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

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

[Study Aired Sept 7^th 24]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit.

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

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

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

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

Study Significations

The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ezekiel 30:1–26 A Lament For Egypt

[Study Aired September 2, 2024]

Introduction

Today’s study continues with the prophecy against Egypt which focuses on her destruction, and that of her allies and confederate, and all her interests and concerns.  As indicated in the previous study, Egypt is a symbol of Babylon of which we were part of during our sojourn in the physical churches of this world. This is made clearer later in the chapter when the Lord mentioned that He will give the land of Egypt to the King of Babylon.

Egypt also refers to our walk when we were dominated by our flesh as we  conform to the standards of this world. The chapter gives details of the judgement of Egypt and her cities which is our judgement. This evil experience of the Lord’s judgement that we go through in this life is to drag us to know Him. We can therefore learn from this chapter that the Lord’s ways are not our ways. This is to assure us that in the midst of all that we are going through in this life as we wonder why things happen the way they do, the Lord is at work in us to bring us to an expected end!!

Isa 55:8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 
Jer 29:12  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

The Sword Shall Come Upon Egypt

Eze 30:1  The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 
Eze 30:2  Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day! 
Eze 30:3  For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen. 
Eze 30:4  And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down. 
Eze 30:5 Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.  

The word of the Lord coming to Ezekiel in verse 1 is the same as Christ coming to us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness.

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: 

As indicated in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, the coming of the Lord to us is accompanied by His judgement of our old man. Verses 2 to 4 affirms to us the judgement of the Lord when He come to us with His words. The day of the Lord is the time of the Lord’s judgement. A cloudy day in verse 2 means a gloomy day and that day being the time of the heathen means that it is a time of trouble for our old man who is signified by the heathen. Why is the day of the Lord a gloomy day? It is because the Lord is taking us through an evil experience which brings us to our wits ends. During this period, it is as if our Lord is not with us or has forsaken us. That is what it means when our sun is darkened in the day of the Lord. This is what Peter has to say about the day of the Lord:

Act 2:19  And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
Act 2:20  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 
Act 2:21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

The moon turning into blood implies that through the Lord’s judgement, we come to see that our mother (moon), which represents the churches of this world, are rather putting us to death spiritually just as they had put to death physically, the Lord’s messengers.

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.

It is during this period of our fiery trials that when we call on the name of the Lord, we are saved.

Psa 107:12  Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.
Psa 107:13  Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. 
Psa 107:14  He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder. 
Psa 107:15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

As indicated in the previous study, we came to the conclusion that when our walk with the Lord is dominated by our flesh or old man, then we are just like the people of the world or Egyptians. In verse 4, the sword coming upon Egypt is the Lord judging us as we walk in the flesh. In this case, the Lord is using the sword as His instrument of judgement. Here in verse 4 and 5, Egypt together with Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia and Chub are all being judged. To understand why these nations are being judged together with Egypt, we are given a clue in verse 5 which says that all these nations are in league with Egypt. In other words, Ethiopia, Libya, Lydia and Chub all exhibit the traits of worldliness associated with Egypt. All these nations therefore represent our flesh which must be destroyed through the sword.  The sword on a positive note means the word of the Lord.

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

The negative aspect of sword used in verse 5 refers to words that are spoken which destroy us. The sword refers to the lying words and false doctrines of the adversary.

2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

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

These negative words spoken is one of the tools that the Lord uses to judge us.

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

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

Eze 30:6  Thus saith the LORD; They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, saith the Lord GOD. 
Eze 30:7  And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. 
Eze 30:8  And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed. 
Eze 30:9 In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for, lo, it cometh. 

In verse 6, we are told that they that uphold Egypt shall fall. This means that our old man which is the source of all worldliness including pride shall be destroyed through the Lord’s judgement. The towers of Syrene is a border town of Egypt on the frontier of Ethiopia. The fact that the destruction stretches up to the towers of Syrene means that the Lord will do a thorough work with our old man such that nothing of our old man shall be left untouched. In this case, the instrument of the Lord’s judgement is the sword which is the fire of the word of the Lord which brings about tribulation and persecution because of the word we have received.

Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. 

The Lord judgement shall utterly destroy our old man as revealed in verse 7 where our old man shall be desolate and wasted. It is through this evil experience that we shall come to know the Lord. As we have indicated in previous studies, cities can represent churches and in this case, Babylon.

Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

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.

