The Lord Will Smite With A Scab The Crown of The Head of The Daughters of Zion

Isa 3:16  Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
Isa 3:17  Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts.
Isa 3:18  In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon,
Isa 3:19  The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,
Isa 3:20  The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings,

In our last study we were given the contrast between what could be expected by the righteous and by the wicked:

Isa 3:10  Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Isa 3:11  Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.

God has determined that His people will all first be spiritual daughters of spiritual harlots, who will lead His people astray and away from Him, before they become true to Him via the fiery trials which He ordained for us all before we were born and before any of our days were lived. He has every life written out for every person before any of us ever come to this earth:

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

But a harlot is not faithful to her husband, and no harlot is subject to her husband’s leadership. If she were, she would not be a harlot. Yet it is out of this great harlot system, symbolized by both Egypt and Babylon, that God’s people must come. It is out of that system we are all delivered.

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

Rev 18:21  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

We are the Lord’s ‘Zion’, but first we are a harlot who will not submit to Him or His laws. And that is what we are being told in today’s study:

Isa 3:16  Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:

The first thing to know about this harlot we all are, is that we do not realize what our spiritual condition is. At first we actually have ourselves convinced that we are without need of anything and without sin:

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

An adulterous woman always justifies her adultery. But that does not make her actions any the less unfaithful:

Pro 7:21  With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
Pro 7:22  He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
Pro 7:23  Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

Spiritual adultery is typified by physical adultery for the very reason that it is so appealing to our flesh. “Her much fair speech” tells us that Christ died for our sins so we can continue in our sins. “Her much fair speech” appeals to our natural sheepish instinct to be accepted of our friends and families rather than to refuse to fight for God, family and country physically and take up our cross and fight for God, family and country spiritually. It is her “much fair speech” which tells us we are not following Christ if we do not keep the days, months, times and years of the traditions of men (Gal 4:9-19 and Col 2:8-17). It is the promises of much physical wealth if we tithe to her which is part of her “much fair speech” to which we have all yielded. It is her promise of being accepted of our families and communities which are “the flattering of her lips [and her] walking and mincing as she goes and making a tinkling with her feet”, because our “walk”, in scriptural terms, is our way of life. The doctrines of this adulterous harlot are ashamed of the doctrines of Christ. Her doctrines have us taking great pride in the very things that bring us to shame.

The apostle Paul warns us of the pull of the shameful doctrines of the “haughty daughters of Zion [who] walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes” in these words:

Php 3:18  (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 
Php 3:19  Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

The false doctrines of the harlot daughters of Zion are labeled “the enemies of the cross of Christ”. That is the perfect description of the damning doctrine of “the substitutionary atonement”, which teaches that Christ died in our stead so you and I need not die. The teaching is that Christ did everything for us, and all we need to do is to accept His sacrifice in our stead. To teach that Christ must also die daily within us (1Co 15:31), that we, too, must die to this world, is twisted into salvation by our own works. It matters not that the scriptures tell us that the works of those in whom Christ dwells are to be accounted only as “His workmanship… not of [our] works”.

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 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.

The false doctrine of “the substitutionary atonement of Christ” is a very alluring ‘tinkling… ornament’ indeed, but it is a lie which will rob us of our very salvation in this age, as these verses of scripture demonstrate:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Rom 6:1  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?
Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

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.

We are just naturally repulsed by the doctrine of the cross of Christ in our own lives. It is ordained by God that we will first be a friend of this world, and we will first want to fit in with this world. That is what we all first do. In time though, we must be brought to see just how unfaithful we are by doing so because:

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

The revelation of Jesus Christ puts this same message in these terms:

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:

We “know not that [we] are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”. Like Adam and Eve we are blind to our own nakedness until the time comes to be given eyes to see our own naked condition:

Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. 
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

But we are not at first interested in “gold tried in the fire [or] white raiment”, simply because we still don’t think we need anything. At this time we still believe that we are righteous in and of ourselves. Like self-righteous Job we think we have our own integrity, and we are not about to humble ourselves and confess that we are ‘wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked’. At this point we are still clinging to what we suppose to be our own 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 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

Just as the Lord dealt with Job, so He deals with his wayward wife:

“Their secret parts” means ‘their nakedness’. Nakedness is a spiritual word for the sins we commit as a result of believing the lies of the adversary and the great harlot and her daughters.

Gen 3:10  And he [Adam] said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

2Ch 28:19  For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.

Eze 23:29  And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

Rev 16:15  Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

‘Smiting with a scab the crown of the head’ is the beginning of the revelation of our nakedness. It is chastening from our own Lord, and it is not accomplished at the snap of the fingers.  Being smitten “with a scab [on] the crown of the head” is just “the beginning of [the] sorrows” which are the predestined chastening of the kingdom of our rebellious old man who has  become “one flesh” with the great harlot and her daughters:

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.

Becoming disenchanted with the harlot with whom we have become “one flesh” is not something we do without first being put through the fiery trials which are necessary to bring us to want to become free of her hold upon us. As always we must endure the judgment of that permissive way of life. That experience is likened to fire throughout scripture:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shallbe 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.

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

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

“The day [which] shall [make] manifest… every man’s work… by fire” is the same ‘day’ spoken of in our next verse:

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

“That day” is the day of judgment which is even now upon those who are being judged in this age. “The day” and “that day” are spoken of throughout scripture referring to the time of the judgment of the kingdom of our old man inwardly and of the kingdoms of this world dispensationally and outwardly. That is the nature of the Word of God which speaks of things that are not as though they were (Rom 4:17). The “tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon” all draw our attention to the harlot and not to her husband whom she despises.

Speaking earlier to these very same “daughters of Zion”, addressing them as ‘Judah and Jerusalem’, Isaiah said this:

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. 
Isa 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Isa 1:6  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 
Isa 1:7  Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

The Hebrew word ‘saharon‘ appears only three times in the Old Testament. Isaiah 3:18 is the only place ‘saharon‘ is translated “round tires”. The words “like the moon” are added by the translators.

H7720
שׂהרן
śahărôn
Total KJV Occurrences: 3
ornaments, 2
Jdg_8:21, Jdg_8:26
round tires, 1
Isa_3:18

Here are the two other entries of this Hebrew word ‘saharon‘ as they appear in Judges 8:

Jdg 8:21  Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments [H7720: saharon] that were on their camels’ necks.

Jdg 8:26  And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments [H7720: saharon], and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels’ necks.

Bravery

There is nothing ‘brave’ about these ‘ornaments’ which deceive and distract us. The Hebrew word ‘tiphara‘, which is translated ‘bravery’, appears 50 times in the Old Testament.

Here are the various ways this word is translated in the King James Version:

H8597
תּפארת  /  תּפארה
tiph’ârâh  /  tiph’ereth
Total KJV Occurrences: 50
glory, 22
1Ch_22:5, 1Ch_29:11, Psa_78:61, Psa_89:17, Pro_4:9, Pro_16:31, Pro_17:6, Pro_19:11, Pro_20:29, Isa_10:12 (2), Isa_20:5, Isa_46:13, Isa_60:7, Isa_60:19, Isa_62:3, Isa_63:15, Jer_13:11, Jer_13:18, Eze_24:25, Zec_12:7 (2)
beauty, 10
Exo_28:2, Exo_28:40, 2Ch_3:6, Psa_96:6, Isa_13:19, Isa_28:1, Isa_28:4-5 (2), Isa_44:13, Lam_2:1
beautiful, 6
Isa_52:1 (2), Isa_64:11, Jer_13:20, Jer_48:17, Eze_16:12, Eze_23:42
honour, 4
Deu_26:19, Jdg_4:9, Jer_33:8-9 (2)
fair, 3
Eze_16:17, Eze_16:39, Eze_23:26
glorious, 3
1Ch_29:13, Isa_63:12, Isa_63:14
bravery, 1
Isa_3:18
comely, 1
Isa_4:2

The words ‘glory’ and ‘glorious’ account for half of these entries and similar words account for all the rest, except for the word ‘bravery’ here in Isa 3:18. ‘Glory’ is the way it should be translated here in Isa 3:18. When we are told, “the Lord will take away the [‘tipharah‘ – glory] of their tinkling ornaments”, what we are being told is that God will manifest just how shameful these doctrines of this harlot are. These ornaments are symbols of all the lies which a harlot “with her much fair speech… [uses to] cause [us] to yield, [and] with the flattering of her lips [to] force [us]” to ignore the words of Truth (Pro 7:21). These ornaments are the “smooth things” we demand to hear from this harlot while we are under her spell.

This is what takes place within us, and this is what takes place outwardly in this world:

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:

We are by nature “children who will not hear the law of the Lord”. Being “one flesh” with the harlot we naturally espouse her lies with the same zeal with which she expresses her lies. We do so because we “know not that [we] are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev 3:17).  We believe the lies she has told us, and therefore we are in total opposition to Christ and His doctrines. We willingly change, ‘Love thine enemies’ to ‘Fight for God, family, and country’. We just naturally change “You shall not do so unto the Lord your God” to ‘Christmas and Easter are not pagan because we keep them in honor to Christ’. We defend every type of perversion because the laws of the land dictate that we must, and we are more than willing to change “We ought to obey God rather than men” to ‘We ought to obey men rather than God’. Like the brazen harlot we are, we insist on keeping Christ’s name even as we continue to wear our lying harlot’s attire with all of its lying ornaments,  and we insist on eating our own lying food, rather than the truth of the ‘bread’ of the Word of God.

