2Ki 11:1-21  “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3)

[Study Aired November 17, 2022]

2Ki 11:1  And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 
2Ki 11:2  But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 
2Ki 11:3  And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. 
2Ki 11:4  And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the LORD, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the LORD, and shewed them the king’s son. 
2Ki 11:5  And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king’s house; 
2Ki 11:6  And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down.
2Ki 11:7  And two parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house of the LORD about the king.
2Ki 11:8  And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in. 
2Ki 11:9  And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. 
2Ki 11:10  And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king David’s spears and shields, that were in the temple of the LORD. 
2Ki 11:11  And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple. 
2Ki 11:12  And he brought forth the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king. 
2Ki 11:13  And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the LORD. 
2Ki 11:14  And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason. 
2Ki 11:15  But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the LORD. 
2Ki 11:16  And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king’s house: and there was she slain. 
2Ki 11:17  And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD’S people; between the king also and the people. 
2Ki 11:18  And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD. 
2Ki 11:19  And he took the rulers over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of the LORD, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. 
2Ki 11:20  And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king’s house. 
2Ki 11:21  Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign.

King Jehoash was only seven years old when he began to reign over Judah, and he reigned forty years. This youngest king to ever rule over Judah is a symbol of the manchild we read of in Revelation 12:5 and 13, which child is a symbol of the elect who are kind of first fruits (Jas 1:18) whose reign while we are on the earth will be over all the kingdoms of this world (Rev 11:15).

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

Rev 12:13  And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. 

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

The forty-year reign of King Jehoash is a symbol of that time of rulership during the symbolic thousand-year reign of the saints who will rule over the whole [whole 4 x  flesh 10=40] of humanity (Rev 20:6), and at the end of that physical reign all flesh will be destroyed. Another part of the significance of the number forty is connected to trials, which God uses to put off our carnal fleshly thinking [“The Number of Trials“] (Eze 29:12, Heb 3:17).

Eze 29:12  And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years: and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 

Heb 3:17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

Chapter twelve of Revelation parallels very well with King Jehoash who typifies the manchild. The comparisons are many, and they all point to the reality that those who “keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev 12:17) are also those who were begotten “of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (Jas 1:18). One very strikingly obvious comparison with King Jehoash and the elect bride of Christ is how he was hidden as we are hidden in the Lord (Col 3:3), only to be revealed when the seventh trump sounds and we are all changed in a moment and in a twinkling of an eye. The young King began his reign at seven years old,which is a symbol of the arrival of God’s kings and priests on this earth who have been hidden from the world until this time (1Th 4:16-17, Rev 10:7, Rev 11:15).

Jas 1:18  Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Col 3:3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 
1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 

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

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.

2Ki 11:1 And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 

In this first verse we see Athaliah taking vengeance on “all the seed royal” for the death of her son, which symbolizes for us the wrath of Satan through Babylon and the churches of this world against the body of Christ (Act 4:26-29). Another story in God’s word that parallel’s this wrath against the manchild is found in Matthew 2:16 where Herod killed all the children two years and younger. However, Christ was protected by Joseph and Mary (Mat 2:11-15). Moses was also hidden, also typical of the elect as was “Joash” (Heb 11:23). “All the seed royal” (Rom 11:16) represents the many called and not the chosen of the royal seed typified by Joash, a type of the elect (Mat 22:14).

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 
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. 
Act 4:29  And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,

Mat 2:16  Then Herod, [typifying Satan’s spirit] when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, [typifying God’s elect (Mat 7:24, Rev 1:3)] was exceeding wroth (Rev 12:12), and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.

Heb 11:23  By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. 

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

Moses being hid for three months is a parallel thought to Joash being hid for six years “And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years” (2Ki 11:3). Three months represents the time of the elect’s judgment while in these vessels of clay (1Pe 4:17), and the “six years” is also a witness to this same point that we must be hid in the Lord for six years [number of man] and be revealed on the seventh year as the manchild of God who is brought forth to rule. When we die daily in the Lord (1Co 15:31), we are telling that fox “Herod” within our deceitful and desperately wicked hearts (Jer 17:9), that we must go onto perfection, or completion [7], on the third day through Christ (2x3=6 Joash hidden, 3 months Moses as a child hidden) after we have been judged in this life (Luk 13:32). When we read the passages about this soon-to-be-boy-king, it is most encouraging to see how protected he was prior to his anointing and after it as well, demonstrating God’s love and care for the elect, from the foundation of the world (Luk 12:32, Rom 8:35, Eph 1:4).

1Co 15:30  And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? 
1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 

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

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

2Ki 11:2  But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain.
2Ki 11:3  And he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.

It is Jehosheba, who is the aunt of Joash, God used to hide Joash from Ahaziah. This event is described with these words: “and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain” showing us that “Jehosheba”^{H3089 = ‘Jehovah’s oath’} is a type of the church which is the bride and the body of Christ (Col 1:24) who comes upon us like a thief in the night and whom God has promised or sworn that He will use to save His elect first in this life (1Th 5:2,  Joh 18:9). 

2Ch 22:11  But Jehoshabeath^{H3089 = ‘Jehovah’s oath’}, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not. [Exo 12:22-23]

H3089 yehôsheba‛ yeh-ho-sheh’-bah  From H3068 and H7650; Jehovah-sworn; Jehosheba, an Israelitess: – Jehosheba. Compare H3090.

H7650 A primitive root; properly to be complete, but used only as a denominative from H7651; to seven oneself, that is, swear (as if by repeating a declaration seven times): – adjure, charge (by an oath, with an oath), feed to the full [by mistake for H7646], take an oath, X straitly, (cause to, make to) swear.

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

1Th 5:2  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 

Joh 18:9  That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.

It is in her bedchamber [Jehosheba’s] where Joash and his nurse are hidden so that he is not slain. The bedchamber represents where we rest in the Lord and are protected, “him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain“, even while we are in the midst of Babylon, in the world but not of it (Joh 17:16, 1Co 5:9-11). 

Joh 17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

1Co 5:9  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 
1Co 5:10  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 
1Co 5:11  But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

The “nurse” who accompanies Joash can also be seen as a type of the church where every nurturing joint contributes in the forming of the life of Christ in each other (Eph 4:16). The nurse protects and cares for the child as we do for each other. This love and care we have for each other is what strengthens us as we bear each other’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ that witnesses to our discipleship in Him (Gal 6:2, Joh 13:35). If not for our coming together often (Heb 10:25), where we partake of our communion in the Lord (1Co 10:16) [symbolized by the blood that is struck on the lintel (“strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason”)] (1Co 10:16), we would be “slain” of the devil and sifted like wheat (Luk 22:31). It is through the faith of Christ working in the faith-filled prayers of His saints that are fervent and continual that we will be able to overcome the wicked one and keep ourselves unspotted from this world, enduring to the end (Jas 5:16, Jas 1:27, Mat 24:13).