The destruction of the cities in verse 7 therefore refers to the destruction of Babylon within our hearts and minds. In verse 8, we are told that all the helpers of Egypt shall be destroyed. These helpers are the churches of this world or Babylon which strengthen our old man. The destruction of these helpers therefore refers to the ruin of Babylon within us.

The messengers coming forth in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid symbolize the false apostles in Babylon who peddle the gospel as they come with messages which make us afraid and bring pain. All of this happened to us when we were in Babylon which is symbolized here as Ethiopia.

Joe 2:3  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
Joe 2:4  The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
Joe 2:5  Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
Joe 2:6  Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. 
Joe 2:7  They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march everyone on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:
Joe 2:8  Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.
Joe 2:9 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

Eze 30:10  Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. 
Eze 30:11  He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land: and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. 
Eze 30:12  And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked: and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I the LORD have spoken it. 
Eze 30:13 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. 

In verse 10, the Lord is saying that He will use Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, to bring an end to Egypt. That is to say that the Lord will use our time in Babylon as the occasion that He is seeking to come and judge us to destroy the source of worldliness (Egypt) within us. In verse 11, we are made aware that the evil experience that we go through in Babylon which entails being inundated with false doctrines, symbolized by Babylon drawing their sword against us, brings us to spiritual death. These false doctrines are propagated by these false teachers and prophets.

2Pe 2:1  But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 
2Pe 2:2  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
2Pe 2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

In verse 12, selling the land into the hand of the wicked means our bodies become dominated by our flesh or old man. Through the Lord’s judgement, our rivers become dry, which implies that the Lord shall destroy our false doctrines. Our land being waste means that our old man or flesh shall be destroyed. Verse 13 continues to emphasize the destruction of our idols and images which represents our false doctrines, together with our old man. As the Lord takes us through this process of judgement, our old man or flesh become apprehensive or fearful, knowing his time is short.

Eze 30:14  And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No. 
Eze 30:15  And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the strength of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. 
Eze 30:16 And I will set fire in Egypt: Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily. 

The names of these cities of Egypt which the Lord is dealing with through His judgement reveal the characteristics of His judgement. Pathros means part of Egypt. What this means is that the Lord’s judgement is a process which is carried out in parts. In the Book of Revelation, we see that our judgement is carried out in parts as shown in the following verses:

Rev 8:8  And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;

Rev 8:10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

Zoan was the dwelling place of Pharoah at the time of the exodus of Israel and the city of No means disrupting. Thus, in verse 14, the Lord is telling us that the seat of our old man or flesh symbolized by Pharoah, and everything within us that disrupt the kingdom of the Lord from being established within us shall be destroyed with the fire of the word of the Lord as He carries out His judgement gradually.

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

In verse 15, the Lord will pour out His fury upon Sin, a city in eastern Egypt which serves as the strength of Egypt. The Lord will also cut off the multitude of No. Sin means thorny or clay. We know from the scriptures that thorns spiritually represent false doctrines.

Eze 2:6  And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

As indicated, No which is a city in Egypt means disrupting and therefore the multitude of No signify those false apostles whose message disrupt the kingdom of the Lord from being established in us. What verse 15 is telling us is that both the false doctrines in our heavens which represent the strength of our old man or flesh and these false apostles who propagate these false doctrines shall be dealt with through the Lord’s judgement or fury. In other words, we shall see who these false apostles really are and therefore, shall not influence us again.

The Lord setting fire in Egypt, in verse 16, signifies the Lord coming to us to destroy our old man with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness. The Lord’s judgement shall destroy everything including the false doctrines in our heavens. It is instructive to note that in verse 16, Noph is mentioned as being distress daily as the Lord sets fire in Egypt. Noph is another name for Memphis which was the capital city of Egypt and it means presentability. What this implies is that being presented to the Lord as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the Lord is through the Lord’s judgement and that this work is done daily in our lives. As a result, we die daily to the things of the flesh.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 

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.

Eze 30:17  The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity. 
Eze 30:18  At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. 
Eze 30:19 Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt: and they shall know that I am the LORD. 

The city of Aven in Egypt means trouble or sorrow. The young men of Aven therefore refer to the Lord’s elect who are going through trouble or sorrow as a result of the evil experience of the Lord’s judgement. Pibeseth signifies mouth of loathing which represents our old man or flesh who blaspheme against the Lord. We were all blasphemers but as we fall by the sword of the Lord’s judgement, we become counted as faithful.

