Self Righteousness – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty Sat, 08 Mar 2025 03:07:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cropped-headerlogo-32x32.png Self Righteousness – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com 32 32 Rev 15:1-4 Part 2, The Seven Angels With The Seven Last Plagues https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/rev-151-4-part-2-the-seven-angels-with-the-seven-last-plagues/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rev-151-4-part-2-the-seven-angels-with-the-seven-last-plagues Fri, 07 Mar 2025 05:21:27 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=32247 Study Audio

Rev 15:1-4 Part 2, The Seven Angels With The Seven Last Plagues

[Study Aired March 7, 2025]

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Rev 15:2  And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Rev 15:3  And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
Rev 15:4  Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

We concluded our last study looking at Job as an Old Testament type of ourselves while we are being judged in these clay vessels.

Job had declared himself righteous and could not understand why God would treat him as His enemy. Job, typifying us to a T, was completely blinded to His egregious sin of self-righteousness, and the Lord let him know how little He appreciated Job’s self-righteous iniquity:

Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

It is nothing less than “the pride of life” which leads us to think that for some reason we ought to escape the “rage of God’s wrath” and “the indignation [thumos] or God’s wrath [orge]” (Rom 2:8-9). Are we better and less deserving of God’s wrath than Christ?

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Mat 27:45  Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
Mat 27:46  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Are we better and less deserving of God’s wrath than the apostle Paul?

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

The apostle Paul had persecuted the church and was first as guilty of “ungodliness and unrighteousness”. In fact this is his own spiritual assessment of himself:

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.

Is this verse teaching us that no one has ever been as sinful as the apostle Paul? No, of course we are not. Paul is setting us an example of how we are to spiritually assess ourselves before we start pointing our finger at others as Job’s “miserable comforters” did. For those who think they are far less sinful than the apostle Paul and don’t  deserve to experience the Lord’s wrath, here is another warning from God, which we can add to Rev 22:18-19:

Jer 25:28  And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.
Jer 25:29  For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.
Jer 25:30  Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

If God’s own Son was “foresaken… in little wrath… for a small moment” who are we to declare that we will never know the wrath of God? We will all “certainly drink of His cup and be baptized with His baptism” and be tread out as “the grapes of the earth.”

Mat 20:22  But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.
Mat 20:23  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them] for whom it is prepared of my Father.

We are all first the generation of Israel that comes up out of Egypt before we die in the wilderness and become those who enter into God’s rest. So this is what we are told about our old man who refuses to drink the cup of God’s wrath of which Christ drank.

Psa 95:11  Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

“God’s rest” is in “His habitation” spoken of in Jeremiah 25:30. We are God’s temple and His habitation, and no man will enter into God’s rest or His habitation or His temple “until the seven plagues of the seven angels have been fulfilled.”

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

This last verse takes us back to the first verse. No man can enter the temple until the seven last plagues which “fill up the wrath of God… is fulfilled” in that man’s life.

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

Verse 2 ties in perfectly with the seven last plagues as it speaks of the “sea of glass mingled with fire.”

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

What is this “sea of glass mingled with fire”? We read about this same ‘sea’ in Revelation 4:6.

Rev 4:6  And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

If we fail to understand the symbolism of the “sea” which was part of the temple court, then we will never understand why we are speaking here in Revelation 15:2 of “a sea of glass mingled with fire” in this vision of the heavenly temple and its throne and its court. So let’s take a quick look at the ‘sea’ that was between the altar and the tabernacle or the altar and the temple in ancient Israel. In the case of the tabernacle, it is called “a laver”.

Exo 30:17  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 30:18  Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein.
Exo 30:19  For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat:
Exo 30:20  When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the LORD:
Exo 30:21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.

Exo 38:8  And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Exo 40:7  And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein.

The word brass is really copper, and being copper, we know this part of our walk is all outside the temple, before any man “can enter the temple”.  Everything inside the tabernacle or the temple was all of gold. That this ‘laver’, or ‘sea’, is copper and is ‘without’ or outside of the temple, tells us that this part of our walk is not to be thought of as being within the tabernacle or temple. This is made clear by this, and many other verses:

Lev 8:11  And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all his vessels, both the laver and his foot, to sanctify them.

So the ‘sea’, or ‘laver’, is to be considered as part of the court of the temple, where the Levites, who were not the sons of Aaron, and who could not enter into the temple, performed their duties of ministering to the people, and where the priests themselves were to wash and cleanse themselves before entering into the temple “lest they die”, or “until the seven plagues of the seven angels are fulfilled”. That is the spiritual significance of “lest they die”.

It is at the construction of the temple to replace the tabernacle, that we first see this laver, greatly  increased, and in a “line upon line” fashion, we learn that it is now called a “molten sea”.

1Ki 7:23  And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
1Ki 7:24  And under the brim of it round about there were knops compassing it, ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about: the knops were cast in two rows, when it was cast.
1Ki 7:25  It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward.
1Ki 7:26  And it was an hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.

Here are more very important details given us in the account of the construction of the “molten sea”, in the book of 2Chronicles:

2Ch 4:2  Also he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.
2Ch 4:3  And under it was the similitude of oxen, which did compass it round about: ten in a cubit, compassing the sea round about. Two rows of oxen were cast, when it was cast.
2Ch 4:4  It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set above upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward.
2Ch 4:5  And the thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.
2Ch 4:6  He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them: such things as they offered for the burnt offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.
2Ch 4:10  And he set the sea on the right side of the east end, over against the south.

A cubit is said to be 18 inches in length. So this molten sea was 15 feet in diameter, “from brim to brim”. It was 7 and 1/2 feet high, and it was 45 feet in circumference. “And the thickness of  it was a handbreadth.” It stood between the temple and the brasen altar, and only the priests were permitted to wash in this “molten sea”.

“But the sea was for the priests to wash in” tells us why those who are on this “sea of glass mingled with fire” are God’s “kings and priest”, His very elect, who have overcome the image, name, number and mark of the beast. The Levites, who served the temple but were not the sons of Aaron the high priest, were never permitted to wash in this “molten sea” which is the shadow and type of this “sea of glass, mingled with fire” in the heavens here in Revelation 15.

Why is this sea called a sea of glass? The Greek word here is ‘hualinos’, and it means clear or transparent. So those who are on this sea of glass know who they are, from whence they have come and how they have been placed where they are by the sovereign hand of their Lord and Savior. They themselves, like the sea on which they stand at this time in their walk, are completely transparent and have nothing to hide. While it is argued that glass, as we know it today, did not exist when the book of Revelation was written, it is interesting to note that this sea of glass is “like crystal” which was transparent and which did exist when the book of Revelation was written. It is also instructive to note that the glass of today is made of sand which has been melted, unified and purified and made transparent by means of the heat into which it is placed. That is the significance of the fire here as it is the significance of fire throughout God’s Word. Whether we are speaking of crystal or glass, both are made clear and purified by pressure and heat. God’s fiery Word is the fire mingled which provides the pressure and heat signified by this “sea of glass”. It is God’s Word which has purified and made transparent everyone who stands upon this sea of glass. It is through God’s Word, “Christ in us”, that any of us are given the victory over the beast, his image, his number, his name and his mark. Christ is the fire that is mingled with those who are standing on this clear and transparent “sea of glass”.

The only thing left to inquire of is the fact that everyone on this sea of glass has been given a harp. The verse ends with these words: “… having the harps of God”. Who have we already been told has “the harps of God?” That is right, once again, this is but a symbol which is peculiar to those who are overcomers and who are Christ’s own “nation of kings and priests”, and who are worthy as Christ’s priests to “wash themselves” in this “sea of glass mingled with fire, before the temple in heaven”. Here is why we are told that these people on this “sea of glass” are given harps:

Rev 5:8  And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

Who are these “four beasts and four and twenty elders”? We are not left to wonder or guess about who these four beasts and four and twenty elders signify. In the next two verses, they themselves tell us who they symbolize, and we find that they are the symbols of the very ” redeemed… priests” who are worthy to wash themselves in the sea which is between the altar and the temple:

Rev 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

This same group of overcomers was mentioned in chapter 14, and are again called “redeemed… firstfruits… harping with harps.”

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.
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

It is God’s elect who are symbolized by these four beasts and four and twenty elders, who are symbolized by virgins who have not been defiled by women, who bow down to the Lamb and tell us that they are kings and priests. It is God’s chosen few elect who are the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, who were redeemed from among men, who stand on the sea of  glass mingled with fire, and who have the harps of God.

We are also told that they sing while “harping with their harps”. Here is what they are singing:

Rev 15:3  And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

The “song of Moses” is “the song of the Lamb”, because both sing about the victory of the obedience of the spirit over the rebellion of our flesh. It is a song about the wrath of God being poured out upon the armies of Egypt within us. Here is the song of Moses:

Exo 15:1  Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
Exo 15:2  The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
Exo 15:3  The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.
Exo 15:4  Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.
Exo 15:5  The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.
Exo 15:6  Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
Exo 15:7  And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.
Exo 15:8  And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, [ and] the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
Exo 15:9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
Exo 15:10  Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
Exo 15:11  Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Exo 15:12  Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.
Exo 15:13  Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.
Exo 15:14  The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.
Exo 15:15  Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.
Exo 15:16  Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.
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.

These two verses in Revelation 15, summarize all of these first 19 verses of Exodus 15:

Rev 15:3  And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
Rev 15:4  Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

The seven plagues of the seven angels are “Thy judgments… made manifest”, and until the seven plagues of the seven angels are fulfilled in our lives, “no man is able to enter into the temple of God in heaven” (Rev 15:8).

Summary

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

In this verse we are reminded of the Truth that this is a book of signs and symbols of heavenly realities, and that the angels that bring us to see these heavenly realities are “in heaven” which is the realm of the spirit within our own hearts and minds. We saw that being seven in number, signifies their completion, and that there is no way of separating the first six plagues from the seventh, and that just as we live all seven trumpets, we must also fulfill all seven vials or bowls of “the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness” within each of us (Rom 1:18).

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

In this verse we saw that the only people who are given to wash themselves in the ‘sea’ of God’s fiery words, are His priests. This fiery ‘sea’, is not that different from “the devouring fire, and the everlasting burnings” of “the lake of fire” where the elect dwell as they “judge angels:

Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15  He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

In any case, those who stand on this “sea of glass, mingled with fire”, are certainly the same as “He that walks righteously and speaks uprightly…”

We also saw, that the four beasts, and the four and twenty elders, are also given “the harps of God” and are said to be “harping with their harps”, and they also tell us that they are symbols of God’s very elect.

Rev 15:3  And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
Rev 15:4  Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before the for thy judgments are made manifest.

In these two verses we saw that the song of Moses, celebrates the victory of the obedience of the spirit over the disobedience of the flesh. What is so often missed and what is so often denied is that God’s judgments are said to be “great and marvelous”, both here in verse three, as well as in verse one.  We are also told that “God’s judgments are made manifest” through the seven angels with these seven last plagues of God’s wrath upon all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of the lives of those who are found standing on this “sea of glass mingled with fire”.

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

Next week, Lord willing, we will cover these last four verses of this chapter, and we will be reminded of what the word “opened” means in this, the revelation of Jesus Christ within us.

Rev 15:5  And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:
Rev 15:6  And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

 

]]> Exiles in the Bible – “Events That Typify How We Must Come Out of Exile by God’s Power” https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/exiles-in-the-bible-events-that-typify-how-we-must-come-out-of-exile-by-gods-power/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=exiles-in-the-bible-events-that-typify-how-we-must-come-out-of-exile-by-gods-power Thu, 10 Oct 2024 04:01:59 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=30823 Audio Download

 

5: Events That Typify How We Must Come Out of Exile by God’s Power

[Study Aired October 10, 2024]

 

This section of our study is really the most open-ended in my mind, because we can talk about any miracle of Christ and see it as a deliverance from the exile from evil spirits that God sends (1Sa 16:15). The world does not understand that God sends evil spirits, controlling the light and darkness and working all things according to the counsel of His own will (Isa 45:7 , Eph 1:11-12).

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

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

Without the faith to see and believe this, we will be deprived of knowing how great God’s purpose is within all of those situations of spiritual bondage that He causes so that He can then deliver the person, or persons from it. What we are told is that all of those typical miracles of Christ represent the greater works of conversion that God will manifest through the saints, both in this age and in ages to come, and is the reason Christ told his disciples that they would do greater works than these (Joh 14:12); greater works than Christ who did not convert a single soul during his ministry, knowing that this time of conversion would only begin with the church on the day of Pentecost.

Joh 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Here are some events that stand out in regards to how God created situations that had us in a bondage, representing sin at an appointed time in our life, and created to the glory of God who would deliver that person or persons from that bondage.

The first verses we will consider are in chapter 9 of the book of John, which hold the principle that is true for all captivity that happens in the flesh of mankind, where we read of ‘a blind man from birth’, representing spiritual blindness that was taken away, but not before Christ explained why it was there in the first place (Joh 9:1-5).

Joh 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Joh 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Joh 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Restoring physical sight, healing the lame, or curing any and all illness, is a matter of sweeping the house clean, “he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished”(Mat 12:44), by gaining dominion over that spirit, which healing does occur in Babylon. This is from where God’s elect are called out of in order to do greater miracles, ‘greater works than these’ (Rev 13:13 , Joh 14:12). Those greater works are speaking of being able to give spiritual eyesight to those that God drags to the body of Christ, along with spiritual hearing that is the greater miracle granted to the elect of God (Mat 13:16).

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

This initial dominion that God grants us over our flesh is for the period of time that He has ordained and is preceded by “seven other spirits more wicked than himself”. The first works, or cleansing of the ‘wood, hay and stubble’, are the events that God uses to seek an occasion against us with seven spirits worse. The number ‘seven’ demonstrates the complete bondage an overcomer of ‘wood, hay and stubble’ has when they cannot give all glory to God for that which He has worked in our lives, freeing us from the ‘wood hay and stubble’ (1Co 4:7). It is then, if God is working with us as His elect (Rev 18:4), that those “seven other spirits more wicked than himself” will bring us into a captivity, or place of deeper and more complete exile into sin, which only by God’s grace will be overcome. This parable, in Matthew chapter twelve, is really telling us how we must ‘lose our first love’ and then go into a place of complete captivity in order, Lord willing, to be received of our Father through his chastening grace upon our old man of perdition that must be destroyed in order for us to give all glory to God for all things, light and darkness, peace and evil (Mat 12:43-45 , Tit 2:11-12 , Rev 15:8 , Heb 12:6 , Php 2:12-13).

Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, 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.
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.

Being a disciple of Christ by believing on him and overcoming any number of vices, is just the beginning of our coming out of exile. It is the “disciple indeed” who is crushed under the stone having all those ‘seven spirits worse’ cast from us and destroyed, through a life-long process of overcoming that complete bondage to sin, especially the sin of self righteousness that will abound more and more at the end of the age (Rev 17:11 , Mat 24:12).

Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

Just how wicked is that man of perdition that God plans to destroy with the brightness of his coming? I would say these verses, (2Th 2:2-10), appropriately describe our deepest and darkest place of exile, and none of us were even aware that we were there until the Son of righteousness came into our heavens and began the process of taking us out of our spiritual exile, delivering us from Satan’s spirit that operates mightily in the harlot churches of this world (Rev 17:5). We are humbled to our core as we come to see how enslaved we were to that harlot system and now must go through a process of fiery judgement (1Pe 4:12 , 1Pe 4:17 , Act 14:22) in order to learn of the patience and faith of the saints (Rev 14:12), as we are grafted into the body of Christ, ‘possessing our souls patiently’, which is only possible through Christ (Mat 24:1-51 , Rev 14:1-12).

2Th 2:2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

As stated to the 70 disciples that Christ gave dominion over spirits, just like sweeping a house clean of an evil spirit, this is not conversion but a starting point that will result in seven spirits worse coming back to that swept and clean house to completely [7] dominate that life that was ‘cleansed’ of the “wood, hay and stubble”.

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

A worse thing does come upon us after we initially repent of our ‘wood, hay and stubble sins’ overcome in Babylon, all by God’s design (1Cor 3:12-15). That worse thing, if God is going to cleanse us in this life, is self-righteousness represented by cankered “gold, silver, precious stones”, wrapping Truth around the idols of our hearts which must needs be purified in this life if we are going to be His jewels that are being judged and prepared in this age (Mal 3:1-3 , Mal 3:17).

1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Mal 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
Mal 3:2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
Mal 3:3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Mal 3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

That ‘something’ that comes upon us [seven spirits worse] is the harder and more deceitful and undetected sin of self-righteousness, represented by seven spirits worse that come back, with the one spirit glorying in the things that God has done in our lives [victory over wood, hay and stubble], as if we had done them (1Co 4:7-10). That spirit which does not acknowledge God’s complete sovereignty in our lives is the one that must be destroyed, and will be in this age if God is judging us in this age.

1Co 4:7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?
1Co 4:8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
1Co 4:9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.
1Co 4:10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
1Co 4:11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
1Co 4:12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
1Co 4:13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

What Christ directed his disciples to rejoice in was not in having power over these spirits (Luk 10:17-20). Babylon can have dominion over this as well, which creates strong delusion in the earth. No, it was the fact that their names were written in heaven, and as such they would, in time, once the holy spirit was given on Pentecost, have dominion over Satan whom Christ in this parable said he ‘beheld him fall from heaven like lightning’, foreshadowing what He was going to do in their minds by the power of God’s spirit dwelling within them (Luk 10:17-20 , Col 1:27).

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

“Your names are written in heaven”, our heavens, the elect’s heavens who, like the other parable of the seven spirits worse taking over the swept and cleaned house, are blessed to have a stronger man come in after this event and bind those seven other spirits completely, because our names our written in heaven and Christ who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

What is in the world is sin, and that sin is something we will need to overcome the rest of our lives by dying daily, and if Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, He is writing our books to that end that we will be more than conquerors through him, the fit man in the wilderness, who can direct the scapegoat as we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is Christ who is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Php 2:12-13). This bondage to sin and the deliverance from it is a little and by little process (Exo 23:30) that God has called us unto. It is continually being demonstrated for us throughout God’s word and in the lives of those who are God’s workmanship being brought unto perfection on the third day (Luk 13:32).

Exo 23:30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

Luk 13:32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

]]> Book of Obadiah – Oba 1:3  The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/book-of-obadiah-oba-13-the-pride-of-thine-heart-hath-deceived-thee/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-of-obadiah-oba-13-the-pride-of-thine-heart-hath-deceived-thee Wed, 20 Dec 2023 18:49:32 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=28907 Audio Download

Book of Obadiah – Oba 1:3  The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee

[Study Aired December 19, 2023]

Oba 1:3  The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?

Oba 1:3  The prideH2087 of thine heartH3820 hath deceivedH5377 thee, thou that dwellestH7931 in the cleftsH2288 of the rock,H5553 whose habitationH7675 is high;H4791 that saithH559 in his heart,H3820  WhoH4310 shall bring me downH3381 to the ground?H776

The 13 Hebrew words of Verse 3:

Here is a version of this verse including root words to expand on the meaning. This is an exercise in translating the verse to agree with the sum of God’s word (Psa 119:160 – CLV) and accord with the Truth, using the keys to the kingdom principle.

Oba 1:3 The pride (Acting presumptuously) of your heart (intelligence/conscience) (will boil up) beguile and deceive you. You dwell in places of concealment in the (clefts, lofty) lofty clefts. (Have your) abode (where you) magnify yourself. Say (in your) heart (your intelligence/conscience), who (will) prostrate (me) down to earth?

Our carnal nature is self-focused, lifting itself above all as a way of protecting itself. We are born with a natural tendency for self-interest and self-preservation. It is in our human nature to look after oneself and put self first. In the old testament pride is translated from the Hebrew word H2087 (Zaw-done), and in the new testament, one word used is G5243 (hoop-er-ay-fan-ee’-ah).

It first appears in the old testament translated as ‘acting presumptuously’:

Deu 17:12  And the man that will do presumptuously H2087, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.

In the new testament G5243 only appears once:

Mar 7:20  And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
Mar 7:21  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
Mar 7:22  Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, prideG5243, foolishness

Jesus labels pride of our heart as “an evil thing that comes from within.” The old man has learned to take refuge in high and lofty places. Figuratively, these lofty places are a place of refuge for the prideful heart. As in the story of Job, Elihu condemns Job for his self-righteousness:

Job 35:1  Elihu spake moreover, and said,
Job 35:2  Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?

Here is how Job is described in the first chapter of the book:

Job 1:1  There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect (morally pious) and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

Later here is how Job is described in one of the last chapters of the book.

Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile [H7043, to be of little account, trifling, insignificant]; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

Before Job experiences God’s wrath, he is seen to be contending with God from his lofty level, as if he is on the same “higher” level with God and can speak to Him as an equal.

Here is how Job describes himself:

Job 29:14  I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
Job 29:15  I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.
Job 29:16  I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
Job 29:17  And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

Job 29:20  My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.
Job 29:21  Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.
Job 29:22  After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

The proud heart deceives us into thinking we can not only contend (grapple) with God, but also reprove, influence and argue with God:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.

It is from our high and lofty places our old man is deceived into thinking he is his own savior. He believes the false doctrine that he can choose to accept Christ into his heart so he may have eternal life. In essence he is the one who takes responsibility for saying the ten-second sinner’s prayer, and with that decision gains entry into the Pearly Gates of Heaven. The truth is, it has little to do with the old man who willeth (chooses to be saved), but instead it is all about God who shows mercy, as shown in Romans 9.

Rom 9:12  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Rom 9:14  What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

We come to see we are the “created” not the “creator” and that our high and lofty places are not high at all. That realisation, given by the Lord when He begins to open our eyes and ears, is a humbling and scourging experience for the old man.

Job 39:8  The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.

Isa 41:20  That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

Psa 95:3  For a great God is Jehovah, And a great king over all gods.
Psa 95:4  In whose hand are the deep places of earth, And the strong places of mountains are His.

It is edifying to know that even the high places are His, and He is orchestrating all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11). High places (lofty, H7682 to be exalted, and G5308, figuratively, dignity) and carnal pride often coexist in scripture:

Isa 2:17  And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

Isa 26:5  For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with lofty speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

2Co 10:5  We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Eze 17:24  And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the lofty tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it.

As we battle with the old man we are encouraged to see that Christ is calling us, His bride, from these high (dangerous) places typified by Lebanon:

Son 4:8  Come [depart] with me from out of Lebanon, my spouse, with me from out of Lebanon: look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from out of the mountains of the leopards.

Isa 33:9  The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

Just as in the physical, high and lofty places are synonymous with high and impressive falls, and the elect are familiar with the principle of falling seven times, meaning we fall as many times as is necessary to form the humble and contrite heart we need to be a vessel of value to the Lord.

Pro 16:18  Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

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

Psa 34:18  The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. 

2Ti 2:21  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

It is by the renewing of the Spirit of Christ and by the washing of the word we are transformed from a haughty prideful heart into one having a meek heart:

Num 12:3  (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

Psa 25:9  The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

Psa 37:11  But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

1Pe 3:4  But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

Jesus Christ is our guide, and He is the one whom we should emulate:

Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Conclusion

Spiritual Principle: The pride of heart is the carnal mind/ intelligence. It is, by design, how we were created in the flesh. It is only Christ (the new man/the hidden man of the heart) who has the power to impel/drag us away from the high, lofty, and dangerous places, and it is this process which transforms us into one being meek and lowly in heart (Mat 11:29).

]]> Book of Jeremiah – Jer 48:16-31  Moab Shall Wallow in His Vomit https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/book-of-jeremiah-jer-4816-31-moab-shall-wallow-in-his-vomit/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-of-jeremiah-jer-4816-31-moab-shall-wallow-in-his-vomit Sat, 13 Aug 2022 18:26:43 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=26099 Jer 48:16-31  Moab Shall Wallow in His Vomit
[Study Aired August 14, 2022]

Jer 48:16  The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.
Jer 48:17  All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!
Jer 48:18  Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.
Jer 48:19  O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and espy; ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, What is done?
Jer 48:20  Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled,
Jer 48:21  And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath,
Jer 48:22  And upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Bethdiblathaim,
Jer 48:23  And upon Kiriathaim, and upon Bethgamul, and upon Bethmeon,
Jer 48:24  And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.
Jer 48:25  The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the LORD.
Jer 48:26  Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
Jer 48:27  For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.
Jer 48:28  O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth.
Jer 48:29  We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.
Jer 48:30  I know his wrath, saith the LORD; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.
Jer 48:31  Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kirheres.

Both Moab and Ammon are the sons of Lot, and Lot is Abraham’s brother’s son. Abraham fought several eastern kings for the purpose of rescuing his nephew Lot when those kings fought with and conquered Sodom. Notice how scripture refers to Lot’s relationship to Abraham:

Gen 14:14  And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
Gen 14:15  And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
Gen 14:16  And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

Abraham risked life and limb to save ‘his brother Lot’. It was only because of Lot that Abraham later attempted to bargain with the Lord to spare Sodom if He found at least ten righteous men in the city. The point being made is that Lot signifies Abraham’s own flesh, just as much as Ishmael was his own flesh when Abraham was informed of the Lord that Sarah would have a son:

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.
Gen 17:20  And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.
Gen 17:21  But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

Ishmael was Abraham’s own son by a bondwoman. The Lord promised to make of him ‘a great nation [of] 12 princes”. Look at what we are told of this ‘great nation [of] twelve princes’:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Notice how the holy spirit went from physical Sarah to spiritual Sarah, “Jerusalem above”, without as much as a pause or explanation. The holy spirit even likens “Jerusalem which now is” with Hagar and her son, “the son of the bondwoman”. The mind of the natural man cannot follow the mind of the spirit in making that transition.

This fourth chapter of Galatians reveals that there is little spiritual difference between Ishmael and Moab. Both signify the rejected seed of Abraham, and neither Ishmael nor Moab will be made heir with the son who is born of promise.

Lot separated from Abraham and moved into Sodom. Ishmael was cast out of Abraham’s house and will not be made heir with the son of the freewoman. Both Lot and Ishmael typify our dying flesh whose kingdom of twelve princes are “in bondage with [their] children” and will not be made heir with the son of the freewoman, “Jerusalem above”.

‘All flesh is as grass’ and, like grass, flesh is very short-lived.

Isa 40:6  The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
Isa 40:7  The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
Isa 40:8  The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

1Pe 1:24  For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
1Pe 1:25  But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Moab, as a type of our flesh, is ‘as grass’ which withers, fades and falls away. Moab signifies our carnal mind which is enmity with God’s mind:

Jer 48:16  The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.

Everyone upon whom the judgment of the house of God has come knows that the calamity of Moab is near and ‘hasteth fast’. Peter tells us the same thing in these words:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Jer 48:17  All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!

‘Knowing Moab’s name’, like knowing the name of the Lord, is to have Moab’s mind. Moab’s name is one of opposition to everything that reflects the mind of the Lord. Moab’s name is associated with a carnal mind:

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Jer 48:18  Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.

Here is how Strong deals with the name ‘Dibon’:

The name means “pining” which indicates grieving. “Thou daughter” reveals that our flesh thinks of itself as being in the Lord’s service as His church. Moab is called ‘daughter’ to let us know there is such a thing as a carnal-minded church, which is full of “carnal babes in Christ”.

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, [40,000 divisions] are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

The ‘thirst’ of the daughter of Moab… “And sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee”, signifies the drought of the Word we suffer as carnal babes in Christ:

Deu 28:48  Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

It does not seem possible to be so blind, but this is what our own flesh, our ‘Moab’ within us, is capable of:

Deu 29:19  And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

Isa 5:13  Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.

Jer 48:19  O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and espy; ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, What is done?

‘Aroer’ is a city of Moab, and the instruction is to enquire what has the Lord done to Moab. Verse 20 is the answer to that question.

Jer 48:20  Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled,
Jer 48:21  And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath,
Jer 48:22  And upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Bethdiblathaim,
Jer 48:23  And upon Kiriathaim, and upon Bethgamul, and upon Bethmeon,

Nebo is already “spoiled”, and Kiriathaim is already confounded and taken by the Chaldeans according to verse one:

Jer 48:1  Against Moab thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Woe unto Nebo! for it is spoiled: Kiriathaim is confounded and taken: Misgab is confounded and dismayed.

Jer 48:24  And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.

These are all cities of Moab. Not one small village is exempt from the Lord’s judgments upon the kingdom of our rebellious carnal-minded old man.

Jer 48:25  The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the LORD.

A horn in scripture signifies power, and our arm indicates our strength. The power of our flesh is cut off, and our carnal strength is literally broken.

Jer 48:26  Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

This is very graphic language which simply reveals our stubborn old man for who he is and of what he is capable. A dog returns to his vomit, and the sow returns to her wallow in the mire:

Pro 26:11  As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

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.