Jas 5:16  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 

Jas 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. 

Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

It is by God’s power and might that this work of faith in His little flock, who are “hid in the house of the LORD six years“, will be finished. This is all happening throughout our lives while Satan continues to be the god of this world ruling over mankind, symbolized by Athaliah who “did reign over the land” for those six years which is the number for mankind. Christ uses Athaliah, who is a woman, as a type of Satan who rules over the flesh of mankind for six years. During God’s reign over flesh during the thousand-year reign, Christ is the head, and the body of Christ is the woman directed by the head.

2Ki 11:4  And the seventh year Jehoiada^{H3077=”Jehovah knows” (PNB)} sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the LORD, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the LORD, and shewed them the king’s son. 
2Ki 11:5  And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king’s house; 
2Ki 11:6  And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down. 
2Ki 11:7  And two parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house of the LORD about the king.

This very influential priest of Judah by the name of Jehoiada typifies Christ who, at the appointed time of God, “sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the LORD, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the LORD, and shewed them the king’s son.” This part of the story is a parable of how Christ builds His church (Mat 16:18) using those who are sent (Joh 20:21) to do this work that began on Pentecost (Eph 4:10-13). The “apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers” of Ephesians 4:13 is what is required for us to grow and mature and be shown “the king’s son” who, when we see Him face to face, we know Him as a result of coming into the unity of the faith. It is what Christ does through us that will bring about “the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”, and the commands that Jehoiada gives to the “keepers of the watch of the king’s house” is symbolic language telling us of the progression of judgment (the ‘thirds’) we must go through in order to come to this unity of faith, this mature mind of Christ.

It is “a third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king’s house”, the ‘third part’ symbolizing the judgment upon the house of God which leads to maturity in Him, in his house, in His temple that we are (1Co 3:16).  Also, there is “a third part…at the gate of Sur^{H5495 = “degenerate”, “turn aside”, “deteriorated”}; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down”. These thirds being spoken of remind us that our judgment is going to be progressive and ongoing so that the house “be not broken down” (Act 14:22). These areas represent points of entry where sin can enter into our life. Yet through Christ we will be more than conquerors and rule over sin that will no longer have dominion over us (Gen 4:7, Rom 6:14).

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

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

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

All members of the whole body of Christ are called to do our part as shepherds who look well to His little flock at the “gate of Sur” and “at the gate behind the guard” (Act 20:28), as God teaches us through these captains and guards who were “rulers over hundreds” what is required of us to overcome our carnal, fleshly nature typified by the “hundreds“. The whole world is in covenant with God, but it is only those who are being judged (Heb 9:27) by the Lord today who will benefit from the “rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard” that represent the judgment which brings us “into the house of the LORD“. There, through Christ, we are able to experience this new covenant agreement or oath with Him that makes it possible for us to be shown “the king’s son” in each other (1Co 11:1).

Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 

Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 

1Co 11:1  Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

“And two parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house of the LORD about the king” also represents the elect who go forth “on the sabbath” meaning in Christ who is our Sabbath rest and the true witness within us, “two parts“, Who gives us the power and ability to “keep the watch of the house of the LORD about the king” “both to will and to do” (Php 2:12-13). He teaches us to make war against our number one enemy who we see in the mirror every day (Psa 18:34-36, 1Ti 6:12). Finally, those different positions that keep guard of the house of the LORD (the three ‘thirds’ above plus this ‘two parts’) add up to five telling us that it is by grace through faith [#5] that we will be saved and able to endure until the end of this life.

Psa 18:34  He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. 
Psa 18:35  Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.

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

2Ki 11:8  And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in. 
2Ki 11:9  And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. 
2Ki 11:10  And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king David’s spears and shields, that were in the temple of the LORD. 
2Ki 11:11  And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple.

Jehoiada represents Christ, our high priest, who gives us our commands in this life as we go about wrestling, not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and the rulers of the darkness of this age (Eph 6:12). This section of kings shows us what is required to battle for the life of Christ within us (Col 1:27) typified by Joash. This section also demonstrates how we must always be ready to do battle against sin when it is near the gate, which we know it always is (Gen 4:7). What we are being shown in these verses is what the body of Christ must do to protect Christ in each other, and the story of Gideon also reminds us of this readiness of mind which is a gift from God and has nothing to do with our own might or power (Jdg 7:7, Zec 4:6). 

Jdg 7:7  And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place (from the 32,000 originally called – see verse 3).

Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. 

So what must we do to protect our crown of life (Rev 3:11) is what is in discussion here, King Joash representing our hope of glory within, “And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in.” Any false doctrine that comes “within the ranges, let him be slain” because a little leaven will leaven the whole lump, the whole body (1Co 4:5-6, Gal 5:9). Our love for each other is demonstrated by our obedience to God’s commands which tells us to go to your brother alone and tell him his fault between you and him. That is another way in which we protect our many members, represented by king “Joash” (Mat 18:15-17).

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

1Co 4:5  Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. 
1Co 4:6  And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

Obedience to the commandments of God is the second point being stressed regarding overcoming, and it took all the captains over the hundreds to accomplish what “Jehoiada the priest” commanded. The words coming in “on the sabbath with them that should go out on the sabbath” is again typical of how it is only through Christ, who is our sabbath rest (Psa 121:5-8, Heb 4:8-10), that we can be obediently directed through this whole life and be subject to one another as unto Christ who is typified by Jehoiada (Eph 5:21-28).

Psa 121:5 Yahweh is your Guardian; Yahweh is your Protecting Shade at your right hand.
Psa 121:6  By day the sun shall not smite you, Nor the moon by night.”
Psa 121:7  Yahweh Himself shall guard you from all peril; He shall guard your soul.
Psa 121:8 Yahweh Himself shall guard your going forth and your coming in, Henceforth and unto the eon.”(CLV)

Heb 4:8  For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 
Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 

Eph 5:21  Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. 
Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 
Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 
Eph 5:28  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

These two verses (2Ki 11:10-11) also have to do with protecting Christ’s spirit, not quenching it, but rather stirring it up and being on alert always as the body of Christ (1Th 5:19, Luk 21:36). We protect the body together with the Word on which we all stand and use to defend any that would come up against us; this being a spiritual statement for God’s elect today but a literal readiness which was required of “the captains over hundreds did the priest give king David’s spears and shields, that were in the temple of the LORD“. The spears (Hab 3:11-13, 1Sa 17:47) and shield (Eph 6:16) both represent the word of God (Eph 6:10-11). The shield is for defense, and the spear is for when we need to overcome an enemy within or without (2Co 10:4-5) that would come up against the “temple of the LORD” which temple we all are (because of Baal worship at Peor we read of these acts of Phinehas which stayed the plague on Israel – Num 25:7-8, Heb 12:15).

