Ambassador and Soldier for Christ: A Dual  – Part 1

[Study Aired September 30, 2025]

Calling in Spiritual Warfare

Introduction

In the closing verses of Ephesians 6, the apostle Paul sets before us one of the deepest paradoxes of Christian life: the dual calling to serve both as an ambassador and as a soldier for Christ. From his prison cell, Paul writes: “For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:20). This striking declaration immediately follows his description of the believer’s spiritual armor, making clear that diplomacy in ministry and conflict in spiritual warfare are not separate callings but inseparably bound together in the life of every disciple.

Through Paul’s Spirit-inspired words, we are presented with two roles that appear contradictory yet are divinely united in purpose. An ambassador represents peace, reconciliation, and the ministry of mediation. A soldier, by contrast, embodies warfare, conflict, and victory over hostile forces. Yet in God’s design these roles do not cancel one another; they complement and strengthen each other. We are called to be ambassadors of the Prince of Peace, while at the same time standing as soldiers in the army of the Lord of Hosts.

This twofold calling is grounded in Christ Himself, who came as both the suffering Servant and the conquering King. As Scripture testifies: “He came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh” (Ephesians 2:17, ESV). Yet the same Lord also declared: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). The sword He spoke of was not an earthly weapon of steel, but the sharp division wrought when His light and truth pierce through the darkness of sin and error.

Grasping our dual identity as both ambassadors and soldiers is vital for faithful Christian living. Too often, believers lean heavily to one side while neglecting the other. Some become so consumed with spiritual warfare that they lose sight of their diplomatic mission of reconciliation. Others, in seeking only peace, overlook the reality of the ongoing battles against spiritual forces of darkness. Scripture summons us to hold both callings together, maintaining the sacred balance that makes our testimony both powerful in conflict and compelling in peace.

The context of Paul’s words gives them greater weight. He writes of being an ambassador while bound in chains, proving that our standing before God is not lessened by earthly circumstances. He speaks of boldness even while restrained, revealing that true authority is spiritual and not confined by physical limitations. From this we learn that both our ambassadorship and our soldiership operate first and foremost in the unseen realm, even as they find expression in the visible details of our daily lives.

As we examine these complementary callings, Scripture will unfold the character of our ambassadorship, the nature of our warfare, and the harmony between the two in advancing the kingdom of God. The Old Testament foreshadows these roles, the New Testament brings them into clear light, and together they direct our gaze toward the final fulfillment when Christ Himself shall appear—both as the Prince of Peace to His redeemed and as the King of Kings who conquers every foe.

The Ambassador’s Commission: Representing Heaven on Earth

Paul directly names believers as ambassadors in his second letter to the Corinthians: “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). The Greek word presbeuō (G4243) means “to be older” or “to act as an ambassador” and carries the sense of one vested with dignity and authority. In the ancient world, such representatives spoke with the full power of the government that sent them, their words bearing the same weight as those of the sovereign himself.

The weight of this ambassadorial role cannot be overstated. In the ancient world, ambassadors carried immense authority. They did not speak on their own initiative but delivered the words of their sovereign with binding force. They could negotiate treaties, declare terms of peace or war, and represent the will of their nation in foreign courts. To insult or strike an ambassador was to insult or declare hostility against the very nation he represented.

Scripture shows that our ambassadorship rests firmly upon God’s eternal purpose of reconciliation. Paul explains the foundation of this commission: “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18–19). Through Christ, we who were estranged are restored, and now we carry the same ministry of reconciliation to others.

The ministry of reconciliation is the heart of our diplomatic mission. The term katallagē (G2643), translated “reconciliation,” means “exchange” or “restoration to favor.” It signifies that hostility has been exchanged for friendship, enmity for peace. Through Christ, God has reconciled us to Himself and entrusted us with the charge of extending this reconciliation to others.

This calling has its prototype in the Old Testament, where God sent prophets as His representatives both to Israel and to surrounding nations. Jonah illustrates this most clearly: “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” (Jonah 3:4). Jonah was sent not as a destroyer, but as a herald of warning and opportunity. The forty days of grace reveal the heart of our merciful God, who “is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The number forty in Scripture often signifies testing or trial. Just as forty days of rain brought judgment and purification in the days of Noah (Genesis 7:17), and Israel was tried forty years in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:2), so Nineveh was given forty days of trial—an appointed season to prove whether they would harden their hearts or repent and live.

When the Ninevites turned in true repentance, “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” (Jonah 3:10). This response reveals a sacred principle: our heavenly Father’s desire is always reconciliation, though His holiness is never compromised. The pattern seen in Jonah foreshadows the greater ministry we now carry as believers, for we are indeed “ambassadors for Christ.” The message remains consistent across both covenants—repent and live, or persist in rebellion and face judgment—yet always with God’s mercy extended toward those who will receive it.

The Authority and Duty of Spiritual Ambassadors

As ambassadors of Christ, we bear heavenly authority that rises above earthly rank or qualification. Jesus declared: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations” (Matthew 28:18–19). This Great Commission is the foundation of our credentials. We go forth not in our own power, but in the authority of the One who has triumphed over death and the grave.

An ambassador’s authority is inseparable from the sovereign he represents. Our effectiveness as Christ’s ambassadors does not rest on natural skill or human standing, but on closeness with Him. Jesus affirmed this truth: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12). It is through union with Him that heavenly authority flows.

With authority comes solemn duty. Ambassadors are charged to faithfully reflect their sovereign’s character, message, and intent. Paul grasped this when he wrote: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Though we are fragile vessels of clay, the treasure of God’s glory and word has been placed within us.

The message of an ambassador is not self-made but received directly from the sovereign. Isaiah expressed this with clarity: “The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isaiah 50:4). Our speech must be God’s speech, our message His message, and our heart aligned with His heart.

Peter gives clear guidance on the exercise of this authority: “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). As Christ’s ambassadors, we are not to voice our own opinions or philosophies but to declare the very oracles of God.

The Old Testament abounds with types of ambassadorial authority. When Moses appeared before Pharaoh, he bore God’s absolute authority, declaring: “Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go” (Exodus 5:1). His authority did not rest in eloquence—he himself confessed to being “slow of speech” (Exodus 4:10)—but in the commission of the Almighty. Likewise, Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal under heaven’s authority, and fire fell from the Lord: “Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench” (1 Kings 18:38).

The Eternal Perspective of Ambassadorship

To rightly understand our role as ambassadors, we must view it from an eternal perspective. Paul reminds us: “Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). The word politeuma (G4175) refers to citizenship or commonwealth. Thus, we are citizens of heaven, temporarily assigned to earth as diplomatic representatives of our eternal homeland.

Heavenly citizenship shapes how we respond to earthly conditions. Peter exhorts: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11). Ambassadors do not conform to the culture of their station; they uphold the laws and values of their homeland. In the same way, we are called to embody the standards of heaven, even while living in a foreign land.

Other Old Testament examples gives us vivid pictures of ambassadorial calling. Abraham was summoned to leave his country and kindred to serve as God’s representative in a foreign land. The promise he received unveils the eternal scope of this mission: “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:2–3). The Abrahamic covenant foreshadows our role as ambassadors through whom God’s blessing is extended to the nations.

Daniel stands as a model of ambassadorial character during his exile in Babylon. Though serving in a foreign court, he held fast to his loyalty to God and maintained a distinctly Hebrew identity. When pressed with conflicting loyalties, he chose obedience to God at any cost. His integrity and wisdom gained the respect of earthly rulers, while his steadfast faith revealed the surpassing wisdom of heaven. His prophetic ministry also shows the eternal scope of ambassadorship: he spoke not only to immediate issues but also of God’s kingdom that will one day prevail over all earthly powers: “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” (Daniel 2:44).

The Soldier’s Warfare: Fighting Battles Not of This World

The Nature of Spiritual Warfare

Though we serve as ambassadors of peace, we are also enlisted as soldiers in a battle that rises above the physical realm. Paul describes this conflict plainly: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 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” (2 Corinthians 10:3–5).

The word translated “war” is strateuomai (G4754), meaning “to serve as a soldier” or “to engage in military service.” Paul uses military language with purpose: we are truly soldiers, but our battlefield is spiritual, not earthly. The “strongholds” we tear down are not stone fortresses but entrenched systems of deception, pride, and rebellion that exalt themselves against God.

Our adversary is clearly identified: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Here Paul outlines a hierarchy of spiritual powers opposed to God’s kingdom. Knowing the true enemy guards us from wasting effort on fleshly conflicts or resorting to the wrong weapons.

The word “wrestle” (palē, G3823) speaks of close, hand-to-hand struggle rather than distant combat. This tells us that spiritual warfare is not occasional or abstract but personal and ongoing. We are engaged in continual close-quarters conflict with forces bent on undermining our faith, weakening our witness, and resisting God’s work in and through us.

The battlefield centers in the mind and heart. Paul speaks of “casting down imaginations” (logismos, G3053)—reasonings, arguments, and thoughts that oppose sacred truth. Satan’s chief weapon is deception, just as Jesus revealed: “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” (John 8:44).

The Old Testament gives vivid examples of spiritual warfare. David’s victory over Goliath shows how God’s servants overcome seemingly invincible foes. David proclaimed: “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand” (1 Samuel 17:45–46). The victory was secured not by greater weapons, but by faith in the name and power of God.

The Arsenal of Spiritual Weapons

God has equipped His people with weapons perfectly suited for spiritual warfare, each designed to counter the enemy’s schemes. Paul outlines this arsenal in Ephesians 6:13–17: “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

The belt of truth holds the entire armor together, teaching us that truth is foundational to victory. Jesus declared: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). This truth is not limited to intellectual knowledge but is embodied in Christ Himself, who said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

The breastplate of righteousness shields the heart, the very core of life. This righteousness is both positional—our standing in Christ—and practical—our daily walk in obedience. Isaiah foretold of Messiah: “But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins” (Isaiah 11:4–5). Our strength in warfare rests in union with Him who is our righteousness.

The shoes of the gospel of peace give us a firm footing. The word hetoimasia (G2091) speaks of readiness and stability. Our ability to stand fast in battle and advance the kingdom rests upon being grounded in the gospel, which establishes peace between God and man. Isaiah foretold this sure foundation: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” (Isaiah 52:7).

The shield of faith extinguishes all the fiery darts of the wicked one. These darts (belos, G956) were flaming arrows, dipped in combustible pitch to ignite destruction. Likewise, Satan launches sudden, burning assaults—thoughts, doubts, fears, temptations—intended to inflame the heart. Faith becomes our shield, resting in God’s unchanging character and His sure promises despite every circumstance.

The helmet of salvation guards the mind, which is the chief battlefield. Salvation is not only a past event but an active, present reality that shapes our thinking. Paul writes: “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” (Romans 12:2). Isaiah also saw this covering: “He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head” (Isaiah 59:17).

The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is the believer’s chief offensive weapon. Jesus Himself wielded it in the wilderness, answering each temptation with “It is written” (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10). Scripture describes this weapon as “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). With this sword we guard against deception and advance the truth into enemy-held ground.

part 2 will continue next week…

Rev 20:7-10 What and Who is Gog and Magog?, Part 3

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

We have established that the moniker, ‘Gog and Magog’ signify “the nations in the four quarters of the earth”:

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

While Revelation 20:8 is very clear, it is still incumbent upon anyone who is instructed as to the kingdom of heaven to understand and “bring forth out of his treasure things new and old.”