1Ti 1:12  And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; 
1Ti 1:13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 

Tehaphnehes means “thou will fill hands with pity”. What verse 18 is telling us is that even as the Lord judges our old man and our day become darkened, He will show us pity and not tempt us to a point that we cannot bear.

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

Through the Lord’s judgement, the Lord shall break the yoke of our flesh as He takes his strength away.  In verse 18, we are also told that cloud shall cover Egypt as her daughters are taken into captivity. The cloud covering Egypt means that the world is shielded from the Sun who signifies Christ. We, His elect, are the cloud of witnesses which are shielding Christ from being seen by the world and Babylon. That is why the whole world and our brothers and sisters in Babylon are in captivity of the devil.

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

It is when someone recognizes us as ambassadors of Christ that the Sun or Christ is unveiled to that person.

Luk 13:35  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

In verse 19, the Lord is assuring us that through His judgement we shall come to know the Lord.

Egypt Shall Fall to Babylon

Eze 30:20  And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 
Eze 30:21  Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword. 
Eze 30:22 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. 

The number eleven signifies the ruin and disintegration of the perfection of the flesh and that of seven speaks of the completion of the perfection of the flesh. The number one shows us that everything is of God. With this in mind, the eleventh year in the first month of the seventh day of the month in which the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel in verse 20 signifies that what the Lord is coming to tell us relates what He is doing regarding the ruin and disintegration of our flesh and that this destruction only takes place after our sins are complete before Him. In this case, the sins of Pharoah the King of Egypt, who represents our flesh or old man have become complete. Our sins being complete is the same as our sins reaching the heavens. In the Book of Revelation, it is when the sins of Babylon have reached its fulness or become complete that the Lord shall come to judge her.

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.  

In verses 21 and 22, the Lord is showing us what He is doing through the judgement of our old man. As we have indicated, Pharoah, King of Egypt symbolizes our old man or flesh. Here in verse 21, the Lord is saying that the arms of Pharoah is broken and that it shall not bound up to be healed and that it shall never be strong again to hold the sword. This verse is telling us that through the Lord’s judgement, our old man or flesh is destroyed, such that he cannot come back to haunt us with the sword or his false doctrines. In verse 22, the destruction of our old man involves the demolition of the works of the flesh (his arms) and his strength which deals with His ability to influence us. The  annihilation of our old man or flesh also involves making the sword to fall out of his hands which signifies the destruction of the false doctrines in our heavens.

What is shown here about the destruction of our old man or flesh through the Lord’s judgement is the same as what is shown in the Book of Daniel about Daniel’s vision. In the vision about the four beasts which together represent the whole of our old man or flesh, we can see that it was through judgement that his dominion is taken away and given to the Lord’s elect.

Dan 7:17  These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. 
Dan 7:18  But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even for ever and ever.

Dan 7:26  But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. 
Dan 7:27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. 

Eze 30:23  And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 
Eze 30:24  And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break Pharaoh’s arms, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man. 
Eze 30:25  But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt. 
Eze 30:26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I am the LORD. 

In verse 24, the Lord is saying that it is He who strengthens the arms of the king of Babylon to make Pharoah groan of a deadly wound. Spiritually, what this verse is saying is that it is in Babylon or the physical churches of this world that the beast or our old man is given a deadly wound. However, as we see in the Book of Revelation, this deadly wound becomes healed.

Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

In verse 25, we are made aware that it is the Lord who has strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon as He put His sword in his hand. At the same time, the arms of Pharoah shall fall down. We can see in verse 25 that it is the Lord who has caused Babylon to be strengthened with resources and has given them false doctrines (sword) to accomplish His purpose of keeping the multitude in the world (Egypt) including Babylon from getting to know the truth and be saved in this age.

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.  

On the other hand, as the Lord’s elect, the Lord has given the king of Babylon to rule over us for a period of time. It is this period of our walk in Babylon that the Lord uses as the occasion to come into our lives with His judgement to destroy the works of our old man or flesh within us which is symbolized by the arms of Pharoah falling down as the king of Babylon stretches His sword against the land of Egypt in verse 25.

The Egyptians being scattered among the nations in verse 23 and 26 is the Lord breaking down the flesh or our old man such that he cannot be gathered together to become a force to reckon with in the lives of His elect. That is how we get to know the Lord as we serve Him.

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

The Book of Joel – Chapter 2:18-27, Part 3,Section B, verses 25-27

“Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.” – Pro 5:18.