Hab 3:11  The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.
Hab 3:12  Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.
Hab 3:13  Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah. 

1Sa 17:47  And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.

Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 

2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 
2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 

Verse eleven explains when we “Fight the good fight of faith, [and] lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called”, we do it together as the body of Christ (Rom 12:5, 1Ti 6:12), and every man must have his spiritual “weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple.” Our best place of protection and power is among the body, in the temple (Heb 10:25), “round about the king“, which symbolizes our being round about Christ having been raised in heavenly places together (Eph 2:6). The right corner and the left corner are referencing the power of Christ [right] and His Christ [left–positive use of left given to those who have been given power (Psa 110:1, Rev 11:3)] who is the cornerstone in our life who keeps us strong and bound to the altar, which is the cross (Mat 21:42, Psa 118:27). The cornerstones are “by the altar and the temple” where we present ourselves a living sacrifice unto God and partake of Christ’s life (Rom 12:1-2).

Psa 118:27  God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.

2Ki 11:12  And he brought forth the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king. 

The “testimony” was given to “the king’s son” and they “put the crown upon him“, both of which are symbols of what must happen to God’s elect if we are to be made kings and priests. We are “anointed” when we are blessed to read, hear and keep the sayings of the prophecy of His words (Rev 1:3), and that is what this testimony, along with the crown upon him, represents. It also typifies the unction or anointing that God’s elect have been given to know the truth, to have eyes to see and ears to hear these mysteries that are hidden from the world today in Christ (1Jn 2:20-21, Mat 13:16, Col 3:2-3).

1Jn 2:20  But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. 
1Jn 2:21  I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

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

Col 3:2  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 
Col 3:3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

After this coronation the people “clapped their hands, and said, God save the king.” Our joy cannot be taken from us if God is saving the king as His workmanship in this age which we believe (Joh 6:30) we are (1Pe 2:9, Joh 16:22, Eph 2:10). We will suffer through this life (2Ti 2:12), and be able to endure that suffering through Christ (Php 4:13), and in the morning there will be great rejoicing, inexpressible joy (1Pe 1:7-9, Psa 30:5), which is being expressed with this sentence, “[they] clapped their hands, and said, God save the king.” Yes, please, God save the king within each of us!

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

Joh 16:22  And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

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:
1Pe 1:8  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, [Joh 6:30] ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 

Psa 30:5  For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

2Ki 11:13  And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the LORD. 
2Ki 11:14  And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason.

At the return of Christ, “the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains” and say “to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand” (Rev 6:15-17)?  Athaliah will be coming into this realization of who she is and who is really standing and able to stand in the Lord symbolized by the pillars – “the king stood by a pillar.” Standing by the pillars symbolizes our safety in the church as we look to the leadership God ordains to keep us strong and standing in the Lord (1Ti 3:15, Rev 3:12).

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

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

She heard the noise of the guard of the people, and she came to the people into the temple of the LORD to witness what God had started and finished during her evil six-year reign over the kingdom of Judah. What she saw, “And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets” and what she did  “and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason.” The question that comes to mind is “who shall be able to stand” when Christ returns? The answer of course is that it will be those who have inwardly heard “the trumpeters by the king” and have rent their hearts and not their garments (Joe 2:13) having been crushed under the stone that was rejected by the builders (Act 4:11).

Joe 2:13  And rend your heart [crushed by Christ by judgment (Mat 21:44)], and not your garments [crushed but not changed inwardly through that experience (Rev 6:16)], and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 

Act 4:11  This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

These verses in Revelation 6:15-17 represent the time when the world will begin to understand the great gulf that is between Christ’s Christ and themselves (Luk 16:26). God’s elect will have already been crushed under those rocks that represent His judgment and wrath that have already been poured out upon our old man (Mat 21:44, Rev 15:8).

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

Mat 21:44  And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

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.

2Ki 11:15  But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the LORD.

Vengeance is God’s (Rom 12:19) and it is being executed through Jehoiada, who is a type of Christ who will command his people during the thousand-year reign to rule with a rod of iron, expressed in this sentence: “Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the LORD.”

“For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the LORD” typifies the elect during the thousand-year reign who know that any death during this period will not be in the Lord, and therefore in this story it reads “Let her not be slain in the house of the LORD” which is where the prophets of God would die, symbolizing our baptism into Christ’s death that cannot happen until the lake of fire for the rest of humanity (Luk 13:33-34, Rom 6:3).

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.
Luk 13:34  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

2Ki 11:16  And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king’s house: and there was she slain. 

This verse tells us that God is going to clear the land of all evil first within His people who will only learn to run with horses (Jer 12:5) after the land is cleansed of all its idolatry and corruption (Gen 49:16-17). Athaliah “went by the way by the which the horses came into the king’s house“, meaning she was operating in her flesh being controlled by powers and principalities in the heaven, which is where we all start, not able to run with horses, not able to have dominion over those powers and principalities. The Lord will take vengeance on Babylon, and that will come by way of judgment when the world begins to come “into the king’s house“. This is where our old man is slain by the Lord “and there was she slain“.

Jer 12:5  If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? 

Gen 49:16  Dan^{H1835 = judge}  shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 
Gen 49:17  Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

2Ki 11:17  And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD’S people; between the king also and the people. 
2Ki 11:18  And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD. 
2Ki 11:19  And he took the rulers over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of the LORD, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. 
2Ki 11:20  And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king’s house. 
2Ki 11:21  Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign.

Everything is done by the church which is the body of Christ (Eph 3:10), and Jehoiada making a covenant “between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD’S people; between the king also and the people” is symbolic of this relationship which the Lord will accomplish with all the world “by the church”.

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

The end result of this relationship is then described for us in detail as it typifies the world putting an end to all the idol worship that fills the earth today: “And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD.“

Jehoiada taking “the rulers over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land” symbolizes Christ overcoming within us first, all the giants of the land removed so that Christ sits on the throne of our hearts (Jer 3:17, Rev 3:21), and secondly it also symbolizes Christ taking the church to accomplish His purpose during the thousand-year reign, which will be to come in the name of the Lord to speak of our great King and fill the earth full of His knowledge and judgments so men can learn righteousness, “and they brought down the king from the house of the LORD, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings” (Isa 26:9, 1Ch 16:14).