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.

Our last two verses list even more of the lying ornaments which we just naturally prefer over the glory of the truth and the nourishment of the food and the covering of the garments of righteousness, which we are given by our Lord.

Joh 6:48  I am that bread of life.
Joh 6:49  Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
Joh 6:50  This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 
Joh 6:51  I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 

Our last two verses are in contrast with “the fine linen [which] is the righteousness of saints”:

Chains

The Hebrew word translated ‘chains’ is ‘netiyphah’, and it actually means:

H5188
נְטִיפָה
neṭı̂yphâh
net-ee-faw’
From H5197; a pendant for the ears (especially of pearls): – chain, collar.

It is from the word:

H5197
נָטַף
nâṭaph
naw-taf’
A primitive root; to ooze, that is, distil gradually; by implication to fall in drops; figuratively to speak by inspiration: – drop (-ping), prophesy (-et).

So the Hebrew word ‘netiyphah‘, is much more accurately translated as ‘a pendant for the ears’, instead of ‘chains’. But what is interesting is that the root of this Hebrew word, which means ‘pendant for the ear’, means to ‘drop… words’, in the form of prophecy.

Here is where ‘nataph‘, the root of the word ‘netiphah‘, appears in the Old Testament:

H5197
נטף
nâṭaph
Total KJV Occurrences: 20
drop, 7
Pro_5:3, Son_4:11, Eze_20:46, Eze_21:2, Joe_3:18, Amo_7:16, Amo_9:13
dropped, 5
Jdg_5:4 (2), Job_29:22, Psa_68:8, Son_5:5
prophesy, 5
Mic_2:5-6 (4), Mic_2:11, Zec_13:3
dropping, 1
Son_5:13
drops, 1
Job_36:27
prophet, 1
Mic_2:11

Here are just one of these verses which is representative of every one of these 20 listed verses:

Pro 5:3  For the lips of a strange woman drop [H5197: nataph] as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
Pro 5:4  But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
Pro 5:5  Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

That is how the words of a harlot ‘drop’, and this, in contrast, is what Christ and His bride think of the words which ‘drop’ from each others’ mouths:

Son 4:11  Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

The words of the harlot and the words of Christ both seem like “honeycomb”, depending upon whom we are given ears to hear.

One more verse will demonstrate what is the root meaning of this Hebrew word which means ‘ a  pendant for the ears’. In this verse is both ‘nataph‘ and its root word ‘naba‘:

Amo 7:16  Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: Thou sayest, Prophesy [H5012, ‘naba’, to prophesy] not against Israel, and drop [H5197, nataph] not thy word against the house of Isaac.

If we are given pendants for the ears of a harlot, her lies will “drop as honey comb” on our ears, bringing us death. If we are given pendants for the ears that hear the truths of Christ, then His words too, will “drop as honeycomb” upon our ears, bringing us life.

Bracelets

The Hebrew word for bracelets is:

H8285
שֵׁרָה
shêrâh
shay-raw’
From H8324 in its original sense of pressing; a wrist band (as compact or clasping): – bracelet.

So the symbol agrees with the translation, but when we look at the root, we are again given a much deeper understanding of the spiritual significance of the Hebrew word ‘sherah‘. The root from which this Hebrew word ‘sherah‘ comes is:

H8324
שָׁרַר
shârar
shaw-rar’
A primitive root; to be hostile (only active participle an opponent): – enemy.

Here are the entries for this root word for ‘bracelets’:

H8324
שׁרר
shârar
Total KJV Occurrences: 5
enemies, 5
Psa_5:8, Psa_27:11, Psa_54:5, Psa_56:2, Psa_59:10

It appears five times, and it is translated consistently as ‘enemies’. As with every word, both ‘sherah‘ and its root ‘sharar‘ have both a positive and a negative application.

This verse is typical of all five verses where this word is used:

Psa 5:8  Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies [H8324: sharar]; make thy way straight before my face.
Psa 5:9  For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

When the Lord is leading us” in [His] righteousness”, we are the enemy of the kingdom of our old man. But when our inward parts are “very wickedness, [our] throat is an open sepulcher”, and we are the enemy of the kingdom of God within us:

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 

All of the ornaments we wear declare our spiritual state. If we use God’s ornaments to serve and honor the “idols of [our] hearts”, then God will answer us according to those idols (Eze 14:1-0). But if we come to Him and we come to His word with a broken and contrite heart, then He will give us pendants for ears that hear, and bracelets that will be Christ in us working His righteous works through our hands.

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 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.

Mufflers

The Hebrew word for ‘mufflers’ is:

H7479
רַעֲלָה
ra‛ălâh
rah-al-aw’
Feminine of H7478; a long veil (as fluttering): – muffler.

Isaiah 3:19 is the only verse in all scripture where this word appears, but it is the feminine form of:

H7478
רַעַל
ra‛al
rah’-al
From H7477; a reeling (from intoxication): – trembling.

H7477
רָעַל
râ‛al
raw-al’
A primitive root; to reel, that is, (figuratively) to brandish: – terribly shake.
Total KJV occurrences: 1

These three words appear just one time each in scripture, but they all carry the meaning of fluttering, reeling, trembling, shaking terribly.

The destruction of Nineveh typifies the destruction of the kingdom of our old man. Nineveh is used of God to destroy the kingdom of our old man while we are living the life of a harlot in rebellion against Christ, our true husband. But Nineveh typifies the ten horns and the ten kings on the head of the seven-headed beast we all are before we are destroyed. As these ten kings, we fight against our Lord at His coming, and it is through the “terrible shaking” and the destruction of the kingdom of our old man that the kingdom of Christ and His Father are birthed within us:

Isa 2:19  And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 

Isa 2:21  To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 

The destruction of the kingdom of our old man is a shaking which is the worst shaking of our life. We cannot enter into the temple in heaven until we have experienced that great earthquake. It will never be equaled because it signals the end of that kingdom within us, just as the kingdoms of this world will also come to their end:

Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Rev 11:14  The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
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 16:18  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

That is the result of the coming of Christ to take away “the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers” of the idols and doctrines of our rebellious old man (Isa 3:19)

Bonnets

“Bonnets” are head coverings, and like ‘pendants for the ears’, they have both a negative and a positive application.

Here is the Hebrew word translated ‘bonnets’ here in Isa 3:20:

H6287
פְּאֵר
pe’êr
peh-ayr’
From H6286; an embellishment, that is, fancy head dress: – beauty, bonnet, goodly, ornament, tire.

Here are the entries for this word in the Old Testament:

H6287
פּאר
pe’êr
Total KJV Occurrences: 7
bonnets, 2
Isa_3:20, Eze_44:18
beauty, 1
Isa_61:3
goodly, 1
Exo_39:28
ornaments, 1
Isa_61:10
tire, 1
Eze_24:17
tires, 1
Eze_24:23

‘Tires’ and ‘bonnets’ are both headdresses. The only entry which is not translated as some sort of headdress is the word ‘beauty’ in Isa 61:3. More about Isa 61:3 later.

Here are an examples of the positive application of this Hebrew word ‘peer‘:

Exo 39:27  And they made coats of fine linen of woven work for Aaron, and for his sons,
Exo 39:28  And a mitre of fine linen, and goodly [H6287: peer] bonnets of fine linen, and linen breeches of fine twined linen,

Eze 44:18  They [Aaron and his sons] shall have linen bonnets [H6287: peer] upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.

“Anything that causes sweat” is anything that gives any credit to our flesh for anything. And that includes our sins.

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. 

We are not even capable of sinning against God without “[His] hand and [His] counsel… working all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11).

Act 4:27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

The “fine linen [which] is the righteousness of saints”, does not “cause to sweat” because it is Christ’s faith and His righteousness, which works within us, and neither our faith nor our works are attributed to us or to our flesh:

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. [“It is God which” causes us to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, verse 12]

Rev 19:8  And to her [the bride of Christ, us – 2Co 11:2] was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

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.

It was interesting to discover that an oft quoted verse of scripture is apparently not translated as accurately as it could be. As I pointed out earlier, the only time the Hebrew word ‘peer‘ H6287 is contrasted with ashes in this verse of Isaiah 61:

Isa 61:3  To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty [H6287: peer – fancy or glorious head dress] for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

Ornaments of the legs,

The Hebrew word for ‘ornaments of the legs’ is:

H6807
צְעָדָה
tse‛âdâh
tseh-aw-daw’
Feminine of H6806; a march; (concretely) an (ornamental) ankle chain: – going, ornament of the legs.

It is with our feet and our legs that we walk. Our walk is either in the service of our flesh, and therefore in the service of the adversary, or else it is in the service of Christ and His Father.