Mat 13:51  Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.
Mat 13:52  Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

I would not be a good “scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven” if I fail to ‘bring forth out of my treasures things new and old.’ I have shown you what the New Testament reveals about the part which ‘Gog and Magog” play in what the Lord is doing with His creatures, but we all need the foundational ‘second witness’ of the Old Testament if we truly want to know the mind of God concerning any subject.

In this study we will discuss verses 11-15 concerning the great white throne/lake of fire/second death. But the first part of this study will be concerned with who is cast into that lake of fire and brimstone at the great white throne judgment as this is witnessed to in the Old Testament.

In the case of ‘Gog and Magog’, that witness in our ‘old’ treasures is found in Ezekiel 38-39. John’s prophecy here in Revelation 20 is what brought me to see how the Lord wraps up the work He is doing to bring death to its much needed end:

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

Satan is not “the last enemy.” “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” When death is destroyed Satan himself will be reconciled to God:

Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. [Including the devil]
Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself [including the devil]; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

Gog and Magog have long been the symbol used by the holy spirit to signify the self-righteous, rebellious, carnal mind in “the nations in the four quarters of the earth” who will, at the appointed time, attempt to rebel against and overthrow “the Lord and His Christ.”

Here is Ezekiel 38 which demonstrates how crucial these two chapters are to the revelation of how the Lord will bring eonian times to an end:

Eze 38:1  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 38:2  Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
Eze 38:3  And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
Eze 38:4  And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
Eze 38:5  Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
Eze 38:6  Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.
Eze 38:7  Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.

Just like Joseph’s brothers, “the nations in the four quarters of the earth” will think in their own self-righteousness, that they have devised a plan to rebel and encamp against the saints (Rev 20:9). The truth is that the Lord “put hooks in [their] mouths” and “made them to err from His ways and hardened their hearts from His fear” (Isa 63:17).

Continuing with Ezekiel 38:

Eze 38:8  After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years [The “short season which follows the thousand-year reign of “our Lord and His Christ”] thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel [The ‘Israel’ of Romans 2:28-29, Galatians 6:15-16 and Ephesians 2:11-22], which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
Eze 38:9  Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. [“Encamp against the saints”,  “Compass the camp of the saints about”, (Rev 20:9)]
Eze 38:10  Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
Eze 38:11  And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
Eze 38:12  To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
Eze 38:13  Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
Eze 38:14  Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
Eze 38:15  And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
Eze 38:16  And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
Eze 38:17  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
Eze 38:18  And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
Eze 38:19  For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
Eze 38:20  So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
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.
Eze 38:22  And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
Eze 38:23  Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations [In the white throne judgment/lake of fire/ second death], and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 39 adds to our knowledge of what the Lord is doing:

Eze 39:6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 39:7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel [“The Israel of God”]; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
Eze 39:8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken. [Does this sound like a nation which has rejected and crucified its own Savior? No, of course not. “My people Israel” is “the Israel of God”, those who “worship God in spirit and in Truth.”]

When we are given the victory over the beast and his image, number, mark and name, it is not and it will not be by our choice but by the fact that “I will not let them pollute my holy name any more…” The Lord drags us to Himself just as He drags Gog to do His dirty work.

Natural, physical Israel is part of all those who have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Physical Israel is also part of “all both small and great rich and poor” who are caused to receive the mark of the beast:

Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man [Greek: ‘anthropos’, mankind]; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six.

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

It is those who “will not be permitted to pollute our Lord’s name” in this present time who will  “dwell [comfortably] in the devouring fire” (Isa 33:14-15). That “devouring fire” is the work of grace known as the lake of fire. They are also called “the cities of Israel.” It is these who are known as ‘the cities of Israel’ who “shall set on fire, and burn the weapons” of false doctrines and lies known as the “weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears” believed by those of all flesh who followed Satan’s lies. These are known in scripture as Gog and Magog.

Eze 39:9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:
Eze 39:10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down [any] out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 39:11 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call [it] The valley of Hamongog.

According to Revelation, the destruction of Gog and Magog follows the thousand-year reign of those who are overcomers in this life. That millennial period is what is called the judging of the nations of this world by the overcomers of the first resurrection (1Co 6:2, Rev 2:25-27, 11:15). So this is all symbolism for the destruction of death and hades. “Hamongog” means “the multitude of Gog” and is once again the Biblical symbol for the flesh of all men of all time who are to be judged in the fire of the lake of fire, known as the second death.

This is the smell of death which will be endured by those overcomers, “the house of Israel”, who are given to dispose of death and hades.

Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Here is the only symbolic hint we have of how long the process of the destruction of Gog and Magog will take. It is the symbol of “seven months”, and it is said to be done by “all the people of the land”, and it is called “a day of renown”.

Eze 39:12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
Eze 39:13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury [them]; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD. [When we glorify our Lord “it shall be to them a renown…”]
Eze 39:14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
Eze 39:15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.
Eze 39:16 And also the name of the city [shall be] Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

These verses explain just how thorough the destruction of Gog and Magog will be, and just how thorough will be the resurrection from the dead of all who have ever lived. The degree of the destruction of all flesh is the same degree to which life will be given to “all in Adam.” That is the degree to which “the land is cleansed” so that not one body fails to be buried. Being burned up and being buried are not different ways of disposing of the multitudes of Gog and Magog, they are merely different symbols signifying the destruction of all flesh of all time.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24 Then cometh the end [harvest of souls], when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

As long as sinful flesh and blood babies in Adam are being procreated on this earth, death cannot be destroyed. By means of a first resurrection, in which the overcomers of the ages will be prepared to become the saviors of all men of all ages, and by means of a millennium followed by a second rebellion, followed by a second resurrection and a lake of fire, we are made to understand that our Lord will bring all flesh to its necessary destruction and end.

It is in the first Adam that all men partake of the corruptible flesh which is “Gog and Magog”. It is through the destruction of that same corruptible flesh that life is given to “all in Adam”.

Eze 39:17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, [even] a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.
Eze 39:18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
Eze 39:19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
Eze 39:20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD. [“The supper of the Great God”, (Rev 19:17-19) the same words]
Eze 39:21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.

These beasts and fowls are all the false doctrines with which the Lord’s elect will judge Gog and Magog “out of [their] own mouths”, (Luk 19:22)]. The very false doctrines which were used to seduce them into following Satan will torment them, just as Joseph’s brothers’ fear of his revenge tormented them for 17 years. Just as we are all guilty of the death and crucifixion of our Lord and of drinking His blood and eating His flesh, until we were granted undeserved repentance, so must all Gog and Magog live by every word of God. This whole plan is all being worked by the Great Potter, who is “seeking an occasion” for the destruction of all flesh, and the destruction of death via the “lake of fire… raising of the dead from the sea, from death and from hades”, to be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death.

This brings us to the verses with which this study is concerned:

Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire.
Rev 20:15 And if any was not found written in the book of life [Joh 5:28-29], he was cast into the lake of fire. (ASV)

Why must most men be cast into the lake of fire? Why must Gog and Magog be destroyed at “the supper of the great God”? The last verses of Ezekiel 39 give us our answer:

Eze 39:22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.
Eze 39:23 And the heathen shall know that the [physical, natural, unrepentant] house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.
Eze 39:24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.
Eze 39:25 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel [“When Sodom returns to her former estate” Eze 16:55], and will be jealous for my holy name;
Eze 39:26 After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made [them] afraid.
Eze 39:27 When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;
Eze 39:28 Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there [“All in Adam”].
Eze 39:29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

God will especially have His elect to know that they are no exception to the “one event” which is “common to all men”. These are His words to the whole house of Israel:

Jer 25:17 Then took I the cup at the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:
Jer 25:18 To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as [it is] this day;

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

That “one event” is the judgment of God upon the unrighteousness and ungodliness of all men.”

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

“Judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17), but in the end, it must also come to all men, to Gog and Magog. All men must drink of the same cup of “the wrath of God against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men…”

Jer 25:28 And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.
Jer 25:29 For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.

It is all done for our sakes. It is all done for the sake of “the Israel of God.” It is first done to us so that we can be used as the channel for their salvation:

2Co 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

Gog and Magog are made unbelievers for our sakes. It is through their unbelief that you and I are God’s believing elect. We are not saved for our own sakes any more that Gog and Magog are unbelievers by their own choice. It is all of God, and it is all for His purpose of saving all mankind.

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.
Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

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

“The mount of Esau” is just that part of Gog and Magog which is closest to the Lord’s ‘Israel’, and the destruction of Gog and Magog is part of “all things” which are being done “of Him, and through Him, and to Him (Rom 11:36), that He might have mercy upon all” (Rom 11:32).

These two chapters, Ezekiel 38 and 39, are the foundation on which Revelation 19 and 20 stand. The details of these two chapters give us a much deeper understanding of who it is who “abuses” this world, [and] “compasses the camp of the saints about” in every generation since Adam and Eve, in which the seed of the serpent expresses his enmity against the seed of the woman.

Gog is called “the land of Magog”:

Eze 38:2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
Eze 38:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

“Gog and Magog” of Revelation 20 are the Biblical symbols which signify all of “the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth”.

Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

“The number… as the sand of the sea” is Biblical and spiritual language for “the world”; the whole world. These are the words used by the holy spirit to tell us who would become “Abraham’s seed.”

Gen 22:16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
Gen 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore: and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Gen 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Paul tells us this means the whole world.

Rom 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

So the holy spirit tells us in Revelation 20 that “the nations in the four quarters of the earth [are] Gog and Magog”, and Daniel tells us these nations must all be destroyed and then replaced by “the stone which was cut out of the mountain without hands.”

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.

Gog and Magog have long ago signified the occasion He is seeking  to judge this world with the fire of His own Words:

Eze 38:17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?

So we find “Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal” as the leader of the “many peoples” of this earth here in Ezekiel.

Eze 38:9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

This same symbol is expressed in this way in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ:

Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Here is how God is dealing with these “many people… the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth”, both within us at this time and to the end of the ages. This is the fate of all flesh, only after it has been brought with hooks in its mouth, to face its own corruptible condition.

Eze 39:2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of [annihilate] thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:

The words “and leave but a sixth part of thee” is all translated from the one primitive Hebrew root word which actually means “to annihilate.” Here is what Mr. Strong has to say about this word:

H8338
sha sha’
shaw- shaw’
A primitive root; apparently to annihilate. (Translated by confusion with H8341.): – leave but the sixth part [by confusion with H8341].

It was by confusion with the Hebrew word ‘shashah’ which is very similar, except for the first letter.

H8341
sha sha h
shaw- shaw’

A denominative from H8337; to sixth or divide into sixths: – give the sixth part.

So the root word that should have been translated ‘annihilate thee’ was instead translated ‘and leave but a sixth part of thee.’ However, the sum of God’s Word makes clear that all flesh will one day be annihilated, and through that annihilation of all flesh, all who have ever lived in bodies of flesh, will be given spiritual bodies which will never again “compass about the camp of the saints”.

Here is more of what it means to bring all flesh to its well deserved end.

Eze 39:3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
Eze 39:4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
Eze 39:5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

The bow and arrows of the adversary are his words and doctrines. Both will be destroyed in the heat of the light of the Truth which will then, over time, be made known to all things in heaven and in the earth. The only hints to how long the lake of fire will last are right here in this 39th chapter of Ezekiel, which we will cover as we come to those verses.