Our flesh, proud Moab within us, is capable of being insanely foolish and stubborn to the extent of combining the dog and the sow, and wallowing in his own vomit. It is not natural or possible for either a dog or a sow to be anything but what they are, and so it is with each of our stubborn, rebellious, old first man Adam, until Christ comes and cuts off Moab’s horn and breaks his arm. If the Lord is merciful in this present time, we are actually brought to the realization that we are given to wallow in our own vomit. If we have been made to see just how self-righteous we are, then we can say with Job:

Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

Job at this stage of his experience has been made to “wallow in his own vomit” before coming to see just how vile he was. Long before Moab, Job had also “magnified himself against the Lord”. The spirit of ‘Moab’ and the spirit of ‘the daughter Moab’ convinces us that our own righteousness is a gift to the Lord for which the Lord should be grateful to us:

Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

Oh, how foolish and how fateful is such nonsense! Nothing is further from the Truth. The Truth is that we of ourselves can do nothing and much less place our Lord in our debt. Such mental gymnastics is truly ‘our own vomit’, and the Lord makes us wallow therein until He knows we are brought to say, “Behold I am vile… I will lay my hand upon my mouth”.

Here is what we do while wallowing in our own vomit:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.

Job had said, “Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous”. Job had already acknowledged to his wife that it was the Lord who had risen up against him, and yet he made that statement:

Job 1:21  And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Job 1:22  In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly [yet].

Job 2:9  Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
Job 2:10  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips [yet].

Later Job did “charge God foolishly [and] sin with his lips” when he accuses God of taking away his judgment even as the Lord was in the process of judging Job.

Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

While we wallow in our own vomit, we do not think that is what we are doing. We think we are making ourselves even more righteous than God. Wow! That is indeed “vile”. We 1) contend with the Almighty. We have the temerity to question why He would afflict such a righteous person as we think ourselves to be. Then we actually 2) reprove God for afflicting such a righteous person as ourselves, and when we do that, we 3) disannul His judgment and 4) we condemn the Lord Himself rather than acknowledge that we are wallowing in our own vomit. That is the extent of the pride of our rebellious old man.

Our old man hates and despises our new man and takes great joy in assisting in the death of the new man within us. Israel had attempted to befriend the king of Moab and buy bread and water from the Moabites when they came up out of Egypt.

Deu 2:28  Thou shalt sell me meat for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only I will pass through on my feet;
Deu 2:29  (As the children of Esau which dwell in Seir, and the Moabites which dwell in Ar, did unto me;) until I shall pass over Jordan into the land which the LORD our God giveth us.

Nevertheless, Balak, the king of Moab, hired Balaam the prophet to curse Israel, and the Lord turned the curse into a blessing:

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

Jer 48:27  For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.
Jer 48:28  O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth.

This is just another version of:

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

This admonition is repeated in:

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.

We are admonished to help even our enemies:

Pro 25:21  If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
Pro 25:22  For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.

Moab rejoiced when Assyria carried the northern kingdom of Israel into captivity, and now they rejoice that Judah is being carried into captivity by Babylon. Moab’s heart was glad when Israel stumbled, and the Lord now has Moab in the queue to be carried away captive of the same Babylonians. We just naturally love it when our enemy gets what we see as his comeuppance, his just deserts. Moab has no fear of these words of the Lord:

Pro 24:17  Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
Pro 24:18  Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

Jer 48:29  We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.
Jer 48:30  I know his wrath, saith the LORD; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.

Nothing changed in over 70 years because Isaiah had earlier made the same observation concerning Moab’s extreme pride and self-righteousness:

Isa 16:6  We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so.

“His lies shall not so affect it” is demonstrated by how little Job’s lies against the Lord affected the Lord’s judgment of Job’s pride and self-righteousness:

Job 27:5  God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

Job is each of us before we come to see just how vile and self-righteous we just naturally are.

Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

The enemy of Job’s self-righteousness was the Lord Himself, and Job is condemning his own Maker with his proud, self-righteous words. However, Job’s pride does not keep the Lord from His work in Job’s life, and our pride and our lies do not restrain the destruction of our self-righteous proud old man with “the brightness of His coming”:

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Jer 48:31  Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kirheres.

As a type of our flesh, Moab is a necessary evil which “cannot inherit the kingdom of God” and was made to be taken and destroyed:

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

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
2Pe 2:13  And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

It is all part of ‘plan A’. The first man Adam was designed to be temporary and to be dispensed with:

Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

The Hebrew word translated as ‘unto’ in this verse is ‘el’ and it is translated as ‘against‘ in the very next verse:

Gen 4:8  And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against [H413: el] Abel his brother, and slew him.

‘Sin’ is personified, and we are told its desire will be ‘against’ us, but then we are assured right here in the book of Genesis “thou shalt rule over him”.

Immediately after telling us…

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

… we are given these very encouraging words:

1Co 15:51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

This promise of the destruction of death will not be kept until the last person who ever died is made alive. This promise Paul references in:

Hos 13:14  I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

Christ Himself made the same statement:

Joh 5:21  For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
Joh 5:22  For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
Joh 5:23  That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
Joh 5:24  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.
Joh 5:25  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
Joh 5:26  For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. [G2920: krisis, judgment]

In the end it is the Lord’s judgments which will bring life to all who are in Adam:

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.

This is not the time for “the inhabitants of the world” to be judged. When the time does arrive for the Lord’s judgments to be “in the earth, [then] the inhabitants world will learn righteousness”, and death will not claim one single soul of all who are in Adam.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

]]> Book of Jeremiah – Jer 41:1-18  They Departed to go Into Egypt https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/book-of-jeremiah-jer-411-18-they-departed-to-go-into-egypt/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-of-jeremiah-jer-411-18-they-departed-to-go-into-egypt Sat, 04 Jun 2022 04:52:12 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=25812 Jer 41:1-18  They Departed to go Into Egypt
[Study Aired June 5, 2022]

Jer 41:1  Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, and the princes of the king, even ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they did eat bread together in Mizpah.
Jer 41:2  Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
Jer 41:3  Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, even with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans that were found there, and the men of war.
Jer 41:4  And it came to pass the second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no man knew it,
Jer 41:5  That there came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the LORD.
Jer 41:6  And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went: and it came to pass, as he met them, he said unto them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.
Jer 41:7  And it was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them, and cast them into the midst of the pit, he, and the men that were with him.
Jer 41:8  But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not: for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he forbare, and slew them not among their brethren.
Jer 41:9  Now the pit wherein Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men, whom he had slain because of Gedaliah, was it which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel: and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with them that were slain.
Jer 41:10  Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters, and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam: and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the Ammonites.
Jer 41:11  But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done,
Jer 41:12  Then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon.
Jer 41:13  Now it came to pass, that when all the people which were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, then they were glad.
Jer 41:14  So all the people that Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah cast about and returned, and went unto Johanan the son of Kareah.
Jer 41:15  But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites.
Jer 41:16  Then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after that he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, even mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought again from Gibeon:
Jer 41:17  And they departed, and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt,
Jer 41:18  Because of the Chaldeans: for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land.

Our study this week will graphically demonstrate that we first refuse to obey the Lord, and we first refuse to do the things He says to do. Instead of humbly obeying every word He speaks, we serve Him in the way we want to serve Him. When we do that, if we are the Lord’s elect, He causes everything we do to work against us, and He begins to bring us to our wits’ end (Psa 107:27). If we are not His elect, then He ‘answers us according to the idols of our hearts’, and we are deceived into believing He is blessing us (Eze 14:1-9).

Beginning with the story of Cain and Abel, the Lord demonstrates for us that “[our] sins will [always] find [us] out”:

Num 32:23  But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.

In this chapter Jeremiah, who typifies each of us, is dealing with those in Judah who refused the Lord’s commandment to ‘come under the yoke of the princes of Babylon’. This chapter is the fulfilling of this earlier prophecy of Jeremiah:

Jer 24:1  The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
Jer 24:2  One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
Jer 24:3  Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
Jer 24:4  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 24:5  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
Jer 24:6  For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
Jer 24:7  And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
Jer 24:8  And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:
Jer 24:9  And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.
Jer 24:10  And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

“Them that are carried away captive” signify those of us to whom the Lord gives eyes to see and ears to hear that He made us to err so He could judge us for our self-righteous ways and our rebellion against Him. Those who were carried away captive are called “good figs” to whom:

Jer 24:7   …I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

They are even likened to the firstfruits of the fig tree:

Jer 24:2  One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

This chapter of Jeremiah is all about these “evil figs” of Jeremiah 24:

Jer 24:8 …the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:

If we are never given to see that we have been deceived by the Lord in that we have been carried away captive of Babylon, then the Lord will make us think of ourselves as “perfect and upright… fearing God and eschewing evil” as Job was made think of himself:

Job 1:1  There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

This is the reality of what Job was:

Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

Job had indeed “spoken… twice” in his own defense before God with these self-righteous, iniquitous words as He reproved and condemned God for what the Lord had done to him:

Job 27:5  God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

Job was forced to acknowledge it was God Himself who was Job’s enemy while Job was making these self-righteous pronouncements:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

Now the Lord reveals to Job his most insidious sin. That sin is his own self-righteousness, which caused Job to condemn God to make himself righteous. The lesson for all of us is that being self-righteous is as natural for every one of us as breathing:

Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Here is just how righteous Job thought of himself before the Lord uncovered to him his self-righteousness:

Job 29:1  Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Job 29:2  Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; [as a typical “carnal… babe in Christ”, 1Co 3:1-4)
Job 29:3  When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;
Job 29:4  As I was in the days of my youth [“Carnal babe in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4)), when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;

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

Job 29:5  When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
Job 29:6  When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil; [before my judgment began and the Lord began to chasten me:

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

Every good parent provides all the needs of their “carnal babes” who are still on milk. However, every good parent also “chastens and scourges every child [they] receive” when they become old enough to benefit from that chastening:

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

Job is enduring the chastening, but as of chapter 29, he is not yet receiving its instructions. At this point he is wallowing in his self-righteous pride and crediting himself with all the good works the Lord gave him to perform, all of which he claims as his own:

Job 29:7  When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!
Job 29:8  The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.
Job 29:9  The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
Job 29:10  The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
Job 29:11  When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
Job 29:12  Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
Job 29:13  The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
Job 29:14  I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
Job 29:15  I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.
Job 29:16  I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
Job 29:17  And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
Job 29:18  Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
Job 29:19  My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.
Job 29:20  My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.
Job 29:21  Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.
Job 29:22  After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.
Job 29:23  And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
Job 29:24  If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.
Job 29:25  I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.

Job 29 is a perfect description of the minds of all these Jews who would not go forth to the princes of Babylon. It was especially true of their leader Johanan the son of Kereah after he had warned Gedaliah against trusting the man who eventually slew him. Johanan’s rescue of those who were captured by Ishmael made him feel even more self-righteous and even less in need of the word of the Lord from Jeremiah.

Here is that story. It is repetition of the story of our own self-righteous old man who is carried away to Babylon because he also refused to submit to the princes of Babylon, because he was set up for failure by the Lord Himself:

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

Both the good figs and the evil figs refused to submit to the princes of Babylon, and both are judged for that rebellion. The good figs are judged first and are brought back to their land first.

Jer 41:1  Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, and the princes of the king, even ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they did eat bread together in Mizpah.

Here we have “ten men”, ten being the number which signifies the zenith of our flesh, and we have Ishmael besides these ten men. This gives us eleven men altogether, and eleven signifies the ruin and disintegration of our flesh when it is brought to its zenith:

Here is a link to the study on the number ten.
Link to the number eleven.

This is a story about the ruin of the flesh and the ruin of the kingdom of the beast:

Jer 41:2  Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
Jer 41:3  Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, even with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans that were found there, and the men of war.

The one thing Ishmael had in common with ‘the residue of Jerusalem which remained in the land’ (Jer 24:8) was that they had no intention of being obedient to the words of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah telling them to submit to the princes of the Chaldeans. In other words, both are “evil figs”, and both are in total rebellion against the Lord.

Our last study ended with this warning to Gedaliah from Johanan:

Jer 40:13  Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were in the fields, came to Gedaliah to Mizpah,
Jer 40:14  And said unto him, Dost thou certainly know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites hath sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to slay thee? But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam believed them not.
Jer 40:15  Then Johanan the son of Kareah spake to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, Let me go, I pray thee, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it: wherefore should he slay thee, that all the Jews which are gathered unto thee should be scattered, and the remnant in Judah perish?
Jer 40:16  But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said unto Johanan the son of Kareah, Thou shalt not do this thing: for thou speakest falsely of Ishmael.

This entire event is a commentary on how the Lord deals with us when we refuse to do the things Christ tells us to do. The Jews who would not go out to the princes of Babylon are self-willed, self-righteous types of us. Gedaliah typifies our self-righteous old man who is approved and placed over us by the Lord’s “friend”, Nebuchadnezzar. Ishmael is “of the seed royal” and signifies our envious first born beast who sees himself more deserving of leading the Lord’s people. Johanan and all the people with him signify our iniquity and our self-righteous old man who will not go forth to the princes of Babylon, and who now feel superior to all others because the Lord gave him the honor of destroying Ishmael’s plans to take the Lord’s people by force and make them his servants and slaves.

This account of our rebellious, self-righteous experience of evil continues to unfold:

Jer 41:4  And it came to pass the second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no man knew it,
Jer 41:5  That there came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the LORD.

These 80 men are just another iteration of our self-righteous beast which ‘comes up out of the earth’. Being eighty (10 x 8) he signifies “the eighth [who] is of the seven and goes into perdition”:

Rev 17:11  And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Link to the study on the number eight.

These 80 men signifies our rebellious, self-righteous old man who is very conscientious to serve the Lord in his own way. There is no temple at which to do sacrifice, so these men are either unaware that the temple has been destroyed or else they are coming to Mizpah thinking that the priests will be there with Gedaliah to perform their services without a temple. Regardless of what else they are thinking, the fact that they “had cut themselves” demonstrates their self-righteous rebellion against this commandment of the Lord:

Deu 14:1  You are the children of the LORD your God. So when someone dies, don’t mourn by cutting yourselves or shaving bald spots on your head.
Deu 14:2  You are people who are holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the people who live on earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his own special possession.

This entire story of the rebellious remnant of Judah, is one demonstration after the other that “the wages of sin is death”:

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jer 41:6  And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went: and it came to pass, as he met them, he said unto them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.
Jer 41:7  And it was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them, and cast them into the midst of the pit, he, and the men that were with him.
Jer 41:8  But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not: for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he forbare, and slew them not among their brethren.

