The Cities of Refuge:  Christ as our Spiritual Sanctuary

[Study Aired September 16, 2025]

Introduction

In the intricate tapestry of Old Testament typology, few institutions reveal Christ’s saving work as beautifully as the cities of refuge. These six strategically placed sanctuaries, established by God’s command, provided protection for those who had committed unintentional homicide. Yet beneath this practical provision lies a profound spiritual truth that points directly to Christ as our ultimate refuge from the condemnation of sin and death.

As we examine these ancient cities, we discover they were not merely civil institutions but sacred patterns designed to teach us about God’s merciful provision for mankind. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). This foundational truth permeates the cities of refuge, showing us that from the beginning, God the Father intended these earthly sanctuaries to foreshadow the heavenly sanctuary we find in His Son. “The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble” (Psalm 9:9) establishes the pattern that finds its ultimate expression in Christ.

The Hebrew word for “trouble” in these passages is tsarah (H6869), meaning distress, anguish, or a tight place requiring immediate intervention. This same word describes the crisis faced by one guilty of unintentional homicide—the urgent need for sanctuary from pursuit. Just as the manslayer fled to the cities in his “time of trouble” (tsarah), we flee to Christ in our spiritual crises when we have unintentionally shed spiritual blood through anger, harsh words, or harmful influence.

Isaiah prophesies of this coming refuge: “And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah 32:2). These verses connect the Old Testament refuge to Christ, who offers “living water” to the thirsty (John 4:14), pointing forward to the ultimate fulfillment in the new heavens and new earth where “he will wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4).

The Foundation: Our Need for Refuge

Scripture reveals that we were created as creatures “made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20) as part of God’s sovereign design. Paul explains our condition plainly: we are “by nature the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), born into a state requiring heavenly shelter from the consequences of sin and death. The cities of refuge were established before any manslaughter occurred, just as Christ was “slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8), revealing God’s eternal plan to provide redemption for those He created in need of salvation.

This preemptive provision is illustrated in God’s promise to Abraham: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16). Paul’s careful distinction reveals that God’s refuge was focused on one singular solution—Christ—from the time of Abraham, roughly 2000 years before His birth.

God confirmed this promise by oath: “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself… Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Hebrews 6:13, 17-18).

The Nature of Spiritual Homicide

Scripture reveals that spiritual killing encompasses far more than physical murder. The Hebrew word ratsach (H7523) used for killing in the cities of refuge context carries the meaning of destroying life, whether physical or spiritual. In Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus uses the Greek phoneuo (G5407)—the same word the Septuagint uses to translate ratsach—and connects it to anger and harsh words, revealing that both terms encompass spiritual destruction beyond physical murder.

Jesus expanded this commandment’s meaning: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:21-22). 1 John 3:15 further develops this concept, where hatred itself constitutes anthropoktonos (G443, murder): “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him”.

The ultimate example of unintentional spiritual killing appears in the crucifixion of Christ Himself. Peter declared to those responsible: “And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers” (Acts 3:17). The Greek phrase kata agnoian (G2596 + G52, “through ignorance”) parallels the Hebrew concept bish’gagah—unintentional killing—that qualified one for refuge. Even in His final moments, Christ bore witness: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Here He was both the victim, slain in ignorance, and the refuge, providing sanctuary for the very ones who shed His blood.

This pattern reaches back to Cain and Abel. God said to Cain: “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Abel’s blood demanded justice, but Christ’s blood speaks of mercy: “And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” (Hebrews 12:24).

Scripture reveals we are all born into this condition: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). From birth we are spiritual manslayers, desperately in need of sanctuary from the consequence of our sinful condition.

David knew this hiding place when he cried: “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance” (Psalm 32:7). Here the same word tsarah describes the crisis that compels us to flee to sanctuary, just as we now flee to Christ, our eternal hiding place.

The Command from Above: Establishing Sanctuary

The cities of sanctuary were not human innovations but direct commands from the Almighty. Numbers 35:9-15 records God’s instruction to Moses establishing six cities of refuge—three on each side of the Jordan. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come over Jordan into the land of Canaan; Then ye shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares. And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment. And of these cities which ye shall give six cities shall ye have for refuge. Ye shall give three cities on this side Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan, which shall be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the children of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them: that every one that killeth any person unawares may flee thither”.

Scattered throughout Israel, these cities were placed within reach of all, symbolizing Christ’s universal availability: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Even their very names reveal profound truths about our sanctuary in Him:

Kedesh (H6943, “sanctuary”) points to Christ as our holy sanctuary: “who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Hebrews 6:18).

Shechem (H7927, “shoulder” or burden-bearer) reveals Christ as our burden-bearer: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4).

Hebron (H2275, “association” or fellowship) shows Christ as our fellowship: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

Bezer (H1221, “stronghold”) demonstrates Christ as our stronghold: “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer” (Psalm 18:2).

Ramoth (H7414, “heights”) presents Christ as our exalted one: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9).

Golan (H1474, “exile”) portrays Christ as our redeemer from exile: “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).

Together, these names trace a spiritual journey—from sanctuary to burden-bearer, from fellowship to stronghold, from exaltation to redemption—revealing the complete refuge we find in Christ.

The Judicial Process: Standing Before the Elders

Joshua 20:1-9 provides crucial details about the refuge process not found in Numbers 35, particularly the role of the city elders in granting sanctuary. The passage records: “And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them” (Joshua 20:4).

This judicial element reveals that refuge was not automatic but required the fugitive to present his case before the elders at the city gate. The Hebrew phrase v’dibber b’oznei (“and shall declare in the ears of”) indicates a formal declaration or testimony, not merely a casual request. The fugitive must openly confess the circumstances of his actions, acknowledging both his guilt and his need for mercy.

The city gate (sha’ar, H8179) holds profound significance in Scripture as the place of judgment and legal proceedings. It was here that legal disputes were settled (“And lot sat in the gate of Sodom” – Genesis 19:1), justice was administered (“Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates” – Deuteronomy 16:18), and important transactions were witnessed (“And Boaz went up to the gate” – Ruth 4:1). The requirement that the fugitive stand at the gate emphasizes that even in seeking mercy, justice must be acknowledged.

This process beautifully typifies our approach to Christ for salvation. Just as the fugitive could not simply rush into the city but must first confess his need at the gate, we cannot receive Christ’s refuge without acknowledging our spiritual condition. The apostle John declares: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). The Greek word homologeo (G3670) means to speak the same thing or agree with God about our condition—exactly what the fugitive did before the elders.

Christ Himself stands as both the gate and the judge who hears our plea. He declared: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:9). Unlike earthly elders who might reject a false claim, Christ promises: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

The elders’ response—”they shall take him into the city unto them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them”—demonstrates complete acceptance following proper confession. The Hebrew v’lakchu oto (“they shall take him”) suggests active reception, not grudging permission. This points to the warmth of Christ’s welcome: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

The phrase “give him a place, that he may dwell among them” emphasizes full integration into the community. This wasn’t protective custody but genuine fellowship, reflecting our complete acceptance in Christ: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). The refugee became a full participant in the city’s life, sharing in its worship, commerce, and community—just as believers share fully in Christ’s spiritual blessings.

Joshua 20:5 adds another crucial detail: “And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbour unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime”. The elders’ protection was absolute once sanctuary was granted. The repetition of “unwittingly” alongside “unawares” emphasizes that this refuge was specifically for those whose actions lacked malicious intent, those who had “hated him not beforetime”.

This absolute protection within the city bounds prefigures the security believers have in Christ. Paul declares with confidence: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). The avenger of blood—representing God’s justice and the law’s demands—cannot touch those who have properly fled to Christ and remained in Him.

Access, Requirements, and the Kinsman-Redeemer

Having been received by the elders and granted full fellowship within the city, the refugee now enjoyed complete protection from the avenger of blood, though the roads leading to these sanctuaries required careful maintenance for accessibility. The cities of refuge were designed for accessibility and justice. Deuteronomy 19:3 instructs: “Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the coasts of thy land… into three parts, that every slayer may flee thither”. This ensured roads were maintained and each city could be reached within a day’s journey, reflecting God’s desire that none perish unjustly: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise… not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

The number six in Scripture is closely tied to mankind, created on the sixth day, made of dust, and subject to vanity. Six signifies what is incomplete and earthy, pointing to man’s need for the hope of glory in Christ. Dividing them as three on each side of the Jordan is also significant. In Scripture, the number three signifies completion through judgment. 

Central to this process was the avenger of blood, the go’el (H1350, “kinsman-redeemer”), who embodied God’s justice by upholding the sanctity of life: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9:6). Yet within the sanctuary of the city, the go’el could not touch the fugitive, prefiguring how Christ shields us from sin’s condemnation: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Remarkably, the go’el’s dual role as avenger and redeemer points to Christ, our kinsman-redeemer, who as our brother satisfies justice and redeems us: “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11). Through His sacrifice, Christ fulfills the law’s requirements while offering mercy: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).

This judicial process mirrors our need to approach Christ with genuine repentance, acknowledging our sins and receiving His mercy: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Just as the cities protected only those who fled to them, we must actively flee to Christ: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

Liberation Through the High Priest’s Death

A unique feature of the cities of refuge was the provision for liberation: the slayer remained safe only until the death of the high priest, after which he could return home: “But after the death of the high priest the slayer shall return into the land of his possession” (Numbers 35:28). This powerfully typifies Christ’s death as our High Priest, which frees us from sin’s penalty: “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26).

His death cancels the debt of sin: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14), allowing us to take part in our spiritual inheritance as heirs of God: “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7).

This liberation occurs through our union with Christ in His death: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). Unlike the earthly high priest’s temporary role, Christ’s priesthood is eternal, ensuring everlasting security: “But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Hebrews 7:24-25).

This liberation points forward to the ultimate fulfillment when Christ will return to establish the new heavens and new earth, where no avenger of blood exists, and all are reconciled in Him: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth… And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:1, 4).

Levitical Oversight and Spiritual Nurture

The cities of refuge were among the Levitical cities, ensuring priestly oversight: “And among the cities which ye shall give unto the Levites there shall be six cities for refuge” (Numbers 35:6). By placing the cities among the Levitical cities, God ensured that refugees would be surrounded by those whose primary calling was ministry and instruction.

This arrangement points to the spiritual principle that those who flee to Christ for refuge are not left to struggle alone but are placed within the body of believers for spiritual growth and fellowship: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together… but exhorting one another” (Hebrews 10:24-25). The church as refuge demonstrates that our salvation in Christ grants us complete access to all spiritual privileges: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).

Christ as Our Eternal Sanctuary

The concept of refuge finds its ultimate fulfillment in the New Testament, where Paul declares: “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The Greek word for “condemnation” (katakrima, G2631) refers to a judicial sentence of guilt or punishment. For those united with Christ through faith, there is no longer any sentence of death, as Christ’s righteousness covers us: “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” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The writer of Hebrews speaks of those “who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Hebrews 6:18), directly connecting the act of fleeing to a city of refuge with seeking salvation in Christ. We are invited to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16), reflecting the accessibility of the cities.

Unlike the temporary shelter of the earthly cities, Christ’s sanctuary is eternal because He is our everlasting High Priest. This abiding relationship requires us to remain in Him: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (John 15:4).

Conclusion: The Perfect Refuge

The cities of refuge stand as magnificent types of Christ, revealing the heart of God toward those He created in need of salvation from the consequences of sin. Through every detail—from their sacred appointment to their accessibility, from the requirements for admission to the liberation provided through the high priest’s death—these ancient sanctuaries point to the perfect refuge we find in Christ Jesus.

Where the earthly cities provided temporary shelter from physical death, Christ provides eternal refuge from spiritual death: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). Where the earthly cities required ongoing residence within their borders, Christ provides permanent security for all who abide in Him.

The avenger of blood, representing God’s justice and the law’s demands, could not enter the cities of refuge. Similarly, condemnation cannot touch those who are truly in Christ Jesus. The law’s requirements are satisfied, justice is upheld, and mercy triumphs through Christ’s faithful obedience unto death: “For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment” (James 2:13).

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10). This ancient truth finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ, whose name above every name provides sanctuary for all who call upon Him. Whether we have sinned ignorantly through our natural condition or deliberately through rebellion, Christ stands ready to receive all who flee to Him for sanctuary.

The psalmist declares this same confidence: “I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust” (Psalm 91:2). Here we see the personal appropriation of God’s protective care—not merely acknowledging His power, but claiming Him as “my refuge” and “my fortress,” the same Hebrew words (machseh and metsudah) that describe the cities of refuge as places of safety and strength.

David captures the heart of one who has found this safety: “In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion… Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress” (Psalm 71:1-3).

As we face the realities of our condition and the pursuit of God’s justice, may we flee without delay to our perfect refuge in Christ. In Him, we find not merely escape from condemnation but restoration to our spiritual inheritance as sons and daughters of God: “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7).

The perfect symmetry of God’s plan appears in these ancient cities. Six cities were appointed for mankind—formed of dust, subject to vanity, incomplete apart from Christ. Yet they were divided as three on each side of the Jordan, the number of confirmation and completion through judgment, bearing witness that God’s provision of sanctuary is fully established and available to all. Every detail whispers of Christ, every provision points to His perfect work, and every requirement illuminates our desperate need for the shelter only He can provide.