If Satan and his angels are in the lake of fire, then who are these ravenous birds of every sort and these beasts of the field which will devour Gog and Magog? Here is Christ’s own answer to that question.

Psa 18:26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.

Luk 19:22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

So the “ravenous birds of every sort, and the beasts of the field” which will be the instruments of the destruction of Gog and Magog, will be their own false doctrines. It will be the lies which Gog and Magog believe when they relinquish the flesh which will torment them until those very doctrines are burned up and destroyed within “all flesh”, of which Gog and Magog are the Biblical symbol.

Isa 66:16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.

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.

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

“The mountains of Israel” are “the camp of the saints… and the beloved city.” These are Biblical symbols for signifying God’s elect, in whom His Words dwell, and who will judge both this world now within, later in the millennium, and finally angels, “the devil and his angels” in the lake of fire.

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

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

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

The ’Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38-39 is the same ‘Gog and Magog’ of Revelation 20. The two accounts complement each other with Revelation clarifying that “the nations in the four quarters of the earth are to be destroyed by the signified “fire… from heaven”, followed by the judgment of all who have ever lived at the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/ second death.

In our final study of Revelation 20:7-10 we will discover when “all Israel shall be saved”.

Rev 20:7-10 When The 1,000 Years Are Expired, Part 2

[Study Aired June 27, 2025]

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

In this study we will see when “all [natural] Israel shall be saved” and we will learn why the Lord must literally rule “the kingdoms of this world… with a rod of iron… for a thousand years”. Before we can hope to understand how “all Israel shall be saved” we must first know who “the twelve tribes of Israel” are mentioned in Revelation 7:

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

Notice what is said of these 144,000 in chapter 14:

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits to God and to the Lamb.

“These were redeemed from among men”. It does not say ‘Jewish men’, it simply says “from among men”, and this is the “principle” by which that statement is made:

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

Galatians 6:15-16 is in complete accord with:

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

The holy spirit has blinded the eyes of the entire incorporated Christian church to the word “not” in Romans 2:28. The whole orthodox Christian world, as well as many governments of this world still believe that natural, physical Jews are still the chosen people of God. They all still believe that when the Lord told Abraham…

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 12:2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 

…that there were no conditions attached to that promise. Nothing is further from the Truth.

These verses are quoted by many Rabbis and many fundamental Christians as if they actually read… ‘Regardless of what you do I will bless you and curse your ememies.’ That is obviously not what the Lord told Abraham. The better part of the Old Testament is filled with all the curses the Lord promised would come on Israel if they did not obey the Lord. The Lord used Israel’s immediate neighbors, Syria, Edom, Moab and Ammon, as well as Pharaoh Necho, of Egypt, and Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon to punish Israel when they would reject and disobey Him. The physical Jews of modern times have continued that same rebellion and rejection of their Lord, and the curses upon Israel of Deuteronomy 28 are just as relevant today as the day they were first penned.

Genesis 12:3 is but one verse of scripture. It is “the sum of [God’s] Word” which  constitutes Truth:

Psa 119:160  The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV)

All the rabbis and fundamental Christians who think Genesis 3:12 is a stand-alone verse of scripture would do well to take note of Psalms 119:160. It does not read “some of thy Word is Truth”, rather it says “the sum of Thy Word is Truth.” A little more of that ‘sum’ concerning what God blesses and what He curses concerning Israel is found in Deuteronomy 28. That chapter of scripture consists of 68 verses proclaiming the blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedience. The first 14 verses concern the blessings the Lord promises Israel if they obey Him:

Deu 28:1  And it shall come to pass,if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
Deu 28:2  And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

There is not even a hint of unconditional favor because they are Abraham’s seed. The Truth is that all the rest of that chapter, the last 54 verses are all concerned with the curses which will come upon Israel if they disobey the Lord.

Deu 28:15  But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

If there were just two more verses those curses would occupy exactly 4 times as many verses as the blessings. Clearly God’s favor on Israel is not unconditional, and Genesis 12:3 does not say that it is.

Gen 12:3  “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” is in fact a promise which applies to all who follow in the footsteps of Abraham and listen diligently to the Lord’s words and obey them.

This is what Paul was inspired to tell the Gentile Corinthian converts:

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them [all who ignore and rebel against the Lord], 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.

Here is the mind of God as it concerns physical Jews and their relationship with Him:

Rom 2:9  Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
Rom 2:10  But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
Rom 2:11  For there is no respect of persons with God.

The spirit then goes on to tell us what a ‘Jew’ is and what a ‘Jew’ is not, and it is found right here in this same 2^nd chapter of Romans:

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

The spirit has made clear that it is “he… which is… a Jew… inwardly”, who is being judged first and experiencing the “tribulation and anguish” of that judgment in this present time.

Not one Rabbi or Christian minister in a thousand will acknowledge the truth of Romans 2:28.

Paul, inspired of the holy spirit, reiterates this spiritual principle in:

Gal 6:15  Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do – submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!
Gal 6:16  All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God— his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them! (MSG)

We will learn in this study, that physical Israel will not even “return to  their former estate… until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in”.

The question now is what then did Paul mean when he stated:

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to [physical, natural] Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins

Exactly ‘when’ will God “take away the sins of… all Israel?” Paul may seem to many to the false ministers of Babylon to contradict himself, but he was not in the least bit confused when he plainly states that “the fall of them is the salvation of the Gentiles.”

Rom 11:11  I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
Rom 11:12  Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?

Does it not say “God forbid?” Yes, indeed, it does say “God forbid” that Israel’s stumbling is only for the purpose of falling. Paul goes on to twice explain that “through their fall, salvation is come to the Gentiles” [and] through “the fall of them is the riches of the world.” He makes clear that there are a few of those who are “Jews outwardly” who even now are being saved, and he calls them “the election” of physical Israel. However, he makes it super clear that “the rest were blinded.” So what does this mean for the vast majority of physical Israel? Paul answers that question without hesitation:

Rom 11:7  What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

Will the physical nation of Israel be the preeminent nation on earth during the “thousand years” reign of God’s elect? When exactly does “the fulness of the Gentiles” come in?

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

The Old Testament scriptures actually tell us exactly when “all Israel be shall be saved.” It tells us “when [the Lord] shall take away their sins.” It does not give us an exact date, but it does give us an exact timeline, and the world has been blinded by the Lord to what is right here in the scriptures. Here is the scriptural answer to these questions for all who are given to receive it.

Eze 16:55  When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

There it is in very clear language. “When… Sodom… and Samaria” return to our Lord, “then you and your daughters shall return to your former estate” with our Lord. That is when “the fullness of the Gentiles will be come in”, and that is when “all Israel shall be saved”. Again:

Rom 11:7  What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

Who then will rule during that thousand-year period? Here they are:

Eph 2:11  Wherefore remember, that ye [Gentile Ephesians] being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh [a part of the commonwealth of Israel] by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Eph 2:17  And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Eph 2:18  For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Eph 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

God is not making of twain, twain. He is making “of twain one new man.”  This “new man” is no longer in need of a physical Abrahamic pedigree. The new paradigm is to become an obedient “overcomer” of the rebellious, sinful, carnal mind:

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.

What did Christ “receive of His Father?” Remembering the primary inward application of this prophecy, what Christ received from His Father is the same commission which you and I have been sent to accomplish. Christ was sent by His Father to save this world, and with us He was given the commandment to lay down His life for us.

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

Joh 10:15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Joh 10:16  And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold [of physical Israel]: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. [Eph 2:14-15]

Christ did not “receive a commandment of His Father” to establish two folds of sheep. He came and laid down His life “to make of twain one new man.” He did not come to make twain of twain with a physical ‘chosen people’ and a different spiritual ‘chosen people.’ There is but “one new man… one body”, one gospel… one spirit… and one “chosen …elect”.

Here is another symbol of these elect:

Rev 7:4  And I heard the number of them which were sealed: [and there were] sealed an hundred [and] forty [and] four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Let us not attempt to make ‘some of God’s word true’ by pitting this verse against Ezekiel 16:55, Romans 2:28-29, Galatians 6:15-16 and Ephesians 2:11-16. It is “the sum of God’s Word which is true”, and that ‘sum’ clearly makes an Israelite or a Jew, a spiritual and an inward matter.

Ephesians 2 informs us that “[we] were in time past Gentiles in the flesh… but now in Christ Jesus [we] are … the commonwealth of Israel” (Eph 2:11-16).

What did Christ “receive of His Father”? He received the commandment to die for the sins of mankind, this entire world.

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

These “hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel” are the “true Israel of God [who] live by the rule that neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” “All the tribes of Israel” are now “he that is a Jew inwardly”, “made of twain one new man”, and it is these spiritual “Jews” and these spiritual “Israelites” who are now, and who will be, ruling and reigning with a rod of iron, with Christ for a thousand years. It is through the unbelief of physical Israel and all the unbelievers in Babylon, “that great city where also our Lord was crucified”, that you and I are granted to be believers:

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.

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

“My suffering for you… filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake?” Does Paul think these words apply only to himself? No, of course not. This is speaking of all those who are now granted to rule over the giants within their land and over their nations within, and who will, at the appointed time rule over the outward nations of this world for a thousand years. It will certainly not be the physical nation of Israel which until this very day denies their own savior.

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

So what is this thing called “a thousand years?”

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom [is] as the sand of the sea.

God will have Satan imprisoned for a symbolic “thousand years.” Why does He then release Satan out of his prison?

The answer is that God’s plan is not finished by giving His elect the dominion of the kingdoms of this world during this thousand-year period. Babies are still being born during that time. Death has not yet been destroyed and would never be destroyed if new baby ‘Adams’ continued being born into this world. In the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians we are told that this rule of our Lord will last “till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

If the phrase “of His kingdom there shall be no end” were speaking of this thousand-year period, what need would there be to release Satan from his prison to again deceive the nations of this earth after the thousand years are expired?

Luk 1:33  And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

How can “the thousand years [be] expired” (Rev 20:7) if there is no end to the kingdom?

Is death destroyed during the thousand years, or could it be that the destruction of death is the very purpose for this thousand-year reign and the release of Satan to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth? What does scripture teach?

Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

The words of verse 10 here are the same words used to describe the fiery trials of the Lord’s elect in Revelation 14:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. [What exactly is all of this???]
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. [Here are they who “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book”, (Rev 20)]:
Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

Here we are told “fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Does that destroy the kingdom of God? What does the final physical conflagration accomplish and what does it produce?

This entire scene is given us in much greater detail in Ezekiel 38, which we will have to look at in our next study. The one thing that is clear, is that the thousand years are nothing more that a time which brought “the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth” (vs 8) into position to be “devoured by fire which comes down from God out of heaven.” In other words, this thousand-year reign, like Samson’s marriage to a Philistine woman, serves only to give God “an occasion against the Philistines” because, just as sin and death hold dominion over all flesh, “the Philistines had dominion over Israel… at that time”.

Jdg 14:1  And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
Jdg 14:2  And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
Jdg 14:3  Then his father and his mother said unto him, [Is there] never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

Placing Satan in the abussos of our fleshly carnal mind, under the chain and seal of these the words of our Lord, is all “of the Lord, [because] the Lord sought an occasion against… the nations in the four quarters of the earth… to devour them with fire that will come down from God out of heaven.”