Here we have another “ten men” which tells those with ears to hear that, regardless of their ‘shaven beards, torn clothing, cutting themselves and carrying offerings and incense’, these men signify our self-righteous old  man who would not submit to the princes of Babylon.

Jer 41:5  That there came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the LORD.

Ishmael’s willingness to spare those who had “treasures in the field” signifies his self-serving nature which shows a respect of persons depending on what they can do for him. Being “of the seed royal” he demonstrates that He is at this time nothing more than the envious, self-serving son of the prince of the power of the air:

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Jer 41:9  Now the pit wherein Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men, whom he had slain because of Gedaliah, was it which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel: and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with them that were slain.

This reference to the fear which King Asa had for Baasha, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, hearkens back to an earlier time of conflict between two of the Lord’s own rebellious wives, Aholah, representing the northern kingdom of Israel with its capitol of Samaria, and Aholibah, representing Jerusalem and Judah (Eze 23:4). This story of the death of Gedaliah at the hands of “Ishmael… of the seed royal” is simply a continuation of the Lord’s message to us concerning how our stubborn, self-righteous old man will never know the peace of Christ.

1Ki 15:16  And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
1Ki 15:17  And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
1Ki 15:18  Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants: and king Asa sent them to Benhadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying,
1Ki 15:19  There is a league between me and thee, and between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent unto thee a present of silver and gold; come and break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.
1Ki 15:20  So Benhadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelbethmaachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.
1Ki 15:21  And it came to pass, when Baasha heard thereof, that he left off building of Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah.
1Ki 15:22  Then king Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted: and they took away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and king Asa built with them Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah [Where King Asa had dug this pit for fear of King Baasha of Israel].

Here in Jeremiah 41 this chastening of the Lord’s rebellious people by His own rebellious people continues:

Jer 41:10  Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters, and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam: and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the Ammonites.

According to the previous chapter, Jeremiah was among those whom Ishmael carried away from Mizpah “to go over to the Ammonites:

Jer 40:6  Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land.

Ishmael, “of the seed royal”, thinks that his royal flesh entitles him to everything his flesh wants, and his flesh wants to enslave everything and everyone to himself because he, not Gedaliah, and certainly not any of the captains of the people, is of the fleshly “seed royal”.

Jer 41:11  But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done,
Jer 41:12  Then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon.

These “waters of Gibeon” are once again a place where God’s own people were at war with one another shortly after King Saul’s death, while King David was consolidating the kingdom:

2Sa 2:12  And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.
2Sa 2:13  And Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met together by the pool of Gibeon: and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool.
2Sa 2:14  And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise.
2Sa 2:15  Then there arose and went over by number twelve of Benjamin, which pertained to Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David.
2Sa 2:16  And they caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow’s side; so they fell down together: wherefore that place was called Helkathhazzurim, which is in Gibeon.
2Sa 2:17  And there was a very sore battle that day; and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David.

Even as a remnant we continue in our self-destructive ways of self-righteous rebellion against the commandments of the Lord, and we remain under the Lord’s wrath:

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

Jer 41:13  Now it came to pass, that when all the people which were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, then they were glad.
Jer 41:14  So all the people that Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah cast about and returned, and went unto Johanan the son of Kareah.
Jer 41:15  But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites.

The escape of Ishmael signifies that our old man remains with us as we continue to present his flesh as a living sacrifice daily to the Lord (Rom 12:1), to die daily (1Co 15:31) and be crucified daily with Christ (Gal 2:20).

Jer 41:16  Then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after that he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, even mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought again from Gibeon:
Jer 41:17  And they departed, and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt,
Jer 41:18  Because of the Chaldeans: for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land.

Johanan has already decided “to go to enter into Egypt”, but, as we will see in our next study, he and all those with him want to appear to seek the Lord in their spiritually weak state. The story of the rebellion of the people and the ten spies should have taught Israel that they were never even think about returning to Egypt, and they were never to depend on Egypt for anything as their experience should have taught them:

Num 13:25  And they [the twelve spies] returned from searching of the land after forty days.
Num 13:26  And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.
Num 13:27  And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
Num 13:28  Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
Num 13:29  The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
Num 13:30  And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. [Php 4:13 “I can do all thing through Christ…”]
Num 13:31  But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
Num 13:32  And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
Num 13:33  And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

An evil report of the land was nothing less than a condemnation by the Lord Himself, who had brought them to this point, to give them the land, signifying giving us our salvation. Caleb stilled the people and assured them that with the God who slew the firstborn of Egypt and dried up the Red Sea and destroyed the army of Pharaoh on their side “we are well able to overcome it”. The ten spies are ‘ten’ because the number ‘ten’ signifies our fearful unbelieving flesh. These men are saying once again that the Lord had brought them thus far just to kill them in the wilderness, and they wanted to make them a captain of their own choosing and return to Egypt:

Num 14:1  And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
Num 14:2  And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
Num 14:3  And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
Num 14:4  And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

This is not a fifty-fifty split in the congregation, rather “all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron”, and wanted to replace them with a captain of their choosing. Two chapters later will reveal that their choice of a captain would be someone ‘of the seed royal’ in a sense, inasmuch as Korah was a Levite and was a first cousin to Moses and Aaron. Every time we rebel against the Lord and refuse those whom He places as our leaders, we become our own worst enemy.

To shorten this story a bit, just before “all the congregation” stoned Caleb and Joshua “the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation, and the Lord threatened to destroy them all. Moses intercedes and the Lord tells him to tell the people that because they did not believe that He would give them the land, that therefore that generation would all die while wandering for forty years in the wilderness:

Num 14:26  And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
Num 14:27  How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
Num 14:28  Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
Num 14:29  Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,
Num 14:30  Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

‘Joshua’ means ‘Savior’, and Caleb means ‘a dog’:

The only people to enter the promised land of the generation that came up out of Egypt were a savior and a dog, Christ and His Christ.

Num 14:31  But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
Num 14:32  But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.
Num 14:33  And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
Num 14:34  After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.
Num 14:35  I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
Num 14:36  And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,
Num 14:37  Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.
Num 14:38  But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

Upon seeing the Lord’s glory in the tabernacle and hearing the Lord’s verdict of wandering forty years in the wilderness, the people repent and decide to go in and take the land even after being told they would never enter into the promised land. As we will see in our next study, it never pays to ignore the Lord’s commandments, but our self-righteous, rebellious old man is simply not given to be able to be obedient. We ask for the Lord’s direction, but we are not capable of following His instructions.

This is the state of the old man in every one of us. We are one and all made subject to the law of sin which is by the design of the “one law giver”, in our members:

Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

The Lord wants us to know who placed “the law of sin… in… [our] members”:

Isa 33:22  For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

We are saved by our hope in Christ (Rom 8:23), and it is a very certain hope:

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

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

What comforting words for all who are given faith in the hope we have in being the workmanship of Christ (Eph 2:10), and not depending upon ourselves for anything.

]]> Book of Jeremiah – Jer 34:1-11  I Shall Give this City into the Hand of the King of Babylon https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/book-of-jeremiah-jer-341-11-i-shall-give-this-city-into-the-hand-of-the-king-of-babylon/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-of-jeremiah-jer-341-11-i-shall-give-this-city-into-the-hand-of-the-king-of-babylon Sun, 27 Mar 2022 04:08:36 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=25478 Jer 34:1-11  I Shall Give this City into the Hand of the King of Babylon, and He Shall Burn it with Fire
[Study Aired March 27, 2020]

Jer 34:1  The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof, saying,
Jer 34:2  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:
Jer 34:3  And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.
Jer 34:4  Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword:
Jer 34:5  But thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, saith the LORD.
Jer 34:6  Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,
Jer 34:7  When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these defenced cities remained of the cities of Judah.
Jer 34:8  This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;
Jer 34:9  That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.
Jer 34:10  Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.
Jer 34:11  But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

The first four verses of our study today tell us of the fate of our old man. His fate is to die as a blind man in Babylon being lamented by those who honor him.

Jer 34:1  The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof, saying,
Jer 34:2  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:
Jer 34:3  And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.
Jer 34:4  Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword:

That is the fate our old man, and this is what happened to King Zedekiah:

Jer 39:2  And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.
Jer 39:3  And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.
Jer 39:4  And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.
Jer 39:5  But the Chaldeans’ army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.
Jer 39:6  Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
Jer 39:7  Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.
Jer 39:8  And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.

Look once more at what the Lord told Jeremiah to tell King Zedekiah of his fate:

Jer 34:2  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:
Jer 34:3  And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.
Jer 34:4  Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword:

“Thou shalt not die by the sword” is not a positive pronouncement of the Lord’s love and mercy. Whom the Lord loves He chastens and scourges (Heb 12:6). Whom the Lord loves, as He loved King David, He tells him “the sword shall not depart from thy house”:

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

King David in scripture, with all his faults, typifies our new man who is “a man after mine own heart” as the Lord speaks of King David.

Act 13:21  And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.
Act 13:22  And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

King Saul and King Zedekiah both typify our old man who at first loves the Lord, but then loses that love, and typifying our own flesh, are not given to inherit the kingdom of God.

King Zedekiah would no doubt have preferred to have died by the sword before having to watch all his own sons, all the princes of Judah, and all his closest associates and friends, “all the nobles of Judah” be slain before his eyes, just before having his “eyes… put out” and carried away alive to Babylon. Everything Jeremiah prophesied came to pass, and more:

Jer 39:6  Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
Jer 39:7  Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.

Let us compare all these words about the “king of Babylon… and all the kingdoms of the earth…” who are fighting against God’s unfaithful wife, Judah, and Jerusalem, with the spiritual application of these words in:

Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and  sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Revelation 14 makes clear that even the Lord’s elect must endure the torment in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, [“all men” do (Rev 13:16)]
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond [“all” inclusive], to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

Remember how the Lord looks upon King Nebuchadnezzar:

Jer 27:6  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

As ‘the Lord’s servant’, Nebuchadnezzar’s judgment upon Zedekiah signifies the Lord’s judgment upon our own old man. It is we who [Isa 40:1-3 and Rev 14:9-12] “receive double” at the Lord’s hand for robbing Him of our worship, and it is our own old man whose “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”, and it is he, our old man, who receives double at the Lord’s hand for all his iniquities and sins:

Exo 22:4  If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double.

Isa 40:1  Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Isa 40:2  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.
Isa 40:3  The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Mal 3:9  Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

It is our judgment in “this present time” (Rom 8:18) which ‘prepares the way for the Lord’ to establish His “house”, His kingdom within us (1Pe 4:17). When we refuse His residence and His dominion over us, we are robbing Him of His rightful claim upon the throne of our hearts and minds because we are all “bought with a price”.

Gen 47:23  Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.
Gen 47:24  And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.
Gen 47:25  And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.
Gen 47:26  And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s.

1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1Co 7:23  Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

Compare the spirit of the seventh verse of Revelation 18 with these words which concern the Lord’s own people:

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

Compared with:

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

Those two verses are addressed to the same ‘whore’, and they give the Lord the occasion He is seeking to give us the same dire warning Jeremiah gives King Zedekiah:

Jer 38:17  Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house:

Those are the same words the Lord uses in speaking with us via “the church of the Laodiceans”:

Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and  that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten [in “this present time” (Rom 8:18 and 1Pe 4:17)]: be zealous therefore, and repent.

There are two points which must be seen and understood if we are to understand who “Babylon the great” is. The first point is the fact that “her fornication is with the kings of the “earth”, and it is “the earth” which “is waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies”. If we are granted the gift of comparing spiritual things with spiritual (1Co 2:13-14), then we will know that the ‘earth’ signifies spiritual “Judah and Jerusalem”, the Lord’s own unfaithful wife, as Jeremiah has already revealed:

Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

Speaking to the same people in this same 22nd chapter of Jeremiah, Judah and Jerusalem are addressed as:

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

It is few indeed who understand that it is “the earth” which stands over against and in opposition to the heavens. The opposite of ‘heaven’ in scripture is not ‘hell’ as so many suppose. Rather the opposite of heaven is the earth. It is fewer still who are given to see and understand that “Judah and Jerusalem” are the great whore whose ‘fornication and delicacies have enriched “all nations… and the kings of the earth” (Rev 18:3).

This is the fate of our self-righteous, iniquitous, rebellious, adulterous old man who is robbing Christ of His throne which is in our hearts and our minds:

Jer 34:5  But thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, saith the LORD.

Here is the New Testament spiritual fulfillment of these five verses which concern the fate of our rebellious, self-righteous old man:

Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

“The kings of the earth” lament the destruction of our old man, and they are quick to let it be known. But the Lord has devised means to bring about both our destruction and the lamenting of the demise of our old man by those who identify with him and were made rich by him, the king of Judah and Jerusalem, who is also “become a harlot” (Isa 1:21).

The natural man will say, “Revelation 18 is a prophecy of the great harlot, and it has nothing to do with Zedekiah, the king of Judah and Jerusalem.” Nothing is further from the truth! The King of Judah and Jerusalem is labeled by the Lord himself as this very harlot of Revelation 17-18, and that very title was given to “Judah and Jerusalem” by the prophet Isaiah 70 years prior to these prophecies of Jeremiah:

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

The Lord’s covenant with His people at Sinai was a marriage covenant, and these verses demonstrate that Judah and Jerusalem had not been a faithful wife. Lest anyone miss this point Isaiah goes on to place the label of ‘harlot’ squarely upon the “kings of Judah and Jerusalem”:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isa 1:22  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Isa 1:23  Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

Nothing changed between the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah except that ‘evil men and seducers waxed worse and worse’. The only change was that Jerusalem became even more of a harlot, and that is our story for many necessarily sinful years of iniquity while we all justify our self-righteous transgressions.

Jer 34:6  Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,
Jer 34:7  When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these defenced cities remained of the cities of Judah.

Notice that the events of this chapter of Jeremiah transpire “When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem.”

This is the state of our own ecumenical Christian mind. In our appointed time, we all are fighting against ‘the Lord’s servant’ by denying that we are already in spiritual bondage to “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of this world” (Rev 17:4). We all, in our own time, deny the fact that the “time is at hand” that we must “read… hear and keep [all] the things which are written” in this prophecy of how Christ must come to be revealed within us. That confession must include the fact that we have been a harlot and not a faithful wife to our Lord.

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

King Zedekiah typifies our self-righteous old man who ‘reproves, contends with, disannuls the Lord’s judgment, and condemns God to make himself righteous.’

