us, and that is how “all things are [ours]”. That is a key to the doors of the kingdom of heaven. When we use that key, the mind of Christ becomes our mind:

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

Lord willing, in our next study we will examine the fourteen times the key to the kingdom of heaven of the “is, was, and is to come” nature of Christ and His doctrines and His Words are repeated.

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

[Part five can be found here.]

Video Links

Study Aired April 1, 2012

Job 15:1 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
Job 15:2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
Job 15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
Job 15:4 Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
Job 15:5 For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Job 15:6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
Job 15:7 Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?
Job 15:8 Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
Job 15:9 What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
Job 15:10 With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.
Job 15:11 Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?
Job 15:12 Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,
Job 15:13 That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?
Introduction

Eliphaz asks Job, “Have you heard the secret of God?” The Jews sought to stone Christ because Christ said that God was His Father’s Son. There is nothing that will make you more hated by more people than for you or me to say that we know God and we know the voice of the True shepherd and we know the Truth. Is it really possible to know the Truth, the voice of the True Shepherd, and thereby know God?
According to the mother of the orthodox Christian world, Pharisaical Judaism, and according to the orthodox Christian world, it is not possible to know that you know the Truth. But what do the scriptures themselves teach us concerning this question “Do you know the secret of God?”
Here are Christ’s own words in answer to this question:

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

Joh 8:55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.

In his first epistle, the apostle John is not shy about telling us that he too, knew the Truth and was able to ‘try the spirits’ to see whether they were of God and His Truth:

1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

All who have the spirit of Christ within them will automatically “try the spirits to see whether they are of God” because all who have the spirit of Christ living within them will know His ‘voice’, His words, and will have no problem “knowing the spirit of truth and the spirit of error”. Such confidence they have that they will have no hesitation saying with the apostle John:

1Jn 4:5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
1Jn 4:6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Christ and His words are the standard for what is and what is not Truth:

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Christ did not say, ‘I know the Truth.” He said “I AM… the truth”. Now if you and I claim that we know Christ, then we are saying we “know the Truth” and have been set free by that Truth, which is Christ within us. If we deny that we know the Truth, or if we say with the whole world that it is impossible to know the Truth, we will be denying Christ and saying with Peter “I know not the man”.

Mat 26:74 Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.

Like Peter, we all live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. At our own appointed time, we all deny our Lord. By condemning God, Job in type, is denying Christ, even though he has never heard of Jesus Christ. What is the automatic result of denying Christ?

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

When we say we do not and we cannot know the Truth, we are admitting that we do not know Christ or His Father and that we do not therefore have life eternal:

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

Such an ambivalent, fearful spirit will always lead us all in time to the ‘fire’ which will burn that timidity out of us. Peter, as a type of us all, felt those flames burning up the “wood, hay, and stubble” that was still in him the night he said he did not know the Man who told us “I am the… Truth”. Here is where saying we do not know the Truth will lead us all:

Mat 26:75 And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

Christ, who is the Truth, has promised this to all who would be His disciple and who would walk in His steps :

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.

Joh 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
Joh 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Joh 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

Nothing will bring persecution and hatred upon a disciple of Christ quicker than for that disciple to affirm that he knows God and His Son, that he knows the secret of God, and that he is able to try the spirits to see whether they are of God and whether their words are the words of the true shepherd. Here is why they do so. The reason why is right here in the very next verse:

Joh 15:21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.

Those who “know not” God will always tell you that you cannot know God or the Truth of His Word. This is made so clear as we see how both Job and his friends confess that they do not know the secret of God. The thought that one might think he knows more than any of the others will bring the wrath of all down upon the one who thinks he knows the truth or “the secret of God”. Bildad speaks for them all when he says:

Job 8:9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)

This 15th chapter is the second time we have heard from Eliphaz. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar have all had their turn attempting to show Job that he is a sinner who is obviously a worse sinner then they are. After all, it is Job who is suffering, and it is reasoned that God afflicts only sinners.
Even the disciples of Christ were of that same judgmental spirit.