[Study Aired August 31 2024]

(Continued – Joel 2:25-27 Section B)

Last week in Joel Chapter 2, we discussed the spiritual symbolism of wheat, wine, and oil in understanding Christ’s word and how it enriches his Bride spiritually. It covertly points to the time after the cross when Joel and the other prophets hazily understood that there must come a time of spiritual tearing down, war and building up of a new man (Ecc 3:1-8 ). A glorious revelation that the yet-to-be-revealed holy spirit would bring, is peace in profound contrast between the Old Covenant with the New that equally clouded Solomon’s understanding of him visualising the “two armies” as seen in the Son 6:13 and his realising that it is impossible for a ‘woman’, obscurely, the Church (Eccl 7:27-29) to keep God’s commandments. Another outstanding revelation alone for the very few Elect is that the holy spirit will cause incredible elation for their chastisements when the mysterious and much anticipated “helper” is fully realised. Subsequently, and seen only by the Elect of God, a phenomenal ‘breach’ (discussed in the last study) utterly preventing God’s people from keeping any of the Old Covenant would be miraculously healed.

Deu 32:5  They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they [the Old Covenant generation, alive and well today in Babylon] are a perverse and crooked generation. 

Pro 15:4  A wholesome [spiritual] tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. 

This last Part B of Joel Chapter 2:25-27 is a very subtle spiritual transition: Christ becomes the Bride’s bright cloud of spiritual understanding and is only seen and understood by her into which she steadily ascends in growing harmonious unity with him, her Husband.

Mat 17:5  While he [Jesus] yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them [meaning, Jesus, Peter, James and John, the small group symbolising the Elect, and a vision manifestation of Moses and Elias]: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

The Elect of God in these apparent ‘end times’ are unutterably humbled by the understanding that the Bible’s chronicle of every sordid lust of man from Adam to the end of the Eighth Day is overwhelmingly for the Bride alone! Even though she experienced harrowing physical chastisements in the wilderness, the New Covenant Bride is given relatively light affliction and resulting chastisements. All because of her growing spiritual understanding of her Lord’s word, she sees undeniably harsh chastisement as a blessing received paradoxically with joy.

2Co 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2Co 9:15  Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 

2Co 12:4  How that he was caught up into paradise [clouds; heaven], and heard unspeakable words [Not for Babylon to understand in seven thousand years], which it is not lawful for a man [The Bride] to utter [to her 1,000 Babylonian sisters of Solomon’s harem and their understanding]. 

Luk 8:10  And he said, Unto you [The Bride] it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others [Her sisters in Babylon, the world] in parables; that [blindly] seeing they might not see, and [deafly] hearing they might not understand.

Continuing from the previous study, verses of Joel Chapter 2…

Joe 2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 
Joe 2:26  And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 
Joe 2:27  And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 

Before studying Joel 2:25-27 and its symbolism, it is important to note that the Bride alone has been given the keys to the kingdom. She understands the Lord’s meanings in scripture and can interpret the symbols, types, and shadows of names and terms. Her understanding is brightened by Christ’s great cloud of witnesses and juxtaposed with ‘terrible’ clarity, the subsequent great innumerable cloud of sister Babylonian witnesses leading the way in the heat of the day as the Bride’s understanding grows transparent.

Eze 1:22  And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal [fearfully understood word of God], stretched forth over their heads above [the blue sky by day and star-studded cobalt blue at night].

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses [witnesses both good and evil designed specifically for her, alone], let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Christ chose his Bride out of the field of the world to grow in beautiful spiritual femininity for his good pleasure to bestow on her kingship as his wife in subjection and co-rulership under him.

Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Mat 16:13  When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
Mat 16:14  And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
Mat 16:15  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Mat 16:16And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Mat 16:17Jesus answered and said to him, You are blessed, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father in Heaven.
Mat 16:18And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Mat 16:19And I will give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven to you. [The Elect only] And whatever you may bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven, and whatever you may loose on earth shall occur, having been loosed in Heaven.

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;

(Mike Vinson. quote). “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 things 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 they that were entering in ye hindered.” (Luk 11:52). Even those sad words are “in me, that is in my flesh” (Rom 7:18).”