Jer 3:17  At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. 

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

1Ch 16:14  He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. 

The fruit of having Christ rule and reign through His elect during the thousand-year reign will be undeniably great, symbolized by this sentence “And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king’s house.” There is an acknowledging going on of all the wrongs Babylon has done, and her time of falling is coming and great will be the fall of it, typified by the death of Athaliah “with the sword beside the king’s house“. Take the word ‘beside‘ out and the picture becomes clear that Athaliah and all of Babylon’s wicked ways will be purged and destroyed “with the sword the king’s house“. In other words, we are God’s sword, His threshing instrument, and the king’s house, His inheritance that will be used to judge the world. Nothing that is hidden will not be revealed (Luk 8:17-18), both negatively and positively. The world will come to see God’s workmanship in full force and how Christ was hidden from them, just as the elect will expose all the lies and hidden evils of this world, which purging will culminate in the lake of fire. We are blessed to be hidden in Christ now and to know that His judgment upon us is the great blessing we are receiving today (Rom 2:4) that will make the bride ready (Rev 19:7) and able to judge the rest of the world in great white throne judgment.

Luk 8:17  For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. 
Luk 8:18  Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.

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.

Jer 25:1-14 Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, [is] My Servant

[Study Aired November 28, 2021]

Jer 25: 1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;
Jer 25:2  The which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
Jer 25:3  From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.
Jer 25:4  And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.
Jer 25:5  They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever:
Jer 25:6  And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.
Jer 25:7  Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.
Jer 25:8  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words,
Jer 25:9  Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Jer 25:10  Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
Jer 25:11  And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Jer 25:12  And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
Jer 25:13  And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.
Jer 25:14  For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.

The first thing we need to establish is to whom this prophecy is primarily addressed. We are told:

Jer 25: 1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;

In our study of Jeremiah 3, we established that “all the people of Judah” are symbolized by the younger of two harlot wives of our Lord. The elder harlot wife is named ‘Aholah’, and the younger, more lascivious wife, is named ‘Aholibah’. Since we want to always remember that “[we] are the man” who has sinned against the Lord, we must acknowledge that we are both these adulterous sisters. Aholah, the elder sister, symbolizes the northern kingdom of Israel, and Aholibah, the younger more lascivious sister, symbolizes the southern nation of “all the people of Judah”.

These two adulterous sisters typify our decent from the position of “carnal babes in Christ” into the proselyte who is “twofold more the child of hell (Greek: ‘Gehenna’) than the Babylonian ministers who have proselytized us.

Here is the link to that study explaining who Aholah and Aholibah symbolize: The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 3:9-19, Part 2 – Only acknowledge Thine Iniquity

The stubbornness of our old man knows no bounds. To demonstrate this point, let’s consider the length of time this prophecy of Jeremiah spans. Jeremiah began to prophesy against the people of Judah in the reign of Josiah the father of Jehoiakim. Josiah is called the best king Judah ever had:

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

2Ki 23:25  And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.

Jeremiah’s prophecy began “in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign”, and Josiah reigned 31 years.

2Ki 22:1  Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.
2Ki 22:2  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

Jeremiah had been a prophet in Judah for 18 years when Josiah died at the hands of Pharaohnechoh.

We are told that Jeremiah lamented for Josiah:

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

When Josiah was slain, the people made his son Jehoahaz king, but he was an evil king and reigned only three months before Pharaohnechoh replaced him with Jehoiakim his brother.

2Ch 36:2  Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

2Ki 23:34  And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.

The prophecy of this chapter therefore takes place in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah. Jeremiah’s prophesied 18 years in the reign of Josiah, through the three months of Jehoahaz’s reign, and now the prophecy of this chapter is given to him in the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign. It is therefore coming to him three months into his 23^rd year of prophesying in the name of the Lord to the people of Judah:

Jer 25:2  The which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
Jer 25:3  From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.

If we analyze the number “three and twenty”, three is the number of the process of being judged, and twenty is 2×10, two signifying ‘witness’ against our old man and ten signifying the flesh of our old man.

Numbers in Scripture – Three, the Process of Spiritual Completion Through Judgment
Numbers – Two
Numbers – Ten

Jeremiah was certainly not the only prophet of his day. Here is a prophet who was slain by King Jehoiakim during the time of Jeremiah:

Jer 26:20  And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:
Jer 26:21  And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt;
Jer 26:22  And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt.
Jer 26:23  And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

As Jeremiah makes so clear, everyone who fears for his life and returns to Egypt will still lose his life, and those who give up their lives and remain in the Lord’s hand will keep their lives:

Jer 26:24  Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

This principle is twice repeated in the doctrines of Christ in the New Testament:

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Mat 16:25  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

That way of thinking makes no sense at all to our natural man who is made to want to preserve his life in this world. For this very reason, the prophecy of Jeremiah, that God is in the process of sending us into Babylon, is rejected by “all the people of Judah”:

Jer 25:4  And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.
Jer 25:5  They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever:
Jer 25:6  And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.
Jer 25:7  Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

Our evil ways and worship of other gods is for one purpose: “that ye might provoke [the Lord] to anger”, and His anger brings us hurt from Him. The details of that “anger [and] hurt” are a major part of the revelation of Jesus Christ within our lives. If we are given to see the work of the seven seals, the seven trumpets, climaxing in the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God in our lives, then we will understand that the captivity of “all the people of Judah” by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, foreshadows and signifies our unwillingness to even acknowledge that we are slaves to “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth”:

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.

It is ordained by the Lord that only great tribulation such as was not since man was upon the earth will wake us up to our stubborn rebellion against the words of the Lord’s prophets:

Mat 24:21  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

It is this “great tribulation” which is described in the seven plagues which “fill up the wrath of God”, and begin to drag us out of Babylon:

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 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.