Who is this “camp of the saints and the beloved city?” The camp of the saints is “the Israel of God” of Galatians 6:15-16. ‘The camp of the saints” is the spiritual 12,000, from each of the [spiritual] 12 tribes of Israel of Revelation 7:4. The camp of the saints are those who “are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision made by hands” (Eph 2:11). The camp of the saints are all those who are “reconciled unto God in one body” (Eph 2:16). The camp of the saints are the few who will serve and reign with God for a thousand years and then be confronted and opposed by “the nations in the four quarters of the earth” (Rev 20:7-8). The camp of the saints are “the Israel of God” of Gal 6:15-16; they are “Jerusalem above” (Gal 4:26), the “New Jerusalem” (Rev 3:12), and the overcomers of Galatian 6:15-16. The camp of the saints are those who are numbered 144,000 who will rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years, and then will continue to rule and reign with Christ in the lake of fire, which is the second death.;

Gog and Magog, on the other hand, signify all the inhabitants of the earth after a thousand years of being ruled with a rod of iron, and are like the Philistines of Samson’s day. They simply have no way of knowing or understanding that these saints against whom they are encamped are the same people who are right at home in the everlasting burnings, and the devouring flames of this symbolic ‘lake of fire.’

Isa 33:13  Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might.
Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?  [Who will dwell with His devouring fire??? Here’s God’s own answer]:
Isa 33:15  He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

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.

If they knew who they were going up against, they would not be giving God the occasion He is seeking to destroy all sin and death by bringing an end to all flesh. If they knew who they were encamping against, they would not furnish God the “occasion” He is seeking to bring an end to the birth of babies and bring about the second resurrection of all the dead of all time, to be cast into the lake of fire to be purified, so “that through your mercy they also may 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.
Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

That is the wonderful reward which will be granted to every man whose name is written in the book of life of the lamb. That man will be one of the few chosen to show the Lord’s loving mercy and grace on all who are cast into the lake of fire.

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.

In our next study if the Lord wills, we will go through the 38th chapter of Ezekiel which is the inspiration for much of this chapter of Revelation, and we will also cover these verses of this chapter 20 of Revelation.

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

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

[Study Aired December 11, 2022]

Act 2:25  For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Act 2:26  Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
Act 2:27  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Act 2:28  Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
Act 2:31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Act 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

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

Here are the last three verses of our last study:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is the Psalm Peter quoted:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

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

Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
Act 2:31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [Greek, ‘hades’, the grave], neither his flesh did see corruption.
Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Act 2:35  Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1Co 13:8  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
1Co 13:9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
1Co 13:10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances [affirmed for Jewish Christians by the letter to the Gentiles of Acts 15]; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

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

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

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

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

1Ki 11:1-4 “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom”

[Study Aired March 10, 2022]

1Ki 11:1  But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; 
1Ki 11:2  Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. 
1Ki 11:3  And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. 
1Ki 11:4  For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. 

With God’s mercy in our life we can apply our hearts unto wisdom and number our days.

Psa 90:12  So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Solomon ruled as king over all Israel for forty years (1Ki 11:42), and in the end it was revealed that he was not given to apply his heart unto wisdom as king David in type and shadow did.

1Ki 11:42  And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.

1Ki 11:4  For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

The Godly wisdom was there in Solomon’s life at one point, and we could say in type and shadow that he had “tasted of the heavenly  gift” of Hebrews 6:4, but he was corrupted by his love for “many strange women” (1Ki 11:1) which we know represents churches where false doctrines reside turning our hearts away from the Lord if God allows this. It was these actions that caused Solomon to stop applying his heart to wisdom, unlike David who typifies the elect who are chastened and scourged by a sword that does not depart from his house or our house, which house represents the temple we are (2Sa 12:10, Heb 12:6, 1Co 3:16). Solomon, on the other hand, was brought into this bondage of ungodly relationships by loving the world, represented by “the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites.” (1Jn 2:15-17, Php 3:7-8)

1Ki 11:1  But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 
1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

[“I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David” (1Ki 11:38) is a promise by God whose conditions can only be met through Christ, and so, although a sure physical house was built for Solomon, the spiritual house, the temple of God which was his body, was corrupted by “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” In the positive, Solomon can and does represent the elect during the thousand-year reign who will rule over the riches of mankind’s kingdoms (Rev 11:15), the silver and gold and ivory as well as the ape and peacock of  (1Ki 10:22) that was brought to Solomon from afar. However, in the negative all these physical liberties given to Solomon corrupted him and caused him to forget God’s commands preventing him from continuing in those things which were required of him as king. Thus, he lost sight, at least in type and shadow, of Christ’s words in Luke 12:15: “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” This brings to mind what God tells us will naturally happen to all of us unless the Lord continues to keep us humble in this life, and we know these events of Solomon’s life were written for our sakes upon whom the end of the world are come (Deu 8:10-11, 1Co 10:11)].

Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, [Mat 10:39]

[If God gives us the ability to continue in the truth (Joh 8:31-32, Php 2:12-13) and value the eternal words of God more than anything in this life, we will join each other in this comparative statement Paul was inspired to write telling us as the body of Christ we will lose all things, (Rev 2:10)  in order to gain the life of Christ, which cannot happen without going through much tribulation and persecution and fiery trials. Despite all of that affliction and suffering, we will be shown to be more than conquerors through Him (Rom 8:38-39) as a result of being given to endure unto the end (Php 2:13) as we keep our eyes on Christ who promises “I will give thee a crown of life” as a result of our working out our own salvation with fear and trembling as we press toward “the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Php 3:14)]

King David, like Solomon, also reigned forty years (1Ki 2:11) and both time periods represent the much tribulation and many trials [40] that we must endure in order to be in that blessed and holy first resurrection (2Ti 2:12). Solomon can be seen as our old man who must decrease, while David can represent the new man, Christ in us, as our hope of glory whom God promises will increase  and will not deny Himself in that process of overcoming within us (Joh 3:30, 2Ti 2:13).

Joh 3:30  He must increase, but I must decrease. 

2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: 
2Ti 2:13  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful [Christ in us (Col 1:27)]: he cannot deny himself. 

It takes both forty years, however, in order to create the new man represented by the number eighty (forty plus forty). This brings us back to Psalm 90:1-13 where we read of “a prayer of Moses the man of God” that explains what God does within those eighty typical years of our life and how he uses forty of them to destroy the man of sin within us, represented by Solomon [40 year reign] and builds up the new man represented by king David [40 year reign].

Psa 90:1  A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 

Psa 90:10  The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength [Php 4:13] they be fourscore years [80 years], yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

When we read this section of scripture (1Ki 11:1-43), if we keep this principle in mind that both David and Solomon are within us, then we will get the message of the books of Kings and every book of the bible that is admonishing the body of Christ to hold fast to our crown and be confident “that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Rev 3:11, Rev 2:10, Php 1:6, Gal 5:1, Php 4:1). Here is that prayer of Moses which in type and shadow reveals the certainty of God’s deliverance in the life of those who have His spirit, that enables us to go through the fiery trials of this life that will refine the gold and silver of God’s word within us.

Psa 90:1  A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations [thinking within] .
Psa 90:2  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God [Eph 1:4]. 
Psa 90:3  Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. 
Psa 90:4  For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night [2Pe 3:8]. 
Psa 90:5  Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 
Psa 90:6  In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 
Psa 90:7  For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
Psa 90:8  Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. 
Psa 90:9  For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

[All of these verses we’ve read (Psa 90:3-9) are the narrative that leads up to the passage that reveals the new man that is formed through a lifetime of much tribulation]

Psa 90:10  The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years [80], yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away [Job 5:7, Jas 4:14]. 
Psa 90:11  Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath [Rom 11:22, Act 10:35, Ecc 12:13]. 
Psa 90:12  So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom [Rom 2:13].
Psa 90:13  Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. 
Psa 90:14  O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. [Rom 11:5, Rom 11:11, Rom 11:20-26, Rom 11:31-32] 
Psa 90:15  Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. 

Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 

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

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ [“I will give thee a crown of life“]:

Gal 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 

Php 4:1  Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

This section of scripture in the book of Timothy admonishes the body of Christ as to what we should and shouldn’t do in our service to God and will help brighten our understanding of what God is teaching us through this section of 1 Kings where we learn that Solomon’s heart became corrupted by “his wives [who] turned away his heart after other gods” so that he “was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.” So we are admonished today to cry out to God as Christ did (Heb 5:7) and fear Him and ask Him to “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

1Ti 6:1  Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour [Rom12:1], that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed [Php 3:14-15, 1Jn 1:7]. 
1Ti 6:2  And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort [Christ is our believing master (Joh 13:13-15, Luk 6:46)]. 
1Ti 6:3  If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; 
1Ti 6:4  He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, 
1Ti 6:5  Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. 
1Ti 6:6  But godliness with contentment is great gain. 
1Ti 6:7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 
1Ti 6:8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 
1Ti 6:9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 
1Ti 6:10  For the love of money^{G5365 G5366 [rich young ruler (Mat 19:21)]} is the root [“a” root not “the” root – see most other translations] of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

[“For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.“]

1Ti 6:11  But thou, O man of God, flee these things; [“Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches” (Pro 30:8)] and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness [“feed me with food convenient for me” (Pro 30:8)]. 
1Ti 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. [flee fornication (1Co 6:18), flee idolatry (1Co 10:14), flee youthful lusts (2Ti 2:22)]
1Ti 6:13  I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things [Joh 6:63, Joh 6:68], and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; 
1Ti 6:14  That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: 

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, [Rom 6:23] and was heard in that he feared; 

1Ki 11:1  But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;

God has called His children to overcome all these “strange women” which the wretchedness of our flesh could not begin to overcome except the Lord deliver us (Rom 7:24-25, Joh 8:36), and so we are admonished to flee all these ‘women’ that represent churches: “the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites” knowing that it is Christ in us who is giving us the power to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling as we overcome through Him (Php 2:12-14).

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

Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 
Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 

Together “with the daughter of Pharoah”^H6547 (Rev 17:1-5), these women typify the fleshly parts of Babylon within me that must be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming which will destroy (2Th 2:3-7) the part of my heart that is yet being held captive by her lies, as Solomon in type and shadow was experiencing  (2Co 6:17-18).

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: [“the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites“]
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: [We all go into Babylon and by God’s grace come out of her (2Co 6:17)] 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:

[flee fornication (1Co 6:18),  flee idolatry (1Co 10:14),  flee youthful lusts (2Ti 2:22)]

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. 

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.

Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 

• Moabites,H4125  H4124 [spiritually learning the way of the heathen (Jer_10:2) typifies this incestuous spirit of H4124 where we have children with our father the devil’s children while in Babylon]

• Ammonites,H5984  H5983

• Edomites,H130  H123

• Zidonians,H6722  H6721 – H6679 – H6718 [negative use of fishers of men, hunters of men]

• Hittites;H2850  H2845  H2865 [where God’s spirit is there is liberty (2Co 3:17) but without his spirit we see what the foundation of all these Babylonian woman or churches is founded upon having no stay of bread or water (Isa 3:1, Jas 3:16, 2Ti 4:18)].