Joh 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

The disciples of Christ, are also types of us while we believe the doctrines of Babylon, because Babylon teaches us that mankind responsible for his own sins.
So both Job and his ‘friends’ who think so little of him are types of us as we compare ourselves among ourselves in the wilderness of Babylon.

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

“Comparing ourselves among ourselves is not wise”, and yet that is exactly what we find ourselves doing through the types and shadows of Job and his friends. Instead of asking, “What is ideal according to scripture”, Job and his friends keep telling each other “I’m just as well informed or more so than you”. There is absolutely no edification for either side in such childish comparisons, nevertheless, this is who we are while we are dividing Christ and comparing ourselves among ourselves as Babylonian denominations of men do.
Look at how childish we appear:

Eliphaz:
Job 4:6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
Job 4:7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. [ Job]

Bildad:
Job 8:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Job 8:2 How long wilt thou speak these things? [ Job] and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
Zophar:
Job 11:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Job 11:2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should [ Job] a man full of talk be justified?
Job 11:3 Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
Job 11:4 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.
Job 11:5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;

What is Job’s answer to these three men?

Job 12:2 No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
Job 12:3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?

That 12th chapter is what we say to those who dare accuse us, when we know we are very righteous, Babylonians who have done “many wonderful works…”

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

This is the second time Eliphaz tries to convince Job and all of us, that misfortune falls only upon those who commit particularly egregious sins. His target is Job of course. Eliphaz, who is showing us more about ourselves in this situation, is much more direct and aggressive in his attack upon Job’s assumed sins in this second time around. With absolutely no evidence of any particular wrongdoing on Job’s part, this is what Eliphaz has to say to ‘comfort’ his friend Job:

Job 15:1 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
Job 15:2 Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
Job 15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
Job 15:4 Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.

Eliphaz does not call Job’s words in his own defense ‘lies’. What he does call them is “vain knowledge”. It is interesting that the Hebrew word translated ‘vain’ is ‘ruach’. This word appears 378 times in 348 verses. Of those 378 entries it is most commonly translated as ‘spirit’. It is so translated in the King Jas 227 times, according to e- sword’s King James Concordance.
The next most common translation is the English word ‘breath’, 27 times, and the word ‘winds’ 11 times, ‘mind’ 6 times, ‘side’ 5 times, ‘spirits’ 5 times, ‘blast’ 4 times, and ‘vain’ only two times. It is translated as ‘air, anger, cool, courage, quarters, sides, spiritual, tempest, whirlwind, [ and] windy’ all one time each.
Job, in the spirit of Babylon he portrays in us, throws this very thought back at Eliphaz in the next chapter:

Job 16:3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?

In that one sense, it becomes clear that none of these men nor Job at this point have any use for spiritual words. Notice how this Hebrew word ‘ruach’ is used in these verses of Ezekiel 11:

Eze 11:1 Moreover the spirit [ Hebrew – ruach] lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD’S house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.
Eze 11:2 Then said he unto me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city:
Eze 11:3 Which say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh.
Eze 11:4 Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.
Eze 11:5 And the Spirit [ Hebrew – ruach] of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind [ Hebrew – ruach], every one of them.

How does God “know the things that come into your mind” and mine and the minds of all men of all time? Here is how God does that:

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

Our very thoughts are given to us “from the Lord”, via the ‘ruach’ the Lords sends upon us. For example:

1Sa 18:10 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul’s hand.
1Sa 18:11 And Saul cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice.

Why did King Saul seek to kill David?

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Pro 21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

The hearts of Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, are also “in the hand of the Lord”. All these men are the types and shadows of how our own lives are “in the hand of the Lord”, and are being ‘worked’ by Christ Himself “after the counsel of His own will”.
So it is the Lord who through an evil spirit which has no compassion for Job’s wretched condition, takes Job’s humiliation as an opportunity to castigate him with these words…:

Job 15:4 Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.

… and it is true. We cannot pray to God while we are in the process of ‘contending with, reproving and condemning’ our own Creator.