The symbolism of the Bride’s former years of famine, mould, pestilence, and universal decay symbolised as locusts, cankerworms, caterpillars and palmerworms is spiritually seen in Aholah, particularly the younger Aholibah’s fornications, which directly symbolises our spiritual decay. And so, this study concludes with those two representative women it began, Aholah and Aholibah, depicting the two covenants of the Bride’s progression to becoming the spiritual Aholibah, Christ’s Wife. Our Lord’s “pity”, meaning his mercy, is first graphically understood by the Elect of God today, having seen those two formally beautiful virgin young women as herself, mirroring their ‘unspeakable’ humiliation for their former mortifying God-given lusts with their literal skirts up above their thighs. She is the Bride found in the field of the world characterised as Babylon in the bloody death of her Lord’s truth to be sheepishly arrayed in royal clothing. Our Lord vividly depicts our Aholibah-like physical lewdity to deliberately jolt our spiritual senses in pornographic contrast.

(Fornication: G4202 – Porneia – Phonetic: por-ni’-ah- Definition: 1. illicit sexual intercourse a. adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc. G4203 – Porneuo

– Phonetic: porn-yoo’-o – Definition: 1. to prostitute one’s body to the lust of another 2. to give one’s self to unlawful sexual intercourse a. to commit fornication)

Eze 23:17  And the Babylonians came to her [Aholibah – the Lord’s budding Elect] into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them [the Babylonians!]
Eze 23:18  So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my [Christ’s] mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister [Aholah]. 
Eze 23:19  Yet she [Aholibah] multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
Eze 23:20  For she doted upon their paramours [puzzlingly, concubines, usually females but exchangeably male], whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Eze 23:21  Thus thou [Aholibah humiliatingly today, since the cross, especially] calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

It is deliberately heartbreaking for the Lord to write the events in himself that Aholibah’s (The incipient Bride’s) ‘mind was alienated from him’ more than she was from her Babylonian lovers. Every detail of her saga dreadfully highlights unsatiated lust for validating her beauty that required having ‘endless’ young male paramours gleefully using her body for their lust and, no doubt, treacherous ribald recounting among themselves (‘course jesting’ – Eph 5:3-4). Subsequently, her alienation from her lover’s is her subconscious turmoil that something is not right with her actions, pricking her conscience, yet her incontinence for validating her beauty overruled her conscience as she recounted the inexhaustible lusts the young men displayed for her in her youth. Consequently, the Lord was ‘alienated from her as He was from her sister’.

1Jn 3:20  For if our [Aholibah-like] heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
1Jn 3:21  Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

Rom 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their [Aholibah’s] conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;

Lying within Aholibah’s lust for male paramours is the subtly hidden spiritual Queen Vashti-like lust to be glorified by her female ‘paramours’ typified in young women on social media today with millions of followers. For the Bride’s keen observation, they represent the 40,000-plus Christian denominations residing in Babylon today, impudently arousing the laity with her fornicating doctrines and, with equal contrast, the noting of our potential pride.

Aholibah remembered the immorality of her youth and, later, as an older woman, seemed to secretly express the sorrowful and humiliating heartbreak of her lack of self-control. This study in Joel reflects the Lord’s compassion for this God-given condition for Aholah, the world, and particularly Aholibah, who both died in their sins without knowing that in the distant future, the holy spirit would empower the spiritual sister, the Bride of Christ, to overcome what Aholibah never considered possible…

Eze 23:20  For she doted upon their paramours [in this case, heterosexual males inability to reproduce spiritual fruit, as can’t asses physically], whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue [ejaculate] is like the issue [volume] of horses.

Jer 5:8  They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

First, let’s clarify what an ass is. A mule is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). A horse has 64 chromosomes, and a donkey has 62. The mule ends up with 63. Mules can be either male or female, but because of the odd number of chromosomes. They can’t reproduce. However, a male mule should be gelded in order to make him a safe and sociable animal. The term “ass” is interchangeable with that of “mule”, effectively a “paramour”; however, a donkey is a separate breed, and the result of crossing a female horse with a male donkey produces an “ass/mule” who is incapable of producing offspring.

Here now is the understanding of the spiritual symbolism of our Lord’s seemingly offensive imagery of the outwardly, genuinely pretty girls’ unbridled lust. It was their incurable lust for the most excellent-looking men’s incontinent desire for them that wildly energised the girls to validate their desirability endlessly. They are likened to wild asses who cannot reproduce yet irrepressibly pursue a stallion to quench their biological urgency.

Jer 2:24  A wild ass used to the wilderness [as opposed to a wife and keeper at home Tit 2:5], that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month [nothing will hold Ahola and Aholibah back from attestation to their beauty] they shall find her.