H2865 châthath  khaw-thath’

A primitive root; properly to prostrate; hence to break down, either (literally) by violence, or (figuratively) by confusion and fear: – abolish, affright, be (make) afraid, amaze, beat down, discourage, (cause to) dismay, go down, scare, terrify.  Total KJV occurrences: 48

Links to other studies on the spiritual significance of these peoples:

• Ammonites and Moabites
• Edomites
• Zidonians
• Hittites

How blessed we are to have God’s love shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5-6, 1Jn 4:17-19) to overcome that confusion and fear, that violence to God’s word in Babylon that while it is abiding in our heavens beats down Christ and discourages us, and dismays us and scares us and terrifies us until the appointed time that God says enough (2Th 2:3, 2Th 2:6).

Rom 5:5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 
Rom 5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 

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. 
1Jn 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 
1Jn 4:19  We love him, because he first loved us. 

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; [when God says enough]

2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

That man of sin is revealed through the chastening and scourging God gives His children the ability to endure, and it is through that correction, through that suffering, we learn obedience (Heb 12:6, Heb 5:7).

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death,[Rom_6:23] and was heard in that he feared;

1Ki 11:2  Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

In type and shadow, Solomon was not just thinking above what was written (1Co 4:6), which is always the starting point of any of our divergent paths which take us away from God’s word (Jas 1:15, Gen 3:6), but he was getting right in bed with those he ought not have. By these actions he was shedding abroad his perverted sense of what love was in the lives of all these women, committing for our sake spiritual fornication before God to remind us not to lust after these things “as they also lusted” (1Co 10:5-6). Solomon demonstrated how our flesh wants to take occasion with the liberty God gives us, and instead of ‘coming out of her my people’ “Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you“, Solomon went in to them and they in unto him resulting in his reaping what God said he would sow if he did this, “Surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.“

1Ki 11:3  And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
1Ki 11:4  For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Solomon’s heart was turned away from God, and the numbers in these verses reveal the beastly nature of man that has seven heads and ten horns (Rev 13:1):  “Seven hundred wives” who were “princesses” and “three hundred concubines.” God is showing us through these ordained scenarios of Solomon’s life what we are before God comes in and starts to destroy the man of sin within us, the beast with seven heads and ten horns. Seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines gives us the grand total of our fleshly relationship in Babylon 1000 that must be judged and destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming into our heavens (2Pe 3:8).

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 

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

Solomon’s actions in this verse (1Ki 11:4) typify someone operating in their flesh and not in the spirit (Gal 5:16-21): “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.” He was not being portrayed as someone who was fighting the good fight of faith as his father king David had done, whose life typifies the fruits of righteousness that come about as a result of being “a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will” (1Ti 6:12, Act 13:22, Gal 5:22-26).

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 
Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 

1Ti 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 

Act 13:22  And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. 

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.

As we get older we can either see our old man perish and our new man thrive (2Co 4:16, Psa 92:13-15), or we can see our old man negatively thrive and whatever relationship we had with Christ fall apart and come short (Eze 18:24, Heb 4:1). That is the major lesson we are to take from the life of Solomon who started off very strong in God’s service but became distracted and took his eyes off of the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ (1Co 9:24-25, Php 3:14-15). These things “happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1Co 10:11).

2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, [1Co 15:31] yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

Psa 92:13  Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. 
Psa 92:14  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; 
Psa 92:15  To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. 

Eze 18:24  But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die [Rom 6:1-5].

Heb 4:1  Let us therefore fear [Heb 5:7], lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 

1Co 9:24  Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 
1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things [Luk 21:19]. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 

Solomon, in type and shadow, was not able to handle the truth, as the riches of God’s word were only residing in him superficially and became choked by the cares of this world (Mar 4:3-7). The lesson for God’s people is to pray for a greater sense of urgency as we near the end of this age praying for each other that our faith fail not (Luk 22:32) and that we might receive the blessing of having an “honest and good heart” upon which God can “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Mar 4:8-9, Luk 8:15).

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

Mar 4:3  Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: 
Mar 4:4  And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. 
Mar 4:5  And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: 
Mar 4:6  But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 
Mar 4:7  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 
Mar 4:8  And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased [1Co 3:6]; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. 
Mar 4:9  And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 

Luk 8:15  But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart [1Co 2:16], having heard the word, keep it [Rev 1:3], and bring forth fruit with patience [1Co 9:27, Luk 21:19].

Jer 22:17-30  O Earth, Earth, Earth, Hear the Word of the Lord

[Study Aired October 31, 2021]

Jer 22:17  But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
Jer 22:18  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
Jer 22:19  He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Jer 22:20  Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
Jer 22:21  I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.
Jer 22:22  The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.
Jer 22:23  O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
Jer 22:24  As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;
Jer 22:25  And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jer 22:26  And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
Jer 22:27  But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.
Jer 22:28  Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Jer 22:30  Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

The prophecy of Jeremiah began in the reign of Josiah, the best king Judah ever had, but Josiah’s sons Shallum and Jehoiakim were both evil kings. Josiah typifies Christ within us, and his sons typify our old man, a vessel that is “marred in the Potter’s hand” (Jer 18:4), who was “made to be taken and destroyed” (2Pe 2:12).

We are told that Jeremiah mourned the death of Josiah, but in this study we are told no one will mourn the death of either of his sons, Shallum or Jehoiakim.

2Ki 23:25  And like unto him [Josiah] was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
2Ki 23:26  Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.

2Ch 35:25  And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.

When we read of Josiah… “there… was… no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him” and when the Lord tells us, “Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal” what we are being told is:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

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

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

2Co 5:19  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

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

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.

What all these verses reveal is that the “many wonderful works” of our old man will not earn us salvation, because our good works and our righteousnesses are just filthy rags to our Lord:

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

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

Our last study ended with the holy spirit contrasting the reign of Josiah with that of his son, Shallum:

Jer 22:14  That [Shallum, vs 11] saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
Jer 22:15  Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father [Josiah] eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
Jer 22:16  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

This study will begin by contrasting both Shallum and Jehoiakim, another son of Josiah, both being types of our old man, with his father, Josiah, a type of Christ in us:

Jer 22:17  But thine eyes and thine heart [Shallum] are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
Jer 22:18  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
Jer 22:19  He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

A burial of a person being treated as the burial of an ass is no burial at all. It amounts to being cast out to be devoured by the buzzards, as Jeremiah has already told us:

Jer 7:33  And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.

Jer 15:3  And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.

Jer 16:4  They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

Jer 19:7  And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

“I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place” leads us to believe that the influence of the great whore upon the kings of this world is, was and will be diminishing. This hatred of the great whore will climax in an end of this age rejection of all religions. All who stand with the great whore will also be rejected by the beast over whom this whore has had such a great influence for so long:

Jer 22:20  Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.

Lebanon and Bashan here are types of Judah and Jerusalem. Why ‘Lebanon’ is used to typify this great whore we will see in a few minutes, but for now this is how the destruction of this ‘great whore’s lovers’ is expressed in the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ:

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.

Notice that it was God who put it in their heart to “make her desolate and naked, [to] eat her flesh, and burn her with fire”. The adversary was no doubt involved but only at the behest of the Lord Himself.

So it is with “all things” (Eph 1:11), including “the preparations of the heart” in every man:

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

The scriptures plainly teach that when we do not hear His voice it is because the Lord Himself has given us ‘eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear’:

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.

Therefore, when we read:

Jer 22:21  I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.
Jer 22:22  The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.

We can now see just how true it is that the Lord “makes us to err from His ways”. He does so by making us physically prosperous while becoming daily more spiritually ‘wretched, miserable, poor, and blind and naked.’

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.

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

Christ Himself tells us this of our old man before He “returns the tribes of [our] inheritance”. This is what “return the tribes of thine inheritance” means:

Deu 30:3  That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

Inwardly the nations that hold us captive are all the false doctrines which held our hearts and minds when we believed them. Until He “turns [our] captivity” this is how the Lord “makes us to err from His ways, and hardens our hearts from His fear”:

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

Notice, Christ did not say ‘You refuse to hear my word’, although that is true. Instead, He gives us the reason why we refuse to hear Him.

The NLT puts it this way:

Joh 8:43  Why can’t you understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to do so! (NLT)

Christ had earlier said the same thing in these verses:

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.

So, the thoughts and actions of all men have always been a matter of what God has placed into our hearts and minds to keep us as captives to the doctrines of the great whore. Our very thoughts are not our own because:

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

Solomon knew this Truth because he had read these words of Elihu in the book of Job:

Job 34:10  Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
Job 34:11  For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.
Job 34:12  Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment.
Job 34:13  Who hath given him a charge over the earth? or who hath disposed [H7760: ‘sum’] the whole world?
Job 34:14  If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;
Job 34:15  All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.

The Hebrew word translated as ‘disposed’ in verse 13 is ‘sum’ (Pronounced ‘soom’), and it means ‘to put, to place, to set’.

H7760
שִׂים    שׂוּם
śûm    śı̂ym
soom, seem

A primitive root; to put (used in a great variety of applications, literally, figuratively, inferentially and elliptically): –    X any wise, appoint, bring, call [a name], care, cast in, change, charge, commit, consider, convey, determine, + disguise, dispose, do, get, give, heap up, hold, impute, lay (down, up), leave, look, make (out), mark, + name, X on, ordain, order, + paint, place, preserve, purpose, put (on), + regard, rehearse, reward, (cause to) set (on, up), shew, + stedfastly, take, X tell, + tread down, ([over-]) turn, X wholly, work.

Total KJV occurrences: 580

It is the Lord who puts, places and sets every man where that man is. That is true physically, racially, ethnically, socially, financially, and mentally and spiritually. Remember that when you are tempted to hate your brother. Remember that also when you are tempted to “bow down to the angel who [shows you] these things” (Rev 19:10 and Rev 20:8). When we are both evil and good, we are mere vessels in the Lord’s hands.

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

All glory therefore goes only to the Lord because:

Psa 139:2  Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
Psa 139:3  Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
Psa 139:4  For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

“You understand my thought afar off” means the Lord knows our thoughts before we have them because:

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

It is true that the Lord’s words concerning His judgments upon our sins dominate most of His Word, but this is the reason for that fact:

Isa 35:4  Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
Isa 35:5  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped

“With a recompence; he will come and save you” and open your eyes and unstop your ears. These words of Isaiah are the foundation for these words of the revelation of Jesus Christ within us:

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.

The “seven plagues” are the “recompense” for our sins of Isaiah 35:4. God has “made us to err from His ways, and [He has] hardened our hearts from His fear, and “made [us] wicked for [our own] day of evil’. (Isa 63:17, Pro 16:4), to give Himself “[the] occasion [He is seeking] to judge us, His own people in “this present time” (Rom 8:18).

Jer 6:19  Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.

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.

‘Lebanon’ means ‘white’. With its snow-covered mountains and its mighty cedars, it signifies anything that is exalted. In this chapter it refers to the kings of Judah who live in houses which are roofed with cedar, as we were told earlier in this chapter:

Jer 22:14  That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled [roofed] with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

Our beast exalts himself, but when our beast first begins to be killed by the sword of God’s Word, the spiritual Pharisees then make us “two-fold more the child of hell than [themselves]”:

Mat 23:15  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

At this point we are Judah (Ahollabah), the “beast that comes up out of the earth having two horns like a lamb, but speaking like a dragon” (Rev 13:11), as opposed to Aholah our earlier religious experience.