Dan 11:28-45  Be ye not troubled – Part 5

[Study Aired June 6, 2024]

Dan 11:28  Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land. 
Dan 11:29  At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. 
Dan 11:30  For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. 
Dan 11:31  And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. 
Dan 11:32  And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. 
Dan 11:33  And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. 
Dan 11:34  Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. 
Dan 11:35  And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed. 
Dan 11:36  And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. 
Dan 11:37  Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. 
Dan 11:38  But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. 
Dan 11:39  Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.
Dan 11:40  And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. 
Dan 11:41  He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. 
Dan 11:42  He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
Dan 11:43  But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. 
Dan 11:44  But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. 
Dan 11:45  And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. 

This last section we’re going to look at in chapter 11 reveals more historical events, which are spiritual types that point to the spiritual reality of those events being shown in the lives of those who are being judged in this life (1Pe 4:17). We will remain spiritually blinded and lost if we continue to put these verses off onto someone else and not apply them to our own life that must be miraculously convicted of our own self-righteous man of perdition who continues to want to abide on the throne of our hearts and must be kept under subjection as we die daily (Joh 9:41, 1Co 9:26-27, 1Co 15:31).

Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

1Co 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

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

Below are a couple of excerpts from the historian I’ve been using that will make it very clear how the religious masses look at prophesy with an outward approach that does not incriminate us personally, as we naturally point to the vileness in others, the classic Adam and Eve approach to dealing with God’s revelation that should be convicting us that there is nothing good within me (Gen 3:11-13, Mar 10:18, Joh 5:30).

Gen 3:11  And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Gen 3:12  And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Gen 3:13  And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

Mar 10:18  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Excerpt pointing to the Antichrist who is thought of as being one specific man:

He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god: (Dan 11:36) The angel explained to Daniel that this king would blaspheme God and exalt himself until the wrath has been accomplished and what has been determined shall be done.
Above every god: (Dan 11:36) Here we shift from what was fulfilled in the Ptolemies and the Selucids to what will be fulfilled in the Antichrist, the final world dictator. Daniel was told that this revelation pertained to the latter days (Daniel 10:14), and Daniel 11:36 begins to look more towards this final world dictator, who is sort of a “last days Antiochus Epiphanes.” [the author is using the NKJV]

Dan 11:36  And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. 

In this section of scripture, God’s judgment upon the body of Christ is represented by “the wrath has been accomplished and what has been determined shall be done.”  It is the antiChrist in each one of us that needs to be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming (1Jn 2:18, 1Jn 2:22, 1Jn 4:3, 2Jn 1:7), and what that brightness does is rip the self-righteous veil off our own hearts that cannot see that all of mankind’s violent and sinful history is a declaration of what is naturally within us and unable to be overcome unless the Lord tears down that marred vessel and makes it anew by the brightness of His coming into our heavens (Jer 18:4, 2Th 2:8).

2Jn 1:7  For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

The world is not antiChrist for not believing that Christ entered into this world in His flesh, because many do believe this, including Muslims. However, it is the height of blasphemy to tell anyone that you are Christ’s body and that He has entered into you as the Son of God (Col 1:27, Rom 8:9, Eph 5:30). Christ is our forerunner as one who was rejected by men for the truth’s sake, and as He is, so are we in this world (Joh 8:58-59, Joh 10:31-36, 1Jn 4:17)

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.

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

Joh 8:58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Joh 8:59  Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

By God’s grace we will continue to “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward” (2Jn 1:8), not denying the Son who is within us and being blessed to abide in Christ so that we can know the Father as well (1Jn 2:23-24, Joh 14:20-21).

1Jn 2:23  Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also [Mat 10:32-33].
1Jn 2:24  Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.

Christ is in His people cleansing the temple of our beastly nature that wants to hold onto our former belief in free will which could never be driven out of us except it be through His chastening grace upon those few who are being received by God in this age (Joh 2:15-17, Heb 12:6).

Dan 11:28  Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land. 
Dan 11:29  At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. 
Dan 11:30  For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. 
Dan 11:31  And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. 

We understand that the vile person being talked about here represents Antiochus Epiphanes, who is a type of the man of perdition on the throne of our hearts, and as we saw in the previous verses he was in battle against the king of the south who had a very great army (Dan 11:25-27), and yet he did not prevail, meaning the king of the south. This symbolizes how God purposes for us to overcome and sweep the house clean [Antiochus Epiphanes’ victory], only to then “return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land” which is what he does but in the final analysis we read “he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (Dan 11:45). These events in the life of Antiochus Epiphanes parallel very well with these words of Christ (Mat 12:43-45). This section of Antiochus Epiphanes’ life reminds us that we are that wicked generation who lose our first love, and the last state of our life is worse than the first for a period of time when we come out of Babylon, represented by the dry places where we seek spiritual rest but find none.

Mat 12:43  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, [victory over king of the south] he walketh through dry places [Isa 3:1], seeking rest, and findeth none.
Mat 12:44  Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished [“he shall do exploits, and return to his own land“].
Mat 12:45  Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation [“yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him“]. 

“At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter” – This verse reminds us that there is an appointed time for all things that God orchestrates for our maturing, and God knows when it is time for us to go into exile and when to come out of it.

“The ships of Chittim shall come against him” – The city of Chittim is mentioned six times in the old covenant in these following verses (Num 24:24, Isa 23:1, Isa 23:12, Jer 2:10, Eze 27:6, Dan 11:30), the number of man, and in particular speak of those who are gentile in spirit, meaning unbelieving. The ships of Tyre and the ships of Chittim represent that period in our life when we were those merchants on the sea plying the waters of Babylon, walking contrary to the Lord (Act 27:4, Lev 26:21), of which must all be destroyed within us.

H3794 kittı̂y    kittı̂yı̂y kit-tee’, kit-tee-ee’   Patrial from an unused name denoting Cyprus (only in the plural); a Kittite or Cypriote; hence an islander in general, that is, the Greeks or Romans on the shores opposite Palestine: – Chittim, Kittim.  Total KJV occurrences: 8

BDB – Definition: Chittim or Kittim = bruisers

Num 24:24   And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever. 

Isa 23:1  The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

Isa 23:12  And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.

Act 27:4  And when we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. 

Lev 26:21  And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.

“And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate” – Now we come to this section about the abomination of desolation being placed in the temple (1Co 3:16), and it is an abomination in God’s eyes at this point because we think that we stand by our own power, and this is what pollutes the sanctuary of God when we take credit for anything, whether it be good or evil unfolding in our lives.

Dan 11:32  And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. 
Dan 11:33  And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. 
Dan 11:34  Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. 
Dan 11:35  And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed. 

As discussed last week, when we are of the mindset to go along to get along and don’t try the spirits whether they are of God, we become one with and subject to that spirit that we coexist with through flatteries (Rom 6:16-18). This is the ecumenical spirit of the churches today that do not obey the voice of Christ but rather let church doctrine trump their thinking in every instance.

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 

The only way to overcome that spirit is to see through it by the grace of God and so the very next verses of Romans (Rom 6:17-18) explain to us how it is possible that “they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.“

Rom 6:17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 
Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Our old man is going to fall by the sword if we are being dragged to Christ (Joh 6:44, 2Sa 12:10), and the word of God is a flaming sword that turns every way keeping the way of the tree of life (Gen 3:24). That judgment upon us by the sword of God’s word takes our old man into captivity, spoiling us, which is another way of saying we are purged and made white through Christ, “And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.“

Dan 11:36  And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.

Without God’s spirit within us, we will not see the glorious message of the destruction of the man of sin within us in this verse (Dan 11:36) that tells us the natural status of all the world that has been deceived (2Co 4:4) and how we must prosper in that spirit “till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.” The historian we have been reading concludes, as does the majority of Babylon, that Antiochus must have an end-time fulfillment in some final world dictator who is going to come and wreak havoc. Of course this is great news for Satan as he continues to unknowingly reside in the hearts and minds of humanity who are only looking outside themselves for a supposed man of perdition.

The Antichrist: the end times Antiochus Epiphanes.
(Daniel 11:36) The willful king: a shift to a future fulfillment.

Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done.

He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god: The angel explained to Daniel that this king would blaspheme God and exalt himself until the wrath has been accomplished and what has been determined shall be done.
Above every god: Here we shift from what was fulfilled in the Ptolemies and the Selucids to what will be fulfilled in the Antichrist, the final world dictator. Daniel was told that this revelation pertained to the latter days (Daniel 10:14), and Daniel 11:36 begins to look more towards this final world dictator, who is sort of a “last days Antiochus Epiphanes.”
We know that everything about this prophecy was not fulfilled during the career of Antiochus Epiphanes. Jesus specifically said the realabomination of desolation was still in the future (Matthew 24:15). The Apostle Paul paraphrased Daniel 11:36 in reference to the coming Antichrist: Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
Antiochus Epiphanes is important, but mostly as a historical preview of the Antichrist. This is why so much space is given to describing the career of one evil man — because he prefigures the ultimate evil man. Antiochus Epiphanes is the “trailer” released well before the Antichrist, who is like the “feature.”
He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god: Antiochus Epiphanes certainly did this in the general sense that all sinners oppose God. Yet he remained loyal to the Greek religious tradition, which revered the entire Olympian pantheon. Antiochus Epiphanes put a statue of Zeus in the temple, not of himself. This statement will be far more precisely fulfilled in the Antichrist, who sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
Shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished: Antichrist will do much damage, but he is on a short chain and will only work into God’s plan. God’s purpose will be accomplished.

Dan 11:37  Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. 
Dan 11:38  But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. 
Dan 11:39  Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.

We are still talking about the man of perdition within us, and the descriptive words given in these verses define how we lived out our former conversation (Eph 2:3) when we were subject to the god of this world and did not have Him who is within us (1Jn 4:4) overcoming Satan, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: ” (1Jn 4:4, Eph 2:4-6). 

1Jn 4:4  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

When we were of our father the devil, we had no regard for God and were without desire for women representing churches. Even if we were in some Babylonian church, our inability to eat his bread and wear his apparel and only want His name (Isa 4:1) is what we are looking at in this verse, “Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women.” We also have no regard for the scriptures of old, “Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers“, that are able to make us wise unto salvation (2Ti 3:15), because there is only one god and that is ourselves at this point as we put ourselves above all others, “for he shall magnify himself above all.“

The beast gets his power from the dragon (Rev 13:4) so unbeknownst to us in that state of mind where we put ourselves above God, it is all happening as a result of Satan’s spirit that is dominating us at this point in our life. Our subjectivity to Babylon is our worship of the beast who gets his power from Satan making us slaves to sin (Joh 8:34-35) who honor the “God of forces” which should be a small “g”, giving of our wealth, of mind and time and energy, represented by the gold, silver and precious stones, “But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.“

Babylon will fall in time, but for now we read of Satan’s empire that provides fleshly strongholds [“many wonderful works“] for the man of perdition who is given increase, like God does to the elect but in the negative sense of keeping people in the bondage of sin via the glory Satan promises, along with power to rule and divide and conquer the land which is our bodies, but all for personal gain. This is the sense of what we’re reading in this verse, “Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.“

(Daniel 11:37-39) The character and authority of the “willful king.”

He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all. But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things. Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain.

He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women: Based on this, some Bible scholars believe that the Antichrist will be of Jewish descent, and perhaps will also be a homosexual. These things may not be popularly known about the man, but they may be true nonetheless.
But many commentators believe that the desire of womenrefers to Jesus, in that all women desired the honor of bearing the Messiah and understanding “desire” as it is used in Haggai 2:7. Seeing the desire of women as Jesus makes most sense in light of the flow of context.
He shall honor a god of fortresses: The Antichrist will take and hold power with military might and the shrewd use of great riches.

Dan 11:40  And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
Dan 11:41  He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

These last verses which talk about Antiochus Epiphanes are once again describing the spiritual struggle we must go through with the man of perdition on the throne of our hearts, and we are reminded that, as we near the end of this age, the god of this world will have great wrath (Rev 12:12) and consequently so will evil men wax worse and worse (2Ti 3:11-13). The spiritual struggles within us are typified by this verse, “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over” (Mat 24:6-15).

2Ti 3:11  Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; [process of judgment upon the body of Christ represented by Antioch,  Iconium, and Lystra] what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. 
2Ti 3:12  Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 
2Ti 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 

Mat 24:6  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mat 24:7  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Mat 24:8  All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Mat 24:9  Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
Mat 24:10  And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Mat 24:11  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
Mat 24:12  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 
Mat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

Whoever will escape out the hand of the adversary has already been written, and Satan’s primary target is the elect as the accuser of the brethren so, “He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: (Mat 22:14, Heb 6:4-6,Mat 24:24) but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.” This statement reminds us that there are a few in their flesh who will be saved, and that salvation will be a narrow escape (1Pe 4:18). Who escapes in this life are those who go through a process of judgment in their flesh, typified by these three groups: “Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.“

(Daniel 11:40-45) The final conflict.

At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the Glorious Land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.

At the time of the end: The angel described to Daniel a confederation of kings coming against this great leader, with a battle in and near the Holy Land.
King of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind: Prophetically speaking, a precise identification of peoples mentioned is difficult. The king of the Southmay be Egypt or represent the Arab community. The king of the North may be the Antichrist’s domain (as the “new Antiochus Epiphanes”) or it may be Russia.
The precise points may be cloudy, but the general idea is clear. The end will be marked by great conflict, culminating in the world’s armies gathering in the Promised Land to do final battle.

Yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him: In the end there is no hope for the Antichrist or for any of his followers.

Dan 11:42  He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
Dan 11:43  But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. 
Dan 11:44  But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. 
Dan 11:45  And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

These last verses talk about what leads up to the final fall of Babylon, and what becomes very evident at the end of the age is found in Revelation 17:16; “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.”

Antiochus has power and stretches forth his hand “upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.” This describes the power the beast will have over all the corrupt treasures of Babylon and how it will be, over a course of time, that these judgements [3] will be executed upon the harlot, “the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps“, meaning they will be controlled by the beastly man of sin.

These are the typical events that unfold and set the stage for “tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.” Those tidings represent the imminent return of Christ and His Christ that trouble the man of perdition. The east represents where Christ comes from (Mat 24:27), and the north tells us that He is coming with judgment on his mind, which will be executed through the church (Rev 12:5, Rev 2:27).

Mat 24:27  For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

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

Rev 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.

Now we come to the glorious twelfth chapter of Daniel that points to how Christ will make the bride ready (Rev 21:2) through the strength of God’s power (Joh 17:12, Joh 10:28-29), preparing us to be kings and priests who will be raised incorruptible, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump” (1Co 15:52).

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.

Joh 17:12  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Joh 10:28  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Joh 10:29  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Numbers 3:27-51  The Duties of the Levites – Part 2

[Study Aired May 8, 2023]

Num 3:27  And of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izeharites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites: these are the families of the Kohathites.
Num 3:28  In the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were eight thousand and six hundred, keeping the charge of the sanctuary.
Num 3:29  The families of the sons of Kohath shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle southward. 
Num 3:30  And the chief of the house of the father of the families of the Kohathites shall be Elizaphan the son of Uzziel. 
Num 3:31  And their charge shall be the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary wherewith they minister, and the hanging, and all the service thereof.
Num 3:32  And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be chief over the chief of the Levites, and have the oversight of them that keep the charge of the sanctuary. 
Num 3:33  Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites, and the family of the Mushites: these are the families of Merari.
Num 3:34  And those that were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were six thousand and two hundred. 
Num 3:35  And the chief of the house of the father of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail: these shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle northward. 
Num 3:36  And under the custody and charge of the sons of Merari shall be the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the sockets thereof, and all the vessels thereof, and all that serveth thereto, 
Num 3:37  And the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords. 
Num 3:38  But those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, even before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward, shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 
Num 3:39  All that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the LORD, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty and two thousand. 
Num 3:40  And the LORD said unto Moses, Number all the firstborn of the males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names. 
Num 3:41  And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I am the LORD) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel. 
Num 3:42  And Moses numbered, as the LORD commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
Num 3:43  And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, were twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen. 
Num 3:44  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 
Num 3:45  Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD. 
Num 3:46  And for those that are to be redeemed of the two hundred and threescore and thirteen of the firstborn of the children of Israel, which are more than the Levites; 
Num 3:47  Thou shalt even take five shekels apiece by the poll, after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them: (the shekel is twenty gerahs:) 
Num 3:48  And thou shalt give the money, wherewith the odd number of them is to be redeemed, unto Aaron and to his sons. 
Num 3:49  And Moses took the redemption money of them that were over and above them that were redeemed by the Levites: 
Num 3:50  Of the firstborn of the children of Israel took he the money; a thousand three hundred and threescore and five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: 
Num 3:51  And Moses gave the money of them that were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Introduction

This session looks at the roles of the Kohathites and the families of the sons of Merari, who were all part of the tribe of the Levites. It also takes a look at the payment of the redeemed amount resulting from the excess of the firstborns of Israel who were being replaced by the Levites as commanded by the Lord. We, His elect, are the laborers or the Levites who are replacing the firstborns. As our Lord Jesus stated, the laborers are always fewer than those who parade themselves as apostles of the gospel but are actually the firstborns who have been replaced. Such apostles think they have the legitimate right to lead the Lord’s people but are actually false apostles, deceitful workers who have transformed themselves into apostles of Christ.

Mat 9:37  Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 
Mat 9:38  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. 

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Num 3:27  And of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izeharites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites: these are the families of the Kohathites. 

Kohath is the second son of Levi, and the name Kohath signifies an assembly. As we know, there are two types of assembly in the sight of God – the Babylonian assembly and that of the elect. Since the Kohathites belong to the Levite order and not the priesthood, they represent Babylonian assembly or Jerusalem, which is in bondage with her children.

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.

The names of the sons of Kohath are Amram, Izehar, Hebron and Uzziel. Amram means ‘exalted people’, Izehar means ‘anointed’, Hebron signifies ‘seat of association’ and Uzziel means ‘the strength of God’. What these names imply is that the Kohathites are associated with the exalted people of God (the elect) who are anointed through the strength of the Lord. This is affirmed through the following scripture:

Num 18:2  And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.

Num 18:4  And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.

Num 3:28  In the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were eight thousand and six hundred, keeping the charge of the sanctuary.

The number of males of the Kohathites counted was 8,600. This means that being a Kohathite (the significance of the number 6) is all part of the process of giving birth to the new man who is after the image of Christ. As we are aware, it is as we come out of the Babylonian system (Kohathites) that Christ begins to transform us into new creatures, that is, the new man begins to be formed in us.

Col 3:10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Num 3:29  The families of the sons of Kohath shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle southward.

The families of the sons of Kohath were to dwell on the southward side of the tabernacle. Pitching their camp on the south side of the tabernacle of congregation means that their dwelling portion in this life is towards the sea. In other words, this group are those who start their journey with the Lord. However, the pull of the sea of flesh denied them from attaining the higher calling of the Lord.

Eze 48:28  And by the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the waters of strife in Kadesh, and to the river toward the great sea.

Mat 13:22  He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. 

Num 3:30  And the chief of the house of the father of the families of the Kohathites shall be Elizaphan the son of Uzziel. 

The leader of the Kohathites is called Elizaphan which means ‘my God has protected’. The implication here is that in the grand scheme of the Lord, He is the one who is protecting the Kohathites to play the role of capturing the Lord’s children in Babylonian captivity until the set times that they are released to know Christ. 

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:

Psa 137:1  By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 
Psa 137:2  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 
Psa 137:3  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

Num 3:31  And their charge shall be the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary wherewith they minister, and the hanging, and all the service thereof.

These Kohathites are to take care of the ark, the table, the candlesticks, the altars and all the vessels used in the Holy place. As we indicated in the previous study, the Kohathites, who were part of the Levites, are given to the elect to help them minister to the Lord. They do the initial leg work of using the law of Moses as our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. After we get to know Christ through faith, we are no longer under their influence or the law of Moses. Today’s Kohathites also represent the Christian religion. They are focused on building and taking care of physical churches (tabernacle of testimony). In other words, they are protecting the legacy of the Christian religion.

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

Num 3:32  And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be chief over the chief of the Levites, and have the oversight of them that keep the charge of the sanctuary. 

Eleazer, the Priest, was the appointed leader of the Levites as he oversaw the work of the Levites. Eleaser means ‘God is help’. We can therefore say that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who helps our brothers and sisters in Babylon carry out their work, which is related to the letter of the word which brings death. As we all know, all the good and the evil things that are happening in this world are all part of the plan of the Lord. As the Bible indicates, all things, whether good or evil, are being done for our sakes, the elect, including the work of the false apostles in Babylon.

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

Num 3:33  Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites, and the family of the Mushites: these are the families of Merari.
Num 3:34  And those that were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were six thousand and two hundred.

Merari was the last son of Merari. The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. Mahli means ‘weak’, and Mushi signifies ‘yielding’. This spiritually means that since our flesh is weak, we naturally yield to the deeds of the flesh. That is what characterized our lives in Babylon as we were yielding to the deeds of the flesh because of what we hear from our leaders in Babylon.

Mat 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

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

The total number of the males that were counted for the families of Merari was 6,200. This signifies that the weakness of our flesh as man (the meaning of the number 6) serves as a witness (the meaning of the number 2) to our failure to inherit the promise unless the Lord intervenes by driving us out of Babylon (families of Merari).

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

The name Merari means ‘bitter’, which is part of the deeds of the flesh which we are warned by the Lord can disqualify us for the prize.

Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 
Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 
Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Num 3:35  And the chief of the house of the father of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail: these shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle northward. 

The head of the families of Merari is Zuriel which means ‘God is a rock’. This is therefore to let us know that our Lord Jesus is the one who is actively involved in the affairs of the families of Merari who represent Babylon. 

Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

The fact that the families of the Merari were required to dwell on the northern side of the tabernacle suggests that this group is far away from the sea of flesh. Thus, the sons of the Merari represent our brothers and sisters in Babylon who have escaped from the corruption that is in the world through lust of the flesh but are being entrapped into it due to false doctrines perpetrated by their leaders. This affirms our earlier assertion of the spiritual state of this group of the Levites.

2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 
2Pe 2:21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 
2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Num 3:36  And under the custody and charge of the sons of Merari shall be the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the sockets thereof, and all the vessels thereof, and all that serveth thereto, 
Num 3:37  And the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords.

The responsibility of the sons of Merari was toward the frames of the tabernacle, the bars, the pillars, the bases, and all their accessories. In addition to this, they were to take care of the pillars around the court, with their bases and pegs and cords and the services connected with these. All these responsibilities relate to superficial aspects of serving the Lord. It has nothing to do with worshiping the Lord in truth and in spirit, which is the portion of the elect. What Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that they worship what they do not know is very relevant today. Many worship another Jesus thinking it is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Joh 4:21  Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 
Joh 4:22  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 
Joh 4:23  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Num 3:38  But those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, even before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward, shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 

It was Moses, Aaron and his sons who were required to dwell on the East side of the tabernacle. It is from the East that the sun of righteousness rises with healing in its wings. This affirms that Moses, Aaron and his sons, who represent the priesthood, symbolize the elect who are first to experience the rise of the sun of righteousness in this life.

Mal 4:2  But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 
Mal 4:3  And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.

The wicked in Malachi 4:3 refers to our old man who we are destined to tread down.

We are told in Numbers 3:38 that the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. The stranger represents all those who are not called and chosen but are forcing themselves into the kingdom of God. Our Lord Jesus mentioned that the kingdom of God has suffered violence since John the Baptist as strangers try to usurp the rightful owners (the elect) through their perceived will. 

Mat 11:12  From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. (ESV)

As we know, the kingdom of God, which rightfully belongs to the elect, is given but is not there to be taken. Many people of various religions of this world including Christianity are typical examples of strangers coming nigh to take what belongs to the elect and are therefore put to death as shown in verse 38. Being put to death means they are blinded with thick darkness by the Lord and kept until judgment as shown in these verses: 

2Pe 2:1  But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 
2Pe 2:2  And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 
2Pe 2:3  And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 
2Pe 2:4  For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 

2Pe 2:9  then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 
2Pe 2:10  and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,

Num 3:39  All that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the LORD, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty and two thousand. 

As indicated in the previous study, the Levites needed to be counted. The reason the Levites were counted was that since they were required to replace the firstborns, it was necessary that the number of Levites had to be equal to the number of firstborns of Israel and that any shortage would then be redeemed. The number of the Levites counted was 22,000. On a positive note, this number suggests that we, the elect, who are replacing those who have been shown mercy are called and chosen to become witnesses of Christ. 

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. 

Num 3:40  And the LORD said unto Moses, Number all the firstborn of the males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names. 
Num 3:41  And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I am the LORD) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel. 
Num 3:42  And Moses numbered, as the LORD commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
Num 3:43  And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, were twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen.

Spiritually, the Levites replacing the firstborn of the children of Israel is a foretaste of the fact that the Lord’s election is no longer dependent on a person’s pedigree or his or her birth. Paul made this clear when through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he made the statement that it is not one who is born a Jew that counts, but a Jew is a person who worships the Lord in truth and in spirit. 

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 number of the firstborn counted was 22,273. This means that at the completion of the ages (the significance of the number 7), all those who were initially shown mercy will become witnesses of Christ (the significance of the number 2) as they go through the process of spiritual maturity through judgment (the significance of the number 3).

Num 3:44  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 
Num 3:45  Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD. 
Num 3:46  And for those that are to be redeemed of the two hundred and threescore and thirteen of the firstborn of the children of Israel, which are more than the Levites; 
Num 3:47  Thou shalt even take five shekels apiece by the poll, after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them: (the shekel is twenty gerahs:) 
Num 3:48  And thou shalt give the money, wherewith the odd number of them is to be redeemed, unto Aaron and to his sons. 
Num 3:49  And Moses took the redemption money of them that were over and above them that were redeemed by the Levites: 
Num 3:50  Of the firstborn of the children of Israel took he the money; a thousand three hundred and threescore and five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: 
Num 3:51  And Moses gave the money of them that were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses. 

The amount of money paid to Aaron and his sons as a result of the difference in number between the firstborn and the Levites was 1,365 shekels. This amount shows us the sacrifice that our Lord Jesus Christ made on our behalf for us to be considered part of the commonwealth of God’s people.

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.