Here are the only three entries in scripture for this Hebrew word:

H6807
צעדה
tse‛âdâh
Total KJV Occurrences: 3
going, 2
2Sa_5:24, 1Ch_14:15
ornaments of the legs, 1
Isa_3:20

The two other places in scripture where this word is used, 2Sa 5:24, and 1Ch 14:15, are both telling the same story about David doing battle with the Philistines. The Philistines typify us in Babylon. We are in the land of promise without being baptized in either the Red Sea or the Jordan, and we are there without the benefit of being circumcised. David typifies Christ, “the Son of David” within us, battling against our old man and his kingdom.

Notice how this word translated “ornaments of the legs” is used in these two accounts of David warring against the Philistines:

2Sa 5:23  And when David enquired of the LORD, he said, Thou shalt not go up; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.
2Sa 5:24  And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going [H6807: tse‛âdâh] in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.
2Sa 5:25  And David did so, as the LORD had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer.

When our ‘goings’ are obedient to the Lord’s words, we, too, can ‘smite the Philistines”, and when they are not obedient, God will take away our ‘goings’.

As always, while it is a different Hebrew word in this verse, the message is always the same. Whether we are obedient or disobedient is actually a work of God within us:

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

The tablets

To deal with this symbol of “the tablets” as one of the many things the Lord is taking away from us as we “fall into the ground and die”, I am compelled to show you this entire verse with all the Strong’s numbers.

Isa 3:20  The bonnets,^H6287 and the ornaments of the legs,^H6807 and the headbands,^H7196 and the tablets,^{H1004 H5315} and the earrings,^H3908

Notice there are two numbers after the phase “and the tablets”. That phrase “the tablets” is another instance of a translation which is out of line with how these Hebrew words are generally translated.

The first number is 1004, and it has nothing to do with ‘tablets’, as we define that word in modern English.

Here is Strong’s definition of that word:

H1004
בַּיִת
bayith
bah’-yith
Probably from H1129 abbreviated; a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etc.): – court, daughter, door, + dungeon, family, + forth of, X great as would contain, hangings. home[born], [winter]house (-hold), inside(-ward), palace, place, + prison, + steward, + tablet, temple, web, + within (-out).
Total KJV occurrences: 2053

As you can see this word is very common throughout the Old Testament, and it is generally translated as ‘house’.  That is a far cry from the modern English word ‘tablets’. 

When we look at the root of this word, it means “to build”, and it is used to speak of building a family as well as a house. In fact the word ‘house’ in the Old Testament often refers to a family, as in “the house of David… the house of Saul”, etc.

Here is a verse in which this word ‘bayith‘ is translated two different ways in the same verse:

  1Ch 10:10  And they put his armour in the house [H1004: bayith] of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple [H1004: bayith] of Dagon.

Now let’s look at the definition of the second Hebrew word which has been translated with this single English word ‘tablets’:

H5315
נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
neh’-fesh
From H5314; properly a breathing creature, that is, animal or (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental): – any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, X dead (-ly), desire, X [dis-] contented, X fish, ghost, + greedy, he, heart (-y), (hath, X jeopardy of) life (X in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortality, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-) self, them (your) -selves, + slay, soul, + tablet, they, thing, (X she) will, X would have it.
Total KJV occurrences: 753

As you can see this, too, is a very common word, and it is most commonly translated as ‘soul’, as in:

Gen 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul [H5315: nephesh].

Putting these two Hebrew words together, what we are really being told is that God is taking away from our rebellious old man his very life and the clay house in which he dwells. All of it is in complete accord with these two sections of scripture:

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

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

There is no hope extended for our rebellious old man or for our physical bodies of flesh and blood. Millions of sermons to the contrary will not change the Truth of those two verses of scripture. That which is flesh is flesh, and that which is spirit is spirit, and while we are indeed sown a natural body, we are raised a spiritual body:

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered [Nicodemus], Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

The earrings 

The word translated ‘earrings’ here in Isa 3:20 is the Hebrew word:

H3908
לַחַשׁ
lachash
lakh’-ash
From H3907; properly a whisper, that is, by implication (in a good sense) a private prayer, (in a bad one) an incantation; concretely an amulet: – charmed, earring, enchantment, orator, prayer.

Here is an example of this word ‘lachash’ in a good sense:

Isa 26:16  LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer [H3908: lachash] when thy chastening was upon them.

Our verse we are ending with is an example of the negative application of this word ‘lachash‘. “The Lord will take away… the errings… [the incantations or the prayers we pray in opposition to our Lord while we are in Babylon.

Isa 3:18  In that day the Lord will take away…
Isa 3:20  The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings [the incantations],

In short, the Lord is burning out all the wood, hay and stubble, and in doing so, He is bringing forth a new man who will, in the end, be in a glorified spiritual body.

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 

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The Virtuous Body of Christ - Part 7 Discussion

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“The virtuous body of Christ” - Part 7

April 17, 2016

with Steven Crook

 

Mar 4:26  And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
Mar 4:27  And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.
Mar 4:28  For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
Mar 4:29  But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

Good or bad, we always want the harvest of the earth. Physically, it is required for us to live or die if we don’t have it and this is equally as true spiritually. Whether the beasts of the planet partake of the earth and then we use them for sustenance or if we grow crops for our food needs, we benefit from the “fruit” brought forth from the earth.

In our study today, we are going to consider verses 15-18 of Proverbs 31 and how they connect to the kingdom of God of which we are all being trained as kings and priests to rule in.

Today we find ourselves continuing to be admonished by the story of the virtuous woman as told in Proverbs 31.
In verses 15-18 we are told this about the wondrous lady and her qualities by our mother who tells us they are valuable to us as a husband and king.

Pro 31:15  She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
Pro 31:16  She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
Pro 31:17  She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
Pro 31:18  She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

The first quality found in the verses for today comes from the virtuous woman who is ready to work.

Notice, she does not wait for the morning when everyone else arises but she rises earlier than them to provide for the needs of her home. It is also implied that she must be wealthy because she has maidens which are given a portion as well.

She arises while it is yet night to do these tasks. So then we must consider the timing of her actions and who they benefit. They benefit her but also her household since she is obviously a part of her own household.

Here is what the night represents to us scripturally:

Gen 1:5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Exo 14:19  And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:
Exo 14:20  And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

Job 17:11  My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
Job 17:12  They (THE THOUGHTS OF THE HEART) change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
Job 17:13  If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
Job 17:14  I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

Psa 104:20  Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.

Psa 139:11  If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Psa 139:12  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

Rom 13:10  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Rom 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.2
Rom 13:13  Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

1Th 5:3  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
1Th 5:4  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
1Th 5:5  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
1Th 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

I attempted to use scripture to tell a story there about our transition from night to day. Light was brought forth from darkness just as we are brought forth from night, darkness and death into day, light and life.

In fact, the way darkness is revealed is by bring light to it from WITHIN it. There are many examples I could use, but there is one that is an example that comes from a recent exchange I read on the mailing list this week.

Gen 19:1  And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
Gen 19:2  And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
Gen 19:3  And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
Gen 19:4  But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
Gen 19:5  And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
Gen 19:6  And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,
Gen 19:7  And said, I pray you, BRETHREN, do not so wickedly.

There is a lot that is being said in this story but I am only going to point out applicable parts to our verses today. Notice it is evening when the angels of the Lord come to Sodom. Lot petitions them to stay with him all night but then the men of the city, who Lot references as BRETHREN, come to “do wickedness” to Lot’s guests.

Lot was a watchmen of the gate who knew what would happen to these men and no doubt tried to prevent this by welcoming them in to his home. With all of

Lot’s actions, it was the angels who ended up saving Lot in several ways. The angels saved Lot from the mobs by blinding them and then saved Lot from the LIGHT which would be brought upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

Gen 19:10  But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.
Gen 19:11  And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

And a few verses later:

Gen 19:22  Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
Gen 19:23  The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.
Gen 19:24  Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;
Gen 19:25  And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

The angels of the Lord saved Lot and his family thereby showing us a type of the Passover. This was given to us in that they ate unleavened bread.

I also want you to notice that it was FIRE, which produces a large amount of LIGHT, which was called down from heaven form those which were WITHIN the city while it was DARK. Light was brought forth from darkness in this type and shadow and points us to those that are used, while it is night, to bring about the light of the Word of God.

1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

Since we are talking about the traits of a virtuous woman we should consider this personality trait that she is who rises early to get to work and in this case it is for the work of the Lord. While other sleep she is providing for her household.

The fruit of our hands

Our next verse points us to why we want to be diligent. We mentioned in our last study that this virtuous woman seeks wool and flax and willingly works with her hands. Well, now we will see that she is benefitted by the work of her hands due to the increase that is gained.

Pro 31:16  She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

First she considers a field and then buys it. There is an obvious spiritual connection to what this field is and what is IN this field.

Mat 13:37  He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
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;
Mat 13:39  The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

I started this study off by reading from Mark 4. In Mark 4, the earth is mentioned along with seed and harvest of the kingdom.

Let us now connect this with the vineyard and a great treasure.

Deu 28:12  The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

Pro 15:6  In the house of the righteous is much treasure: but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble.

Mat 12:35  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

Mat 13:44  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

Mat 13:52  Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Luk 5:37  And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.
Luk 5:38  But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.
Luk 5:39  No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

I have continuously stated that WE are, and anyone who God knows of, the body of Christ. We are the virtuous wife that Christ seeks. Christ means anointed. So anyone that is anointed is seeking this virtuous wife but what tells us that we are to ONLY SEEK this wife external to us?