The young guys are depicted as having the flesh of asses, which spiritually means that they, too, cannot produce the fruit of righteousness that God desires as biologically can’t a female ass produce offspring.

The lusty young males’ comparatively minuscule “issue,” to match even one stallion’s issue, portrays the girl’s sheer number of ever-willing paramours, meaning the equivalence of espoused males equals endless adulteries. Apart from brutish passions, and because of the girl’s excessive breast stimulation, the naturally occurring melanin that causes skin darkening accumulates and can give the teats the appearance of bruising. Whilst ‘bruising’ can result from hormonal changes, lactation guarantees melanin darkening and, in Aholah and Aholibah’s case, is proof of sabotaged virginity.

Our Lord uses the offensive imagery of Aholah and Aholibah’s unquenchable sensual desires to emphasise our pursuit of their equivalent spiritual correlations to impact our conscience deeply. While in Babylonian Christianity, we received a prodigious’ issue’ of Satan’s seed to produce bastard spiritual offspring within and consequently greedily suckled the breast of the Great Whore to make strong our self-righteousness.

The following are verses reflecting the righteous use of a wife’s biological “towers”(Son 8:10), her breasts, which symbolise the Bride’s strength of fidelity and eternally delighting her Husband, children, and herself for their glorious God-given employments. Following are some supporting verses.

Joe 2:16  Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the Bride out of her closet.
Joe 2:17  Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar [for all the spilt blood of lies Eze 8:16. Rev 6:9], and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

Pro 5:19  Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

1Pe 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

1Pe 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed [of Satan], but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

When we painfully see that we are Aholibah, these ensuing verses are attributed to us.

Joh 8:9 And they [The immature Elect] which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest [For this cause, Aholah], even unto the last [the many called Aholibahs but not electd]: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman [Aholibah] standing in the midst.
Joh 8:10  When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
Joh 8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Since the cross, Christianity’s finger-pointing defamation of Aholah and Aholibah will, in the Lake of Fire, be destructively short-lived, as every person ever to be conceived, meaning the world of Gog and Magog will wish for the rocks (the Christs), to fall on them to hide them from the face of Christ and ‘his Christs’. The world will see, like we did, that they contain the guilt of Aholah, the elder sister, to have her whoredoms burned out of her in the Lake of Fire to bring forth fine gold into the Lord’s treasury.

Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

The beautiful conclusion of the sordid saga of man’s existence since Adam is that our Lord has first “pity” on Aholibah, His portrayed Wife, by abolishing her Jezebel-like shame (Rev 2:18-29) through his spirit in this age since the cross, and secondarily, his glorious pity extends to Aholah, the world in the Resurrection to Judgement. Hence…

Joe 2:26  And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you [in seemingly torturous judgement in the Lake of Fire]: and my people shall never be ashamed. 
Joe 2:27  And ye [Eventually every man] shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 

Those verses reflect our Husband, Christ’s immense “pity”; his mercy for the whoredoms he, through his deceitful servant Satan inflicted an endless ‘issue’ of fornication on the world to produce and redeem billions of bastard seed as numerous as the stars of heaven. In the following verse, Christ remembers his Bride and is today rejoicing with her as he puts the final touches on her righteousnesss in preparation to save the world in the Lake of Fire, the Resurrection to Judgement. As such, both Aholah and Aholibah’s shame shall never be sustained since their mortifying vulgarities mirror our parallelled spiritual impurities, for which we all are dreadfully grateful to these two girls.

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities [in being awakened to our Alhoa and Aholibah-like spiritual depravity], that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 

We rigidly realise that we are spiritual Aholah and Aholibah and ashamed to be first to stoop and pick up stones in judgement; we no longer ogle, leer, hiss, nudge, wink or jeer Aholah and Aholibah since they are us, spiritually, designed to perform outrageously shameful acts for our benefit.

Aholaibah first, and then Aholoah’s immeasurable shame.

Eze 16:59  For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
Eze 16:60  Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Eze 16:61  Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy [Free will] covenant.
Eze 16:62  And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:
Eze 16:63  That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.

The recurring verse for Part B of this study is, “Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.” (Pro 5:18), that Aholibah nakedly expressed physically for her paramours she, as the Bride today in learned God-given virgin purity, righteously expresses to her Lord with equal spiritual ardour for his and her mutually immense rejoicing.

Next week in Part C, and always Lord willing, we will study the essence that gives the Bride her power to achieve in spirit what she, as Aholibah, couldn’t physically.