Twice the Lord tells us, “Ye have not hearkened unto me… that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.” Those words appear to put the onus for our deaf ears and our evil works upon us. However, these words of the Lord are the same as the words of Joseph to his brothers who sold him as a slave into Egypt:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Many years later he even acknowledged that they meant what they did to Him “for evil”:

Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

While both of these sections of scripture appear to the natural man to say that Joseph’s brothers are responsible for their actions, the holy spirit tells us otherwise. Look at the very next verses in Genesis 45:

Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Genesis 50:20 tells us the exact same thing:

Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

When Joseph says “God meant it unto good”… the pronoun ‘it’ refers to the evil Joseph’s brothers did against him by selling him as a slave into Egypt. It was God who made them do that evil deed “after the counsel of His own will”, as with all other deeds of mankind, good and evil:

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

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:

Very few are even given to see that Joseph told his brothers it was not them who sold him into Egypt, but it was God. Even those who do see that it was God who made them do that evil deed tell us that this is an exception to the rule, and God intervened only in this one instance and perhaps in a few other instances. Is that true? Is the hand of God in the story of Joseph an exception to the rule? What do the scriptures teach concerning the extent of the hand of God in the affairs of mankind? Let us “let God be true and every man a liar” (Rom 3:4).

Here is what scriptures teach concerning the extent of the hand of God in the affairs of mankind:

Isa 45:6  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

“I make peace and create evil” confirms what Joseph told his brothers… “it was not you that sent me here, but God…”

God’s sovereign hand over all evil is also declared in the book of Daniel:

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

God is ruling in the kingdom of men “and setteth up over it the basest of men.”  If it really were God who sent Joseph into Egypt, if God makes peace and creates evil, and if He ‘sets up over [this world] the basest of men”, then the fact is that He really is working “all things, [the good and the evil], after the counsel of His own will”, which is exactly what He tells us.

Let’s repeat that verse which tells of the extent of His intervention in the affairs of mankind:

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

The Lord is working “all things after the counsel of His own will”, yet He tells us, “Because ye have not heard my words…  I will… send… Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, [a very evil man whom the Lord calls] My servant, and will bring them against [My own people] … and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them.”

Jer 25:8  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words,
Jer 25:9  Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

The natural man knows nothing about the keys to the kingdom of heaven and therefore does not understand the principle involved in the Biblical statement which tells us that Truth is only to be found in “the sum of Thy word”:

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

We are not told, “Some of your words are true”. What we are told is that Truth, the mind of Christ, who is “the Truth” is to be found only in “the sum of Thy Word”. In other words, we must make ourselves familiar with the overall message of scripture, “line upon line and precept upon precept” concerning any subject if we really want to come to know the Truth of Christ and His mind on any matter.

Isa 28:9  Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
Isa 28:10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

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

It is not “them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts” who wrest and twist the word of God to their own destruction. It is those who cannot acknowledge that they are or ever have been spiritually “carnal… babes in Christ” who do so. Such people cannot acknowledge their own spiritual blindness, and yet they are today’s spiritual leaders. They are the modern-day Pharisees whose “blindness remains” and who have never so much as heard of a “carnal babe in Christ”, or that Christ came “that they which see might be made blind”:

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 [symbolizing modern denominational ministers] 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.

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 Lord’s people of Jeremiah’s day typify the Lord’s people of this day. The church at the time of Christ typifies the church of today, which would even now be the first to say, “Crucify Him”. They do not understand Christ simply because they are not given the ability to hear and perceive His Words:

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

They are not given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven:

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Our fate, and the fate of every man is in the Lord’s hands. If He wills to do so then He softens our hearts and makes us fearful of disobeying Him, and makes us subject unto His commandments. If He wills that we be rebellious then all He has to do is to harden our already rebellious carnal mind, thus giving Himself the occasion He is seeking to destroy our old man:

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

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

Our sins were prophesied by the Lord Himself:

Deu 31:27  For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?
Deu 31:28  Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them.
Deu 31:29  For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.

Our own experience of rebelling against the Lord, and being blessed to be judged in “this present time” and having our own self-righteous old man begin to be destroyed in ‘this present time’, is a type and a shadow of what the Lord will do with all the rest of mankind following the short season of rebellion which follows the thousand-year reign of “our Lord and His Christ”. When we “do evil in the sight of the Lord” it gives the Lord the “occasion [He is seeking] to provoke Him to anger through the works of [our] hands”, as Moses prophesied we would do “in the latter days”. Our rebellion has given the Lord the occasion He seeks to deal with our old man and to begin his destruction within us in “this present time”. So, the Lord’s words through Jeremiah apply to us first “for [our] good”:

Jer 25:10  Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
Jer 25:11  And this whole land [The Lord’s own people] shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

This is exactly what the angel with one of the seven last plagues in Revelation 19 tells us he himself has kept:

Rev 22:9  Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

Here is a statement in “the sayings of this book” concerning the Lord’s people who are being judged in this present time:

Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Rev 18:24  And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

If we have ever hated the doctrine of Christ, and we have all done so, then we are guilty of hating those who brought us that gospel, and in that sense, we are all guilty of the blood of the prophets and of the saints and of the blood of Christ Himself.

After the Lord has sacrificed nations for our sakes and after He has used self-righteous Babylon to deceive and betray us, then she and all the self-righteous kings over whom she has reigned will also be judged by the Lord:

Jer 25:12  And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

Isa 43:3  For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
Isa 43:4  Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.
Isa 43:5  Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;

The word translated ‘perpetual’ in verse 12 is the Hebrew word ‘olam’, which is demonstrated to be the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word ‘aion’. Here are four New Testament quotations from the Old Testament where the Hebrew word ‘olam’ is translated in the New Testament with the Greek word ‘aion’:

Old Testament:

Psa 112:9  He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever [Hebrew: ‘olam’, concealed, at any time]; his horn shall be exalted with honour.

Quoted in the New Testament:

2Co 9:9  (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever [Greek: ‘aion’, age].

Old Testament:

Psa 45:6  Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever [Hebrew: ‘olam’, concealed, at any time]: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.

Quoted in the New Testament:

Heb 1:8  But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever [Greek: ‘aion’, age]: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

Old Testament:

Psa 110:4  The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever [Hebrew: ‘olam’, concealed, at any time] after the order of Melchizedek.

Quoted in the New Testament:

Heb 5:6  As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever [Greek: ‘aion’, age] after the order of Melchisedec.

Old Testament:

Isa 40:8  The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever [Hebrew: ‘olam’, concealed, at any time].

Quoted in the New Testament:

1Pe 1:25  But the word of the Lord endureth for ever [Greek: ‘aion’, age]. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Judgment begins at the Lord’s own house, and His elect must come out of His unfaithful wife to begin to become a “chaste virgin espoused to one Husband” (2Co 11:2). In that process of “coming out of her”, Babylon is being judged within us.

Jer 25:13  And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.
Jer 25:14  For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.

This all has an outward, “will be” application for this world, but this judgment of Babylon must take place spiritually first within us as the Lord’s true and faithful ‘house… [His] wife… [His] sons’:

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.

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.