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

The answer to the Lord’s question to Job is, “Yes we have done all those things to make ourselves righteous. We have done ‘many wonderful works’, and we did them in Christ’s name (Job 27 and 29).” We simply cannot see ourselves as an unfaithful whore, and yet it is of this very whore within us that the Lord speaks these words:

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity [self-righteousness (Eze 33:13)].

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

Acknowledging our infidelity to our spiritual Husband is integral to our salvation. Christ Himself was “called… out of Egypt” and confessed that even His flesh was not ‘good’:

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

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

Jer 34:8  This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;
Jer 34:9  That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.
Jer 34:10  Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.

Our old man, signified by King Zedekiah, all his ‘good works’ notwithstanding, despises the word of the Lord by His certified prophet, Jeremiah. Yet he self-righteously “made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto [their Hebrew servants].” This was done “When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem” (Jer 34:7). Even if this were done to seek the Lord’s mercy while under siege, it was the right thing to do, and no doubt it was given Jeremiah’s approval. Indeed, the king of Egypt came up against Nebuchadnezzar and caused the Chaldeans to lift the siege for a short time, during which time the people went back on their word to their Hebrew servants.

Here is the New Testament fulfillment of this story of going back on their word to release their Hebrew slaves:

Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

Releasing our “Hebrew servant” from bondage to ourselves, typifies our willingness to receive and be obedient to the things the Lord tells us to do. Christ asks us:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

This story about King Zedekiah’s covenant with the people to release their Hebrew slaves right in the midst of the siege of Jerusalem signifies that the Lord’s chastening hand has begun its work in our lives when we “anon with joy” receive His word. However, when we realize how hard things are “because of the word”, when we don’t have the services of a Hebrew slave, that trial is more than we are willing to endure, so we go back on our own word and demand the services of our Hebrew slave. It is a ‘Hebrew servant’ because it is the word or Christ and not the doctrines of men. A Hebrew slave signifies our willingness to use the Lord’s own words to serve us instead of us being obedient to the Lord’s words. We begin to twist and wrest His words to mean what we want them to mean, and Christ goes on to tell us the result of doing that. It is the very same thing that happened to Jerusalem when they refused to be obedient to the Word of the Lord by Jeremiah. Here are the very next verses in Luke 6:

Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. [(Psa 15:4) “sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not”]
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Psa 15:4  In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

When we release the bondage of our Hebrew slave, we are setting the Word of God free to show us how we are to obey Him. Setting our Hebrew servant free typifies being given the dominion over sin in our lives and being willing to bear the cross to achieve that liberty. We are now grateful to be given to “labor to enter into His rest” knowing that it is the Lord who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Php 2:12-13).

Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Part of that “example of unbelief” (Heb 4:11) was the example of Judah and Jerusalem who agreed to release their Hebrew servants but when the trials came, “because of the word”, and from having to labor without their subjugation they were offended and went back on their covenant.

“These things happened to them, and they are written for our admonition” (1Co 10:11) and this is what our Hebrew slaves do to us when we abuse them:

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

The release of our ‘manservants and maidservants’ signifies spiritually our obedience to the Lord’s words which serve and nourish and minister to us. We are all given to release those doctrines to minister to us when we first come to the Lord. Then we are all also given to ‘lose our first love’ as we twist and wrest and force the Lord’s words to cover the idols of our hearts. The idols of our hearts always accommodate the flesh of our old man and require much less labor on our part.

Rev 2:2  I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil [at the first]: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars [at the first]:
Rev 2:3  And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted [all at the first part of our walk with the Lord].
Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Jer 34:11  But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

When we bring our ‘servants and handmaids’ back into subjection to ourselves we are no longer being submissive to the Lord. Rather, we begin to wrap and wrest His words around the idols of our own self-righteous, iniquitous false doctrines to justify not letting them go free to serve the Lord. When our servants are free to serve the Lord, then we, too, are free from the bondage of all our false doctrines and self-righteous iniquities:

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
Eze 16:18  And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
Eze 16:19  My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 16:20  Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,

The Lord’s gold and silver, His broidered garments, His oil and incense, His fine flour, oil, and honey, and His sons and daughters, are one and all symbols of His doctrines and His words which we bring into bondage to our own will and to our own false doctrines. We make His words into our doctrines, and in doing so we are placing ourselves under the bondage of sin in our lives, and yet sin’s dominion comes to an end at the appointed time in the life of “every man” (Rom 6:14, 1Co 3:13-16).

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. [God’s chastening grace (Tit 2:11-12 and Heb 12:6)]

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

]]> The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 27:1-22  Serve The King of Babylon and Live https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-271-22-serve-the-king-of-babylon-and-live/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-271-22-serve-the-king-of-babylon-and-live Sun, 02 Jan 2022 02:19:25 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=24989

Jer 27:1-22  Serve The King of Babylon and Live

[Study Aired January 2, 2022]

 

Jer 27:1  In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 27:2  Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,
Jer 27:3  And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;
Jer 27:4  And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;
Jer 27:5  I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
Jer 27:6  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.
Jer 27:7  And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.
Jer 27:8  And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
Jer 27:9  Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:
Jer 27:10  For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.
Jer 27:11  But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.
Jer 27:12  I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Jer 27:13  Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
Jer 27:14  Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:15  For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.
Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:17  Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?
Jer 27:18  But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.
Jer 27:19  For thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city,
Jer 27:20  Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;
Jer 27:21  Yea, thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;
Jer 27:22  They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

The message for us in this study is that until we acknowledge that we have long been serving the king of Babylon, then we are still spiritually blind and have not yet been given eyes to see or ears to hear the things of the spirit.

“I will not have you telling these babes in Christ that they will go through the seven last plagues. I have never blasphemed the name of God, and I will never have the seven last plagues poured out on me.” Those are words which were shouted at me by a spiritual ‘Absalom’ whom I had spiritually brought up out of the darkness of Babylon and who, after six years of being of the same mind, like Absalom, did a 180 degree turn and suddenly decided that reading, hearing and keeping the sayings of the book of Revelation should read ‘Guard against reading, hearing, and keeping the things that are written therein for the time is at hand’:

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep [G5083: ‘tereo’, same word translated “keep” in Matthew 19:17] those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep [G5083: tereo] the commandments.

It seemed impossible that this particular brother could be so easily deceived, but when the Lord wants to deceive us, He has no trouble doing so. All the Lord had to do was to tell this brother that Strong’s defines this Greek word ‘tereo’ as ‘guard’ and that Revelation 1:3 is telling us to ‘guard against keeping the things written therein’. The job was done, and “the Lord [had] deceived that prophet” (Eze 14:9). He continues to do so to the “many… called” but not “chosen” until this very day:

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

The Christ-rejecting synagogues of Christ’s day typify the false prophets and the Christ-rejecting established religions of today. For many self-righteous and rebellious years we all claimed the Lord’s name while refusing to eat His bread or wear His apparel:

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

While we were so spiritually blind that we could not even acknowledge that we were born spiritually blind, we had no hope of being healed of that spiritually blind affliction. We are not responsible for our spiritually blind eyes. All such afflictions are a work of the Lord Himself. Here are a few verses which make this clear:

Exo 4:10  And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
Exo 4:11  And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?
Exo 4:12  Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

This is the Truth of the Lord’s ways:

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Moses being “slow of speech, and of a slow tongue” happened to be just what the Lord wanted at that time for that commission.

Christ confirms His own words to Moses in the New Testament:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
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.

How many sermons have ever been preached on “[Christ] coming into this world… that they which see might be made blind?” “Being made blind” by Christ is obviously an integral part of the Lord’s work in dragging us out of Babylon. “If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth” tells us that being sent by the Lord into Babylonian captivity and into the lies of the great whore is an integral part of the work the Lord is doing in positioning us to be dragged out of the great harlot system, as this study will demonstrate. These are “all the words the Lord has commanded [us] to speak” and we are told “diminish not a word” (Jer 26:2):

Jer 27:1  In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 27:2  Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,
Jer 27:3  And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;
Jer 27:4  And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;

The fact this message is addressed not only to the king of Judah but also to all the pagan countries surrounding Judah, demonstrates that spiritual Babylon dominates much more than just those who wear the Lord’s name. The great whore rules over all the nations of the earth:

Jer 25:13  And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.

Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

Our primary concern should be with “the inside of the cup”:

Mat 23:25  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Mat 23:26  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

What Christ is telling us is that if, in “this present time” (Rom 8:18), we personally are granted a pure heart which wants only to do the things He says and keep His commandments inwardly, then the Lord will use us to be the outward rulers with Him over the kingdoms of this world for a thousand years.

If we are granted victory over the inward “spiritual wickedness in [our] heavens [where spiritual] principalities… powers… [and] the rulers of the darkness of this word” [within], then we will be used by the Lord to become the outward rulers of the kingdoms of this world:

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

The kingdoms of this world must be subdued within us before we will be given to rule the outward kingdom of this world. That is the meaning of:

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

It is in this same epistle to the Ephesians that the holy spirit reveals that our disposition to “wrestle… against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” was determined “by the will of God” before the world began:

Eph 1:1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
Eph 1:2  Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our ‘will’ and our actions are “both [His] work”:

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

Being called to be “crucified with [Christ]” is not a choice we make on our own.

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

Being “crucified with Christ” is a blessing which our old man thinks is a curse, but which our new man knows is indeed the greatest blessing that can be bestowed on any man in this present age:

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The Lord simply wants us to know the Truth, and the Truth is that He is working all things after the counsel of His own will”:

Jer 27:5  I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
Jer 27:6  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

This is all historical fact. All nations, including the Lord’s own nation were made to serve the king of Babylon until the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, Belshazzar.

Dan 5:22  And thou his [grand]son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

Only the spiritually blind will fail to see that the world-ruling ‘Babylon the Great’ of Revelation 14-18 is the anti-type of the world-ruling Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar’s time.

Jer 27:7  And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

Types always have much in common with their spiritual anti-type, and historical Babylon had universal submission of “all nations” in common with spiritual “Babylon the great the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the world”:

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

The hegemony of Babylon is complete and total within us. Our natural self-righteous iniquity sees to that. It is not just ‘some of the kings of the earth’ who are ruled over by this great whore, rather it is “all nations” just as “all nations” were given to serve King Nebuchadnezzar of historical Babylon:

Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth [false prophets] are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies [lying, false doctrines].

It is very instructive for us to see that the one king we are told who refused to serve the king of Babylon was the king of the Lord’s own people, King Zedekiah, and he did so at the behest of the false prophets whose words appealed him and to his people:

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:3  Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
Jer 28:4  And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

These are “smooth things”, coming from the fertile imagination of the false prophet, Hananiah, who knew what the king and the people wanted to hear.

Hananiah’s father “Azur the prophet” is “of Gibeon” and Gibeon is one of the cities of the priests mentioned in:

Jos 21:17  And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with her suburbs, Geba with her suburbs,
Jos 21:18  Anathoth with her suburbs, and Almon with her suburbs; four cities.
Jos 21:19  All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their suburbs.

This is the only mention in scripture of “Azur the prophet… of Gibeon”, the father of the false prophet Hananiah. Priests are not immune from the affliction of heresy, and as we are about to see, this false prophecy is the very lie Jeremiah had warned Zedekiah to beware of:

Jer 27:8  And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
Jer 27:9  Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:
Jer 27:10  For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

All of us, like the Pharisees in the New Testament and like the Jews of Jeremiah’s day, were unaware that our heart was in Babylon long before we became aware that we had been carried away to Babylon. The Pharisees of Christ’s day were spiritually blind, and like all of us when we are in that spiritual condition, we are totally unaware of our complete spiritually blind condition and our alienated position:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
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.

Christ is telling us all that if we can only acknowledge our blindness, then we will be given our sight. However, of ourselves we are as hopeless as these Pharisees who typify us while steeped in the doctrines of Babylon.

Jeremiah had already been commanded by the Lord to tell us:

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

When we ‘only acknowledge our self-righteous iniquity and transgressions against the Lord’ we are admitting that our neck is indeed under a Babylonian yoke of endless lies and false doctrines which have robbed us of “the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water” (Isa 3:1), and when we are granted the grace to do that, our salvation is on its way to us:

Jer 27:11  But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.
Jer 27:12  I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

Christ spoke also to the high priest, Caiaphas, and to the Roman ruler, Pilate, and like Zedekiah they could not hear His words:

Mat 26:62  And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
Mat 26:63  But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.
Mat 26:64  Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Mat 26:65  Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.

Joh 18:33  Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?
Joh 18:34  Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?
Joh 18:35  Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?
Joh 18:36  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world [Greek: ‘kosmos’]: if my kingdom were of this world [‘kosmos’], then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
Joh 18:37  Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Joh 18:38  Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

In Christ the words… “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” are as true for you and me as they are for Christ Himself, because this is what we are promised if we are ‘in Him’:

Rev 1:5  And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

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

Christ had just told the multitudes which followed Him that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means living by His doctrine, and His doctrine was not the “smooth things” their old man wanted to hear.

Isa 30:9  That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
Isa 30:10  Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

‘Smooth things’ are equated with prophesying deceits. Christ words are not “smooth things”, but they are true things which are for our good.

His doctrine is:

Mat 10:16  Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
Mat 10:18  And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
Mat 10:19  But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
Mat 10:20  For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

This time of persecution takes place when we are being dragged out of Babylon, and our trip out of Babylon continues for as long as Babylon remains on this earth. If we are so spiritually blind that we still think our fabled ‘free will’ led us to repent of our sins and begin serving the Lord, then our good works themselves become a curse to us. Even if we repent of our sins and confess that it was Christ who dragged us to that point, yet we cannot accept the fact that the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water has been taken away from us. If we still think we and Babylon have something to offer our Lord, then we are still in strong delusion.

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

“The mystery of iniquity” here in 2 Thessalonians 2 is “the stumbling block of [our] iniquity” of Ezekiel 14:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

The Greek word translated as ‘mystery’ in 2 Thessalonians 2 is ‘musterion’, and it is defined as ‘a secret’:

‘The secret of iniquity’ as the holy spirit makes so clear is also call “the stumbling block of [our] iniquity”, and the holy spirit goes on to make clear what he means when he uses the word ‘iniquity’:

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

Our self-righteous iniquity is indeed delusion. It is not called “strong delusion” because our unrighteousnesses are easy enough for our old man to discern. It is called “strong delusion” because our old man will just naturally “have pleasure” in his good works and “his righteousnesses”. The strongest delusion will always be a lie which is wrapped up in twisted truth, which is not truth at all.

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.