The redeemed amount of 1,365 shekels shows us that we need to have the same mind with Christ or to be united with Christ (the significance of the number 1) in our lives here as men (the significance of the number 6). This is achieved by the process of spiritual maturity through judgment (the significance of the number 3). All this is possible by grace through faith (the significance of the number 5). This grace through faith is made possible through the Lord’s sacrifice with His life. We, the elect, are those who have been redeemed through the precious blood of Christ. 

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:

May the Lord be merciful to us as He continues to redeem us!! Amen!!

Song of Solomon – Part 6, The Bride’s Dream

Song of Solomon 3:1-11

[Study Aired December 3, 2022]

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:13)

Before proceeding with the third chapter of the Song of Solomon, it is important to address the questions in everyone’s minds regarding the Song’s covert sexual innuendos. The vast majority of the Body of Christ see those creative references, and none of us can precisely identify their erotic tag; such is the beauty of poetry and elegant anticipatory arousals. For newcomers to the site and for this study to not resolve, the intent of Solomon’s apparent steamy wordplay is to the ‘natural mind’ blatantly missing the most significant aspects of erotica. Because of the curse of blindness, what the flesh doesn’t see and cannot see is…

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

Mat 13:15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

Blindness is one of the symbolic giants inhabiting the nations within the Elect of God’s spiritual land. The Lord drives out that giant of a curse called blindness. Those given eyes that spiritually see are the Elect of God whose judgement is happening right now, as they were of their brothers in Babylon cursed with equal blindness; now they are given to excitedly see and hear like the Shulamite ~ because they are the Shulamite!

Deu 11:22 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; 
Deu 11:23 Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. 
Deu 11:24 Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.
Deu 11:25 There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.
Deu 11:26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
Deu 11:27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 
Deu 11:28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known. 

We assuredly do now know that the most outstanding god we all pursued in Babylon. ‘He’ was and is a three-fold god beginning with the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh is driven by the lust of the eyes that consolidates our self-ordained right to pursue (as did Solomon) our indulgent glory and is called the pride of life. Even Solomon came to the frustrating conclusion that “all is vanity of vanities” (Ecc 1:1-11). His frustration was born from not having the Lord’s spirit of discernment, as we understand in John 6:63.

We are admonished to not lust after the flesh, to have it rule us, and for the Song of Solomon’s cause not to awaken love (erotica) until it is provided by the Lord in a righteous environment.

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.

So, the overwhelming rationale for not endeavouring to identify the multitude of sexual innuendos in the Song is that it is of no spiritual value. If the individual or a husband and wife wish to muse on the suggestive symbolism, it has some whimsical value yet ultimately is fruitless.

However, the Shulamite’s erotic spiritual subtleties are infinitely more ravishing.

The Lord made the woman physically and spiritually for the man to fulfil the Father’s plan for his Son (1Co 11:1-16). The entire intricate form of the female gender is a unique phenomenon of intrigue, as is male sexuality; both are to disappear in the Kingdom (Gal 3:28).

The Body of Christ is somewhat exasperated by Babylon’s wholesale degradation of anything related to mankind’s sexuality. Subconsciously, every sexually maturing male (like the Shulamite) knows that the more subtlely and elegantly anticipatory expressed details of a female of his attention are far more arousing than blatant in-your-face flesh. Merely go to the beach (on YouTube for most of us) and view the perversion of righteous lust for the female form, where nano-eye-patch-like bikinis are the norm. A somewhat good thing, reminiscent of a seared heart, is that every male on the beach is a well-practised slaughterman of his awakenings with an internal parody of the Shulamite charging him, ‘do not awaken my lust until I please’.

The Shulamite is undoubtedly well taught by her mother and senior female peers in the fine art of righteous and infinitely more exhilarating male seduction, and it is guaranteed not to involve indelicate displays of skin that scripture describes as nakedness that is sin.

Of course, the Lord-designed juxtapositioning of the other extreme in some Islamic cultures female dress code is pure slavery to both men and women. How can an Islamic man tell if the girl’s eyes behind a jail-like mesh hijab are that of a dove or loving hind? Her hair beneath the ‘tent’ of humidity would smell more like a flock of goats from Mt. Gilead rather than the effect of Solomon’s visual imagery. Nonetheless, that cultural environment has a one-hundred- and eighty-degrees positive effect on a Muslim man’s arousal compared to a Westerner’s, should his eyes be assaulted by a glimpse just above her ankle. No wonder young Muslim men lustfully spin out for the bounty when coming to a Western country full of infidels.

Solomon, the wisest man ever lived, maintains, and builds sexual suspense by compelling the reader to dream as lucidly as the Shulamite. Remembering earlier studies in the Song of Solomon, women’s roller-coaster arousals are generated precisely as the Shulamite fantasises. Likewise, the Bible is a book of turbulent foreplay designed primarily for the Bride of Christ. For Solomon to bluntly identify the erotic imagery would destroy the purpose of foreplay. The Lord could have been just a blunt in the Garden of Eden and dispensed with seven thousand years of spiritually developing ‘foreplay’.

Let’s continue with the Song of Solomon, Chapter 3:1-5.

It is a beautiful thing that all Christ-centric fiancées committed to marriage dream in effusive detail of how their courtship will bloom into their wedding day. That vivacity in Christ is a testament to her commitment. The Shulamite continues to rehearse her vivid dream that constitutes the entire Song as the spousal summation of the Bible. To the Elect of God, that dream is being lived in reality, and hopefully, we, too, are given to unabashedly and deeply experience the same spiritual arousals.

Remembering that the Song is a continuous event in her mind that could be daydreamed in an hour or two ~ yet, the philosophical Solomon could have taken weeks to compose.

Continuing from chapter two, the Bride pursues that dream in chapter three.

Son 3:1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
Son 3:2 I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 
Son 3:3 The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? 
Son 3:4 It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. 
Son 3:5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please.

Son 3:1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

In verse one, the Bride delights in the fantasy of righteous lust that epitomises the entire Song. She knows full well where her beloved is, and her internal pretend game amplifies the intensity of her arousal with the make-believe of her fiancé’s absence. The adage, “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” holds true.

Verse one is easily seen by the Elect of God as their spiritual event of first love in seeking and finding Christ. In the early dawn of having their eyes opened, they sometimes agonisingly question whether they have found the truth as they continue with a pounding heart beneath their ‘Temple mount’, searching the word to prove all things and stir up the spirit of truth.

Disconcertedly, their flesh sometimes questions the remarkable gift they are blessed with and pray that it is not written in this age that His spirit departs. As with the Shulamite, and many of us in the midnight hour, search for our Lord with troubled hearts.

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. 

2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

Psa 51:11 O do not fling me from Your presence, And do not take Your holy spirit from me. (CLV)

Son 3:2 I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

The Shulamite in verse two continues to heighten the intensity of her arousal with the drama of a seeming classic female-superhero rescue. Christ and men love to ‘rescue’ a genuine woman, as did Boaz with Ruth and Christ with the Bride ~ both parties receive an emotional and spiritual high from the theatre (Ruth 3:1-18). Bards like Shakespeare and the Bible are full of such parables. 

Most women seem to secretly delight in tough and a little scary masculinity, which will fight for them; it amplifies their femininity and subsequent arousals. In today’s world, that romantic drama for women is a paradox since the curse from Eden torturously tears them in two directions ~ that of being submissive to a truly powerful man and her mostly unconscious desire to rule him. The Shulamite is rescued by a powerful and, in a positive sense, scary ‘man’ and kisses from him are immensely arousing! Her ‘Man’ didn’t just step up to the plate; he created the entire event, the love story from the beginning to the end.

A King or Priest serving in the holy of holies must be a perfect sacrifice. Our Lord is not the man in Deuteronomy 23:1 and Leviticus 23:1-24! He never had a blemish in any department of his spiritual anatomy; now, neither does she; she is about to be equally yoked in every way. He is her head and leads with his God-ordained headship symbolised by physically fully functional masculinity. The other spiritually dysfunctional parts of human anatomy, such as blindness, being crippled, deaf, and various diseases, are common to males and females. 

Deu 23:1 He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.

Lev 21:17 Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
Lev 21:18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,
Lev 21:19 Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, 
Lev 21:20 Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;
Lev 21:21 No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. 
Lev 21:22 He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. 
Lev 21:23 Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them.
Lev 21:24 And Moses told it unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel.

Of course, spiritually, the love ‘game’ plays out precisely as planned. Women delight in the extended love play of a sizzling romance, and men love the sizzle. The Shulamite knows the outcome of her romantic impression and frequently reminds herself ‘to not stir up love until He pleases’. She plays the internal charade of amplifying anticipation by pretending that she can’t find her beloved. Compared to Eden’s curse on women (the world’s churches), she doesn’t have an internal disquiet of her heart being torn with feminine desire by wanting to rule him. She sincerely wants Him to pursue her and find her, and He does.

Son 3:3 The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?

Likewise, in the Body of Christ, she goes to many counsellors, the watchmen, to prove everything. She knows full well that she will find her Lord, the pearl of great price, because it was written that He would find her ~ from a babe in the field, budding into a beautiful bright young girl without breasts, to the spiritual stunner she is in the Song of Solomon.

In verse four, the Bride continues her dream and imagines her wedding night.

Son 3:4 It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

The Shulamite, a classic damsel in distress, searched for her beloved with all of her heart and the pretence that she couldn’t find him. In a little while, and undoubtedly with an immense surge of emotional release, blow me down ~ she found Him! Her aspirations serve to escalate this one-off marriage event, the pinnacle for which a righteous Bride (particularly she) is created. (1Co 11:9 – the woman is created for the man…)

Psa 63:8 My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me. (BSB)

The Shulamite is utterly determined to bring her husband into the sanctity, figuratively of where her mother conceived her, a bed-chamber where marriage in heaven is sealed. She knows her inheritance as the Bride of Christ through the imbued lineage of righteous women, beginning long ago with Sarah, Abraham’s wife, “a mother of nations”.  She clings to her husband, the pearl of great price and dreams of consummating her marriage as the beautiful New Jerusalem above, the final and spiritual mother of us all.

The Shulamite maintains the sanctity of marriage that her mother and all preceding righteous mothers taught and is, to us, a spiritually pure doctrine symbolised by the marriage bed.

Heb 13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

It appeared the custom in ancient Biblical times for a bride to honour her mother’s teaching her the art of being a God-fearing wife who, too, honoured her husband and the order of headship. Likewise, a groom performed the same ritual in his mother’s tent or ‘chamber’ to honour the holiness of marriage. Not long after the death of Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah sealed their marriage in Sarah’s tent. The shadow of consummating a marriage in a mother’s bed chamber is in honour of God and the sanctity of marriage that doesn’t necessarily involve one’s mother’s chamber for conceiving. In a God-fearing family, a mother has a massive impact on her sons’ social and spiritual development, as does the Church on the laity. Even though a righteous wife doesn’t rule her husband, she is an immense blessing to him and their family, as was Rebekah to Isaac and all righteous women in scripture.

The Body of Christ lives a major aspect of being positively ravished by Christ, with Him having created her to ravish Him, and thus the marriage bed of pure doctrine is undefiled.

Gen 24:67 And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. 

Pro 5:15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
Pro 5:16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
Pro 5:17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.
Pro 5:18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Pro 5:19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished [H7686] always with her love. 
Pro 5:20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? 

In the negative for the meaning of “ravish” (H7686), we know Israel’s neighbouring strange women lovers embraced her bosom, thus ravishing her in the wilderness H7686 meaning to lead “led [her] astray”, and they did.

Lev 11:44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile [H2930] yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Defile H2930
– Original: טמא
– Transliteration: Tame’
– Phonetic: taw-may’
– Definition: 
to be unclean, become unclean, become impure
(Qal) to be or become unclean
sexually
religiously
ceremonially
(Niphal)
to defile oneself, be defiled 1b
sexually 1b
by idolatry 1b
ceremonially
to be regarded as unclean
(Piel)
to defile 1c
sexually 1c
religiously 1c
ceremonially
to pronounce unclean, declare unclean (ceremonially)
to profane (God’s name)
(Pual) to be defiled
(Hithpael) to be unclean
(Hothpael) to be defiled

– Origin: a primitive root
– TWOT entry: 809
– Part(s) of speech: Verb 

The Shulamite and all the righteous women in scripture honoured their mother’s and father’s instructions in every aspect of Godliness, particularly for this purpose, by not defiling the marriage bed. The Shulamite in the SoS is not a filthy dreamer as were the men of Sodom.

Jud 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, [that all are false doctrines] are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 
Jud 1:8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

Today, a young groom’s last desire is to have their wedding night in the mother-in-law’s bedroom. However, for spiritual eyes, the biblical custom is for the Bride of Christ’s understanding.

The marital bed is akin to the holy of holies that only the high priest can enter. Solomon is portrayed as Christ, and it is Christ who enters the bed-chamber of the mother-to-be of all nations through the righteous lineage of mothers, with the Shulamite being the final consummative spouse. Taking one’s spouse figuratively or literally into a mother’s bed-chamber signifies the purity of Christ’s wife’s submission to his doctrine. It is the final act for the beginning of delivering her children, the world.

Bedchamber H2315
– Original: חדר
– Transliteration: Cheder
– Phonetic: kheh’-der
– Definition:

chamber, room, parlour, innermost or inward part, within

– Origin: from H2314
– TWOT entry: 612a
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Masculine 
– Strong’s: From H2314; an apartment (usually literally): – ([bed] inner) chamber innermost (-ward) part parlour + south X within.