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

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

There we have it. The Lord’s elect are called “My people… an espoused virgin… the house of God [and] sons of God”. Indeed, we are all of those things as it serves to fulfill His purpose for us.

Let’s read Jeremiah 25:13-14 again:

Jer 25:13  And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.
Jer 25:14  For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.

Here is the New Testament version of these verses:

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

The words “every man’s work” here includes the works of the Lord’s elect, just as “no man” includes the Lord’s elect in:

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.

Both the Lord’s elect and “every man’s work” shall be tried by the same fire. That fire is the Word of God:

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

There is a “thousand year… kingdom of our Lord and His Christ” between “the resurrection of life” for the Lord’s elect, and “the resurrection of damnation (Greek: krima, judgment)” for all the rest of mankind.

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.

Notice that this judgment against the Lord’s own people has already been twice referenced here in this prophecy:

Jer 7:34  Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

Jer 16:9  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

“The voice of the Bridegroom” is the voice of our Lord Himself, and “the voice of the bride” is the voice of His bride, His elect, His espoused virgin, who speaks for Him in this world. Their voices are no more heard in “that great city wherein our Lord was crucified”. Their voices are no more heard in the churches and religions of this world. The Lord has taken away from Judah and Jerusalem the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water:

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

“Seven women” are mentioned in the first verse of the next chapter of Isaiah, which simply serves to confirm that “the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water have been take away from Judah and Jerusalem, and as Jeremiah puts it:

Jer 25:10  Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
Jer 25:11  And this whole land [The Lord’s own people] shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women [the completely apostatized church] 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.

Then in chapter 33 the Lord has dragged us out of Babylon. He has begun the process of judging that great whore within us, and we have begun the process of returning to Him with our whole heart.

Jer 33:11  The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.

“Return the captivity of the land, as at the first” is to bring us back to the Lord with the pure heart of the proselyte who is made “twofold more the child of Gehenna” than the self-righteous Babylonian ministers who were used of the Lord to first bring us to see our need for a savior.

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

It is of utmost importance that we take note that it is the Lord who “causes” the voice of he bridegroom and bride to cease, and it is the Lord who “causes” the voice of the bridegroom and the bride to return to the streets of Judah and Jerusalem:

Jer 7:34  Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

Jer 33:11  The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever:  and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.

The comforting message for us is that it is Lord who is “the author and finisher of our faith”, and He will finish the work He has begun within us:

Rom 9:28  For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

It is a great relief if we are given the faith to believe these words and to rest in “the author and finisher of our faith”.

That is our study for today, and here are the verses for our next study where we will learn that no one can avoid drinking of the cup of the wine of the Lord’s wrath:

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

[Study Aired October 4, 2020]

Isa 65:13  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:
Isa 65:14  Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.
Isa 65:15  And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:
Isa 65:16  That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.
Isa 65:17  For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Isa 65:18  But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
Isa 65:19  And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
Isa 65:20  There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

Our study today begins with the word, ‘Therefore’. For that reason, we will begin by simply reading the last four verses of last week’s study so we can understand the grounds for what is being revealed to us.

Here are those four verses:

Isa 65:8  Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
Isa 65:9  And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
Isa 65:10  And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
Isa 65:11  But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.
Isa 65:12  Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not. [Chose to “believe a lie” – 2Th 2:2:11]

Regardless of the subject and regardless of the numbers of persons involved in any story in the bible, whether it is Joseph and his brothers, or King David and King Saul, or Israel and Syria, or Israel and Assyria and Babylon, it is not over simplifying the message of the scriptures at all to say that all scripture concerns nothing more than two men. Those two men are “our old man” and our “new man”, and those two men are always at war with each other. Here is how scripture frames these two warring parties:

Gen 25:22  And the children struggled together within her [Rebecca, Isaac’s wife]; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
Gen 25:23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Those “two nations” are indeed “two nations”. They are not ‘one nation’ although they do come out of one womb, and that ‘one womb’ is “the first man Adam”. The first Adam in “every man” was “made to be taken and destroyed” because he has a “natural… carnal mind” which must be destroyed if the new man is to be birthed. This is how Christ speaks of these two men:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die [our carnal minded old man], it abideth alone : but if it die [if it is destroyed], it bringeth forth much fruit [If our rebellious, carnal-minded old man dies then it is through that dying process that our new man is born].
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life [the life of a carnal mind] shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Only one of these two men can “inherit the kingdom of God”. Therefore, the first man, our natural man, our “old man” must begin to be “put off” and be destroyed and begin to die before “the new man” can begin to be born. The ‘birth’ of our “new man” is a process which continues within us until we draw our last physical breath. Only then will we “bear the heavenly” body in the fullness of our “new man”:

1Co 15:42  So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
1Co 15:43  It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
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 [A “spiritual body” can pass through a locked door and appear as a natural body. A “natural body” cannot do that, Luk 24:39].
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 [our old man]: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly [our new man].
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
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 such thing as “a spiritual physical body” as so many teach].

“The old man [and] the new man; the first man [and] the second man”; these are the two men with whom all scripture is concerned.

Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

‘Putting off the old man and putting on the new man’ are both in the aorist tense and are taking place daily within our new man. ‘Corrupt according to deceitful lusts’ and being ‘renewed in the spirit of your mind’ are both in the present tense as the dying process of our old man is being worked out.

That is the meaning of:

Isa 65:8  Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.

“Destroy it not for a blessing is in it” refers only to our ‘new man’. However, there can be no ‘new man’ until the old man dies:

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.

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

Our ‘old man’ is also called “the son of the bondwoman”, and this is what we know of his fate:

Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

We were “in time past… children of the prince of the power of the air… children of disobedience” but no more (Eph 2:2-3).

God has caused mankind to be associated with the number ‘six’ by creating mankind on “the sixth day” right there along with all the other beasts of the earth:

Gen 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

The spiritual significance of the number six is ‘that which is not completed’, especially as it refers to what is within mankind:

The Number Six

The spiritual significance of the number three is the process of judgment:

Numbers in Scripture – Three, the Process of Spiritual Completion Through Judgment

Number Three in Scripture

It is not a coincidence that mankind was created on the sixth day along with all the other beasts. It is not a coincidence because His creation of mankind in His image, with “dominion over… every living thing that moveth upon the earth”, is not yet complete. Mankind himself is a beast, and it is we ourselves over whom we, of ourselves, have no dominion:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Those words speak of our old man. He has “no preeminence above a beast” because he himself is a  beast who, like every other beast is “of the dust, and [sh]all turn to dust again”, and if there is not a resurrection from the dead of “all in Adam”:

1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Notice that it says “they… which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished”. It does not say, ‘they which are up in heaven with Christ.’ Neither are we ever told that those who “are fallen asleep” not knowing Christ are yet alive suffering excruciating pain in literal flames of fire. Quite to the contrary, this is what we are told of all who are “fallen asleep”:

Ecc 9:5  For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

I used to hate the Jehovah’s witnesses who first showed me that verse of scripture. I hated them, and I hated that verse of scripture simply because it did not fit in with the doctrine of the church I was in at that time.