In other words, the kingdom of God is WITHIN you!
If it hasn’t been realized yet, the wine that comes from vineyards, has just been PURCHASED by this virtuous woman but her currency is the blood of Jesus Christ.

The wine is DOCTRINE. That is why you see and immediate issue of doctrine being posed by the Pharisees right after Jesus speaks about the old and new wine being put in old and new bottles.

Luk 6:1  And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.
Luk 6:2  And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days?

Once you realise that you are standing on solid ground, a ROCK so to speak, then you are able to GIRD yourself with this strength.

Your legs are the most powerful muscle groups in your body as far as power goes. The thing that supports your walk is STRENGTH from your legs. Likewise, the thing that supports the STRENGTH of your work is YOUR ARMS.

Why do I mention your WALK and WORKS?

Pro 31:17  She girdeth H2296 her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.

When we gird ourselves, we are places the girdle on our hips and legs around about the area of our waist.

H2296
châgar
BDB Definition:
1) to gird, gird on, gird oneself, put on a belt

Jdg 3:16  But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.

1Sa 25:13  And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.

Since we are considering what this strength might be, and we know from scripture that our strength IS THE LORD, it is good for us to know the Lord Himself is covered in strength who then becomes our very covering.

Psa 93:1  The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.

Having all this understanding, wisdom and knowledge helps us as this virtuous body of Christ to know that what we have is truly valuable.

Pro 31:18  She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

We covered in the last study that the merchandise that we have is not from Babylon the great whore who has fallen but from the Lord. Merchandise is something that by definition must be purchased.

However, that purchasing process started because our Husband purchased us with His blood. Then, he gives us a crown as His queen along with a robe and ring which all give us very standing and power.

When we realize all that we have been freely given, it will cause our light to never go out.

In the tabernacle, the Lord commanded that a golden candlestick of oil and light burn day and night.

This is the same Light that must be lit so that the fire of the Word of God burns brightly within us.

Exo 38:21  This is the sum of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.

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.
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.

When we combine the concepts that the husband and wife are one with Jesus Christ and His bride being One, then we can conclude that when we arise in the night to take care of the needs of our household, we are doing so for the household of God.

When we purchase the WORLD, which we are, we do so with the blood of Christ and then we search WITHIN it to find the Light the burns there because this is where our Husband is and because we are concerned with the household and kingdom of God, we are ALWAYS conscious that our friends, family and enemies will all have this Light in them in the Lord’s timing.

This realization will help us keep focused on knowing that all is of the Lord and we are always seeking to work diligently for the kingdom.  None of us are perfect and we definitely have seasons which produce more work than others, but we should not let that discourage us from realizing just how much our Husband loves His wife.

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The Spiritual Significance of Biblical Locations

Part 4 – Babylon; Religion In Rebellion To Christ

Gen 11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
Gen 11:2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
Gen 11:3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
Gen 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Gen 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men [Hebrew, Adam] builded.
Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Gen 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
Gen 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Gen 11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Introduction

The Tower of Babel was in the “plain of the land of Shinar”. That is a phrase which appears several times in scripture referring to Babel and to spiritual Babylon. The people of Babel used “bricks for stone, and slime… for morter”. Stones are made by God, while bricks are the product of the efforts of men who put clay through furnaces of their own construction. Slime is what the scriptures refer to as “untempered morter”. It represents the false doctrines which bind together all the man-made bricks, representing all the good works of men, who credit themselves with those good works, in rebellion against the knowledge that we live and move and have our very being in God, and that we can do nothing of ourselves. We cannot even sin, except the Lord has “made [us] for [our] day of evil… [and] made us to err from [His] ways, and hardened our hearts from [His] fear”.

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.

“The Lord has made all things for Himself, yes even the wicked for the day of evil” tells us that even Babylon is an integral part of the “all things [He is working] after the counsel of His own will”:

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:

Ezekiel tells us what spirit Babel has forever typified:

Eze 13:9 And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
Eze 13:10 Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall [or tower], and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter [with ‘slime’]:
Eze 13:11 Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.
Eze 13:12 Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?
Eze 13:13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it.
Eze 13:14 So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof [Lies like the doctrines of the trinity and of eternal torment, and spiritual flesh, and turning grace into lasciviousness, and killing your enemies, etc. etc.] shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye [Babylon within us all] shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 13:15 Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered morter, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it;
Eze 13:16 To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning [physical] Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord GOD.

These words describe our own minds when we think we are serving God while living under the “strong delusion” He has placed over us. At this stage of our spiritual development we actually “think we are doing God’s service” when the Truth is that it simply is not yet given to us to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Mat 13:9-15 and 1Co 3:1-4). That is the beginning of the sons of Adam (Gen 11:5), who we all are at the beginning of our walk.

It is not always understood that Abraham was not the first man with whom God had made a “covenant with you and with your seed after you”. Here is the covenant with Abraham that most ministers emphasize as they lie in telling us we must support the seed of Abraham who are “counted for the seed” through Isaac:

Gen 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
Gen 17:8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
Gen 17:9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

The fact is that all of mankind who have descended from Adam through Noah are in covenant with God because of this covenant God first established with Noah and his seed after him before and after the flood:

Gen 9:8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
Gen 9:9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

Yes, it is true. The covenant with Noah after the flood was simply God’s promise to never again destroy the earth with water, as He had just done. The rainbow was the sign of this covenant still existing between God and Noah and Noah’s seed after him. Nevertheless we are told that the flood of Noah typifies baptism into death to the flesh:

1Pe 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
1Pe 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh [as was done in the flood of Noah], but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

God’s covenant with Noah and His children was actually made before the flood, and included their salvation from death in the flood:

Gen 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Gen 6:18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

It was the descendants of Noah’s children who had forgotten the lesson of the flood and were now attempting to “build a city and a tower whose top [will] reach unto heaven”, in direct rebellion against the commandment of God to ‘multiply and replenish the earth’:

Gen 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

Gen 9:7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

We are all first the “sons of Adam” who have gone out from Babel thinking we have left Babel behind, when in reality we are doing nothing less that spreading Babel out over the whole earth as “carnal babes in Christ” with minds that are still “enmity against God”.

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

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

The type and shadow of spiritually carnal-minded ‘Babylon’ all began in the “plain in the land of Shinar” in what is modern day Iraq. The people who remained in Babel came to be known as the Assyrians and then later as the Babylonians. The Assyrian Empire, whose capitol was Nineveh, were the people who the Lord used to carry away into captivity the ten northern tribes of Israel about 720 B.C. The northern kingdom of Israel had begun in the apostasy of “Jereboam the son of Nebat” in about 930 B.C. So that kingdom lasted only about 210 years after it split off from the southern kingdom which became known as ‘the kingdom of Judah’. This northern kingdom was also called the kingdom of Samaria to distinguish it from the southern kingdom of Judah, which was spared captivity by the Assyrians. But almost 145 years later, in about 585 B.C., the southern kingdom of Judah was also carried away captive to the city of Babylon which during that time had conquered the Assyrian Empire.

Biblical scholars all realize that that Assyrians and the Babylonians are both the same peoples who were simply dominated first by the city state of Nineveh and then later by the city-state of Babylon. Both are recognized by Biblical scholars as the same peoples by whom God corrected His apostate people of Israel:

Isa 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

The Assyrian kings used Babylon as one of their chief cities:

2Ch 33:11 Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

It is not all that well known, but God had prophesied, both by the prophet Jeremiah and the prophet Hosea, that His people Israel would be taken captive into Assyria and Babylon. It is even less recognized that this captivity was by God’s own design as an integral type of how God had, from the beginning, intended to deal with His people in every generation. It all “happened unto them and it was written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come”:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [Greek: tupos, ‘types’ of us]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

No one who comes to Christ comes to Him untainted with the spirit of Babylon which must, in time, be burned out of us all.

Jeremiah went so far as to tell the people of Judah that they should submit to the conquering Babylonians and seek the peace of that city:

Jer 38:2 Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.
Jer 38:3 Thus saith the LORD, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it.

Just like the people of Jerusalem, we are not at first aware that we are living in rebellion to God and that we are subject to His wrath, nevertheless that is the circumstance of all who are born in Adam:

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.

The same is true of us when we are the multitudes who come to Christ to eat of His loaves and His fishes and to hear His parables.

Mat 13:9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the multitudes who come to Christ] it is not given [to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven].
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

But when we do become aware of our apostatized condition and we are led to “come out of [Babylon]”, we still must learn that we are not to seek revenge against those who have taught us lies for so long. In time we are to seek to live in peace with Babylon and her people:

Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.

Lest the words “pray unto the Lord for it” be misunderstood, this verse ends with the words, “for in the peace thereof you shall have peace”. It is clear that Christ is not commanding us to pray for the conversion of Babylon in this age when He Himself did not do so:

Joh 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

The sum of God’s word demonstrates that “it is not given to [the multitudes of Christians] to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and that our prayers for the “kings and all that are in authority” is simply so “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” while our heavenly Father is keeping us from the evil all around us:

Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

1Ti 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Babylon rules over all the kings of this world, because Babylon is all religion which is in rebellion against the commandments of our Lord. Rebellion against the commandments of God is what the first Adam is born into as the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden so graphically demonstrates.