Gen 17:15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 
Gen 17:16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
Gen 17:17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? 
Gen 17:18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 
Gen 17:19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

The marriage bed, meaning marriage, is holy, with no place for fornication or adultery, the perversion of pure doctrine.

The following verse speaks of the judgment of Jerusalem, our former selves.

Zep 3:4 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, [H6944] they have done violence to the law. 

Our bodies are the Temple of God, and the marriage bed is kept holy only through marriage, equally yoked in Christ.

Sanctuary H6944
– Original: קדשׁ
– Transliteration: Qodesh
– Phonetic: ko’-desh
– Definition:
apartness, holiness, sacredness, separateness
apartness, sacredness, holiness
of God
of places
of things
set-apartness, separateness 

– Origin: from H6942 [1. to consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified, be separate]
– TWOT entry: 1990a
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Masculine 
– Strong’s: From H6942; a sacred place or thing; rarely abstractly sanctity: – consecrated (thing) dedicated (thing) hallowed (thing) holiness (X most) holy (X day portion thing) saint

1Co 6:16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 
1Co 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

The Shulamite is dreadfully alert to keep the sanctity of marriage for her Lord and constantly recalls,

Son 3:5 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. 

The Bride is the holy Temple, the city of God, the New Jerusalem where Christ resides.

Rev 21:22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 
Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 
Rev 21:24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. 
Rev 21:25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 
Rev 21:26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
Rev 21:27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Lord willing, the Bride continues her dream next week with her groom arriving at the wedding.

[Study Aired October 3, 2022]

Exo 25:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 
Exo 25:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. 
Exo 25:3  And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, 
Exo 25:4  And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,
Exo 25:5  And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, 
Exo 25:6  Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, 
Exo 25:7  Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. 
Exo 25:8  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. 
Exo 25:9  According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

Introduction

This chapter and the subsequent ones show us how to build the temple or the house of God. As we are aware, this house of God is our body.

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

Individually, each of us represent a lively stone that the Lord is using to build a collective spiritual house with Jesus as the foundation to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

1Pe 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
1Pe 2:6  Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

As we know, we come to understand spiritual reality through the things that are made. When one stands at the edge of a stream or a river, one can see smooth, small and rounded stones at the bottom of the river or at the edges. These stones used to be large rocks which, through the passage of a flowing river or stream over them for several years, have gradually been broken down into small, smooth and rounded stones of various sizes. These stones serve as free and ready-made materials for building houses in the rural communities where they cannot afford using stone crushers or any technology.

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

Spiritually, we are these lively stones which through the work of a flowing river or stream, that is, the word of the Lord or Jesus Christ, have been broken down into small pieces (destruction of our proud old man) to be used to build the Lord’s temple.

Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean (broken down) through the word (the river passing over us) which I have spoken unto you.

It is insightful to note that those who make use of these stones are those who are poor. They are those in the villages who use these stones to build houses. We are those who are spiritually poor and make use of these stones at no cost. When we stand at the edge of a stream or river, we can never see that a flowing river or stream is having an impact on the rocks. However, after many years, we see the work of the river or stream. In a similar vein, we may not see what the Lord is doing through the trials He is taking us through now, but after many years, we can see that we are gradually being perfected!!  Oh, that men will see the wonderful works of the Lord!!

Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:32  Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

One songwriter being amazed by the wonderful works of the Lord, puts it this way:

God Moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Let us therefore have confidence that what He starts, He is able to finish!! With this in mind, let us now take a closer look at how the Lord is building His house through us as follows:

Materials used in Building the Lord’s House

Exo 25:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 25:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.

We are to bring the Lord an offering for the building of His house. This offering is our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to the Lord which is our spiritual worship.

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

As indicated in Exodus 25:2, this offering of our bodies as a living sacrifice is to be done willingly. We know from the scriptures that it is the Lord who makes us willing to do anything, both good and evil. If we are left to ourselves, we cannot ever offer any sacrifice to the Lord.

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Joh 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Every man giving an offering willingly in verse 2 therefore means that it is the Lord who is building His house by making us willing to offer our bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to the Lord. This is what we are to offer willingly to the Lord:

Exo 25:3  And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, 
Exo 25:4  And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, 
Exo 25:5  And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, 

The gold, silver and precious metals that we are to offer refer to the wisdom and understanding we have received from the Lord through His words.

Eze 28:4  With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:

This means that to take away gold and silver means to take away the understanding and wisdom of the word of the Lord. This is what has happened to Babylon, the church system of the world.

2Ki 14:14  And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria.

In building the House of the Lord, therefore, we are to have the mind of Christ which is His wisdom and understanding of His words.

In addition to wisdom and understanding, we are told in verse 4 to offer blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen and goat’s hair. In order to understand the meaning of these items, we need to comprehend how they are used in the tabernacle. An artistic impression of the tabernacle is shown at the URL below:

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.VxyZgpaNGDsuXON06hPQ8AHaE-%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=17bc8a7553d9cac72ed3b00db71ceeb69412fcf8a40caf3d7eab5de6ad17fdb7&ipo=images

All these items mentioned in verses 4 and 5 are to be used in the outer covering of the tabernacle or the temple of God. These coverings are what outsiders see. It is our righteousness people see. If we are to build the house of God, then we must possess the righteousness of Christ. That is what people see that we are indeed the temple of God. The items mentioned, apart from the colors, therefore signify our righteousness of the saints in Christ as shown by the significance of fine linen which is one of the items mentioned.

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

The colors blue, purple and scarlet signify all those in whom the Lord’s spirit is working to transform them from the first Adam to the last Adam, who is Christ. In conclusion, what we are being told in verses 3 to 5 is that the offering of those whom the Lord’s spirit is transforming from the first Adam to Christ, the last Adam, is our bodies which we must offer as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. As we are aware, this offering of our bodies as living sacrifices is the righteousness of the saints which comes through the Lord’s judgment of our old man.

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.

Exo 25:6  Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,

The oil for the light and the spices for anointing oil all refer to His spirit which is His words. Our obedience to His words produces the sweet incense before the Lord.  All of these are required to build the house of God. We need to note that all of these items mentioned are available only to the priest who represents the elect.

Num 4:16  And to the office of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest pertaineth the oil for the light, and the sweet incense, and the daily meat offering, and the anointing oil, and the oversight of all the tabernacle, and of all that therein is, in the sanctuary, and in the vessels thereof.

2Ch 29:11  My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.

Apart from the elect (the priests), all others are not given to receiving spices for anointing oil and sweet incense. The following scriptures show us who is qualified to offer incense to the Lord.

Luk 1:5  There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
Luk 1:6  And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 
Luk 1:7  And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. 
Luk 1:8  And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, 
Luk 1:9  According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 
Luk 1:10  And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.

In Luke 1:6, we are given the qualifications of those who are qualified to offer incense before God. They are those who are righteous before God and walk in all His commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. What we need to understand is that our righteousness comes from the Lord. He works within us to be able to walk blameless before God. The fact that they had no child in verse 7 affirms to us that they represent Jerusalem which is above and is currently barren.

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.

It is also insightful to note that apart from the elect or the priests, all others worship outside as noted in Luke 1:10. The multitude worshiping outside represent Jerusalem which is in bondage with her children which is the same as Babylon, the harlot.

Exo 25:7  Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. 

An ephod is included among the litany of sacred garments to be worn by the priests. Two onyx stones are to be mounted in gold and fastened on the ephod’s shoulder pieces. These stones are to be engraved with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel with six names on one and six on the other. These stones represent the elect and our works as we are mounted in the word of the Lord and fastened to the Lord’s shoulder. This means that we are carried on the shoulders of the Lord. Being carried on the shoulder means that it is the Lord who does the work – we are only resting on His shoulders as He does the walking (leads us).

Luk 15:4  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? 
Luk 15:5  And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

Building According to the Pattern Shown

Exo 25:8  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

Since we are the temple of God, the sanctuary we are to make for Him is to be cleansed from all that offends from within us so that the Lord will come and sit in the throne of our hearts. This cleansing is the work of the Lord. We have made His sanctuary a den of thieves, but the Lord will surely cleanse His temple if we are called and chosen.

Mar 11:15  And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; 
Mar 11:16  And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. 
Mar 11:17  And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Exo 25:9  According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

This cleansing of our temple to make the Lord a sanctuary can only be accomplished if we are to follow after the pattern of the tabernacle that the Lord is showing us in His words.

Heb 8:5  Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

We cannot disregard what the Lord is showing us about how to build His temple, which is our bodies. In the Bible, there are examples of those who did not follow the pattern the Lord has shown them and suffered the wrath of the Lord.

Lev 10:1  And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.
Lev 10:2  And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.

Let us now focus on the patterns that the Lord has shown us regarding how to make Him a sanctuary or build His temple. One of the first things we have learned from the Lord when we left Babylon is that it is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing.

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

The Lord has shown us that it is the spirit which gives life. All others do not give life. What this means is that behind the letter of the word is the Lord speaking to us in the spirit. Without understanding what the Lord is saying spiritually, we will not build according to the pattern and therefore are doomed to fail spiritually. In building the Lord’s temple, we must be able ministers of the spirit of the words of the Lord which gives life. Ministering in the spirit is therefore building according to the pattern we have been shown by the Lord.

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.

Building according to the pattern also means we must focus our attention on the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This is what the Lord instructed His disciples to do – to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Mat 10:5  These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
Mat 10:6  But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 
Mat 10:7  And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Mat 15:24  But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The question is, “Who are the lost sheep of the House of Israel?” To understand who the lost sheep are, let us take a look at the following:

1Pe 2:25  For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

Luk 15:3  And he spake this parable unto them, saying, 
Luk 15:4  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? 
Luk 15:5  And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 
Luk 15:6  And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
Luk 15:7  I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

This is what Jeremiah also has to say about the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Jer 50:6  My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.
Jer 50:7  All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers. 
Jer 50:8  Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks.

As Peter said, we are the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In other words, the lost sheep represents those who have come to know that they are spiritually poor and that the church system of this world (ninety-nine sheep or Babylon) cannot help them. As a result, they have come out of Babylon. This was the experience of the prodigal son who wasted his father’s resources but later came to know that He was the worst sinner and therefore came out of Babylon. We are therefore called to minister to those who have come to realize their sinful state and are depending on the Lord. This is the church of the firstborn to whom we are sent.

Luk 15:11  And he said, A certain man had two sons: 
Luk 15:12  And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 
Luk 15:13  And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 
Luk 15:14  And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 
Luk 15:15  And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 
Luk 15:16  And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 
Luk 15:17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 
Luk 15:18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 
Luk 15:19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 
Luk 15:20  And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

The statement in Luke 15:17 that the prodigal “came to himself” means that he came to see that he was spiritually poor. The other brother represents the ninety-nine sheep who need no repentance. These represent Babylon out of which we admonished to come.

Someone may ask, “Didn’t the Lord command the disciples to go into the world and preach the gospel which has nothing to do with the lost sheep of the house of Israel?”

Mar 16:15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mar 16:16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Mar 16:17  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 
Mar 16:18  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

To understand what the Lord is saying, let’s take a look at how the word of the Lord defines the word “world”.

Joh 1:9  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Joh 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Joh 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 
Joh 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 
Joh 1:13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 

As we can see from John 1:10-11, ‘He came to His own, and his own did not receive him’ is the same as ‘he came to the world and the world knew him not’. This means that the world and His own (the lost sheep of Israel) are the same. We are the lost sheep (His own) who rejected Him but later received Him and became the sons of God (John 1:12). We know that Jesus’ ministry was centered around Israel and that he didn’t travel around the world. The world as spoken by Jesus therefore refers to the lost sheep of Israel. This is confirmed by the following verses: 

Joh 8:25  Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. 
Joh 8:26  I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. 

Rom 10:18  But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

If we are to build according to the pattern, then we must not waste our time ministering or preaching to the people of this world, including Babylon. Our focus must be on the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That is why we are commanded not to pay attention to a “heretick after the…second admonition”. ‘An heretick’ is one who belongs to the ninety-nine sheep or Babylon who is blinded by his false doctrines, such that he thinks he is spiritually rich.

Tit 3:10  A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;

Another pattern we have been shown by the Lord in building His house is that we must not neglect the assembling of the saints as some are in the habit of doing.

Heb 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 
Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 

We need revelation from the Lord to know the important role the church plays in helping us to present our bodies as living sacrifices. It is through what every joint supplies that we are able to make a sanctuary for the Lord. That is when we become mature in the things of God and are not blown about by every wind of doctrine. This is because the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Many have downplayed the role of the church in their spiritual development and have pierced themselves with many sorrows.

1Ti 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Eph 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 
Eph 4:12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 
Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 
Eph 4:14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 
Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 
Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. 

Another pattern that we have been shown is that we do not build the Lord’s house in our own strength. We need to learn to rest in the Lord. Scriptures tell us that those who ministered before the Lord in the inner court were not to wear anything made of wool that would cause them to sweat. Sweat signifies man’s effort!! 

Eze 44:16  They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.
Eze 44:17  And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. 
Eze 44:18  They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.

In building the Lord’s temple, we have to rest in the Lord and let Him do His work in us. Resting means ceasing from our own strivings.

Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7  Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 
Heb 4:8  For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 
Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

If we are to build according to the pattern, then we must leave Babylon!! Many of us have left Babylon physically but are still under the sway of Babylon because we are still finding it difficult to let go of some of its delicacies – false doctrines, worldly wisdom, traditions, etc.

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

Jer 50:8  Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks. 

May the Lord help us to continue to build on the foundation He has laid so that we can make a sanctuary for Him with our bodies as we will continue to build according to His pattern!! Amen!! 

Audio Links

Awesome Hands – part 92

“Golden candlestick”

November 25, 2015

We’ve been studying the various items and instruments required to be made by Moses and the Israelites for the sanctuary of the Lord.

In today’s study, we are going to cover the golden candlestick and some of the spiritual applications and meanings for God’s people.

While there are many applications to how we are the candlestick in the sanctuary, I will only be covering a few examples of how we are used in God’s temple.

Candlestick of pure gold – almonds

The verses were going to be focusing on for the study today are Exodus 25:31-40:

Exo 25:31  And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.
Exo 25:32  And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side:
Exo 25:33  Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick.
Exo 25:34  And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers.
Exo 25:35  And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick.
Exo 25:36  Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold.
Exo 25:37  And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.
Exo 25:38  And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold.
Exo 25:39  Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels.
Exo 25:40  And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

There are various items mentioned which make up the aesthetics of the candlestick. However, these items are not just mentioned so that the person creating the design of the candlestick could make something pleasing to the eye. After all, there weren’t very any people who were going to see these items.

As with all scripture, the details of what is being said gives us a clearer understanding of what the Lord is revealing to us about Him and our relationship to Him.

First off we know this is a candlestick so the number one purpose of this item is to provide light. The other details will all support this idea. The shaft, branches, bowls, knops, and flowers will all be sub-details of this purpose for the candlestick.

The first description of this candlestick is that it is of a beaten work. Just like the cherubim being of a hammered work, so too is the candlestick beaten so that it can be an instrument used properly in the sanctuary of God.

The next descriptive detail about the candlestick, and a description made to stand out, is that there are going to be almond shaped blossoms on each of the branches and on the stem multiple times.

Exo 25:33  Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick.

If you are curious like to me why they are almond shaped, then we do not need to look any further than scripture and nature to tell us why the Lord chose almonds.

“Almonds”, as mentioned in its English singular and plural forms, are only used in a few verses in scripture.

H8246
shâqad
Total KJV Occurrences: 6
almonds, 6
Exo_25:33-34 (3), Exo_37:19-20 (3)

H8247
shâqêd
Total KJV Occurrences: 4
almond, 2
Ecc_12:5, Jer_1:11
almonds, 2
Gen_43:11 (2), Num_17:8

What we know physically and naturally about almond trees is that they are among the very first trees to bloom after winter and signifying spring is here and they are also very pretty to see.

What we can learn spiritually will add to this knowledge that the almond tree is among the first to “do something”.

Almonds mentioned here in Exodus 25 are denominative from H8247.

H8246

shâqad
shaw-kad’
A denominative from H8247; to be (intensively make) almond shaped: – make like (unto, after the fashion of) almonds.
Total KJV occurrences: 6

H8247 has a root.

H8247

shâqêd
shaw-kade’
From H8245; the almond (tree or nut; as being the earliest in bloom): – almond (tree).
Total KJV occurrences: 4

 

H8245

shâqad
shaw-kad’
A primitive root; to be alert, that is, sleepless; hence to be on the lookout (whether for good or ill): – hasten, remain, wake, watch (for).
Total KJV occurrences: 12

Where have we seen H8245 being used?

H8245
shâqad
Total KJV Occurrences: 12
watch, 6
Ezr_8:29, Psa_102:7, Isa_29:20, Jer_5:6, Jer_31:28, Jer_44:27
watched, 2
Jer_31:27-28 (2), Dan_9:14
hasten, 1
Jer_1:12
remain, 1
Job_21:32
waketh, 1
Psa_127:1
   watching, 1
Pro_8:34

A few examples of “watching” are:

Ezr 8:29  Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites, and chief of the fathers of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD.

Psa 102:7  I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

Jer 31:28  And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.

In order to solidify the connection of “watching” with the almond and almond tree, here is what the Lord gave to Jeremiah to admonish us with:

Jer 1:11  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
Jer 1:12  Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

The word used in verse 12 here in English is “hasten”, but it is the only time that the translators of the King James used “hasten”. If you look at the Strong’s list I posted above, you see this is the same word H8245 meaning “watch”.

(ASV)  Then said Jehovah unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I watch over my word to perform it.

(BBE)  Then the Lord said to me, You have seen well: for I keep watch over my word to give effect to it.

Bringing this all back around to why the Lord has chosen to make almonds a prominent item on the candlestick is because of what the candlesticks purpose is for the sanctuary of the Lord.

The almonds represent those who go first and keep the watch over what the Lord is doing in the sanctuary. They are those that are beaten into shape and created so that they can be light in a very dark place.

2Pe 1:19  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

We have no better example of almonds representing those that are chosen to go first than that which can be seen in Jesus Christ. How are almonds connected in this way to Jesus Christ?

After the rebellion of Korah and the 250 renowned men of the congregation against Moses and Aaron, the Lord used a very powerful example of what almonds represent in their positive application.

Num 16:1  Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
Num 16:2  And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:

Num 17:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 17:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod.
Num 17:3  And thou shalt write Aaron’s name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.
Num 17:4  And thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony, where I will meet with you.
Num 17:5  And it shall come to pass, that the man’s rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you.
Num 17:6  And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece, for each prince one, according to their fathers’ houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.
Num 17:7  And Moses laid up the rods before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness.
Num 17:8  And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.

See, no one who is used of God actually chooses for themselves the role of being God’s priest, but that does not stop those who are rebellious against God to accuse God’s priests of exercising Lordship over them. That is what they accused Moses of.

Num 16:13  Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?

We know that the Lord does the choosing because this is exactly how He chose Aaron and caused Aaron’s rod to blossom and to produce almonds. Likewise, this is how Jesus Christ was chosen and all those who are being raised up as kings and priests in Jesus Christ.

Heb 5:1  For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:

Heb 5:2  Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
Heb 5:3  And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
Heb 5:4  And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
Heb 5:5  So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.

Aaron’s rod blossoming almonds overnight is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ blossoming in newness of life from the cross which was also only a dead piece of wood.

Candlestick of pure gold – light

We now can see that almonds being created as a part of the candlestick had a huge meaning for who it is that the candlestick ultimately represents. However, light is what the candlestick provides for the service of the sanctuary.

We know from Christ that the light of the body is the eye. This candlestick is made of one single piece of gold. Therefore, with this single piece of gold the light can be seen as coming from one place.

Luk 11:33  No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.
Luk 11:34  The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.

The sanctuary itself did not have windows. During the day, there would have been light from daylight but that wouldn’t have necessarily made it bright enough to do the work of the sanctuary and it is obvious that light would have been needed at night.

Therefore, light was provided for by the candlestick but oil was needed to be the fuel of the light.

The Word of Life is that oil and power source!

Php 2:15  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Php 2:16  Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

We have the Word of Life dwelling within us, so we have the power of God, the oil which is needed to be the lights of the world.

If you notice the shape of the menorah, there is one main stem in the middle and 3 branches on either side. It’s not hard to see the Christ is the vine and we are the branches in this setup.

Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Joh 15:1  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Joh 15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Joh 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Vines, branches and fruit all indicate that there is a connection to trees and that’s why the almond tree is a beautiful example given to us by the Lord in the making of the candlestick or lampstand as some translations call it.

There is a well-known story of the candlestick being given to Zechariah in a vision in Zechariah 4.

Zec 4:1  And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,
Zec 4:2  And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Here in Zechariah we see a direct connection to the oil being represented as the Spirit of God. The new testament has familiar examples as well.

Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Act 10:38  How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Jas 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

1Jn 2:27  But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

(ASV) 1Jn 2:19  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they all are not of us.
1Jn 2:20  And ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

Notice, that it is two olive trees which are connected to having oil poured OUT OF them into the golden pipes.

Zec 4:7  Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
Zec 4:8  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Zec 4:9  The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.
Zec 4:10  For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
Zec 4:11  Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
Zec 4:12  And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
Zec 4:13  And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:14  Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

The two anointed ones stand by the Lord and pour out the oil which they themselves have been anointed with.

As can be seen by those with eyes to see and ears to hear, the Holy Spirit has revealed that gold, almonds (watching) and olive oil (Holy Spirit and power of God the Father) are VERY important to our Christian lives today. We are the priests who are being trained up first on how to handle the items of the sanctuary and to do the duty of a priest which is to keep His commandments faithfully.

In our next study, we are going to continue with Exodus 26 and see how the various linens are used in the sanctuary and how they too have a direct spiritual application to our lives today.

Audio Links

Awesome Hands – part 90

“Watchmen”

October 28, 2015

Exodus 25 is the first chapter in scripture that gives commandments to the children of Israel to build a sanctuary for the Lord to dwell in. This is also the first chapter that goes into great detail about the design and creation of all the objects that will go into and be a part of the sanctuary.
All of these descriptive items are physical symbols of what we know to be spiritual items. If this is doubtful to you, then we can see that the sanctuary itself is spiritual as described in the New Testament.

Exo 25:8  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

2Co 5:1  For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2Co 5:2  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
2Co 5:3  If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Rom 8:10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Mar 14:58  We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.

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.
Heb 9:11  But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

Act 7:48  Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Act 7:49  Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
Act 7:50  Hath not my hand made all these things?

Act 17:23  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
Act 17:24  God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Act 17:25  Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

I mention all of these familiar verses because they lay the foundation for all of the scripture we are going to cover in Exodus moving forward while also allowing us to connect the Lord’s working of His awesome hands in our lives.

The last few studies we covered who it is that gives a willing offering and what that means, so now we are going to connect how the Lord Himself views those whom He is at present working with in His temple.

If Jesus Christ can and is described as the lamb of God and the lion of the tribe of Judah, then His body and church can also be referred to as the “pillars of the temple of God”, “the temple of God” and yes, they can and are referred to spiritually with the items that make up the temple.

Symbols

All throughout human history, we associate things with symbols. We have symbols for everything. This symbol means this or that and by identifying the symbol and what it means, we are able to communicate the idea of thought behind the symbol.

Even today, we use company logos to identify one company from another so that we know what brand is being represented. We have country flags, organizational flags, medical symbols, street signs, restroom signs, on and on and on. We as humans NEED symbols to be able to communicate and our creator knows this VERY WELL. However, just having a symbol isn’t enough. We must know what that symbol represents.

The entire book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the most important person to ever walk this earth, is told to us in signs and symbols.

Therefore, when we are told by Jesus that Moses, the prophets and Psalms all speak of Him, then what is He really telling us?

Luk 24:44  And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luk 24:45  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

“All things must be fulfilled,” are written in the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms are all concerning Christ. So, adding line upon line, precept upon precept we can also conclude that anything in the temple concerns Christ, and Christ Jesus is a head and body.

Someone human recorded all the writings we have today concerning all of scripture. Someone sinful, lustful, and full of pride was used by God to eventually be brought to the point of being a vessel of God’s message, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to pin down the scriptures we have today.

I say this to connect this thought with the idea of who we are to God and how our verses in Exodus today connect to that temple we are to God.

Exo 25:8  And let THEM make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
Exo 25:9  According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.
Exo 25:10  And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
Exo 25:11  And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.
Exo 25:12  And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.
Exo 25:13  And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.
Exo 25:14  And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.
Exo 25:15  The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it.

The pattern that we are going to see all of these items made out of is the SAME pattern the Jesus Christ IS!

“After the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it,” is told to us to be:

Heb 8:3  For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
Heb 8:4  For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
Heb 8:5  Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Heb 8:6  But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Heb 8:7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1Ti 1:16  Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

So, we have just been told that the tabernacle that was about to be made by Moses, the patterns being shown to Moses in the mount, are an example and SHADOW of the heavenly things, and those shadows now lead us to a MORE EXCELLENT MINISTRY / SERVICE.

How do those things shadowed, of which we just read a few of in Exodus 25:8-15, and will continue to read as we move through Exodus, lead us to a more excellent ministry?

Well, sometimes words are used to hide the meaning of what they are saying. In this case, there is a particular word connected OVER and OVER with a very precious metal in scripture, gold.

Mike is fond of saying, and I’ve found it to be very applicable to scripture, that words in the bible “mean what they mean” J

Gold is used all through the sanctuary because it is by far the most precious metal physically speaking. It is very rare and very valuable. Spiritually speaking this is no different for our spiritual understanding of the symbols we are being shown in Exodus 25.

Mike has written a great series on “Metals in scripture” and I encourage you all to review that study if you have not listened to it before.

What I noticed for the first time ever while preparing for the sanctuary and its items as described in Exodus is that everything is covered with gold.

You might be thinking, “well duh”, but what I am referring to is that everything is COVERED with gold.

Immediately my mind thought of Christ being our covering but most of the time I think of His blood and being washed in it as well as being white as snow such as a garment would cover our naked body, among other things.

The connecting thought that came to me is that we are OVERLAYED with gold, but my mind always wants to know why the Lord repeats a word or phrase to us.

After all, He is speaking to us via His Holy Spirit when we sup with Him via the Word.

Being inspired to search, I honed in on the English word “overlay” and looked at it in its Hebrew origin.