In Genesis we are told that man is to have dominion over the fish, the fowl, and over all living things on the earth.

Gen 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

In Ecclesiastes 3 we are told that man has no preeminence over a beast. This apparent contradiction evaporates when we discover that the words “Let us make man in our image” are better translated as:

Gen 1:26 And saying is the Elohim, “Make will We humanity in Our image, and according to Our likeness, and sway shall they over the fish of the sea, and over the flyer of the heavens, and over the beast, and over all land life, and over every moving animal moving on the land.
Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them. (CLV)

Every verb in those two verses is in the Hebrew Qal stem which is the equivalent of the Greek aorist tense. What that means is that God did not “make man in His image”. The fact is that He shaped man in dust and iniquity and conceived Adam in sin as we clearly informed:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

However, did we not just read:

Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

This next verse to Gen 1:31 is needed to get “the sum of [His] word” concerning what was created in those six days:

Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

“All that in them is” would include the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the crooked deceitful serpent and thorns and briars. Indeed, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a “very good… tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. The “crooked serpent” was a “very good… crooked, lying, murderous” serpent. Adam and Eve themselves were “very good… flesh and blood… corruption”:

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

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

The serpent did not become a liar after Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They ate of that tree because the serpent beguiled and lied to them. That is what a “very good” serpent does. He is “very good” at what he was created to do. He did not become a “crooked serpent” after he lied to Eve. The Lord’s own hand formed that “crooked serpent”:

Job 26:13  By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

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

What does all of this tell us about that which is “very good”? The law of Moses is said to be “good”, and yet we are told it, “Is not for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.”

1Ti 1:8  But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1Ti 1:10  For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
1Ti 1:11  According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

Any application of the “lawful use of the law” of Moses must be applied in our lives “according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God”, and in answer to the question… What does all of this tell us about that which is “very good”? this is what “the glorious gospel of the blessed God” tells us about that which is “very good”:

2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious [the law of Moses] had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

Let’s look at that verse along with the verses surrounding it so we can get its full impact:

2Co 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, [“The law (of Moses) is good” – 1Ti 1:12] was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2Co 3:8  How shall not the ministration of the spirit [“The law of Christ”, Gal 6:2 and Mat 5-7] be rather glorious?
2Co 3:9  For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
2Co 3:11  For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

Based upon what we have just read, it is not adding to or taking from the Word of God to say, ‘That which was “very good” was not good at all by reason of that which excels.’ In other words, ‘The good is actually the enemy of excellence’ to the point that “the milk of the Word”, keeping the law of Moses, is the enemy of going on to perfection.

To make this point I will quote from the end of Hebrews 5 and the beginning of Hebrews 6 without the verses or the chapter breaks:

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. [Both the judgment which is now on the house of God and the great white throne judgment, the salvation of all]
And this will we do, if God permit.
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

The phrase “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ…” connects what was said about being spiritual babes to the “milk of the Word” doctrines which are all listed here, and the phrase “For it is impossible… to renew them again to repentance…” connects what has just been stated about those spiritual babes with the warning that “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance.” What we are being told is that those who insist on remaining only on the milk of the Word and see no difference between the called and the chosen, are actually “crucifying Christ afresh and putting Him to an open shame” and are simply unwilling to “go on unto perfection”. It is only those who are given to “go on unto perfection” who will be given “a crown of life [and] a coat of many colors”. The masses and multitudes who come to Christ are not given to receive these gifts because they instinctively realize that if they separate themselves from those who want only ‘the milk of the Word’ they will be rejected and ostracized and persecuted by the masses and multitudes who are not given to endure that “fiery trial” of rejection and persecution (1Pe 4:12). Being given by our Father a coat of many colors and a crown of life will separate us from our brothers and will cause us to be “hated of [our] brothers”. Many are so afraid of being made to differ from their brothers that they are willing to place themselves on the same level as the many called. God’s “very elect” are given to bear the rejection of their own brothers because they are “loved… more than all [their] brothers”.

Gen 37:3  Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
Gen 37:4  And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

The Lord has demonstrated this Truth to all of us when He dragged us out of Babylon, and then He has demonstrated it over and over again when He causes even those who were our equal, those who were our guides and our intimate acquaintances, to accuse us of placing ourselves above others. We must realize that our Lord was not only hated by the very multitudes He had fed and nourished, but He was even hated and betrayed by those who had broken bread with Him and with whom He had over the years taken sweet counsel, and with whom for years He had gone up the house of God. Do we think we are different from our Lord? We are not; rather we are Him, and we, too, will know what it is for those with whom we have “taken sweet counsel” to suddenly forsake us, turn against us and magnify themselves against us.

These verses are addressed to you and to me:

Psa 41:9  Even a man desiring my welfare, I trusted in him, eating of my bread; this one has lifted up his heel against me.

Psa 55:12  For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

Psa 55:13  But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
Psa 55:14  We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

Mat 10:24  The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
Mat 10:25  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

Act 22:7  And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

All these Words of Christ will never pass away. They will be experienced by the true saints of every generation:

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

When Christ says, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled,” ‘these things’ include “the end [of the age”] (vs 14), as well as “the abomination that makes desolate spoken of by Daniel the prophet” (vs 15). This demonstrates the ‘is, was, and will be’ nature of the Word of God. It will always have an application to those living at the time it was penned, as well as every subsequent generation… “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” Any and all exceptions to this rule are clearly qualified and made obvious in scripture. Being of the “blessed and holy… few” who are given to have a part in the first resurrection, while “the rest of the dead” who are not given that privilege “live not again till the thousand years are finished” is one example of a qualified exception in scripture (Rev 20:5-6). Another such exception is that those who are in the first resurrection are clearly told “the second death… shall not hurt [them] and has no power over [them] (Rev 2:10-11 and 20:6).