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat [All in direct rebellion against the commandment of God].

But Adam and Eve were doing only what they were made to do as marred creatures in the hand of the Almighty Potter who is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11):

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

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked [“first man Adam”] for the day of evil.

What this demonstrates is that even though we are commanded to “come out of her my people”, Babylon is as much a part of our walk as is “the first man Adam”:

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,

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.

But Christ and the prophets all made it clear that while we are commanded to spiritually and doctrinally “come out of her”, we are still to do all in the power He gives to us to live at peace within her sinful world. That is what “pray unto the Lord for it [Babylon]” means. We are to seek with all that lies within us to live at peace with all men (1Ti 2:1-2).

Christ, as our example, prayed for Peter, but He did not pray for Judas, simply because He knew what was predestined for the rebellious “first man Adam” in all of us.

Luk 22:31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

On the other hand, this is how Christ handles those of Babylon who are not granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God in this age (Mat 13:9-13):

Joh 13:27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

God has turned Babylon, and all those who must first be destroyed, over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh for the express purpose of saving the spirit in the day of the Lord:

1Co 5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
1Co 5:2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
1Co 5:3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
1Co 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

There is a reason why this Corinthian fornicator was a man with his father’s wife instead of a woman with her mother’s husband. Lest we become puffed up thinking we are not the person in consideration in these first five verses of 1Co 5, let us remember that it is we who are “chief of sinners” (1Ti 1:15), and it is we who are first “made… wicked for [our own] day of evil” (Pro 16:4), and that 666 is the number of all mankind (Rev 13:18), and that it is we who must ‘live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God’ (Mat 4:4), and that it is we who must also “keep the things written therein, for the time is at hand [to do so] (Rev 1:3). It is the spirit of Babylon which places all these things on someone else, and it is the spirit of those who “come out of her” who acknowledge their part in every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

It is we who are all first in Babylon before any of us “come out of her…” (Rev 18:4). As such we have all taken our father’s wife, and we are all puffed up for having done so before we are brought to repentance and before we “come out of her”, out of our father’s unfaithful wife.

So we are told in advance that God determined “after the counsel of His own will” that we will not go back to living in the less religious world, but we will be carried away captive with the more insidious lies of Assyria and Babylon, and it will be in Babylon that we will crucify our own Lord thinking we are doing God a service.

Hos 11:5 He [God’s own people, Israel] shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.
Hos 11:6 And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.
Hos 11:7 And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

“Because of their own counsels” is the occasion the Lord gives Himself for taking away our ability to try the spirits and to discern the voice of a stranger. No one in Babylon is sitting in the pews of the churches of this world thinking, “Wow! I am being deceived by the great whore of Revelation 17-18!” When we become that perceptive, we repent of believing in her lies, and we “come out of her”, but until that time we are of this mind:

Joh 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Peter thought he was doing Christ a service when he totally forgot that Christ had taught him to love his enemies, and he pulled out his sword to fight for Christ. Christ had to remind Peter “all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword”:

Mat 26:52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

The scriptures reveal that, in spiritual language, Christ was crucified in Babylon:

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

When we go back to find which city is in question, and when we go to the scriptures which give this verse its power and force, this is the city which we find to be “spiritually called Sodom”:

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.

Who does Isaiah reveal Jerusalem to be spiritually?:

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.

“Jerusalem… [has] forsaken the Lord”, and what does that make Jerusalem?

Isa 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

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,

Those who claim to be God’s people are called “ye rulers of Sodom”, and we are informed that they have spiritually “become an harlot” because “they have forsaken the Lord” to this extent:

Isa 3:9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

So those who claim to be God’s chosen physical people, are labeled as spiritual Sodom and are called a harlot who has absolutely no spiritual bread or spiritual water with which to sustain herself. But if we think that Babylon is physical Jerusalem, then we are comparing spiritual things with physical things, and we are missing the spiritual message of who Babylon is, just as we miss the spiritual meaning of who Jerusalem if we think physical Jerusalem is the subject of these verses:

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 [Gentile Galatians], as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

Jerusalem in these verses is physical to the natural man, but to the man of the spirit, ‘Jerusalem’ in these verses refers to the Jews of Roman 2:

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

These words are just as applicable to Christians today as they were of Judaizing Christians in Paul’s day. It is just as true spiritually today that ‘He is not a Christian which is one outwardly, but he is a Christian which is one inwardly, and conversion is that of heart, in the spirit and not in letters to churches, whose praise is not of men but of God’.

That is the spirit of both Rom 2 and Gal 4. An outward Christian whose ‘Christianity is based upon the lies of the churches whose hearts are not converted to the doctrines of Christ, like “resist not evil… love your enemies, [and] the words that I speak unto you are spirit”, will insist that ‘He is a Jew which is one outwardly’, and mere profession of Christ is all that is required to be a Christian. Those are just a few of the doctrines of the harlot, who “spiritually is called Sodom…”

But there is one more vital point concerning this spiritual harlot who spiritually is called Sodom which we must consider and understand, and that point is the fact that she is called “Mystery [Secret] Babylon The Great the mother of harlots and of abominations of the earth”.

She is revealed to us in Revelation 17:

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.
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

This woman is called “mystery [Greek: secret] Babylon the great”. She is called “the great whore… 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”. But it is verse three which explains why the true identity of this woman is a mystery and a secret to this very day. A ‘secret’ is information to which only very few are privy. Babylon is a ‘secret’ because this woman is only seen “in the spirit” by the few who have been granted spiritual eyes and ears.

Christ did not come to give spiritual eyes to but a select, chosen few. This is the Truth of what Christ did and what He is doing to this day:

Mat 13:2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
Mat 13:3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

Mat 13:9 Who hath [been given, verse 11] ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them [the multitudes, verse 1] in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Christ is not backward about telling us that he came to blind the multitudes who think they see:

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.

Since Christ does not give spiritual eyes to see or spiritual ears to hear to the multitudes who come to Him, it is therefore only the “chosen… few” who are given spiritual eyes and spiritual ears who are granted to clearly and plainly understand the secret identity of who is this “great whore” called “mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of abominations of the world.

How many of the kings of the earth and how many of the inhabitants of the earth have been deceived by this unfaithful woman? I remember well when this was a great blind spot for me. I had not yet been “carried away in the spirit”, so I had neither spiritual eyes nor ears to the extent that this verse was a great mystery for me:

Luk 13:33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

I had seen that the blood of the saints was found in this great city of Babylon:

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

Christ had stated “…it cannot be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem”, but here is John saying “the blood of the prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth… was found in [Babylon], not in Jerusalem. It took a long time, but in His mercy our Lord eventually opened my eyes to see what we read above in Isa 1-3 where He calls Jerusalem a harlot, spiritual Sodom, and He even says she is full of murderers.

Isa 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Remember this was “the city where also our Lord was crucified”:

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

When the Lord opens our eyes to see that “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth” is all religion in rebellion against the commandments of Christ, from the tower of Babel to this very day, then it becomes very clear how it is that:

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

The rant of many atheists that “More people are killed in the name of religion than anything else” has a bit of a Biblical backing to it. But any ‘religion’ which advocates killing one’s enemies is not the religion of Christ and His Father. Jerusalem above advocates “resist not evil… love thine enemies”.

“As is the mother, so is her daughter“

Secret Babylon is called “the mother of harlots”. So she has many daughters, and those daughters are of course all sisters one to the other. If you belong to any of these daughters or sisters, then you are accepted by the world, but if you claim to be capable of having a relationship with Christ without the sanction of Babylon and her daughters, then you are labeled a cult. Our Lord was definitely outside the realm of Babylon or any of her accepted daughters.

We often read the phrase “and her daughters” throughout the scriptures of the Old Testament, as these verses demonstrate:

Eze 16:44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee [Jerusalem], saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
Eze 16:45 Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
Eze 16:46 And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

Eze 16:53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
Eze 16:54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
Eze 16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou [Jerusalem] and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

In these verses we have “Sodom and her daughters… Samaria and her daughters… and Jerusalem and her daughters”, and we are told that Jerusalem, “the mother of harlots… shall return to [her] former estate… when [her] sisters Sodom and her daughters return to their former estate, and [when] Samaria and her daughters return to their former estate”.

What this demonstrates once again is “the dream is one”principle of Genesis 41:

Gen 41:26 The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.

The daughters of Sodom, with Sodom, the daughters of Samaria, with Samaria, and the daughters of Jerusalem, the harlot of Isaiah 1 and Revelation 17-18 are all one and the same “Babylon the great the mother of harlots and of abominations of the earth”, where the blood of prophets, and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth” is to be found:

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

The power given the words of Revelation 17-18 is drawn from Jeremiah’s prophecy against Babylon in Jeremiah 51 where we read…:

Jer 51:1 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;
Jer 51:2 And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.

…Which corresponds to this verse in Revelation 17:

Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

Compare these verses in Jer 51 with their parallels in Revelation:

Jer 51:6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.
Jer 51:7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
Jer 51:8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
Jer 51:9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

Jeremiah 51:6 corresponds with Revelation 18:4; Jeremiah 51:8 corresponds to Revelation 18:2; The golden cup of Jeremiah 51:7 corresponds with Revelation 17:4. Drinking her wine in the last part of Jeremiah 51:7 corresponds to the first part of Revelation 18:3, and it goes on and on.

Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

God has the ability to keep Babylon a secret even now. He has used the nation which carried away His people for their sins against him to become the spiritual symbol of His people who are against him in every age. Isaiah 1-3 reveal Jerusalem and Judah to be the harlot who has turned her back on God. But that is only in type and shadow. The real harlot is you and me before we see the religions and churches of this world for the harlots, harlot daughters and harlot sisters they all are. These things all really did happen to Israel when she played the harlot with her savior, but that all “happened to them, and it is written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come”:

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.

This is the spiritual definition of who is Babylon:

Jer 51:1 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;

With eyes incapable of seeing the contradiction of telling those in her charge to go out and fight for God and country is in direct contradiction to the saying of Christ “resist not evil… love thine enemies”, Babylon will never in this age, see herself for who she is. Religion in rebellion against Christ will continue to “rise up against Me”, and will continue to be “mystery Babylon”, a secret known by very few, until she is destroyed and is burned out of all men of all time. That goal will be accomplished as sure as the rising of the sun, and when it is, it will be accomplished by Christ through the few chosen who are granted know the secret of who Babylon is, and who will “come out of her” in this age.

I will close with reading an e-mail from a sister:

Dear brethren,

It was interesting to me that the LORD “reverses” things in the natural world, [in which it is said] roughly ten percent are “lefties”. That is one in ten.

So in the natural the LORD made the left-handed ones the few and the right-handed ones the many, but spiritually in this evil age the “right handed ones” (spiritually) are the few and the left-handed ones are the many!

Luk 17:17 And answering, Jesus said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?

Even the natural world hides the truth!

Our eyes are so very blessed to see these things!

YsitC, U____

(Key verses: Gen 19:1-16)

In our discussion on the foundational theme of faith, we come to Chapter 19 of Genesis where the focus is placed on Lot, the nephew of Abraham, and the ultimate judgment of God on the city where he and his family live, namely Sodom. Lot moved with Abraham from Ur in the Chaldees to Canaan. In this whole process he also, like Abraham, became rich in goods, even after their stay in Egypt, which caused them to split because of the limited pasturage and water holes:

Gen 13:8 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.
Gen 13:9 Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.

God brings separation for various reasons to fulfill His purposes in our lives. This separation is also symbolized by a door in the scriptures – the door of faith through which He also cause spiritual blindness on some and enlightenment on others (Psa 24:7; Mat 6:6; Mat 25:9-13; Mat 28:2; Mar 1:32-33; Mar 2:1-4; Joh 10:1; 1Co 16:9; Col 4:3; Jas 5:9):

Act 14:27 And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.

Rev 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

Rev 3:8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

Like the cloud that made a division between the Egyptians and the Israelites in the wilderness, in the same sense the faith of Christ is the door, or way, to God that brings the division through His righteous sword (Exo 14:20; Joh 14:6; Gal 2:16; Php 3:9; Eph 6:17; Rev 3:20-22):

Joh 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Mat 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Through this door of faith a few are given to enter and find pasture and are enlightened by truth, while many are kept outside to be deceived by darkness and its fake light (Gen 4:7; Mat 6:23). Those in the darkness are deceived by their own “lesser light”, even as Satan and his messengers appear as light to those in the dark (Gen 1:14-19; 2Co 11:14-15). It is only the light of the truth of Christ that can set us free from our own deceptive carnal hearts when we are first given to apply the blood on our own doorposts which brings the initial separation with the world, which is spiritually called Egypt:

Exo 12:23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

Smiting and destroying the outside Egyptians is just the start of a process of separation which few will be able to complete in this life (Mat 22:14). Abraham gave Lot the option to choose where he wanted to live. Lot then “journeyed east” which is actually the wrong direction as it is the opposite direction in which God wants us to move if we obey Him. When we follow God’s way, we enter in at God’s “door” in the east, and then we move from east to west as the tabernacle and temples in the Old Testament also symbolized. Lot’s movement was very important for those who know these things were written for our learning (Rom 15:4):

Gen 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
Gen 13:11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.
Gen 13:12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

Lot and Abraham “separated themselves the one from the other” as Lot had to face his own trials at that point in time as every man will have to “prove his own work” for his own spiritual development and personal reward in Christ (Eze 18:20). It is not profitable to plough with another man’s heifer (Jdg 14:18):

Gal 6:4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
Gal 6:5 For every man shall bear his own burden.

While Lot was under Abraham’s covering, he did not face the very important fiery trials of faith through which all must go to be spiritually matured:

1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

This choice of Lot opened the door to his trials and tribulations – the hedge which Abraham supplied around Lot was now removed. Although Lot initially pitched his tent towards Sodom, he and his family eventually lived in the city, and there his “righteous soul” was very unhappy with what he had to endure day in and day out:

2Pe 2:7 …just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
2Pe 2:8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

Lot is used in this passage as a type of the righteous elect who are “in the world” but are not “of the world” (Joh 1:10; Joh 9:5; Joh 15:19; Joh 16:33; Joh 17:14-16). It was in Sodom where Lot and his family came face to face with extreme wickedness and also the necessary temptations which are the very trials that reveal the natural heart’s desires and lusts (1Jn 2:16). More importantly these trials also supply the needed exercise to be become overcomers in this life to mature in faith (Jas 1:2: Jas 1:12-13; Rom 8:35-39; Heb 5:14):

Gen 13:13 But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

God kept Lot faithful while he lived righteously among all the evil and promiscuous seductions in Sodom. The two angels met Lot at the gate of Sodom, which confirms Lot’s relationship to that city:

Gen 19:1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate [Hebrew: “sha‛ar” = gate/door] of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

Sitting “in the gate” of the city in those days included positions of rulership and being a judge of that city (Gen 19:9; Deu 21:18-21; Rut 4:1-11; 1Sa 4:18; Pro 31:23). The gate of the city relates to the door of a house as things enter and exit at that point. This links spiritually to the heart in us through which all “issues of life” pass. The door to our heart, which is the spiritual word for our mind (which is also our heaven), is to be guarded by doing the commandments of the Lord with all diligence (Rom 12:2).

Pro 4:23 Keep [Hebrew: nâtsar = guard] thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

In the scriptures, a gate of a city or the door of a house is also associated with deliverance, but also linked with bondage or slavery (Gen 4:7; Exo 12:23; 2Ki 7:1; Job 38:17; Mat 12:35):

Psa 118:19 Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD:
Psa 118:20 This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.

Deu 15:16 And if he [the slave] says to you, I will not go away from you, because he loves you and your house, because it has been good for him with you;
Deu 15:17 then you shall take an awl and put it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. And also to your slave-girl you shall do so.

Lot was diligent to keep the law of God as he understood it, and he was different in that sense from the inhabitants of Sodom, and it was obvious for all to see. He was a servant to others, hospitable and always looked at the needs of others, even strangers, more than himself. This is also demonstrated when he met these two visitors:

Gen 19:2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
Gen 19:3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

The Sodomites had other ideas which were contrary to Lot’s ideas, as the mind of the flesh is contrary to the mind of the spirit of God (Gal 5:17):

Gen 19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
Gen 19:5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

The sin of homosexuality is what Sodom became notorious for, but it encompasses a broader spectrum of sins in which all mankind in Adam is naturally involved. Every sin found on this earth is in all of us, as we are from Adam who was made marred and devoid of truth and spirit life from the hand of the Potter:

Jer 18:4a And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter:

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.

Those who can receive this will accept that we are guilty of all sin, as we live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, even the very commandments that come from God’s mouth which we cannot obey naturally:

Jas 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

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

Naturally homosexuality refers to man on man intimacy on a sexual level which spiritually points broadly to our own intimacy with mankind, even the man of sin in us (Ecc 3:18; 2Th 2:3-4). Sodom refers to our natural inclinations when we love ourselves and follow the ways of mankind in various ways (Rev 13:15-18). This is when we are impressed by natural beauty, wisdom and achievements of mankind in which God has ensnared all of us in our appointed time (Lev 18:22; Rom 1:27 1Co 1:19-29; 1Co 3:4; 1Co 3:19; Jas 3:15-16):

Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Rom 1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Rom 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Rom 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

The same spirit of homosexuality is seen in us when we want to rule and exercise authority over other fellowmen and sow our ideas and words (our evil spiritual seeds) in others to impress them or to show superiority over them:

Mar 10:42 But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.