That is “strong delusion” and only those who “are of full age, having their senses exercised to discern good and evil” will be able, through Christ, to discern a “false apostle” who takes pride in his own righteousness, from a true apostle of Christ who knows better than to “trust to his own righteousness” (Eze 33:13).

Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Our immature children never see themselves as being immature “babes in Christ” being fed with milk. An immature child invariably sees himself as far more mature than his own parents. It has been observed that our parents seem to learn so much between the time we are 18 and 30 years of age. Of course, the truth is that the facts of life have come crashing down on us during those years, and we begin to appreciate our parents’ wisdom and all they have been through. We realize just how immature and inexperienced we were while being told by our schoolteachers, “You know things your parents don’t know, and it is your responsibility to educate your parents.”

It is in this self-righteous state of mind the Lord asks King Zedekiah, typifying our old man:

Jer 27:13  Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
Jer 27:14  Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:15  For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.

We are so blessed to know that Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. We are blessed to know that He is willing to leave the ninety-nine sheep, who think they do not need to repent, in the wilderness while He goes to find the one sheep which He had brought to know fully well that he is lost and without hope if his Shepherd does not come to rescue him:

Luk 15:1  Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
Luk 15:2  And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
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 [think in themselves that they are ‘just’ and] need no repentance.

The ninety-and-nine sheep need repentance just as much as the sheep that acknowledges that he is lost and without hope and is at his “wits’ end” (Psa 107:27). What the Lord is telling us is that few indeed are given to see they need repentance for the false doctrines to which they still cling. Above all we all need to be granted repentance for the “stumbling block of [our own] iniquity” and for trusting in our own righteousness. Until we are brought to our wits’ end, we are told that it is the Lord Himself who has deceived us and we are in strong delusion, trusting in “the stumbling block of [our own] iniquity”:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;
Eze 14:5  That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Eze 14:6  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8  And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10  And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;
Eze 14:11  That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.

I wondered for years about what exactly was this “stumbling block of… iniquity”. It was clear that it referred to men who were simply feigning submission to the Word of God, but I had never noticed that Ezekiel himself defines the meaning of this phrase for us, and I simply needed another brother to point it out to me. This verse gives us the holy spirit’s definition of this word ‘iniquity’:

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

That is “the stumbling block of [our] iniquity”, and the book of Job demonstrates that ‘iniquity’ is the most insidious and hardest to detect of all of our spiritual afflictions, because it is based upon ‘righteousness’ which, because we claim is coming out from ourselves, it is automatically transformed into “filthy rags”. The plural of ‘righteousness’ is found three times in the King James Version, and all three affirm that “our righteousness is of the Lord” or it is not ‘righteousness’ at all, rather it becomes “filthy rags” unto the Lord:

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

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

Dan 9:18  O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.

It is true that our witness is primarily against the rebellious carnal ‘king’ within us, “sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is god”, but our witness to the Truth is also against all the false doctrines and all who bring those false doctrines to us:

Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:17  Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?
Jer 27:18  But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.
Jer 27:19  For thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city,
Jer 27:20  Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;
Jer 27:21  Yea, thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;
Jer 27:22  They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

Is it not quite interesting that the people to whom Jeremiah is witnessing – the king, the priests and scribe and the people – all acknowledge that there are those who are in captivity in Babylon, yet they insist that they will never be carried away there, and as we will see in our next study, they want to believe that those who are there will be brought back very shortly?

Conclusion

In conclusion, it should be clear that until we are granted to acknowledge that our own hearts and minds are in Babylon, and that we are hopelessly bound up in the self-righteousness of the doctrines of that great whore, we are yet to discover that we have been carried away with all the smooth words and self-righteous doctrines of that harlot system. We are bound up in “the stumbling block of our iniquity”.

Here are the verses for our next study which give us the story that typifies our irresistible desire to avoid and deny our inevitable judgment against the stumbling block of our own iniquity:

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:3  Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
Jer 28:4  And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:5  Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
Jer 28:6  Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD’S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.
Jer 28:7  Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
Jer 28:8  The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
Jer 28:9  The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.
Jer 28:10  Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and brake it.
Jer 28:11  And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
Jer 28:12  Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 28:13  Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.
Jer 28:14  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
Jer 28:15  Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
Jer 28:16  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.
Jer 28:17  So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

]]> The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 25:15-28  I Made all the Nations to Drink, Unto Whom the Lord had Sent Me https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-2515-28-i-made-all-the-nations-to-drink-unto-whom-the-lord-had-sent-me/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-2515-28-i-made-all-the-nations-to-drink-unto-whom-the-lord-had-sent-me Sat, 04 Dec 2021 19:38:54 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=24816 Jer 25:15-28  I Made all the Nations to Drink, Unto Whom the Lord had Sent Me
[Study Aired December 5, 2021]

Jer 25:15  For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
Jer 25:16  And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
Jer 25:17  Then took I the cup at the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:
Jer 25:18  To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
Jer 25:19  Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;
Jer 25:20  And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,
Jer 25:21  Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon,
Jer 25:22  And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,
Jer 25:23  Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,
Jer 25:24  And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert,
Jer 25:25  And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,
Jer 25:26  And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.
Jer 25:27  Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.
Jer 25:28  And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.

Jeremiah and all the prophets are types of the Lord’s elect. He spoke through the prophets then, and today, by His own testimony, He is speaking to this world within us through His elect:

Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

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

It is a gift from the Lord to be able to read and believe that Christ has sent us “as [His] Father has sent [Him]”. Christ told us He spoke only the words His Father gave Him to speak, and His words were not his own words but the words of His Father:

Joh 8:28  Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

What did Christ’s Father send Him to do? If He is sending us as His Father sent Him, what exactly is it He is sending us to do? Here is the answer to that question:

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

If we are sent by Christ as His Father sent Him then we, too, will “speak… nothing of [ourselves]; but [only] as [our] Father hath taught [us].”

The words of this prophecy are applicable to “all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth” (vs 26), but let us take note that this judgment ‘begins at the Lord’s own house… Jerusalem and the cities of Judah [in] this present time’ (1Pe 4:17 and Rom 8:18):

Jer 25:15  For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
Jer 25:16  And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
Jer 25:17  Then took I the cup at the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:

We must note that Jeremiah says this cup is in the Lord’s hand, while the book of Revelation tells us it is in the hand of the great harlot:

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

Revelation tells us this cup is “full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication”, while Jeremiah tells us the cup in the Lord’s hand is “the wine cup of this fury at My hand… the sword that I will send among them”.

Upon closer examination, the book of Revelation agrees with the fact that the Lord’s fury is part and parcel  of the “abominations and filthiness of [Babylon’s] fornication”:

Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

There it is in verses 8 and 10. “The wine of the wrath of her fornication” precipitates “the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation.” Those who are “keeping the sayings of the prophecy of [the revelation of Jesus Christ within us are given to] read… hear… and keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book [in] this present time.”

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [including the seven last plagues (Rev 1:3, 14:12, 15:8)] are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

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

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

It is those who have “the patience of the saints… and the faith of Jesus” who are the first to endure the fiery judgment of the seven last plagues, which all men will endure “each in his own order”:

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

If we fail to see the order of the Lord’s plan of salvation for “all in Adam”, then we will not even realize who are “they that are Christ’s” who are given a “crown of life… at His coming” which entitles them to be raised in “the resurrection of life” at the beginning of the thousand year reign of “the Lord and His Christ”:

Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Jas 1:12  Blessed is the man that endureth temptation [in “this present time” Rom 8:18]: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

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

This “crown of life” is also called “a crown of righteousness”, which is given to all who are in “the resurrection to life” (Joh 5:27-29).

2Ti 4:6  For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
2Ti 4:7  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
2Ti 4:8  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

The principle of “the sum of Thy word is True” gives us what the mind of God is concerning this apparent dichotomy and apparent contradiction. The King James Version seems to tell us that God does not tempt us, so we just naturally wonder why Jeremiah tells us that this cup of the Lord’s fury is in the Lord’s hand, and that we, as typified by Jeremiah are told, “Cause all nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.”

These verses indeed have an outward fulfillment in the lake of fire, but for us in “this present time” our concern is with “all the nations [within us] unto whom the Lord has send [His word]”.

Every ‘nation’ mentioned in the following verses, beginning with “Jerusalem and the cities of Judah”, signifies all the false doctrines which have taken up residence within us while we are under the bondage, and the hegemony of that “great whore… Babylon the great the mother of  harlots and abominations of the earth” (Rev 17 – The lies of the great harlot have colored and have tainted every doctrine she offers to us at that time of our lives. That is what is meant by these verses of Isaiah 3):

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
Isa 3:2  The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
Isa 3:3  The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
Isa 3:4  And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
Isa 3:5  And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

Every word of this prophecy must take place within us before we will be honored to judge this world or angels:

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? [in “this present time” (Rom 8:18)]

When the Lord takes “the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water” away from us He is beginning to judge His own people, His own house, first:

Jer 25:18  To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, [“beginning at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17)] to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;

This 18th verse undergirds, and is the Old Testament foundation for, this statement by the apostle Peter in the New Testament:

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

Being carried away into the Babylonian captivity of all her false doctrines is the beginning of the judgment of the Lord’s spiritual house as it was the beginning of the judgment of His physical nation. After the Lord’s house begins to be judged while still in Babylon, He then begins to drag us out of that harlot system. At that point the Lord gives His redeemed ‘house’ the commission to judge Pharaoh and “all the kingdoms of the world with Sheshach, the same Babylon He used to judge His people. Babylon, aka Sheshach, is not judged until all the nations she ruled over for so long are delivered from her grip.  Sheshach, signifying “Mystery Babylon”, will be the last to be judged by the Lord through the words of “His Christ” (Rev 11:15). That ‘judgment’ by Jeremiah’s words, typifies the Lord’s elect speaking all the words of this prophecy for the Lord. Just as the Lord used Jeremiah to judge the nations of the whole world in his day, He will also give the judgment of the kings of this whole world over to “the Lord and His Christ”:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

What is accomplished by the judgment and the hail that come from our Lord?

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Notice how the whole world is judged by the Lord’s fiery words after His “judgment begins with… Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah”. The Lord twice states (verses 15 and 17) that His judgments and His wrath are upon “all nations”. Then Jeremiah lists all the known nations of “the whole world” of his day:

Jer 25:19  Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;
Jer 25:20  And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,
Jer 25:21  Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon,
Jer 25:22  And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,
Jer 25:23  Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,
Jer 25:24  And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert,
Jer 25:25  And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,
Jer 25:26  And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

The word ‘all’ appears fourteen times in these eight verses of Jeremiah 25:19-26. To be sure we do not fail to get the point, verse 26 makes the clear statement that the Lord is speaking of and to “all the kingdoms of the world”.

Inwardly these verses are speaking to and about all the powers and principalities against which we wage war in our heavens:

Eph 6:12  Because our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principal offices, against the positions of authority, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual things of wickedness in the heavens. (ACV)

Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

This is first and foremost “all nations” within us. “The wine of the wrath of her fornication” is all the twisted scriptures this great whore uses to keep us all in bondage to the fornication of all her false doctrines. “The kings of the earth” are all the secular leaders in our lives who are in the bondage of all of the lies and false doctrines of the religions of this world. “The merchants of the earth [who] are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies” signify all the extremely wealthy, big-name religious leaders in every religion on earth who ‘peddle the Word of God’ as twisted “delicacies”, which signify spiritual lies and false doctrines for personal gain:

2Co 2:17 For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking. (CLV)

Here is the significance of the name ‘Sheshach:

Wikipedia is certainly not scripture, but the scriptures themselves demonstrate that Babylon is the correct signification of the name ‘Shesach’. “How is Sheshach… how is Babylon”:

Jer 51:41  How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
Jer 51:42  The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
Jer 51:43  Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.
Jer 51:44  And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
Jer 51:45  My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
Jer 51:46  And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

This admonition is repeated in:

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.

Each of the nations mentioned in Jeremiah 25:18-28 inwardly signify the depth of the thorough apostasy of the Lord’s elect before He begins to judge us and to drag us out of Babylon. All those lying false doctrines begin to be destroyed within us with the brightness of the coming of the Truth of the doctrines of Christ when the Lord finally opens our eyes to see and accept Him and His mind and His doctrines, instead of the false doctrine of “the springs… of Babylon”:

Jer 51:34  Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
Jer 51:35  The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
Jer 51:36  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.

Here is another way of saying the Lord “will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry”:

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

If we are granted to endure to the end, we will have the Lord’s waters springing up within us:

Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

When we are made to accept the mind of Christ, the mind of our old man begins to die every day as we come to know Him better day by day:

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

2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed [my… our old man], whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

We will come back to this thread here in 2nd Thessalonians 2 after we read our last two verses:

Jer 25:27  Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.
Jer 25:28  And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.

“Ye shall surely drink” is just another way of saying that the only way to access the Tree of Life is to go through the fiery swords of the cherubim which “guard the way of the Tree of Life”:

Gen 3:24  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

When we are carried away into Babylon and are in Babylon for a symbolic “seventy years” we do not see ourselves as the rebellious, deceived apostates that we are. Instead, this is how we see ourselves at this stage of our experience:

Pro 5:3  For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

The spirit of the adulterous woman of Proverbs 30:20 is the same spirit in the church at Laodicea. Spiritually the church at Laodicea is “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”, but her spiritual blindness keeps her from seeing her wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked condition, and this instead is how she views her own spiritual condition:

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

That is truly spiritual blindness and “strong delusion”.

Getting back to the message of 2nd Thessalonians 2, we are told:

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:
2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Being in Babylon is being in “strong delusion”. In this state we think we are just the exact opposite of what and where we really are spiritually “because [we] say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that [we] are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev 3:17).

It is because we “know not” our spiritual condition that the Lord must judge us first and show us what we really are. We will never “come out of [Babylon]” if we cannot even acknowledge that we are in Babylon and are the victims of the lies of a great spiritual whore, who literally hates and despises the doctrines of Christ.

The Pharisees who asked Christ if He thought they were blind, certainly did not consider themselves to be spiritually blind. Yet, as types of you and me, they were as blind to their spiritual condition and their spiritual position as the adulterous woman of Proverbs 30:20 and the ‘wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked church at Laodicea’:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
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.