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

It is this beast that comes out of the earth to whom this chapter of Jeremiah is addressed as we will soon see:

Jer 22:23  O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
Jer 22:24  As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;

The Lord has spoken. He has already told us that even King Josiah’s zeal for serving Him will not keep Him from judging His people:

2Ki 23:25  And like unto him [Josiah] was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
2Ki 23:26  Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.

“The provocations” of Josiah’s father Manasseh, and the provocations of Josiah’s sons, Shallum, and Jehoiakim, and Jehoiakim’s son,  Jechoniah typify God seeking an occasion against our flesh (Jdg 14:3-4). The ‘Je’ part of Jeconiah, means ‘the Lord’:

H3204
יְכוֹנְיָה    יְכָנְיָהוּ    יְכָנְיָהo
yekonyâh    yekonyâhû    yekôneyâh
yek-on-yaw'(-hoo), yek-o-neh-yaw’

From H3559 and H3050; Jah will establish; Jekonjah, a Jewish king: – Jeconiah. Compare H3659.

His name is shortened to ‘Coniah’, as a sign of the Lord’s distain for Jechoniah. Both of Josiah’s sons and Jehoikim’s son, Jeconiah, are all evil kings whose sins are used to give the Lord the “occasion” He is seeking to judge His people and through that judgment cast off their oppressor, our old man, who first dominates them as the story of Samson wanting to marry a Philistine woman reveals:

Jdg 14:3  Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. [Samson could not hear his father’s words]
Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was  of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

If we do not suffer some sort of trial in this present time, and if all we experience is prosperity, then we are not now being judged of the Lord, and we will not be capable of entering into the heavenly temple:

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.

But judgment is now on the house of God (1Pe 4:17). We have gone into Babylon from whence we are now being dragged and judged.

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: helkuo, ‘drag’] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

G1670
ἑλκύω, ἕλκω
helkuō    helkō
hel-koo’-o, hel’-ko

Probably akin to G138; to drag (literally or figuratively): – draw. Compare G1667.

It is our old man who must die in that land, and it is our new man who through that dying process is being dragged to Christ:

Jer 22:25  And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jer 22:26  And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
Jer 22:27  But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.

Even as children of “[our] father the devil” we are still the Lord’s children, because He is “the father of spirits” including Satan:

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

Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

Our ‘mother that bare [us]’ is the bondwoman, who is the same as the great whore. This great whore bears children to the Lord, but those children must first be judged for being children of whoredoms, and they must die to that great whore and to their father the devil:

Eze 23:1  The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Eze 23:2  Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
Eze 23:3  And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
Eze 23:4  And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

These two women are both qualified as being harlots and are therefore nothing more than the two stages of our apostasy.

Applying the principle of “the dream is one” (Gen 41:25), these two women are the one ‘bondwoman’ of:

Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

In this case, the scriptures again qualify that these two women and their two sons represent the two covenants, the first being the covenant to the letter of the law given by Moses, and the second and last being the covenant to the spirit of the law given by Christ.

Notice that Agar, meaning Hagar the bondwoman, “answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.” Not one of the ministers of the children of the bondwoman who thinks that “Jerusalem which now is… will be made heir with the son of… Jerusalem which is above”, believes that “Jerusalem that now is… answers to Hagar [and] the son of the bondwoman”.

Yet that is exactly what our last three verses are saying:

Jer 22:28  Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Jer 22:30  Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

“Wherefore they are cast out” are the very same words used to speak of “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”:

Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

Ishmael was “the son of the bondwoman”, but Ishmael is just an early iteration of Esau, who was physically of the same mother, yet spiritually also typifies “the son of the bondwoman”, and neither will be made “heir with the son of the freewoman”:

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

There are few indeed who are given to say ‘Amen’ to any of these words of Galatians 4. Nevertheless a million sermons coming from “the son of the bondwoman” will not make them heirs with the son of the freewoman”, and a million sermons teaching that the Lord has a physical elect in “Jerusalem which now is”, as well as a spiritual elect in those who are “in Christ… Jerusalem above” will not make it so. Christ is not making of twain, twain. Christ has torn down the middle wall which was between Jews and Gentiles “to make of twain one new man, so making peace”. There is no spiritual ‘peace’ to be had with those who teach otherwise because we are admonished to “be of one mind”:

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.

Eph 2:11  Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Eph 2:17  And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Eph 2:18  For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Eph 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Eph 2:20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Eph 2:21  In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Eph 2:22  In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

I will let the holy spirit conclude our study with His own plea to each of us:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

Here are the verses for our next study in Jeremiah 23:

Jer 23:1  Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.
Jer 23:2  Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
Jer 23:3  And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
Jer 23:4  And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.
Jer 23:5  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
Jer 23:6  In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Jer 23:7  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
Jer 23:8  But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
Jer 23:9  Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.
Jer 23:10  For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
Jer 23:11  For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
Jer 23:12  Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
Jer 23:13  And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
Jer 23:14  I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
Jer 23:15  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
Jer 23:16  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
Jer 23:17  They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
Jer 23:18  For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?
Jer 23:19  Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.
Jer 23:20  The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.

[Study aired August 1, 2019]

Psa 125:1 A Song of degrees. They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. 
Psa 125:2  As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. 
Psa 125:3  For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. 
Psa 125:4  Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. 
Psa 125:5  As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel. 

Trusting in the Lord is a huge subject in God’s word, but it comes down to knowing that our Father has to form that trust in the marred vessels (Jer 18:4) which we are through the fiery trials (2Co 1:9) that bring us to see that He alone can deliver us from that natural spirit in man which wants to lean unto our own understanding (Pro 14:12). We are told in Psalm 118:8 “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man“, but in order to do that, a spiritual circumcision of heart must occur so we can be of the generation who have no confidence in the flesh while we grow toward having absolute confidence in our Lord and Saviour who can and will deliver all those who are blessed to put their confidence in Him.

2Co 1:9  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves [1Co 15:31], that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead [Eph 2:6]: 
2Co 1:10  Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; 

Pro 14:12  There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. 

Php 3:3  For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh [Rom 6:11].

Heb 10:35  Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. 
Heb 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise [Luk 21:19].
Heb 10:37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. 

There is a clear correlation being made in these verses below admonishing us to remember that God’s grace is sufficient and needed in our lives (2Co 12:9) or we would “wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived”. Our Lord, in the days of His flesh and His body, learned, and we are learning, obedience by the thing that He/we suffer (Col 1:24). Part of that suffering is the persecution we are promised we must endure as His children (Mat 5:11, 1Jn 4:17, Heb 5:8). If we are blessed to be as Christ was while He was in His flesh, something great and powerful is going to unfold in our heavens regarding the persecution described in all of these verses: (1Jn 4:18, Luk 10:18, Rev 12:10, Mat 20:23).

2Ti 3:10  But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, 
2Ti 3:11  Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me [Php 4:13]. 
2Ti 3:12  Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus [Rom 8:9] shall suffer persecution. 
2Ti 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 

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, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

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

Mat 5:11  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 
Mat 5:12  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven [Rom 8:9]: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment [1Pe 4:17]: because as he is, so are we in this world. 
1Jn 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. [We can’t be made perfect without our hope of glory within  [Rom 8:9, Col 1:27].

Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

King David tells us of the Lord, “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life [Heb 10:25], to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.”  

We know that in type and shadow God did answer this prayer and desire of king David who was a type of the elect, but not as our flesh would conceive dwelling in His temple; no it is rather being the temple of God (1Co 2:6) which David symbolized for God’s children today having endured so many persecutions and enemies that all symbolized the lifetime of overcoming to which we are called as God’s children (1Pe 1:12, Act 14:22). 

It was Solomon who actually dwelt in the house of the Lord in the temple that was built to the glory of God, whereas David’s life was full of challenges and extreme circumstances caused by God for our benefit and to remind us that we are more than conquerors through Christ when His power rests upon us, and it does rest upon us when His strength is being perfected through our weakness (Tit 2:12). The training we are going through as His kind of first fruits is critical in order for us to mature and be able to discern good and evil and rightly divide the word of God so we can serve those who will come after us and those who are maturing with us in this age (Heb 5:14, 1Co 6:3)

Tit 2:12  Teaching^G3811 us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

G3811  paideuō  pahee-dyoo’-o   From G3816; to train up a child, that is, educate, or (by implication) discipline (by punishment): – chasten (-ise), instruct, learn, teach.

Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil [Isa 45:7].

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

1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 

The verses we will examine in this study are very confirming in revealing God’s workmanship which we are (Eph 2:10), and describes for us how it is “better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man”, knowing that with the obedient spirit to what God tells us to do, we will mature through the trials and be brought to our safe haven after we have suffered for awhile.

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.

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 

Psa 125:1 A Song of degrees. They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. 

The only way to “trust in the Lord”…”as mount Zion” is by being granted in this life that we be dragged to Christ (Joh 6:44) where we can “lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help”(Psa 121:1).  

Christ and His Christ are represented by mount Zion, and Psalm 121 really solidifies the idea that we “cannot be removed, but abideth for ever” when we are blessed to continue in His word and be founded upon our rock, Jesus Christ, who has the words of eternal life.

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

Psa 121:1  A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 
Psa 121:2  My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 
Psa 121:3  He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 
Psa 121:4  Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 
Psa 121:5  The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. 
Psa 121:6  The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 
Psa 121:7  The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 
Psa 121:8  The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. 

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;

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

Psa 125:2  As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. 

Last study we looked at how vulnerable we are in the flesh and discussed how that physical vulnerability is a shadow of our own spirits that could be sifted like wheat, if God allowed (Rom 1:20, Luk 22:31). Our old man will be sifted, so that the new creation can be formed within us, and it is this process of maturing which has God looking at us as the apple of His eye (Zec 2:8). He is bringing us to be convinced that nothing can separate us from His love which is likened to these majestic words “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever“. We know Christ said if we abide or continue in His word we will be disciples indeed, and in this particular verse we see how this can be accomplished: it is because “the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever” [1Ti 6:8].

Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 

Zec 2:8  For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

1Ti 6:6  But godliness with contentment is great gain. 
1Ti 6:7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 
1Ti 6:8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 
1Ti 6:9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 

Psa 125:3  For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. 

This is what will happen if we are granted to “in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” and “be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” of Proverb 3:6-7. We can only learn obedience through those things we suffer as we cease from sinning (1Pe 4:1-2, Tit 2:12), falling seven symbolic times in our own walk (Pro 24:16), as we “put forth” our “hands unto iniquity”, believing and being convicted of God at an appointed time of those sins (Rom 2:4). Christ bore those iniquities on the cross so that we could be reconciled to our Father through Christ’s suffering, which includes the suffering that we endure together as the body of Christ (Isa 53:4-5, Gal 6:2, Heb 12:1). Those two concepts cannot be separated. We are his body, and we are suffering as He suffered, and we are overcoming as He overcame this world, and we are reconciled through His suffering and His death, but now “much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” which gives us the power to be dead to sin and alive in Christ (Joh 16:32-33, Rom 8:37, 1Jn 2:16-17, Rom_5:10)

Rom 5:11  And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. 
Rom 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 
Rom 5:13  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 
Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. 
Rom 5:15  But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead [1st Adam within], much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace [Tit 2:12], which is by one man, Jesus Christ [2nd Adam within (Col 1:27)], hath abounded unto many.