This is the spirit of the world in us when we are controlled by pride and lusts, which is not after the spirit of our heavenly Father:

1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

We are all naturally born in Sodom, and we live there until God drags us out of this wicked city of flesh (Joh 6:44). Adultery and lies are all linked to Sodom in us when we also associate with others in their wickedness and false doctrines under the guise of being prophets of the new Jerusalem:

Jer 23:14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

The young and old in Sodom surrounded the house of Lot to get to “know” the visitors on a sexually intimate level. We all meet the Sodomites in us from the first day we are born when we scream and shout for attention. In this immature spiritual state we want everyone to hear our problems and demand that our needs be met first:

Eze 16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
Eze 16:50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

Pride, material gain, haughtiness and idleness are some of the sins in our sodomite hearts as we are greedy to get the most from others at the lowest price and with the least effort. These evil attitudes can be clearly seen and witnessed by others around us:

Isa 3:9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

Our own speech and daily living betray the sodomites within us as we also depend on our human abilities and fleshly alliances with others with the same mindset in our own valley of Siddim (“birds of a feather flock together”). However, this valley of Siddim is always full of slimepits which reveal the snares and trappings of our natural dependence on earthly strength and material gain (Gen 14:10; Jas 5:1-2):

Gen 14:8 And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim.

Lot’s solution to this evil request from the men of Sodom to “know” the visitors is for some very troublesome – he wanted to give his own virgin daughters to these men:

Gen 19:6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,
Gen 19:7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
Gen 19:8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.

This also indicates that Lot knew that these Sodomites will not be interested in his daughters. Sodom is not interested in purity and the narrow way of God. The twisted false doctrines and the broad way are more acceptable than the truth in natural minds who like to “make [them]selves of the number” (2Co 10:12). Lot “shut the door after him” is showing us how “the door of faith” makes a division between our natural relationships and our spiritual relationships. This division is also revealed by the enemies in our own household:

Mat 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Sodom in us is a very aggressive and competitive brute beast which is very impatient when things are not going according to its liking and understanding (Pro 10:9; Pro 19:3):

Gen 19:9 And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.

We fornicate spiritually when we aggressively pursue intimacy with false and twisted doctrines of the harlot Babylon (“spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt”), which is foreign or strange to the doctrine of Christ (Rev 11:8). These cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and all other fleshly cities in us will all be consumed by the fiery words of God’s truth (Jer 5:14; Jer 23:29; 1Co 3:13-15; Heb 12:29):

Jud 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange [Greek: heteros = altered or twisted desire/contrary to nature] flesh are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

God’s true messengers will bring us into the house of God and will show us not to have contact with those who have been blinded to the truth. We will progressively learn how God shuts the door of faith to those who will “wear[y] themselves to find the door…of faith” unsuccessfully in this life. The door of faith is shut to them who come with their stubborn idols in their hearts to God’s Word (Eze 14:1-9).

Gen 19:10 But the men [the two visitors] put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.
Gen 19:11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

God gives spiritual blindness to all those who claim they can see long before they can even notice it, even as they are 100% convinced that know where the door is (Joh 9:39-41; 2Th 2:11). This judgment will be brought by God’s own messengers, even now through His very few elect who will also be the lake of fire bringing His justice and truth to all in the generation of the first Adam (Isa 33:5-24; Rev 20:4-6; Rev 20:14-15):

Gen 19:12 And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place:
Gen 19:13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.

The ways of God are indeed foolishness to those who are easily influenced by deceitful Sodom as Lot’s own sons-in-law mocked him when he told them the truthful words of the messengers of God (1Co 2:14):

Gen 19:14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.

God initiates salvation, and He also works it – from start to finish. Our flesh does not want to let go of the attachments of Sodom, but God is indeed a true Saviour who will bring us all out of this evil city of flesh (1Ti 2:4-6; 1Ti 4:9-11):

Gen 19:15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
Gen 19:16 And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.

——————

Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

Do The Scriptures Condone Homosexuality?
Are Homosexuals Born That Way?
The Fate of Sodom

Hi Mike,

1) When does Eze 16:55 happen? Are they the great army of Eze 37:10 that Satan gathers in Rev 20:8 or are Sodom and Samaria raised just for judgement?
2) Who are the heathen of Eze 37:28?
3) Does Andrew Jukes believe in a Gap theory? It appears he feels Exo 20:11 starts at Gen 1:3 and not 1:1. I bought all seven books I could find by him online. Do you recommend all his books?

Thanks,

M____

Hi M____,
Thank you for your questions.
Your first question is:

1) When does Eze 16:55 happen? Are they the great army of Eze 37:10 that Satan gathers in Rev 20:8 or are Sodom and Samaria raised just for judgment?

The answer is, yes, Sodom and Samaria and physical Israel  of Ezekiel 37 are all raised after the millennium and after the “short season” in which Satan deceives the nations.

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

But the “great army” of Rev 20:8 is gathered before the “fire comes down from God out of heaven,” which event occurs before the great white throne judgment which encompass the events of Eze 37 (“valley of dry bones… the whole house of Israel”) and Eze 16:55 (Israel will be saved when Sodom and Samaria are to be saved in the lake of fire).
What just happens to be revealed in the very next verse of Rev 20?

Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

And what happens next?

Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [ are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever [ eons of the eons].

Who is in this lake of fire?

Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [ the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

“The dead small and great… the sea [ of mankind]… death and hell… and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” That includes all the dead of all time. The only exclusion is those whose names were in the book of life. They had been resurrected one thousand years earlier, so they would be in place to judge all the rest of mankind, including Sodom, Samarian and lost physical Israel of Eze 37:

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

When do we show mercy to physical Israel, through whose unbelief we have believed? We need not guess:

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

Eze 37 is when all Israel is saved:

Eze 37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

Just when is that? It is when “the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled;”

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

When “the fulness of the Gentiles be come in then… all Israel shall be saved.” Exactly when does “the fulness of the Gentiles come in?” Here again, is what the scriptures teach.

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

Here is a scripture that gives the lie to two orthodox Christian doctrines. The first is the doctrine that physical Jews are still God’s chosen people. The second lie is that Sodom is at this very moment in eternal hell fire with no hope of ever being saved.
The whole Christian world ignores scripture to cling to these “idols of the heart”, which “idols of the heart” Ezekiel referred to just two chapters earlier.

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.

Those who place scripture above church doctrine believe this verse here in Ezekiel and many other verses in the New Testament which confirm Ezekiel’s doctrine that Israel will be saved when Sodom and Samaria are saved.
On the other hand, those who place church doctrine above God’s Word have “separated themselves from Me and have set up idols of the heart.” Here are but a couple such verses in the New Testament which confirm Ezekiel’s doctrine that Sodom and Samaria will be saved:

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

“He is NOT a Jew which is one outwardly…” Show me one orthodox Christian minister who believes that Word of God. There is not one. If he believed it, then he would not be orthodox. The orthodox Christians would label him a “replacement theologian.” Of course that would put Him in good company with men like Paul and John who recognized that physical descent no longer entered into the spiritual equation of God’s Word:

Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

“We, brethren” is addressed to Gentile Galatians. Paul continues this message throughout this book of Galatians.

Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

He concludes with this word:

Gal 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
Gal 6:16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

All that matters “in Christ Jesus” is “a new creature.” Here are a couple of other translations of verse 16:

Gal 6:16 Peace and mercy will come to rest on all those who conform to this principle. They are the Israel of God. (GW)
Gal 6:16 All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God— his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them! (MSG)

Israel is now this “new creature.” It is no longer a physical nation, in the eyes of God.
All of this is dealt with in After The Counsel of His Own Will. Here is the URL: http:// iswasandwillbe. com/ sovereignty. php
Your next question is:

2) Who are the heathen of Eze 37:28?

Here is that verse:

Eze 37:27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Eze 37:28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

The answer is that the “heathen” of Eze 38:12 are all nations. Many translations say “the nations” instead of the heathen. The Hebrew word translated ‘heathen’ in that verse is ‘goy.’ It is the same Hebrew word translated ‘nation’ in this verse:

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

In this verse, God is threatening to destroy Israel and make a ‘goy’ of Moses. The word ‘goy’ simply means nation, and the physical ‘goy’ or nation of Israel, will be brought to God, and God will “tabernacle with them” just as He will with “the heathen.” In other words, Eze 37:28 complements Eze 16:55. They do not contradict. God will tabernacle with all Israel when He tabernacles with Sodom and Samaria. That is the goal of God’s whole plan and purpose; to be in all men:

Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [ are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

God has to blind us all at first for these clear statements to be overlooked. And when God blinds someone there is nothing you or I can do about it. The nations are all blinded by God. He himself has sent an evil spirit to be a lying spirit in the mouths of all of Babylon’s prophets:

2Ch 18:21 And he said, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the LORD said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: go out, and do even so .
2Ch 18:22 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee.

Your next question was:

3) Does Andrew Jukes believe in a Gap theory? It appears he feels Exo 20:11 starts at Gen 1:3 and not 1:1.

Yes, sadly what you say is true. Andrew Jukes did believe in the gap theory. His book The Names of God reveals that he also believed in the trinity. His letters also reveal that he believed in the immortality of our spirits. And of course, with all of his insight into spiritual matters, Andrew Jukes was never given the ability to see that Israel is a spiritual entity, and that a physical Jew “is not a Jew.”
Do I recommend all of his books? I can honestly say that I have learned much from Andrew Jukes’ Types In Genesis, The Law of The Offerings, The Restitution of All Things and The Four Views of Christ. But what I recommend to anyone and everyone, whether reading my writings or the writings of Andrew Jukes or anyone else, is “try the spirits to see whether they are of God.”