Failing to see and acknowledge our deception is the self-righteous “stumbling block of iniquity” which keeps us locked up in Babylon the great for so many wasteful years. We simply are not yet given to “acknowledge [our self-righteous] iniquity”, so we remain blinded to our own blindness:

Jer 3:11  And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
Jer 3:12  Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
Jer 3:15  And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

The Lord has given us “pastors according to [His] heart”, and ‘His heart’ feeds us the knowledge of His ways. “His ways” are the way of His fiery judgment which ‘fire’ every man must endure if he wants to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life:

Deu 32:4  He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Dan 4:37  Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

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

“The fire [which] shall try every man’s work” is the words of Christ:

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

Christ is the Yahweh of the Old Testament who talked with Adam and Eve, talked, and ate a meal with Abraham, wrestled with Jacob, and talked face to face with Moses. We know this Yahweh is Christ because we are very plainly told that it was Yahweh who did all these things:

Gen 2:16  And the LORD [H3068: ‘Yahweh’] God [H430: ‘elohiym’] commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

Gen 18:1  And the LORD [H3068: ‘Yahweh’] appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Gen 18:2  And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
Gen 18:3  And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Gen 18:4  Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
Gen 18:5  And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.
Gen 18:6  And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
Gen 18:7  And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
Gen 18:8  And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

Gen 32:24  And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Gen 32:25  And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
Gen 32:26  And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
Gen 32:27  And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
Gen 32:28  And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Gen 32:29  And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
Gen 32:30  And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

Exo 33:11  And the LORD [H3068: ‘Yahweh’] spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

These are the words of our Lord Himself which reveal that He is the Yahweh of the Old Testament:

Joh 5:37  And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

Lest any of us think that John 5:37 applies only to those Jews to whom Christ was speaking, the fact is that the Lord had already made clear that “no man has seen God [the Father] at any time…”

Joh 1:18  No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Clearly Christ is the ‘Yahweh’, the ‘Lord’, the ‘God’ of the Old Testament who had been seen and heard by so many in that dispensation. It is ‘Yahweh’ who gave His words to Jeremiah:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD [H3068: ‘Yahweh’] God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

It is ‘Yahweh… Christ’ who is teaching us that His ways are judgment, and that we are blessed to be judged in “this present time”:

Deu 32:3  Because I will publish the name of the LORD [H3068: ‘Yahweh’]: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
Deu 32:4  He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD [H3068: ‘Yahweh’]  , 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.

Jer 1:1  The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
Jer 1:2  To whom the word of the LORD [H3068: ‘Yahweh’] came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

It is only “when [the Lord’s] judgments are in [our] earth [that we] shall learn righteousness”. If we are the “blessed and holy” of the Lord (Rev 20:6), then His judgment has begun with us in this present time, and all of mankind of all time are awaiting our manifestation to this dying world:

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

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

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

That is our study for today. Lord willing, we will finish this prophetic chapter which speaks to us to “edification, exhortation, and comfort” (1Co 14:4) next week. Here are our verses for that study:

Jer 25:29  For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.
Jer 25:30  Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
Jer 25:31  A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.
Jer 25:32  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
Jer 25:33  And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.
Jer 25:34  Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.
Jer 25:35  And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.
Jer 25:36  A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the LORD hath spoiled their pasture.
Jer 25:37  And the peaceable habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
Jer 25:38  He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.

]]> The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 17:1-13 The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things… https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-171-13-the-heart-is-deceitful-above-all-things/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-171-13-the-heart-is-deceitful-above-all-things Sat, 04 Sep 2021 21:06:05 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=24279 Jer 17:1-13 The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, and Desperately Wicked
[Study Aired September 5, 2021]

Jer 17:1  The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
Jer 17:2  Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
Jer 17:3  O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
Jer 17:4  And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
Jer 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
Jer 17:6  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Jer 17:11  As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
Jer 17:12  A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
Jer 17:13  O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

In this study we will seek to know the mind of the Lord concerning the meaning of the word ‘heart’. We are told, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?”

Exactly what is ‘the heart’? This word ‘heart’ appears four times in the 13 verses of our study today, including our first verse:

Jer 17:1  The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

We are symbolized by ‘Judah’. In Ezekiel, Judah is symbolized by the younger of two harlot sisters who are married to the Lord. These two harlot sisters have been whores from their youth. They have “one mother” which tells us that these two harlots are within each of us and that they are ‘two’ because they witness to each other that they are the two stages of our harlotry against the Lord. However, we must notice that the latter stage or our whorish apostasy is worse than the earlier stage:

Mat 12:43  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, 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.
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.

Eze 23:1  The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Eze 23:2  Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
Eze 23:3  And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.

Who was the mother of these two harlots? The question answers itself. She is “the mother of harlots and of the abomination of the world”:

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

All the religions of mankind have replaced Christ with “the imaginations of their own heart”, and that is who ‘Babylon the great’ is. She is a harlot who has forsaken Christ to find favor with the kings of this world.

Ezekiel tells us that this harlot comes to us in two stages – an older sister and a later younger sister who is worse and even more self-righteous harlot than her older sister.

Eze 23:4  And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.

Samaria is the capital of the northern kingdom which assumed the name ‘Israel’, and Jerusalem is the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah. Both are from one nation – Israel.

Eze 23:5  And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
Eze 23:6  Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
Eze 23:7  Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.
Eze 23:8  Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.
Eze 23:9  Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
Eze 23:10  These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.
Eze 23:11  And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.
Eze 23:12  She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.
Eze 23:13  Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way,
Eze 23:14  And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion,
Eze 23:15  Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity:
Eze 23:16  And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.
Eze 23:17  And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.
Eze 23:18  So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.
Eze 23:19  Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

These two sisters are not from different families. They are one family… “the daughters of one mother”. A stubborn mother she is, too, because she has a heart that is hardened by the Lord against the Lord:

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

These two sisters symbolize our time in that family of harlots. We all come to Christ through this harlot system. Aholah symbolizes the early stages of that “experience of evil” (Ecc 1:13), and Aholibah symbolizes our later part of that experience of evil. But they are both “the daughters of one mother”:

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.

Neither ‘Aholah’ nor ‘Aholibah’ think of themselves as harlots. They have both convinced themselves that they can have the Lord’s name even as they commit spiritual adultery against Him. This is what we tell ourselves while playing the harlot against our husband, Christ:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

That is what we think of ourselves while we are in this despicable position of being given a ‘hardened heart’ (Isa 63:17). When the Lord hardens our heart, we are powerless to resist the temptations of the flesh, and the false doctrines which justify that weakness.

Notice how hopeless we are in that God-ordained condition:

Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Exactly what is it that the Lord “hardens” to the extent that our will is not even a factor in what He is doing?

Exo 4:21  And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

What exactly is a “hardened heart?” It is a heart devoid of understanding the Truth. It is a heart which cannot know or understand who Christ and His Father are.

Notice what the Lord does to harden our hearts:

Job 17:4  For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

Pro 18:2  A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.

Eph 4:18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

When the Lord hides our heart from understanding, takes away our delight in understanding, and darkens our understanding, He has given us a “hardened heart”, and we are merely a “son of perdition” in His hand (2Th 2:3), made to be taken and destroyed (2Pe 2:12). That is the pre-ordained fate of our old man.

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

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

Contrast a deceitful, hardened heart with a whole heart for the Lord:

Job 38:36  Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?

Psa 49:3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

Pro 14:33  Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding: but that which is in the midst of fools is made known.

Pro 15:14  The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.

The seven churches of Asia are the complete apostate, harlot church. As a whole entity they did not have a heart that sought wisdom, understanding or knowledge of the Lord. This is what the spirit says to the seven churches:

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

The truth that these seven churches are the two-stage harlot wife of Christ within us lies in these words, which are repeated immediately following each admonition to each of the seven churches:

Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

In other words, let Aholibah within us hear what the spirit has admonished Aholah, her older sister.

There were many evil kings of Aholah, the northern kingdom. The first was Jereboam the son of Nebat. There was Ahab and his evil conniving wife, Jezebel, Jehu, etc. Each king rebelled against the Lord as the nation became progressively more rebellious.

This is what we are told of Ahab’s father:

1Ki 16:25  But Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all that were before him.

Yet we are told that the nation of Judah committed greater adulteries than Israel. This tells us that as we go from church to church, we are not getting closer to Christ. Instead, we are simply becoming more and more self-righteous, and becoming more entrenched in that most insidious sin of self-righteousness (Eze 33:13). It must happen in just that way to bring down the pride of the beast and the pride of the harlot that is within each of us.

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

Judah (Aholibah) represents us when we have strayed so far from our Lord that we are forced to acknowledge our transgressions and our self-righteousness. When we are so far from the Lord that we are at our wits’ end, then we are forced to acknowledge our transgressions and our iniquity.

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

Nothing is more devastating to the kingdom of our old man than to have to acknowledge his self-righteousness, which stinks in the nostrils of the Lord.

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

Our sin is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. It is gravened upon the table of our hardened heart and upon the horns of our altars. In other words, we are just that stubborn and rebellious and self-righteous.

This is exactly what Job had asked to be done to him:

Job 19:23  Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
Job 19:24  That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

When Job made this plea for his words to be memorialized, he was in the same place we are when we are symbolized in scripture by Aholibah, as the most egregious harlot. Because of our stubborn, rebellious, self-righteous nature, we all must be brought to our “wits’ end” before the Lord can give us eyes to see ourselves for the self-righteous whore we all are by nature.

Here is what Job said just prior to making that request:

Job 19:6  Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
Job 19:7  Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
Job 19:8  He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
Job 19:9  He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
Job 19:10  He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
Job 19:11  He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
Job 19:12  His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
Job 19:13  He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
Job 19:14  My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
Job 19:15  They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
Job 19:16  I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
Job 19:17  My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.
Job 19:18  Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
Job 19:19  All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
Job 19:20  My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
Job 19:21  Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
Job 19:22  Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Job 19:23  Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
Job 19:24  That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
Job 19:25  For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

Job’s friends, his wife and his children symbolize Job himself. The Lord is bringing us to see ourselves, our old man, as He sees our old man. In His time, “through much tribulation” we finally come to see that we are “vile”. It is only our hardened heart and our pride which will not relinquish the throne of our hearts and minds.

Our children and we are one family. We simply cannot, of ourselves, give up all we have worked for to establish the kingdom of our old man. However, the Lord knows just what is needed to destroy our old man and his pride and his kingdom:

Jer 17:2  Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.

“Groves [and] green trees” refers to the keeping of the “traditions of men” (Col 2:8). It refers to the “observ[ing of] days, months, times, and years”, so as to fit in with the Christ-hating societies of this world.

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

The “groves” which are mentioned so often in the Old Testament were places of worship at which pagans gathered seasonally to keep their pagan holidays and festivals which the Lord gave to them:

Deu 4:19  And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

The Lord laments the fact that He has caused us to follow the nations:

Jer 17:3  O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.

“Mountains” symbolize kingdoms in scripture, and the field is the world” according to our Lord Himself:

Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

We are the Lord’s “inheritance”, and He is our “heritage”. He must cleanse us of our filthy ways before He can abide in us:

Jer 17:4  And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
Jer 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

Christ makes clear that this prophecy concerns Himself and His words:

Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

It is a very instructive fact that the first thing formed by the Lord in a mother’s womb is not the brain of a child, but it is “the heart”. What does this “thing that [is] made” tell us about the invisible things of God” (Rom 1:20)? This is what we learn about the invisible things of God from the fact that the heart is formed first and then the head and the brain:

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:

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

Depending upon ourselves or trusting in men or our flesh is to “follow our heart”, and when we ‘follow our heart’ we are inevitably “departing from the Lord”, and that is spiritual adultery.

Notice how closely related our carnal mind is to our hardened heart:

Deu 28:65  And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:

Dan 5:20  But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:

Our self-righteousness is as natural as breathing because ‘that which is natural’ first dominates, “and afterward that which is spiritual”.

Jer 17:6  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

Such is the fate of our old man. “A heath in the desert”, refers to “a juniper (from its nudity…)”

Here is the Hebrew word which is translated as ‘heath’:

A juniper is contrasted with “a tree planted by the waters”:

Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

“The man that trusts in the Lord” is not living now with a hardened heart. “The man… whose hope the Lord is” does not “lean to his own understanding” and acknowledges that “it is God [who] works in [Him] both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

It is obvious that there is a very close connection between the heart and the mind, the “understanding”. The apostle Paul expresses this fact in these words:

Rom 7:15  For that which I do [by following my heart] I allow not [in the spirit of my mind]: for what I would [in my mine], that do I not; but what I hate [in my mind], that do I [through “the law of sin which is in my members”, my flesh, my ‘heart’].
Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law [of Christ] that it is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh, [my hardened heart]) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members [my carnal hardened heart].

Gen 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Where did men get their “preparations of the heart”?

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

That is right! The Lord made us evil for our own day of our destruction:

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

“The thoughts of [our heart are] only evil continually.”

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.

Abraham’s carnal ‘heart’ could not conceive of him and Sarah having a child in their old age:

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?

It is the Lord’s mercy which takes away our hardened “heart of stone” and replaces it with “a heart of flesh”:

Eze 36:22  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.
Eze 36:23  And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
Eze 36:24  For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
Eze 36:25  Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

When the Lord replaces our “stony heart [with] a heart of flesh”, He is giving us a desire to please Him spiritually, and He is taking away our hardened carnal mind. Our hearts are not literal stone, and “a heart of flesh” is not a literal heart of flesh. “A heart of flesh” here is the positive application of the word ‘flesh’, because the truth is:

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

Deu 4:29  But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

Deu 4:39  Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

Deu 5:29  O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

Deu 6:5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

As the self-righteous, proud and stubborn whores we are, we think we are “a tree planted by the waters”, when this is the reality of who we are as the rebellious, self-righteous, pride-filled, carnal-minded old man we are:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

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

Truer words than these have never been written:

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

It is a truly deceived heart which convinces itself that it is “rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing” when the reality is that we are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” It is a deceived heart in an adulterous woman who can convince herself that she had done “no wickedness”. Such is the extent of our pride in the self-righteous heart of our old man. That is just how concerned we are with our standing and our reputation with this world. That is how little our hardened heart cares for our reputation with the Lord.

The Lord sees right through us though and rewards us “according to [our]works”. We are not fooling him one moment. The Lord “searches the heart and tries the reins” and He gives us “according to the fruit of our doings”:

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

Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Gal 6:8  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

Our ‘works’ are not our own, good or evil. It is God who is working “all things” including the evil in the city… after the counsel of His own will. We do nothing of ourselves:

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 [good or evil].