Job 15:5 For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
Job 15:6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

There are many things in life which are true, but not every truth must be uttered before the whole world at all times. When we see our brothers and sisters in Christ in severe straits, or our brothers and sisters who are not in Christ who are suffering severely, the best thing you and I can do at that moment is to simply commiserate with them as we would have them do with us under such circumstances.
God Himself agrees with Eliphaz. His own words condemn him. Job is all of us:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Neither Eliphaz nor we are God, and even if our suffering friends are condemning their Creator, it is not necessarily our place to condemn our suffering friends. There is a time to ‘place our hands upon our mouths’ and simply commiserate with our suffering friends. It is words which are “fitly spoken” which are “as apples of God in pictures of silver”.

Pro 25:11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

Nothing is more harmful than the truth when it is being abused and misused by all of us at our own appointed time. If Peter’s sword represents the word of God, just look at how he was abusing that ‘word’:

Joh 18:10 Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.
Joh 18:11 Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?

Peter, too, typifies us all while we know of Christ but do not yet truly know the fellowship of His sufferings.

Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

While we are following Christ and are “yet carnal” (1Co 3:1-4), we all tend to cut off ears with the sword of Christ’s word. That is who we are as Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
Eliphaz continues his assault on poor suffering Job:

Job 15:7 Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?
Job 15:8 Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
Job 15:9 What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
Job 15:10 With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

So now we can add these barbs by Eliphaz to our list of carnal comparisons of men with men. Let’s notice now how important it is to all of us that no one else knows more than we know. Let’s look again at just how childish we all are at this stage of our walk:

Eliphaz:
Job 4:6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
Job 4:7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?
Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. [ Job]

Bildad:
Job 8:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
Job 8:2 How long wilt thou speak these things? [ Job] and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
Zophar:
Job 11:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Job 11:2 Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk [ Job] be justified?
Job 11:3 Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
Job 11:4 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.
Job 11:5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee;

Job’s answer to these three men is of the same self righteous spirit which keeps them from acting out of love for and commiserating with suffering Job. He tells them sarcastically:

Job 12:2 No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
Job 12:3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
Job 13:1 Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.
Job 13:2 What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

This is the childish fruit of the doctrine of ‘free moral agency’ hidden within a watered down confession of God’s sovereignty, which really does nothing less than deny that God is sovereign over the evils of our ‘free moral agency’. Remember Job and his friends are us as we “look behind us” to see the voice which is revealing all of this to us.

Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Rev 1:12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

The very thought of someone knowing more than we know is an affront to our self righteous pride:

Job 15:8 Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
Job 15:9 What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
Job 15:10 With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar loath the very idea that Job might think that he knows more about God than they know. Job had been more highly regarded than they before his destruction:

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
Job 1:2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

Job feels the same toward them. What this reveals about us all is that if you or I say we know God and His son, or that we know Christ’s voice and His thought processes, then “Ye shall/ br />

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.

This world does not know God. They will tell you straight faced that you cannot know the Truth, and if you say you can and that you do then the world and its leaders will want you dead.
So have we “heard the secret of God”? Has that secret been revealed to you and me, but hidden from the multitudes who claim to be believers in Christ? What is the truth concerning this question posed by Eliphaz?

Job 15:8 Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

What do the scriptures teach us concerning this question?

Mat 13:9 Who hath [ been given, verse 16] ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Rom 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

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

But Bildad, as the world within us, tells us that we know nothing and cannot know the truth:

Job 8:9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)

Eliphaz agrees telling Job that there are those with them who are older than Job’s father:

Job 15:9 What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
Job 15:10 With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.

But length of days does not equate to spiritual wisdom or having the mind of God. The scriptures actually tell us that God has revealed his secret to babes, and has kept it hidden from the wise of this world.

Mat 21:16 And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and suckling s thou hast perfected praise?

Contrary to how Eliphaz thinks, this is what the scriptures teach about those who seem to be so prominent in this world:

1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

That is what the scriptures reveal concerning what is given to God’s elect in answer to Eliphaz’s question:

Job 15:8 Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

So the answer to Eliphaz is Yes, we have “heard the secret of God”, and while we have not “restrained wisdom to ourselves… we [ do] speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory“.

Job 15:11 Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?
Job 15:12 Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,
Job 15:13 That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?