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

I hope this has answered your questions. I hope you can see that physical Israel is but one of “all nations” which will be resurrected in spiritual bodies after the millennium to be judged and purged of all their “wood, hay and stubble,” so that God can “tabernacle with men.” It is a wonderful future for mankind:

Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Hey, Mike,

When the bible says in Rom 11:26 that all Israel will be saved, is this after the lake of fire? Those brought up in the second resurrection are not converted until they repent, right?

Thanks,
C____

Good morning C____,

You ask if Rom 11:26 is after the lake of fire. Here are the verses in question:

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

Here is the fulfillment of that prophecy:

Eze 37:10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
Eze 37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
Eze 37:12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
Eze 37:13 And ye shall know that I [ am] the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
Eze 37:14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken [ it], and performed [ it], saith the LORD.

If you have read much on iswasandwillbe.com, then you know that Egypt stands in scripture for our lives in sin. The Red Sea and the Jordan represent the doctrines of baptism and the cleansing process we live after coming to know Christ. The giants in the land are our fleshly weaknesses and powers and principalities in our hearts and minds which we must conquer through the power of Christ in our lives.

That is about as far as the understanding of most orthodox ministers goes. However, many who have been granted a degree of spiritual understanding beyond that point know that when God told Israel to make no treaties with the nations in the land, that He is actually telling us that we are not to make any treaties with our faults and weaknesses, but we are to overcome them and “save alive nothing that breatheth.”

Deu 20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee [for] an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

So “the land”, spiritually speaking, is our bodies, which are, spiritually speaking, the temples of God. We “dwell in the land” because “God dwells with us”, and we “are the temple of God, and God dwells in us.”

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

God says in Ezekiel 37, that he “will put my spirit in them.” This is not a resurrection to flesh and blood. The flesh and the sinews are contrasted in the previous chapter to “a heart of stone.” The ‘flesh and sinews’ being contrasted with stone is telling us that these bodies are resurrected as spiritual bodies:

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].
Eze 36:28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

“The land” is now a new spiritual body. We know this is so because this is speaking of a resurrection, which is described in great detail in the next chapter. We know these are spiritual bodies because we are told “I will put my spirit in you, and take away the stony heart,” and we know this about resurrected bodies:

Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

Now the only question that remains is when will all Israel be raised and given these  spiritual bodies in which to dwell? When is “the fullness of the Gentiles come in?”

This vital question is not left to our vain speculation. The answer to this question was given back in chapter 16 where God is telling Israel how He found them and raised them up and how they forsook him for another. Here is when “all Israel will be saved.”

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

When? Then!

I hope this helps to answer your question. God bless your desire to know God and His son. If you know how They think, then you know Them, and that is life eternal.

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

When Sodom comes up in resurrection that will be “the fulness of the Gentiles… come in.” All the doctrines of men to the contrary will not change the word of God. That is when “all Israel will be saved”, and that is when the valley of dry bones will be fulfilled. Physical Jews “are not Jews”, and a million sermons to the contrary by a million different denominational ministers will not change this fact:

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

God’s elect are the real Jews, and Jerusalem above is the capital of “the Israel of God.”

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

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Mike,  
Thanks again for your answers.  I am going to study your material on the Law of the Offerings like you suggested. This should take a few weeks and give you a break from my emails. I’m sure you’re very busy. I’m not the most popular person at my Church right now after sharing the true origins of evil. I think I might be asked to leave because we started studying Galatians, and spiritual Israel is not appreciated much. Anyway some did listen, but then Joe 3 was brought up by the Pastor.  It seems like he was just taking a difficult chapter to cling to his idol and confuse those listening to what I had to say. Anyway can you help me with Joe 3 before I start the offerings? Thanks, M____

Hi M____,
If there is any truth to the words of Christ, and you are given the grace to remain faithful to those words, then rest assured that you will be hated of all men, especially all church men:

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.

You ask about Joe 3. Here is what this chapter concerns:

Joe 3:1  For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

We are not left to guess about when God will “bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, but your minister will not believe his eyes when he sees when the scriptures say this will happen. It will happen, according to the apostle Paul, “When the fulness of the Gentiles comes in.”

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

So the Gentiles will come in at the same time, and then Israel will be brought to God. Exactly when will that be? There is no need to guess. We are told plainly when that will happen, but what church- going orthodox Christian would dare to believe what the scriptures teach so plainly?

Eze 16:53  When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
Eze 16:54  That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
Eze 16:55  When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

That almost sounds like even Sodom will be saved.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike         P. S. All the letters below deal with this subject, especially the one that are emboldened.
Eze 16:55  A111.0    Did Christ Reform The Law Of Moses?
Eze 16:55  A136.0    Does Man Have A Free Will?
Eze 16:55  A145.0    Tongues And The Separation Of The Sheep And The Goats
Eze 16:55  A166.0    Replacement Theology
Eze 16:55  A195.0    Preaching The Gospel ‘To The Jew First’
Eze 16:55  A544.0    Purpose of Elect
Eze 16:55  A552.2    Articles – Responses to ‘Strong Delusion’
Eze 16:55  A620.0    Strong Delusion: Will God’s ‘Strong Delusion’ Deceive You?
Eze 16:55  A775.0    What The Camp, The Court, And The Tabernacle Of Israel Foreshadow
Eze 16:55  A838.1    Preterism>

I know you are very busy. But it is such a relief to FINALLY have someone who has been shown the same things I have! Thank you Jesus!

I am stealing time here and there to read more of your entries, I have not yet found an answer: Do you believe it is necessary to speak in tongues?

Also, I have not yet read your info on it, I was simply thrilled to find that you believe all are saved as God recently showed me, but, could you direct me to your view on what happens in the times to come, when we are separated the sheep from the goats what happens?

Thanks

C____

Hi C____

Please go to the tongues section of the web page and read those letters. I believe this is the most in depth treatment of this subject that is to be found. Languages need translators. Unknown babbling needs no translation, because there is nothing to translate. If you try the spirits, you must try them against the Word. The Word calls for “languages.” It does not call for “Unknown tongues.”

You also asked about separating the sheep from the goats. This has nothing to do with Christ’s next coming. Physical Israel will be converted “when Sodom and Samaria [ are converted] then will you [ physical Israel and Jerusalem] be restored to your former estate [ find favor with God].” This will not happen “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” In other words “When Sodom…” comes to God, “ then you [ physical Jerusalem and physical Israel] will be restored to your former estate.”

Eze 16:48 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Eze 16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
Eze 16:50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
Eze 16:51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done.
Eze 16:52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.
Eze 16:53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then [ will I bring again] the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
Eze 16:54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
Eze 16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

Jerusalem here symbolizes both physical Israel, which has rejected her Messiah, but it also symbolizes “those who say they are [ spiritual- Christian] Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.” This chapter of Ezekiel is a prophecy of those who will be cast into God’s purifying ‘lake of fire.’

When will this occur?

Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

In other words Israel will be brought back to God “ when Sodom comes in…” Until that time the truth concerning physical Israel is:

Rom 11:7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded
Rom 11:8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

Why has this knowledge and grace been given to the “election?” The answer is right here in this same chapter. In spite of what orthodox Christianity teaches, there is a “fall harvest.” There will yet be a “feast of ingathering, at the end of the year.”

Here is the reason for an elect firstfruits:

Rom 11:15 For if the casting away of them [ physical Israel] be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? [ The second resurrection of all the dead of all time. “When Sodom is restored…”]
Rom 11:16 For if the firstfruit [ the elect] be holy [ all mankind], the lump is also holy [“God is love”]: and if the root [ Christ] be holy, so are the branches.
Rom 11:17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
Rom 11:18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
Rom 11:19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in.
Rom 11:20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
Rom 11:21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
Rom 11:22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Rom 11:23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief [ now and at the second resurrection], shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.
Rom 11:24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?
Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, unti l the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. [ Until “thy sister Sodom is restored…”]
Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Rom 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
Rom 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

It is ” through this mercy of yours that they also obtain mercy.” But even though they will be raised as spiritual bodies, they must yet endure the ‘lake of fire… in the presence of the lamb.”

That the elect administer this lake of fire is proven in Isaiah.

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?

So who is this “devouring fire?” Who is this “everlasting burnings?” Who “dwells with… Our God… a consuming fire?” Is it Satan and his angels? Is it the wicked? No, it is not:

Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously [ the firstfruit elect], 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;
Heb 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.

These are those who are at home in the spiritual fire in the presence of the lamb. These are those who “will not be hurt of the second death… which is the ‘lake of fire.”

Exactly what this symbolic fire is is symbolized by the torment of Joseph’s brothers in Joseph’s presence when he spoke to them by an interpreter. Joseph could easily has said ‘Hey, boys it’s me, Joseph. I’m going to save you and all the known world.” But that is not what he did. He literally tormented his brothers to bring them to see what they were and what they had done. Even after revealing himself to them and assuring them that he was their salvation, they were still tormented another 17 years by their own unconverted minds. They truly believed that as soon as their father Jacob died that Joseph would then kill them all for what they had done to him in his youth. They were yet, even while in this ‘lake of fire,’ still carnal minded, and that carnality has to be burned out of us all. This is all only in type and shadow. The ‘lake of fire’ is Genesis hidden in Revelation. It is also Revelation revealed in Genesis.

I hope this answers your questions.

Mike