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

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

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

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

It is “His own will” that those who bear His name will live lives that reflect His character. If anyone thinks that “good works” are not required for salvation, that person has yet to learn that we are “created unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

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

“We are His workmanship.” Our works are not of ourselves. It is He who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”. If we claim His name, we must live lives that reflect His character, and it is “by grace”, His chastening grace, that He sees to it His “very elect” are made to reflect His character:

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

The word translated as ‘teaching’ in Titus 2:12 is the Greek word ‘paideuo’. It is most often translated as ‘chastening’, as in this verse of scripture:

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

Here is Strong’s definition of this word followed by the list of entries and the various translations of this word in the King James Version:

Here is how ‘paideuo’ is variously translated in the King James Version:

Our heavenly Father has no use for the ‘greasy grace’ in which far too many believe.  It was being taught in Paul’s day that we should “sin that grace may abound”, and Paul forbade that doctrine:

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

It is toward any who believe such lies that our next verses apply:

Jer 17:11  As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
Jer 17:12  A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

The riches of Christ are gotten only “by right” because they are all “tried in the fire” which is the ‘right’:

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

Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

“Gold tried in the fire” is the words and doctrines of Christ. That is “the place of our sanctuary” because our ‘sanctuary’ is Christ who is seated with His Father on His Father’s throne, which is high above all things on this earth.

Jer 17:13  O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth [not “in heaven”], because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

Luk 10:20  Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

The day is “at hand, even at the door” when the Lord Himself will manifest who is and who is not His people. He will then make very clear who serves Him and who serves Him not:

Mal 3:13  Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
Mal 3:14  Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
Mal 3:15  And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
Mal 3:16  Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

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

That is our study for today. I pray we are all on our guard against our own desperately wicked and deceitful hearts and that we can discern him that serves God and him that serves Him not.

Here are our verses for next week’s study:

Jer 17:14  Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Jer 17:15  Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.
Jer 17:16  As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.
Jer 17:17  Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.
Jer 17:18  Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
Jer 17:19  Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
Jer 17:20  And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
Jer 17:21  Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
Jer 17:22  Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
Jer 17:23  But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
Jer 17:24  And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;
Jer 17:25  Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.
Jer 17:26  And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.
Jer 17:27  But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

]]> The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 16:1-12 [Our] Carcases Shall be Meat for the Fowls of Heaven https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-161-12-our-carcases-shall-be-meat-for-the-fowls-of-heaven/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-161-12-our-carcases-shall-be-meat-for-the-fowls-of-heaven Sat, 21 Aug 2021 20:34:03 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=24181 https://www.dropbox.com/s/yud9z0lm1feceyj/20210822-Study_MikeV-OurCarcasses.m4a?raw=1

Jer 16:1-12 [Our] Carcases Shall Be Meat for the Fowls of Heaven

[Study Aired August 21, 2021]

Jer 16:1  The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
Jer 16:2  Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
Jer 16:3  For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
Jer 16:4  They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 16:5  For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.
Jer 16:6  Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
Jer 16:7  Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
Jer 16:8  Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
Jer 16:9  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
Jer 16:10  And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?
Jer 16:11  Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
Jer 16:12  And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

In this chapter, Jeremiah is told not to take a wife “in this place” because any wife married [or] children born in this place… this land… “shall die of grievous deaths… [and] they shall be as dung upon the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.”

Jer 16:1  The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
Jer 16:2  Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
Jer 16:3  For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
Jer 16:4  They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

Jeremiah was commanded to refrain from getting married “for our admonition”. Everything that happened to him was for the purpose of teaching us how we are to have the mind of God:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

If we are being admonished by Jeremiah not to marry, what does that tell us? Before we answer this question, we must notice that there is a qualification to this commandment. That qualification is “in this place… in this land”. “This place [and] this land” means that while we are apostate Israel and Judah ‘You shall not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.’ These words of Jeremiah are just the less mature Old Testament way of saying ‘come out of her my people…’:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Let’s always remember that every word of God is Christ-centered. Of Him, through Him, and to Him are all things:

Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Christ is the ‘new man’ in the Lord’s elect. However, if we are to understand the meaning of this command to refrain from marrying and having children in ‘this place’ we must acknowledge that before Christ can be in the new man, there must first be an old man who is seduced and is joined to a harlot:

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 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Every single religious human being is an “inhabitant of the earth” (Jer 22:29).

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

However, it is given to very few to “hear the word of the Lord” in “this present time”:

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

The ‘call’ has gone out to all men, and billions have responded to that ‘call’. However, very few are chosen to endure to the end being divided from family and friends and being hated of all men.

Israel’s and Judah’s hearts and minds, as types of our hearts and minds, were in Babylon long before they were carried away to that land. Babylon, symbolizing the religions of this world, is the ‘place’ in which we are commanded not to marry and have children. Any children conceived in “this place” will “die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.”

The ‘sword’ which will consume them is these very Words of God coming out of Jeremiah’s mouth and through his pen. The famine that will consume them is their rejection of the Words of the Lord.

Just as the death and destruction of the giants in our land are nourishment for our new man, so our apostate old man is becoming the “dung upon the earth and… meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.” In this scenario “the fouls of heaven, and beasts of the earth” are the positive application of these words, and they represent our new man who is nourished and strengthened by the utter death and destruction of the kingdom of our old man.

The fowls of the air are also nourished and strengthened by the decomposition and dissolution of all the false doctrines we believed while we were so prominent and established in all the lies of our Babylonian harlot wife, the wife we have while we are in “this place”. In this prophecy those lies and false doctrines are typified by ‘dung’, which must decompose to become nourishment for our new man.

This is Paul’s estimation and the value he placed upon all the qualifications he had achieved while striving to excel in keeping the law of Moses and being prominent in the church of his day:

Php 3:4  Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

This is what the spirit calls the church which “glories in the flesh” and strive to please “the people” (1Sa 15:15-21), and follows the dictates of this world rather than the dictates of “the Creator” as did King Saul:

1Sa 15:15  And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
1Sa 15:16  Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
1Sa 15:17  And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
1Sa 15:18  And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
1Sa 15:19  Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
1Sa 15:20  And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
1Sa 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

When we take lightly the words of the Lord, because we fear “the people”, our families and our friends, the Lord considers that “rebellion… and stubbornness [which are to Him the equivalent of] “witchcraft… iniquity, and idolatry”.

It all amounts to spiritual adultery against Christ, whom we say is our husband.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

In Revelation 17 the “gold and precious stones and pearls” are all the scriptures which we have twisted and “wrested” to cover our own idols of our hearts (Eze 14:1-9) in our attempts to please men. We simply cannot “please men” and remain faithful to our spiritual ‘husband’, Christ:

Gal 1:10  For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

2Pe 3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
2Pe 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness .
2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Peter considered Paul’s epistle’s as much ‘scripture’ as any of “the other scriptures” and he, through the holy spirit, condemned those who treated them lightly as King Saul did, and He condemned those who “wrested” Paul’s epistles to make them fit around the idols of their heart.

This is what we are when we ignore the Lord’s commandments, or “wrest” them in our attempt to please both God and men:

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.

When we are “joined to an harlot” our ‘father’ and our ‘husband’ is the great red dragon who empowers the beast which we are by nature:

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

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

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

When we are coming out of Babylon, we are becoming espoused to Christ as a chaste virgin, and He is also becoming our spiritual ‘Father’:

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

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

Our next verse speaks of the Lord rejecting “this people”:

Jer 16:5  For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.

“This people… this place” and “this land” are one and the same as our next verses demonstrate:

Jer 16:6  Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
Jer 16:7  Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
Jer 16:8  Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

The Lord has “taken away [His] peace from this [rebellious, apostate, self-righteous] people”. “This people” means the kingdom of our old man. He has no pity and will not mourn the destruction of that kingdom. Rather, He tells us to:

Rev 18:20  Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

Notice how closely our next verse parallels the description of the great whore of Revelation 18:

Jer 16:9  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

Here is this same message in:

Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

Clearly “this place” of Jeremiah 16 is the self-righteous whore of Revelation 18, to whom we are all joined, each in our own order.

Jer 16:10  And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

It is clear that at one time we really were completely unaware of just how far from our True Husband we have become. This is what we truly think of our adulterous ways at this time of our lives:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

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

This is exactly what the church of Laodicea thought:

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

Clearly the “great whore” of Revelation 17 and 18 is “the seven churches of Asia” who have “that woman Jezebel, the seat [Greek: ‘thronos’, throne] of Satan, [and] the Nicolaitans” among them.

The seven churches of Asia may be totally unaware they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”, but ignorance is no defense when we have been given the Lord’s commandments in such plain words. King Saul attempted that defense while disobeying the Lord’s commandment, and the Lord was having none of it:

1Sa 15:20  And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

King Saul, a perfect type of our self-righteous old man, is in effect telling the Lord, “Look Lord, I did everything you told me to do except for the strong meat part. I may have been weak in the faith, but you should bear with me. That strong meat isn’t really that important.”

It is not a good strategy to attempt to play mind games with God and refuse to “go on unto perfection” clinging only to those six milk doctrines which appeal even to those who cannot accept the strong meat of the Word of God:

Heb 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
Heb 5:10  Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
Heb 5:11  Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers , ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Paul, using the words “…when for the time ye ought to be teachers” clearly demonstrates that when we “bear with the weak” we do so with the goal in mind of “with one mouth and with one mind glorifying God”:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye [“Ye that are strong”, Rom 15:1], but not to doubtful disputations.
Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3  Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
Rom 14:4  Who art thou [who are weak (vs 2-3)] that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he [that eats all things] shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

No one with the mind of Christ will force “strong meat” down the spiritual throat of a babe in Christ who eats only spiritual herbs and drinks only spiritual milk.

Rom 14:5  One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Rom 14:6  He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
Rom 14:7  For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
Rom 14:8  For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
Rom 14:9  For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Rom 14:10  But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Rom 14:11  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Rom 14:12  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Rom 14:13  Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Rom 14:14  I [Paul who is not “weak in the faith, esteemed every day alike, and was spiritually strong in the faith] know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Rom 14:15  But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.
Rom 14:16  Let not then your good be evil spoken of:
Rom 14:17  For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Rom 14:18  For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.
Rom 14:19  Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.
Rom 14:20  For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
Rom 14:21  It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Rom 14:22  Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
Rom 14:23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Let us be very careful that we do not cause a weak brother to be “damned if he eats” our strong meat. For him it would be a sin to eat our strong meat, and it would make the weak brother to die.

Num 4:15  And when Aaron and his sons [“We that are strong (Rom 15:1)] have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.

So, what exactly constitutes spiritual ‘herbs’ and spiritual ‘milk’ of the Word? As it turns out, we all at first confuse the milk of the Word with strong meat of the Word. When and if we are confused in this way it is because God Himself has already written it in our books to attempt to convince Him that we have been fully obedient when, in reality, we have not been fully obedient. We have kept only the things that are popular to keep.

the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation. Here are the milk doctrines which we just naturally think of at first as being strong meat:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection [spiritual maturity]; not laying again the foundation of 1) repentance from dead works, and of 2) faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of 3) the doctrine of baptisms, and of 4) laying on of hands, and of 5) resurrection of the dead, and of 6) eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

King Saul, as a type of each of us, was willing, and even desiring, to go out and fight against an enemy who everyone recognized as an enemy. He was willing, and even desirous, of fighting against outward enemies, but He was not willing to stand up to enemies within his own people, and he chose instead to please them, typifying the enemies within the body of Christ, rather than fear God and keep His commandments to the full regardless of what his family and friends thought of him.

Jer 16:11  Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
Jer 16:12  And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

Walking after the imagination of [our] evil heart” is self-righteously serving the Lord as we see fit. Keeping days, months, times, and years, and ignoring Galatians 1:10 and Colossians 2:8, is the equivalent of bringing back King Agag and the best of the cattle. To us it is no big thing, and Christ and His Christ are simply going overboard and becoming Pharisaical when they make such a big deal over these words:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

What does the holy spirit consider to be the bondage of King Saul and of us as King Saul, who wanted to please his people more than his God. This is what Paul in Romans 14 calls “weak in the faith”:

Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

That is the “beggarly elements” and the “bondage” to which the holy spirit refers in Galatian 4:9. How does our desire to please our families and friends to fit in with the world set with the Lord?

These are His inspired words:

Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

That is the fate of us all of us when “for the time [we] ought to be teachers” and we are not yet given to “go on unto perfection”, and we are still given to choose to remain on the ‘milk’ and ‘herbs’ of the Word.

What is the fruit of being given this timid spirit? As we saw in the case of King Saul:

1Sa 15:28  And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou [One who is willing to make a big deal out of the words “touch not mine anointed” (1Sa 24:6 and 1Sa 26:9)].

Our spineless old man “cannot inherit the kingdom of God [because] he is more fearful of his fellow man than he is of his God.

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

Here is the fruit of spiritual weakness “when for the time we ought to be teachers” (Heb 5:12), instead of fearing family and friends more than we fear God. This is the fruit that refusing the strong meat of the gospel produces. This is the fruit which is produced by us after the spiritually strong have borne our spiritual weakness for so long and we are yet given to eat only herbs and esteem one day above another. We will repeat the last three verses of Hebrew 5 and the first few verses of Hebrews 6 to get the contrast:

Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.
Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

By using the words “for the time you ought to be teachers” and Peter’s admonition to “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” we are being admonished against becoming stagnant in our spiritual growth by remaining on spiritual ‘milk’ and spiritual ‘herbs’.

Then we are instructed by the holy spirit that, for those who do “shall fall away” after having been “once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come… it is impossible… If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.”

This is what the apostle John called “a sin unto death” of which he admonishes us:

1Jn 5:16  If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

The woman caught in the act of adultery and the Corinthian fornicator both sinned a sin that was not unto death. Stubbornly “putting away… faith and a good conscience”, like Hymaenaeus and Alexander, is “a sin unto death”.

1Ti 1:19  Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Stubbornly teaching the false doctrine that everything is spiritual and inward and that therefore “the resurrection is past already… is a sin unto death”:

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

We will all ‘marry in this place’ and have spiritual wives and children ‘in this land… each in his own order’. Nevertheless, when we see that it is all a work of the Lord in our lives, to be repented of, then the Lord will destroy our old kingdom and establish His new man and His kingdom within us (Luk 17:20-21). Those who are given to stubbornly cling to the false doctrines of those who marry in “this place” and are not given “place for repentance”, will die grievous deaths in “this land”, because they are given to sin a “sin unto death”:

1Jn 5:16  If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

That is our study for today, and I pray you were edified and encouraged by these words.

Here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 16:13  Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.
Jer 16:14  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
Jer 16:15  But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
Jer 16:16  Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
Jer 16:17  For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
Jer 16:18  And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.
Jer 16:19  O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
Jer 16:20  Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
Jer 16:21  Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

]]>