“Are the consolations of God small with thee?” Eliphaz apparently thinks that his words, and the words of Bildad and Zophar, falsely accusing Job of imagined sins, is God’s words of consolation for Job. Yes, it is true that Job is just as carnal at this point as any of his “miserable comforters”. but this whole discourse has served to demonstrate that mankind, you and I, resent anyone who has been given favor by God to know “any secret thing.”
It was Able’s good standing with God that cost him his life, and the same murderous spirit was barely restrained by twenty pieces of silver, to sell Joseph instead of killing him, simply because his father loved him more than any of his other children:

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.

“When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him”.
That is the spirit that is being displayed in all of these men, including Job, himself, who insists that he is as knowledgeable and anyone, and is inferior in knowledge to no one, even as he condemns his Maker. This is the spirit that was in the Jews and the Pharisees in Christ’s day, and this is the spirit with which God’s elect always have and always will be living if ever they dare to proclaim that they “know the Truth”:

Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.
Joh 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
Joh 8:57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Joh 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Joh 8:59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

Conclusion

So there is a reason why Christ has fairly warned all who will follow Him:

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.

It is the claim of simply knowing Christ and His Father, of knowing what is and what is not Truth, that will cause this world to want to stone us:

Joh 10:23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.
Joh 10:24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
Joh 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.
Joh 10:26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
Joh 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
Joh 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Joh 10:29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
Joh 10:30 I and my Father are one.
Joh 10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will hear a little more of Eliphaz as he “comforts” his friend, Job.

Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Job 15:15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
Job 15:16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
Job 15:17 I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;
Job 15:18 Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:
Job 15:19 Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
Job 15:20 The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
Job 15:21 A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
Job 15:22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.
Job 15:23 He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
Job 15:24 Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
Job 15:25 For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.
Job 15:26 He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:
Job 15:27 Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

Hi Mike,

I’m a little confused. If seraphims are serpents, why are they not evil? You stated that they were once evil but are not any longer. Is this because they have forsaken ungodliness? I apologize if you need to go over anything we have covered already.

In Christ,
M____

Hi M____,

I know this is a hard principle to accept, because it took a long time for me to accept it fully. Nevertheless, you will never “know God and Jesus Christ” (Joh 17:3), until you come to see that Christ, who is God’s Word (Joh 1:1) “creates evil” (Isa 45:7), “even the wicked men,” meaning you and me, “for the day of evil” within each of us, (Pro 16:4) and is thereby, dark on the side where we cannot see Him, and bright on the side on which He reveals Himself to us.

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

That is all telling us that Christ’s words are “darkness to them” and “light to these.” What that tells us is this principle: Every single word of God has both a positive and a negative application. Every single word.
For example, the beast is the man of sin, and yet there are domesticated ‘beasts’ around the throne of God. Fowls of the air are evil spirits, and yet the holy spirit is a dove, etc.
The very same thing is true of the word ‘serpent.’ The fact there are seraphims around the very throne of God, tells us that even though we have all been “of our father the devil”, in the end even our father the devil will be destroyed as a the devil, and will become a seraphim around the throne of God crying “Holy, holy, holy.”
I hope this helps you to see that this is the positive application for the word ‘serpent.’ Far more important, I hope you now see that the cloud that is dark on one side and bright on the other is Christ’s spiritual words which make so much sense to those to whom the Father has given eyes to see and ears to hear, while at the same time being blinders to those who are not given “eyes to see or ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God.”

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

So all the “mysteries of the kingdom of God” are literally hidden right out in the open, because it is not given to people to see that Christ and His Words are divinely revealed to the few chosen, while at the very same time being hidden from the many called but not chosen.

You ask:

If seraphims are serpents why are they not evil? You stated that they were once evil but are not any longer. Is this because they have forsaken ungodliness?

The answer is, yes, the “fire” of the lake of fire, purges all who are cast therein, and in due time “all will be saved and brought to a knowledge of God.”

1Ti 2:3 For this [ is] good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Php 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

These verses mean what they say, and “every knee will bow,” even the knees of Satan and His angels.
Your brother in Christ.
Mike