H6823

צָפָה
tsâphâh
tsaw-faw’
A primitive root (probably rather identical with H6822 through the idea of expansion in outlook transformed to act); to sheet over (especially with metal): – cover, overlay.
Total KJV occurrences: 46

H6823
צפה
tsâphâh
BDB Definition:
1) to lay out, lay over, overlay, cover
1a) (Piel) to overlay, plate, stud
1b) (Pual) to be laid over
Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root [probably identical with H6822 through the idea of expansion in outlook, transferring to action]
Same Word by TWOT Number: 1951

H6823
צפה
tsâphâh
Total KJV Occurrences: 46
overlaid, 28
Exo_26:32, Exo_36:34 (2), Exo_36:36, Exo_36:38, Exo_37:2, Exo_37:4, Exo_37:11, Exo_37:15, Exo_37:26, Exo_37:28, Exo_38:2, Exo_38:6, Exo_38:28, 1Ki_6:20-22 (5), 1Ki_6:28, 1Ki_6:30, 1Ki_6:32, 1Ki_10:18, 2Ki_18:16, 2Ch_3:4, 2Ch_3:10, 2Ch_4:9, 2Ch_9:17
overlay, 12
Exo_25:11 (2), Exo_25:13, Exo_25:24, Exo_26:28-29 (3), Exo_26:37, Exo_27:2, Exo_27:6, Exo_30:3, Exo_30:5
covered, 5
1Ki_6:15 (2), 1Ki_6:20, 1Ki_6:35, Pro_26:23
garnished, 1
2Ch_3:6

So, H6823 means essentially what it sounds like and that is to sheet over “especially with metal”. However, what does it mean to be sheeted over “especially with Spirit” since this gold is a symbol of something?

Well, it happens that H6822 is mentioned as “probably rather identical with” H6822 overlay or “tsaw-faw”.

H6822

צָפָה
tsâphâh
tsaw-faw’
A primitive root; properly to lean forward, that is, to peer into the distance; by implication to observe, await: – behold, espy, look up (well), wait for, (keep the) watch (-man).
Total KJV occurrences: 36

It’s hard to tell, but if you look at the Hebrew writing used in Strong’s, it is identical. The BDB writes it the same as well for both H6822 and H6823 though BDB and Strong’s write them different than one another between the versions. For example, Strong’s writes both words the same and BDB write them the same but the way that BDB and Strong’s writes them is slightly different, but they are consistent within their own individual standards.

H6822
צפה
tsâphâh
BDB Definition:
1) to look out or about, spy, keep watch, observe, watch
1a) (Qal) to keep watch, spy
1b) (Piel) to watch, watch closely
Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root
Same Word by TWOT Number: 1950

H6822
צפה
tsâphâh
Total KJV Occurrences: 38
watchman, 14
2Sa_18:24-27 (5), 2Ki_9:17-18 (2), 2Ki_9:20, Isa_21:6, Eze_3:17, Eze_33:2, Hos_9:6-8 (3)
watch, 5
Gen_31:49, 2Sa_13:34, Isa_21:5, Hab_2:1 (2)
watchmen, 5
1Sa_14:16, Isa_52:8, Isa_56:10, Jer_6:17, Mic_7:4
look, 2
Psa_5:3, Mic_7:7
looketh, 2
Pro_31:27, Son_7:4
watching, 2
1Sa_4:13, Lam_4:17
behold, 1
Psa_66:7
beholding, 1
Pro_15:3
espy, 1
Jer_48:19
waited, 1
Job_15:22
watched, 1
Lam_4:17
watcheth, 1
Psa_37:32
watchman’s, 1
Eze_33:6
well, 1
Pro_31:27

What does “overlaying” with gold and “watchmen” have in common? Rather, what is identical about these words? Here is why the BDB concludes these words are the same, “probably identical with H6822 through the idea of expansion in outlook, transferring to action”.

That itself can be a little hard to understand, so thinking about what overlaying does, it COVERS whatever is being overlayed.

A watchmen COVERS the thing he is watching with the concept of “I am covering your back” or I am “looking out for the city”. The watchmen covers the city with his ability and the safety net of covering the city with a watchful attendance to said safety.

I could spend another hour giving examples of how gold and being a watchmen have very similar qualities, but we should be getting the idea that our Lord wants us to understand that we are COVERED with His gold and the COVERING itself is ….. wait for it ….. Jesus the Christ.

Jesus Christ is Head and body.

If this all seems like a bit of a stretch, no pun intended, then let us consider what overlaying represents in the context of the next verses in Exodus.

Exo 25:16  And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.
Exo 25:17  And thou shalt make a mercy seat of PURE GOLD: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
Exo 25:18  And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.
Exo 25:19  And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.
Exo 25:20  And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.
Exo 25:21  And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.
Exo 25:22  And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

Isn’t that something! We have items which are overlaid with gold, but then the items mentioned here are made out of pure gold and not just covered with it.

The mercy seat and cherubim are made of gold, but the cherubim are specifically mentioned in these verses as being BEATEN into shape.

When I see two cherubim being mentioned I immediately think of the two witnesses fallen in that great city. As I read these verses, focus your spiritual discernment on what it is these witness’ witness and prophecy about.

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Rev 11:10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
Rev 11:11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

Connecting these witnesses to their actions with the cherubim in Exodus, let us focus on the power they have been given.

The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev 19:10) and Jesus Christ is the Word of God (John 1:1).

The cherubim stare at each other and have their wings extended over the mercy seat. Where is the mercy seat at? Is it not the throne of God?

Num 7:89  And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims: and he spake unto him.

We are spoken to from where God dwells. We are spoken to from within heaven and the kingdom of God is within us.

The cherubim cover the mercy seat and have God commune BETWEEN and ABOVE THEM.

Jesus told us, as Christians, that He has given us all things. We have the power of God residing in us.

Luk 10:19  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Act 1:8  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Behold, we have the power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.

What then does this power look like in our lives? After all, I am NOTHING. I have no strength of my own, no power of my own to resist the false prophet and the devil, I have no power to make myself an inch taller or to keep the hair on my head. I cannot change my spots nor can I change the color of my skin.  Lord knows I would love to be able to stay in the sun longer than a few hours without getting totally and utterly burned to the point of skin and sun poisoning.

So with all of this being true, what power DO I HAVE?

I have the Word of God. I have the power to “do greater things than these”. I have power to do WONDERFUL miracles in the lives of those who are the walking dead, always naked, always hungry, never full no matter how much they eat, ever wondering, never given peace.

But with this power comes the witness of it. Jesus Christ gave instant miracles when He walked this earth. He fed people instantly for their physical bellies.

He healed them of their physical health problems and diseases.

However, He left the spiritual healing up to His BODY whom He DWELLS in. We, as cherubim having the THRONE OF GOD in our CENTER, must WITNESS the work of God as he sits on His throne.

We often times wait very long periods of time to see the manifestation of God’s will in our lives. Sometimes, we see it instantly as well as miracles that happen instantly.

However, if we are really looking toward the cherubim in our midst than we would see none stop miracles. Lord gives us eyes that see and ears that hear.

In the next study, we are going to continue to build upon who we are as the cherubim, and how all the other items in the sanctuary represent an aspect of who we are to and for God’s will.

We have His mind SITTING upon us, ABOVE us and IN us, so we will continue to dig in the field to see what that beauty of our pearl of great price really is.

Audio Links

Awesome Hands – part 89

“Teach them … to continue in my love”

October 14, 2015

“Teach them … to continue in my love”, is a spiritual concept that has been around since Jesus Christ started to contend with the sinful flesh He had been created as .

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 5:21  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.

His entire life, even while living as a law abiding Jew, was to do the will of the Father. There are a lot of things that come to my mind as I utter that sentence, but the one thought that desires to dominate my mind is how He could do that and then “well, He was the Son of God so He was able to do that”.

If I were asked today, as if I were somehow important enough for someone to ask me this question, what the meaning of life is, my answer today would be, “the meaning of life is to help another person’s life [be better]”.

In this study today, I hope to be used to show you why I believe this statement about the meaning of life is accurate. However, making a person’s life better is not what it appears to be on the surface.

What race am I running?

We all know the verse where Paul tells us that we must run a race.

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.

I make no claim to fame that the understanding and knowledge I am about to reveal in this study, has not already been stated and has not already been known before I am about to repeat it. However, what I do make a claim on is that it has been made real in my life even if I work daily to perfect it.

What race is Paul speaking about? In the context of 1 Corinthains 9 Paul “spells it out” but I venture to say that there are not many that have been given to truly grasp the healing that is in his Holy Spirit inspired writings.

Before we see what our Father, via Paul, has to say about this race, let us connect it to the scriptures that inspire this study today.

Exo 25:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.
Exo 25:3  And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,
Exo 25:4  And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,
Exo 25:5  And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,
Exo 25:6  Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,
Exo 25:7  Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.
Exo 25:8  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
Exo 25:9  According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

In the previous study it was pointed out that the spiritual representatives of the various words mentioned above in verses 3 and 4 are pointing to the spiritual concept that those who have “gold, silver, brass” are those that teach and that “blue, purple and scarlet” represent the process of this fruit [teaching what is the mind of God] being born in the life of the servant of God.

Exo 35:30  And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the LORD hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah;
Exo 35:31  And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship;
Exo 35:32  And to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
Exo 35:33  And in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work.
Exo 35:34  And he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.

How does 1 Corinthians 9 connect to Exo 25 and Exo 35? Well, what race are we running? Here is the context of, “So run, that you may obtain” in 1 Co 9:24.

Remember, Paul had just told these same Corinthians how they were acting, and chapter 9 is a further exposition on how they should be living.

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

We are all “men” i.e. mankind, so it is most natural for as to live as men? However, we as the children of God, should be LIVING as God. How do we do that?

How did Christ Jesus do it?

These words are easy to say but much harder to live, and because it is ME saying this to YOU, can I be considered a reprobate when one examines my life?

1Co 9:3  Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
1Co 9:4  Have we not power to eat and to drink?
1Co 9:5  Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
1Co 9:6  Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?

What Paul is asking the Corinthians is if he and Barnabas have the right to eat and drink as it is offered freely from the brethren, if he has the power and ability to take a wife with him during the work of the ministry just like other Apostles including Peter do, and if they have the right to not work and be provided for by the ministry.

He is asking these questions for a very good reason and we’ll cover that in just a moment after we see Paul further expound why it is he is asking these questions.

1Co 9:7  Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
1Co 9:8  Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?
1Co 9:9  For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?
1Co 9:10  Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
1Co 9:11  If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
1Co 9:12  If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

Everything Paul has just stated here is based on the Truth that Spiritual things are of FAR MORE value than physical and carnal things, and if we HOPE to partake of spiritual it is not a stretch to hope that our physical needs are provided for too.

Furthermore, Paul goes on to say they have not used this power and have suffered so that they did not hinder the gospel. However, it is made obvious that other apostles DID PARTAKE of the power given to them to reap what they had sown in both physically relying on the brethren for their needs as well as spiritually benefitting from being the husbandmen of the gospel to those they taught.

The concept of receiving of our labors comes from Deu 25:4.

Deu 25:4  Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

The book of Timothy further expounds on this concept in 1 Tim 5.

1Ti 5:16  If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.
1Ti 5:17  Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.
1Ti 5:18  For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.

I included 1 Timothy 5:16 concerning widows because it gets to the crux of why my answer to what the meaning of life is, is that it is to help the life of someone else be better.

After 1 Co 9:12 Paul says this:

1Co 9:13  Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

See, the study today isn’t just about “gold, silver and brass, blue, purple and scarlet”. It is about what those things represent.

When we talk about spiritual types and shadows, we are talking about what these things represent in our lives. When we are slaves we represent out masters.

When we are slaves to our masters we do their bidding.

If I am a slave to my carnal mind and flesh, and we ALL ARE initially as brute beasts, then I serve that flesh and my life seems void, empty and pointless.

When I have been FREED by the Lord to be HIS SERVANT, then I am now in bondage to SERVE HIM Faithfully. My life is NOT ABOUT ME, but about HIS WILL.

We collectively, as the body of Christ, as MINISTERS to the temple of God and the Holy Things that are of the temple. Likewise, we all partake of that temple.

I clearly acknowledge that Paul’s references in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy are to the elders that labor in word and doctrine, but just as Deuteronomy referenced ONLY OXEN but was used by Paul to expound on the spiritual meaning behind ox partaking of their labors, I am now expounding on who it is that partakes of the temple.

Partakers of the temple are the priests that minister to it, and we are all being trained up as PRIESTS in the kingdom of God. What is the temple I speak of with “gold, silver, brass, blue, purple and scarlet” holy things in it?

Mat 26:61  And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.

Mat 27:40  And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.

Luk 2:37  And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
1Co 3:18  Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.

I asked everyone earlier what race we are running. Paul references it and so does Hebrews.

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.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Heb 12:3  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

When life becomes so burdensome that the weight of the concerns of life slam us to the ground from the sheer heaviness of it all, we are told to SET IT ASIDE with the SIN THAT EASILY BESETS US, and run the race by looking toward JESUS CHRIST as the example of the JOY and REWARD we will receive as a result of WINNING the RACE.

Brethren, this is much harder than it sounds because everything that makes us who we are is not easily set aside.