Psa 125:4  Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. 

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb 11:6), and the bible is very clear that God not being a respecter of persons (Act 10:34) does not mean that he has not laid up in store untold riches for those who are judged in this age and blessed to overcome and be found in that blessed and holy first resurrection (1Co 2:9, Mat 19:27-29, Rev 20:6, Mar 10:31). If that were not the case, then all of these words of Christ we’ve studied are in vain and should have never been uttered by Him; but let God be true and every man a liar (Rom 3:4) and believe that you are one of those precious first fruits (Psa 107:2) who were first caused to believe and trust on Him (1Co 15:23, Jas 1:18, Joh 6:28-29, Eph 1:12).

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. 

Mat 19:27  Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? 
Mat 19:28  And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 

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

Psa 107:2  Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; 

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 

God is righteous and will not forget our labour of love that He has worked within those who were ordained from the foundation of the world to be those in whom He would work both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Eph 2:10, Isa 49:15, Heb 6:10, Php 2:13). It is a gift, and a lofty one at that, that caused all of Joseph’s brothers to hate him because of his visions and the love that his father bestowed upon him.

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: [two groups: Jacob whom God loves, and Esau whom I hated (Rom 9:13), and yes Esau is being destroyed in us first as we put off our flesh first by the grace and faith of Christ (Eph 2:8)] therefore the world [Esau] knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be (Eph_1:14): but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 
1Jn 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. 

God did this to Joseph’s brothers (causing them to envy and hate Joseph) to show us what is in our own hearts and how the soul just naturally lusts to envy (Jas 4:5), and unless He burns that spiritual immaturity out of us in this age through the much suffering and fiery trials of this life, there is no way that we could be otherwise (1Co 3:3-9). We know Christ has prayed for us, however, and we pray for each other in the name of the Lord: “do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts” (Luk 22:31). There is none good in the realm of the flesh as Christ said (Mat 19:17), and so we have to conclude that yes, God will “do good…unto good…[and] upright in their hearts” meaning those who are found with His righteousness in them and not their own (Php 3:9).

Jas 4:5  Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 

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? 
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 [1Co 3:16].

Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. 

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 way by which we can believe and “keep the commandments“].

Psa 125:5  As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel. 

When we keep the commandments of God, we receive the peace that passes all understanding as the Israel of God (Psa 119:165, Gal 6:16), but if we do not possess the patience and faith of the saints, then we would naturally “turn aside unto their crooked ways”. Notice who would be the one who would do this: “the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity“.

Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. [we are all born with that mark of the beast but God’s elect are the first to be put into the book of life by overcoming that mark through Christ. We are banished like Cain but God redeems us through Christ’s blood (2Sa 14:14)]

2Sa 14:14  For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him. 

Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. 

Psa 119:165  Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. 

Gal 6:16  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. 

This last verse of our study really drives home the point that it is “better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man”, but it also shows that unless the Lord builds the house, our labor is in vain (Psa 127:1). It requires a miracle of faith to believe and a miracle of deception that comes from the Lord which “leads them forth with the workers of iniquity”. They are workers, God says, and they are serving us in their unbelief (Rom 11:20-21). When we examine the fruit of their lives, we are seeing where we would be except for the grace of God that chastens and scourges us (how the house is built Heb 12:6) so that we can be received in this age and understand that it is “better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man”.

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. 

Rom 11:20  Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: 
Rom 11:21  For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. 

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

​Hi Mike,​

One last thing… 

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

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

And re: King Saul

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

May God Bless You in all ways.

T____​

Hi T____,

​Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is that “glorious gospel”:

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

1Ti 2:3  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

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

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

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

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

Notice the context of that verse:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. [Greek: the ages of the ages]
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

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

Your brother in Christ, Mike

Isa 27:7-13 By This Shall The Iniquity of Jacob Be Purged - Discussion

1 file(s) 18.43 MB

Download

Isa 27: 7-13 By This Shall The Iniquity of Jacob Be Purged

Isa 27:7  Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
Isa 27:8  In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
Isa 27:9  By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.
Isa 27:10  Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
Isa 27:11  When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
Isa 27:12  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
Isa 27:13  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Notice the change in tone from last week's very positive and upbeat words toward the Lord's elect. Why the sudden change in tone from:

Isa 27:2  In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
Isa 27:3  I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

To:

Isa 27:7  Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

When we accept the revealed knowledge that all in Adam will be made alive, and that all mankind must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, then we will have no problem understanding why the tone of the scriptures change when the discussion goes from the Lord's work with our new man, and the blessings of that fiery work, to His fiery work in our old man where He speaks only in terms of the destruction and judgment of the kingdom of our old man. This dichotomy pervades all scripture, and it baffles and confuses the carnal mind, while at the same time shining like a bright light upon the hidden truths being revealed to our new spiritually minded man, as we are clearly told in:

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit 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 [mature]: 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, 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.

Our old man is "the princes of this world", who are simply us in our first stage of the work He is working within us. The new man is the same person but in another form and with another mind, a new and better spiritual mind, hoping for a new and much superior spiritual form.

Rom 8:24  For we are saved [G4982, sozo {G5681, Aorist}] by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

It is of this saving process that the Lord poses these questions:

Isa 27:7  Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

The first question is:  Has the Lord smitten His elect in the same manner in which He has smitten those who have "touched the apple of His eye"? The second question is:  Are the Lord's elect slain to the same extent as those the Lord has slain for touching and persecuting His elect? What do the scriptures teach us of the Lord's protection of His elect, His Israel (Gal 6:15-16)?

1Ch 16:21  He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes,
1Ch 16:22  Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Posing this question in another way we could ask, "Does our new man suffer the loss our old man must suffer?"

Here is the Lord's answer to His own questions here in Isa 27:7:

Isa 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Isa 57:16  For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
Isa 57:17  For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.
Isa 57:18  I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
Isa 57:19  I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

"I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him... and restore comforts unto him..." is telling us that anyone who is of a humble spirit and of a contrite heart was not born that way. To get to a humble and contrite spirit, we first must be 'healed' of our carnal pride, and we must be cleansed of that pride and be led of "the [humble, contrite] mind of the spirit".

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

We are all born spiritually blind and of a proud, rebellious, carnal mind, which must begin to be crushed to death and burned out of us before we become humble of spirit and of a contrite heart. The process of bringing us to that point requires "much tribulation" and many "fiery trials... dying daily [and being] crucified with Christ", by all of which the Lord is destroying the kingdom of our "old man" while simultaneously bringing forth a far more glorious "new man" who is humble of spirit and of a contrite heart, with whom the Lord will entrust His words and His spirit, as we are told:

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

"This man", the one to whom the Lord will look, is the subject of the questions posed in:

Isa 27:7  Hath he [the Lord] smitten him [our new man], as he [the Lord] smote those that smote him [our new man]? or is he [our new man] slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him [the Lord]?

The answer is, "Definitely not!" Our new man is not 'plan B'. Our new man is not being made to  be destroyed. Our old man is not 'plan B' either,  but he was made "marred" for the specific purpose of being destroyed:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred [H7843: shachath - destroyed] in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Both our old man and our new man had, have, and will have their own predestined place in the work of "the Potter", Who is our Lord. However, our first "old man" was created in a ruined condition and of a corruptible "earthy" composition for the express purpose of being deceived and needing to be destroyed.

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.

Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is [being] crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

It is the flesh, the old man, whom the Lord uses to smite us and to destroy our old man, but through the process of the death and destruction of our old man, a new man is being created. He is coming forth out of the death and destruction of our old man's kingdom and into the glorious light of the sons of God.

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

Php 3:21  Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Replacing the physical realm with the spiritual realm was all planned by our heavenly Father before He had even created Christ, who we are told is "the beginning of the creation of God":

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

This is all explicitly so stated in:

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 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
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:

The spirit goes on to explain that we are merely the first to trust in Christ as He carries out His work of "gathering together in one all things in Christ":

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Those "who first trust in Christ" are even called His "firstfruits", and we are told they will be the first to be raised up from among the dead to become the instruments of the Lord to bring all the rest of mankind into the Christ. This is the goal of the universe and it is laid out for us in:

Col 1:16  For by him [Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

"All things [are] reconciled to [God]; by [Christ], but that is "speaking of things that are not as though they were" (Rom 4:17). The fact is, as the spirit goes on to explain, even the firstfruits of God and of the Lamb must first endure fiery trials and much tribulation and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

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

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

We do not come to God as purified mature spiritual adults. Rather it is through "the afflictions of Christ in my body" that we experience the same fiery words of God, which condemn everything for which the kingdom of our old man stands.

That is the meaning of our next verse. The Lord deals with all the wood, hay and stubble within us (1Co 3:12-16) as we are able to bear that surgery and the dying of the self-centered, God-condemning, rebellious, carnal mind within each of us.

Isa 27:8  In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
Isa 27:9  By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

It was "the east wind" which brought seven years of famine on Egypt in the days of Joseph, and it was the east wind that brought the locusts which devoured Egypt in the days of Moses:

Gen 41:27  And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.

Exo 10:13  And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.

Clearly 'the east wind' brings God's judgments upon the kingdom of our old man as He grinds us to powder. Here now is the message of "stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder" in the New Testament:

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.

Once again, we must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4). Being broken and ground to powder therefore are not mutually exclusive. We are first broken, and then we are ground to powder:

Lev 2:1  And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine [ground] flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon:

Then it must go through the fire:

Lev 2:4  And when thou offer an oblation of a meal-offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.
Lev 2:5  And if thy oblation be a meal-offering of the baking-pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.

The Lord is in the process of grinding us into "fine flour". He will not have an offering of lumpy inconsistent flour. It will all be finely ground and mixed with the 'oil' of His spirit, baked in the oven of "fiery trials" (1Pe 4:12), or it will not be brought into His temple.

Here again is this same message in the New Testament:

1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

"Every man" has first been guilty of building upon the foundation of Christ with wood, hay and stubble, because we are told of the Lord's elect:

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Now we come to the part so very few understand in this permissive world. The fact is that being reconciled does not exclude justice and judgment. Those two works of God are not mutually exclusive. The fact is that reconciliation is the fruit of justice and judgment, because as we learned in chapter 26:

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

When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, and the desolation of the cities of the kingdom of our old man pictures what must be destroyed "in that day":

Isa 27:10  Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
Isa 27:11  When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

That these words are for us cannot be denied because we are told:

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.

The boughs of the defensed city are set on fire by those who have the words of God. They are burned up, and that city suffers loss because they "have no understanding" of the Truths coming from the mouth of the True Shepherd, and the Lord will have no mercy on the doctrines of the kingdom of our old man. Nevertheless, "[we ourselves] shall be saved, yet so as by fire":

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

That is how this 27th chapter of Isaiah ends:

Isa 27:12  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
Isa 27:13  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Once again we see the phrase "in that day" in both of these verses. This is speaking of the day of judgment in every generation of mankind.

The words "beat out" are translated from:

H2251
חבט
châbaṭ

And this is how it is variously translated:

beat, 2
Rth_2:17, Isa_27:12
beaten, 1
Isa_28:27
beatest, 1
Deu_24:20
threshed, 1
Jdg_6:11

Ruth "beat out" the grain she had gleaned from the fields of Boaz, and Gideon threshed grain by the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. So when we read:

"The LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel," what we are being told is that the Lord will thresh and judge His people from the Euphrates to the River of Egypt. It is just another way of saying "from Dan to Beersheba" meaning the whole of Israel.

It is when the Lord does all of this, when the Lord's judgments are in the earth that all of mankind will "be gathered one by one", and all mankind will learn righteousness, and it is only "judgment is upon the house of God" (1Pe 4:17) that we will be saved from the condemnation of the lake of fire at the white throne judgment, which immediately follows the rebellion of all flesh against Christ and His Christ, which rebellion follows the thousand-year reign of Christ and His Christ over the kingdoms of this world:

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

1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

This concludes our studies in Isaiah 27. In the next chapter, we will learn the principle of handling the Word of God just as the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament writers handle it, line upon line and precept upon precept. We will also see that Christ was prophesied to be a stone of stumbling to His own people.

The first eight verses will be yet another demonstration of this dichotomy between how the Lord speaks of our old man and our new man, which we see throughout scripture. As always our new man appears only "in that day [when] judgment begins at the house of God":

Here are the verses for our next study:

Isa 28:1  Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
Isa 28:2  Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
Isa 28:3  The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
Isa 28:4  And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
Isa 28:5  In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
Isa 28:6  And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
Isa 28:7  But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
Isa 28:8  For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.

Psa 104:26-29 “I will be glad in the LORD”, Part 7

Psa 104:26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
Psa 104:27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
Psa 104:28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
Psa 104:29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

“The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works” as it states in verse 31, and that is what we have been learning throughout this Psalm 104 as His word reveals how He glories in that workmanship and rejoices in what He is accomplishing within all of His creation. This glorious workmanship is described for us in parables and spiritual words that help us understand how “very great” God is and how His plans for us, and for all of His creation, are going to endure. When we are blessed to contemplate how great His love is for us, that is demonstrated through the sacrifice of Christ’s life (Joh 3:16), and when we are aware that we are sharing in that sacrifice as God’s predestinated workmanship, we find ourselves saying “I will be glad in the Lord” because Christ and His body are our joy, and we are blessed to be confident that He is the author and finisher of our faith, who tells us we will be saved by 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 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

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 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Php 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

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.

1Th 2:19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
1Th 2:20 For ye are our glory and joy.

Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

God’s greatness is revealed in how He is described in His word, in His love for each of us, and in His desire to fashion each of us into the very likeness of his only begotten Son who he gave to us and who has no variableness, neither shadow of turning within himself. Ultimately we will be “coverest thyself with light as with a garment” [first half of verse 2 of this Psalm] and see him as He is, with no idle thoughts of our own, and only a stedfast spirit going in the same loving direction that our Father has always gone. That spirit of love is being made perfect through the judgement that God enables us to endure through Christ in this age if we are His (Mat 5:14).

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

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

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.

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;

Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

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.
1Jn 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

1Jn 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1Jn 3:17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

1Jn 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
1Jn 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
1Jn 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1Jn 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

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. [being sent to each other, washing each others feet, bearing each others’ burdens (Heb 10:25, Mal 3:16)]

The light which God is fashioning within us is symbolic language that describes this process of stretching out the heavens of our minds like a curtain [ref. second half of verse 2 of this psalm] through the chastening grace and faith of God that makes this possible (Mar 15:38, 1Co 6:19, Eph 2:8). The Lord is building His temple and stretching those curtains which symbolize our eventual breadth and length and depth and height of understanding which come about through the ripping of the veil.

Eph 3:18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

Mat 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Adam is marred in the hand of the potter (Jer 18:4), and this marred vessel is likened unto a temple that also must be torn down and rebuilt in three days (Joh 2:19). The body of Christ is being woven together to become “beams^H7136 of his chambers in the water”[ref: first part of verse 3 of this psalm] (Gal 2:9, Rev 3:12) who are blessed to have a relationship with our Creator “who maketh the clouds his chariot” [ref mid-part of verse 3] (Heb 12:1) and who “walks upon the wings of the wind” [ref: last part of verse 3] (Joh 3:8). We are with Christ in us as our hope of glory within (Col 1:27) helping each other in that process of becoming a new creation in Him. It is that relationship with Christ and his body that is tearing down the old building so that “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down”, and that is how all things will become new through the church “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Mat 24:2, 2Co 5:17, Eph 3:10).

“beams” of verse 3: H7136 qârâh kaw-raw’
A primitive root; to light upon (chiefly by accident); causatively to bring about; specifically to impose timbers (for roof or floor): – appoint, lay (make) beams, befall, bring, come (to pass unto), floor, [hap] was, happen (unto), meet, send good speed [Gen 24:12].

All of this symbolic language we are looking at is to remind us that we are our brother’s keeper today (Gen 4:9, Luk 10:37, Mar 12:31, Eze 9:4) and pillars for one another who are helping and holding up each other as we ‘send good speed’ to one another through the spirit of God that we’ve been granted (2Jn 1:10, Eph 4:16).

In the following verses we will examine now, we’ll study how God’s sovereignty is revealed in imagery which tells us that He is the one who created all the powers and principalities which He controls and is bringing to “an expected end” according to the counsel of His own will (Jer 29:11, Eph 1:11).

Psa 104:26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
Psa 104:27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

If we consider that there is a negative example of giving meat in due season as opposed to this verse in Matthew below which is the positive example, these first two verses will become clearer in regard to how God instructs Satan and gives him his portion of meat via the destruction of our flesh just as He did with Job in these verses of Job. That portion given to Satan is destructive to our flesh but life unto the spirit.

Mat 24:45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?

Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
Job 2:8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
Job 2:10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

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.

Proverbs 30:18-22 also parallels what is being discussed in this section of Psalms to some degree. There are “three” that make the earth “disquieted” and for “four” which it cannot bear. The “adulterous woman” in this proverb is Babylon within us who is being judged, and her ways are likened unto “an eagle in the air”.

Like “the way of an eagle”, Satan is the prince of the power of the air who is given to prey upon us. This is also leviathan of whom “None is so fierce that dare stir him up.”

Pro 30:18 There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:
Pro 30:19 The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.
Pro 30:20 Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.
Pro 30:21 For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear:
Pro 30:22 For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat;

Job 41:1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
Job 41:2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

Job 41:10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

The second category of this proverb is “a serpent upon a rock [describing that part of us which is not straight yet (Joh 1:23) as a crooked serpent upon Christ the rock. We are becoming more and more founded upon a rock as we are supposed to be through Christ, but God sees the unsettled part of our hearts and likens it unto a serpent upon a rock (Mat 16:18)];

The third category of this section of Proverb 30 is “the way of a ship in the midst of the sea” and remembering that these are events that point to “the way of an adulterous woman“, the ships of Tarshish which represent our former, and still present, conversation to whatever degree would be that “way of a ship in the midst of the sea” (Eze 27:25, Isa 23:14). God has called us out of Babylon (2Co 6:17) and out of the world, or the sea, to have our rudder turned and directed by His merciful direction; and as always that is a process which requires that we endure through Christ his chastening and the things that we suffer so that we can learn obedience and have his mercy and truth bound about our hearts to give direction in this life.

Jas 3:4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.

Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Pro 3:3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
Pro 3:4 So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

The fourth category is “the way of a man with a maid”. All of a man’s ways are right in his own eyes as these verses in Proverbs tell us, and unless the Lord builds the house of that relationship with a maid^H5959, the weary labourer will labour in vain (Psa 127:1).

Pro 21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.
Pro 21:3 To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
Pro 21:4 An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
Pro 21:5 The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.

All of these four categories are given to encourage the elect who have the power through Christ to rule over those powers and principalities in the heavens [“the way of an eagle”/leviathan] (Eph 6:12, Eph 1:21), which are likened unto “every way of a man” in proverb 21, while we are yet of our father the devil (Joh 8:44). Yet we can overcome the serpent because He who is in us is greater than he that is in the world (1Jn 4:4, 1Pe 5:8-9, Rev 12:9). We also can now bring our life into subjection to God through Christ and thereby have speech that is seasoned and a tongue that is bridled through Christ (Col 4:6, Jas 3:2-18). Again, the encouragement is knowing that Christ in the positive use of ‘that man’ (Act 4:12, Col 1:27) is able to make the bride ready as the virgin maid or bride of Christ (Rev 19:7) as the first part of Proverbs 30 declares (Pro 30:4-9).

“Maid” of Pro 31:19: H5959 ‛almâh al-maw’
Feminine of H5958; a lass (as veiled or private): – damsel, maid, virgin.

Pro 30:18 There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:
Pro 30:19 The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.
Pro 30:20 Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.
Pro 30:21 For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear:
Pro 30:22 For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat;

We thank our Lord for reminding us to “be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready”, and we believe that Christ is in the process of making us ready, so that we can consider ourselves more than conquerors today (Rom 8:37) through Him that loved us. Even today we are able to say through Christ, even in the midst of our trials, “I will be glad in the Lord”.

Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Jas 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

Psa 32:10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.
Psa 32:11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

For more on this leviathan who is given their meat in due season, please go to the following link for one of Mike’s studies with the book of Job: http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/job_41_1_10/

Psa 104:28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
Psa 104:29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

This next verse “thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good” confirms God’s love for all of his creation, who receives “their meat in due season”. It also reminds us that we are called to love those who don’t love us, those who are still plying the waters of Tarshish and who are yet snared of the devil through the leaven of the pharisees. In other words, we are to remember that God is the one who allows the enemy to choke the seed of God’s word in whatever way the Lord allows Satan to do that “until the harvest”.

Mat 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Mat 5:47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Mat 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Mat 13:28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
Mat 13:29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Everything God does is good, including sending the prophet to deceive us in our day when he allows our hearts to believe a lie (Isa 63:17, Eze 14:9). It is a good thing that Satan was in the garden to tempt Eve, and it is all instructive for us in order to remind us who we are without Christ ruling and reigning over the man of sin upon the throne of our own hearts (2Th 2:8). It is good that we are taken and snared at an appointed time by God (Isa 28:13); and when we “fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken”, it is a demonstration of the severity and goodness of God in regard to his finally not dealing with our fleshly hearts any longer and only wanting us to have the mind of Christ ruling and reigning in our heavens (Rom 11:22, Gen 6:3).

With those thoughts in mind, we can understand why “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust“. We are troubled because our flesh cannot accept that God would do things this way, and cause us to err, and cause us to sin (Rom 9:19-20). If we did not witness this corruption within ourselves, we would have no need to cry out for a saviour who is reconciling us through Christ. The whole of Psalm 107 reminds us of this need. He has made all things the way they are for the express purpose of redeeming all of His creation. There is forgiveness of those caused sins so “that thou mayest be feared”. Taking our breath away, causing us to die, and return to the dust from whence we came is all part of the good work of God that keeps us fearing God and working righteousness in this age.

2Co 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
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;
2Co 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2Co 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Psa 130:3 If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
Psa 130:4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
Psa 130:5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

Ecc 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecc 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Next week, Lord willing, we will look at the last six verses of our study entitled “I will be glad in the LORD”

Psa 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.
Psa 104:31 The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.
Psa 104:32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
Psa 104:33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
Psa 104:34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.
Psa 104:35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.