I get this whole heartedly. I feel it every day I am given to open my eyes. I know the struggle that you all feel because I am weighted down by it too. I often times fail at keeping on track and not stumbling at each step I take in this race I’m racing.

The only reason I am able to continue each day is because I am NOT alone. I have someone who calls me friend and runs beside me, picks me up, cheers me on, and rallies me to never give up. I find it is only when I am silent and still that I can hear this voice speaking to me.

The way we set aside the weight that we feel is to look to the side, back, front and inside to see that we are not alone. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,” we also look toward Christ Jesus as our example of how to achieve winning the race.

Not as one that beateth the air

 

1Co 9:14  Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
1Co 9:15  But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.
1Co 9:16  For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
1Co 9:17  For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
1Co 9:18  What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.

Again Paul tells us that he himself could live off of preaching the gospel and would be justified in doing so. He is referencing physical needs, but I ask you to ALSO think of this as SPIRTIALLY being sustained by preaching the gospel.

He tells us that if he were preaching the gospel willingly, i.e. by free will, he would gain his wage, his reward, but his true emphasis is that He is a PRISONER of

Jesus Christ and it is his DUTY, his dispensation form the foundation of the world to preach the gospel.

His reward is to be a PARTAKER of the GOSPEL by PREACHING and TEACHING it!

Exo 25:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: OF EVERY MAN THAT GIVETH IT WILLINGLY with his heart ye shall take my offering.
Exo 25:3  AND THIS IS THE OFFERING WHICH YE SHALL TAKE THEM; gold, and silver, and brass,
Exo 25:4  And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,
Exo 25:5  And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,
Exo 25:6  Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,
Exo 25:7  Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.

What did the children of Israel have to willingly offer to God that had not already been given to them by God to offer?

What was in their possession that had not already been freely given to them so that they would have it when the time came so that they could give it as an offering so that the SANCTUARY could be BUILT?

There’s a famous quote supposedly by Mark Twain that I really like. It goes like this, “Good judgment is the result of experience, and experience the result bad judgment”.

Now, we can individually make bad judgments and reap the results of that with one of the results hopefully being that we learn from our mistakes and don’t make them again. Being human, it usually takes most of us a few times or more to really have lessons like that sink in.

However, we can also learn from the experiences of others so that we do not make the same mistakes others have made as well as being able to BENEFIT from the experience of their successes.

Jesus Christ is the perfect example of this for us, as well as all the apostles. We can learn from them because their example TEACHES us if we are as children on the knee of our parent.

With all of that being said, how do we willingly offer to the Lord what He has given to us so that we have an OFFERING ready when it comes time to BUILD the SANCTUARY?

It is important to note that the kingdom of God is within us and within others, and anyone who is in your life be it parents, children, peers, friends, co-workers or enemies are potentially having that sanctuary built for them as you interact with them in your life.

1Co 9:19  For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
1Co 9:20  And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
1Co 9:21  To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
1Co 9:22  To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
1Co 9:23  And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
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.

I can’t count how many times in my life I have felt like I was at the bottom of the barrel or at my wits in with this or that weight that has been placed on my shoulders. We all feel this way a lot of our lives.

However, when we are bene made a new creature in Jesus Christ our lives should not be the only focus we have. We have been BAPTISED by the Word and have bene raised to NEWNESS of LIFE.

So, the meaning of “LIFE” is to do the will of the Father, and the will of the Father was shown us by JESUS CHRIST during His entire life.

I have been learning the hard way, by discerning good and evil, that Jesus Christ really meant it when He said, “Why calleth me good? There is only One that is Good and that is the Father.”

Luk 18:18  And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Luk 18:19  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

As we know from scripture, eternal life is to know God the Father and Jesus Christ, but in order to do that we must do what Christ said is the method to obtain this life.

Luk 18:22  Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Luk 18:23  And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.
Luk 18:24  And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
Luk 18:25  For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Luk 18:26  And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved?
Luk 18:27  And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

What riches has the Lord given you that you still hold onto willingly?

Before you think that I am referencing mere money, I am referring to, “gold, silver, brass, blue, purple, scarlet and fine linen, goats hair, rams skins dyed red, badgers skins, shittim wood, oil for light, spices for anointing oil, and various stones of value to be used in the ephod and breastplate worn by the priests.”

All of these items hold much value to the person that “owns” them. Willingly giving them up results in LOSS to that person, but GAIN to the SANCTUARY that they will help build.

If you find that you do not know your “purpose in life”, that you sometimes think God is not working with you, that you do not understand how or why God has chosen you to reveal His mysteries to, yet you have many trials, tribulations and sufferings mentally, physically, financially and spiritually and seem to be BEATING the AIR OVER and OVER experiencing and doing the same things, maybe it is because you are focused on YOU and who “you are” versus who you are becoming.

1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
1Co 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air
1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

We are fighting a fight in which there is a war going on in our heavens between what our carnal mind wants for us and our flesh and what the Spirit of God in us is producing for the kingdom of heaven.

I challenge us all to live our lives as a +Jew to the Jew and as weak to the weak so that we take our focus off of ourselves and look toward the author and finishers of our Faith being built up in us and in others.

That is why Jesus told us this:

Mat 22:36  Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

We sell all that we have and distribute to the poor by:

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.

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Awesome Hands – part 61

“The Sanctuary”

July 23, 2014

Often times, it is immediately after being given a victory that we become discontented with the Lord.

We become anxious children who want what we want and do not at all recognize the blessing.s we have been given by our loving Father.

In the study today, we are going to see how we are exactly like the Israelites as they complain again against what the Lord is doing with them in their walk with Him.

“All things mean all”

Exo 15:17  Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.
Exo 15:18  The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.
Exo 15:19  For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.

As we live out each and every day, the Lord uses all we experience, think, hear and see as teaching tools to bring us closer to Himself.

Unlike earthly parents, the Lord does not tire in His ability to correct us and teach us in order to bring us to Himself.

Deu 8:5  Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.

Pro 13:24  He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. (means quickly or right away)

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

In this example of the Israelites today, we will see one of those teaching methods on full display.

The Lord has just delivered the Israelites from an almost certain death and this miracle of deliverance works two fold.

On the one hand, you have the Israelites celebrating this victory in the Lord.

Exo 15:20  And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
Exo 15:21  And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

On the other hand, and as we will discover, the Lord often times brings a trial to us quickly after delivering us from a trial or temptation which has given us more Faith in Him. He builds our Faith up just to have it tried in the next fiery trial.

Jacob received a blessing of Isaac only to have Esau pursue him to kill him.

Gen 27:41  And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.
Gen 27:42  And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.
Moses was found floating in the river and would have certainly died but instead he was rescued and taken in as one of the Pharaoh’s sons.

Exo 2:9  And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
Exo 2:10  And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
Exo 2:11  And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.
Exo 2:12  And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

The Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt, only to have the Egyptians follow them to the edge of sea.

Yes, it is true that Jacob stole Esau’s blessing. Yes, it is true that after all that Moses was blessed with by the Egyptians, he then looks on his brethren and their burdens and kills an Egyptian because he smote one of Moses’ people.

Yes, it is true that the Israelites after all they have seen in the form of miracles, STILL cry out to the Lord in disbelief and doubt.

I ask you frankly, WHY did any of these people do these things?

Jacob was and is used MIGHTILY by the Lord. Moses was USED to deliver God’s people with the ROD that was placed in his hand by the Lord Himself. The tribes of Israel are used all throughout the Old Testament to exact God’s judgment on the inhabitants of the lands they are sent to.

The Lord works with His servants, His people, His shephards, His teachers, His apostles, His evangelists in a very similar process of revealing what is flesh and then purging that natural mind form them.

Why then do any of these people the Lord is working with do things which “on the surface” cause us to buck at the idea of “stealing our brothers birth right,” murder, and cause war with just about everyone we come in contact with?

The answer is found here in the story of Exodus 15, and the answer is that the LORD has caused these things to be so.

The Lord is working ALL THINGS after the counsel of His own will and those “all things” always, ALWAYS include using His people to do things that we naturally question.

Why would someone God is working with be CAUSED to sin against Him and His people, their brothers and sisters?

“Three days in the wilderness”

So, we find ourselves walking among the Israelites in the wilderness.

Exo 15:22  So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
Exo 15:23  And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
Exo 15:24  And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

We find ourselves here in the wilderness with the doubting Israelites. How could the Israelites being led by Moses and Aaron, be so stupid as to murmur against the Lord and His servant? I speak as a fool.

See, it is the Lord alone who has brought us up against His wall, the wilderness of Shur (meaning wall), where we find no water.

Then it is the Lord who sends us to Marah (meaning bitter), to the bitter/brackish water. This water is bitter because it is roughly 1/10th salt according to current day filtering of the waters of the Sinai Peninsula.

The result of this process of deliverance and then guidance through the wilderness is:

Exo 15:25  And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,

This process is none other than the water of life being given to us by the Tree of life.

Rev 10:8  And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
Rev 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Rev 10:11  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

How can I state that this is the process of the water of life being given to us by the Tree of Life and then use Revelation 10:8-11 as an example of that since it is talking about a “little book”?

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

What is this mystery of God and who are these prophets?

Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Eph 5:33  Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

1Ti 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
1Ti 3:16  And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Rev 19:11  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

What then does this whole story of the Israelites coming to the wall, finding bitter water, having it sweetened and then being proved, have to do with the verses we just read?

There are some scholars that say this “tree” which was showed to Moses was used as a sort of filtering process to filter out the salt of this water in order to make it sweet.

Yet still, there are others who say that it is what it sounds like and there was a tree that was used somehow to be cast into the water to make it sweet similar to taking tea leaves and putting them in water to get the benefits of the leaves.

Regardless of what the physical process was for this sweetening, what we are admonished with is that Jesus Christ Himself is cast “into the water” causing it to become water which springs up water of everlasting Life and this is done both to and VIA HIS CHURCH.

We are called out of Babylon. In order to be called out, we must be IN HER first. Once called out of her, we are given our ordinances, our statues and our “provings”.

We are given His commandments and His statutes so that the DISEASES which were sent to the Egyptians do not come upon us to UTTER DESTRUCTION in this age. We are HEALED of THEM.

We are shown mercy, a redeemed and peculiar people.

Exo 15:25  And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
Exo 15:26  And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
Exo 15:27  And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

Let us see if we hear the voice of our True Shepherd.

Joh 4:5  Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Joh 4:6  Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
Joh 4:7  There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
Joh 4:8  (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
Joh 4:9  Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
Joh 4:10  Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Joh 4:11  The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
Joh 4:12  Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
Joh 4:13  Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water (Jacob’s well) shall thirst again:
Joh 4:14  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be IN HIM a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Joh 4:15  The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

After all that Jesus tells this woman at the well, who we see typified in you and I and also in the Israelites who are brought to this same place spiritually, He then poses a “proving” to her.

He tells her, “whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again,” which is the water from Jacob’s well.

She then is told she can have water which will never leave her thirsty and she ASKS for it.

What then is Jesus’ ANSWER to her? He “proves” her.

Joh 4:16  Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
Joh 4:17  The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
Joh 4:18  For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
Joh 4:19  The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

Jesus answers this woman with Truth because she has answered Jesus in Truth. It takes a humble and meek spirit, one that realizes just who it is we are talking to (she is talking to a prophet), which is able to ADMIT their faults, their nakedness, their short comings and failings.

“Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet”.

I asked earlier, “Who is it that is a prophet?” Jesus is certainly a prophet as well as many other things.

I quoted from Revelation what the Spirit of prophecy is.

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
So who has the TESTIMONY of Jesus? Who is able to say, “I have the water of Life springing up from WITHIN me and here it is!?”

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

Rev 7:17  For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

The Lord feeds “them” and leads them to à fountains of waters ß. We are led to His body where He dwells.

Rev 8:10  And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
Rev 8:11  And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
Rev 11:6  These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

His prophets have fire in their mouths and when they prophecy they have power of the waters of free flowing life to turn them to blood!

Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

Sounds like the singing that happens when the Israelites are freed from the destruction of the red sea.

Rev 16:4  And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
Rev 16:5  And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
Rev 16:6  For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
Rev 16:7  And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

This is all the judgment of the Lord.

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

Yes indeed, we are the PILLARS in the temple of God, the temple of Truth, and Jesus comes on a cloud.

Judgment begins at His house, at His pillars, which lead to the Holy of Holies.

1Ti 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Rev 14:14  And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
Rev 14:15  And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

Jesus Christ comes sitting on a white cloud, a cloud of great witnesses. That cloud of great witnesses has been taught how they “should behave thyself in the house of God”.

How are they and we to act?

Exo 15:26  And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
Exo 15:27  And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

When we put on the armor of God, when we go to the field of war to make war while having the living waters flow within us, we do so to ANNIALATE and utterly destroy the false doctrines, the “half” truths, and anything that is NOT the mind of Christ contained within the entire sum of the Word.

When we are soldiers of Christ, soldiers of the anointing, we take no prisoners and make no compromises. We hearken diligently to the VOICE of the Lord … which is the VOICE OF MANY WATERS.

Just as was done to Israel, so too will we see the twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. This is the moment the Lord is setting up His foundation, Himself which has been laid, into our hearts and minds and brings His judgment to us.

The water which is bitter, which God makes sweet for us to swallow, is one which will work the judgments of God on the inside  (of the cup) and produce the death of the old and newness of Life of the new man … day by day.