There is no way to apply these words to those who are in the lake of fire because “the lake of fire… is the second death”, and the devil himself is being purified in that ‘fire’:

Rev 2:10  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Rev 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

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

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

But when the apostle Peter writes:

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts [our old man], made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
2Pe 2:13  And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;
2Pe 2:14  Having eyes full of [spiritual] adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
2Pe 2:15  Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

Those who are given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Mat 13:10-15) will always remember these words of the apostle Paul, and will give every word here in 2 Peter a primarily personal application, while at the same time acknowledging that the scriptures also have a secondary past application as well as an apocalyptic end time application:

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course [Greek, ‘aion’, age] of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ [‘quickened’ Greek: aorist tense, ‘being given life’], (by grace ye are saved;)

Rev 1:18  I am he that liveth [Is], and was [Was] dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore [Will be], Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Those who are granted to remember that “we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” will never forget to apply these words of the apostle Peter first and foremost personally, and not place them somewhere out there on someone else.

Knowing the meaning of, “My words shall never pass away” we will always apply these words of Peter to our own old man whom we all know very well we have served for so very long.

If we read scripture from any other perspective it becomes nothing more than a history book, with absolutely no personal application. But if we see every story in scripture as a struggle between the kingdom of our old man and the kingdom of our new man, and if we understand that these two nations are always at war within our own heavens constantly struggling one against the other, then we will appreciate and  understand these words:

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

There are “two nations” within every man. One is the first to be given the hegemony over our heavens. Those “two nations” share a common ancestor, and yet they have nothing else but the fact they are both being judged in common. Their ‘common ancestor’ is “the first man Adam”, and just as his actions involuntarily negatively affected all men, so also “the last Adam’s” actions will also positively, involuntarily affect all men of all time. In other words, God did not “make men in His image”, rather the Truth of the scriptures is that He is in the process of making man in His image in two phases. Those two phases of His creation are “the first man Adam”, and “the last Adam”:

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made [Greek: aorist tense] 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.

Our study today concerns itself with the contrasts which exist between these two men who have nothing in common but the judgments of their Creator:

Our last study ended with the Lord revealing to us the marred condition of our old man:

Isa 65:11  But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.
Isa 65:12  Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.

Being “numbered to the sword” is being numbered to destruction, which is indeed the fate of our old man.

Our study today contrasts the cursed fruit of the ways of our rebellious old man with the blessings of the fruit of having Christ and His mind living within us:

Isa 65:13  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:

It is our old man who, while spiritually starving to death and spiritually dying of thirst and being shamefully naked, actually thinks he is “rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing”:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Remember “the time is at hand” that we are to “read… hear… and keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book”.

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

As the converted Nebuchadnezzar, a type of our new man, confessed after seven years of humiliation of his typical ‘old man’ at the hands of the Lord:

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

Such is how the Lord has chosen to work with His creatures. It is only through much humiliation and tribulation that any of us will enter the kingdom of God. It is only through being brought to see our miserable, starved, thirsty and shamefully naked condition that the Lord drags us to Himself, as He tells us repeatedly throughout the scriptures:

Job 27:14  If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

Lev 26:26  And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women [false doctrines in false churches] shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.

Just as Isaiah is doing in this 65^th chapter, throughout scripture the Lord contrasts the fate of our old man with the fate of our new man:

Psa 37:18  The LORD knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.
Psa 37:19  They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

Isaiah continues with this contrast between the rewards for the humility and obedience of our new man in “this present time” to the shameful, poverty-stricken fruits of the pride and rebellion of our old man against his own Creator and Maker:

Isa 65:14  Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.

“My servants shall rejoice… My servants shall sing for joy of heart” does not mean we will do so because we will know nothing but physical blessings and physical Pollyanna joy in “this present time”. Do not allow yourself to be taken in with the insidious false doctrine of a “substitutionary atonement”. That particular lie is believed by literally millions of Christians. That false doctrine teaches that Christ came to this earth to die for you, which is, of course, true. Nevertheless, just as he did in the Garden of Eden, the serpent states a truth and then twists that same truth into a lie which simply cannot be detected by those who live on nothing but smooth, sweet milk of the Word. Christ did not come and die for us so we could avoid persecution and avoid the hatred of all men. These are His own words:

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.

Does that sound like Christ thought His death on the cross would somehow miraculously deliver us from sore trials in “this present time”? Just a few verses later, in this same chapter, Christ tells us in very clear language that He did not die for us so we would not have to die. Rather, He died for us so He could come to us through His Father’s spirit and give us the strength to die with Him for “His body’s sake, which is the church” (Col 1:24-27).

This is what Christ has to say about the function of His death for us and what we can expect if we are granted to believe in Him and His doctrines:

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.
Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

There it is in very clear language. Christ expects us to die with Him. He did not die for us so we could avoid death. The exact opposite is the Truth.

This is how the apostle Paul expresses how these words of our Lord affected his life:

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

These “earthen vessels” (2Co 4:7) are the curse of the corruption which cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 15:50), which is the subject of our next two verses:

Isa 65:15  And ye [you and I, our old man] shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen [our new man with a “new name”, Rev 2:17 and 3:12]: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:
Isa 65:16  That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.

We will show what is our “new name” shortly.

“Swearing by the God of Truth” has been changed by our Lord to simply stating the Truth, which ‘Truth’ is that we will be the first to be saved, and in time “through [our] mercy… all in Adam shall be made alive in Christ”:

Mat 5:33  Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
Mat 5:34  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
Mat 5:35  Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
Mat 5:36  Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
Mat 5:37  But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

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.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

All the blessings of the kingdom are ours at this very moment in down-payment earnest form. “The redemption of the purchased possession” is the fullness of our promised reward, and all of that is yet before us if we are granted to endure “much tribulation” to the end:

Isa 65:17  For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Isa 65:18  But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

This “new heavens and new earth” are being created within us at this very moment through “much tribulation”, and “Jerusalem” is the “new name” mentioned in verse 15:

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

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

If indeed we are Christ, as He declares (Mat 25:40 and Act 22:8), and if indeed “His inheritance is in the saints” as we are informed in:

Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Our new name is His new name and that name is “New Jerusalem”, a name befitting our “new man”. It is Christ and His Christ who “come down from God out of  heaven”, first to rule within us at “this present time” (Rom 8:18), and then to rule over the kingdoms of this world for “a thousand years”.

This is what life is like in the New Jerusalem of Isaiah 65. Isaiah 65 is the inspiration for these words:

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 [Aaron Lohman, Tony Cullen, Steve, and all of us] 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.
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.

“The manifested sons of God” are “the New Jerusalem” which Christ is presently creating within us. In “this present time” we can and should be rejoicing in the glory that is to be revealed in us:

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

As “the manifested sons of God” the best is yet to come, minus all the suffering of this present time, and according to our Lord “[He] will rejoice in [us]… and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in [us], nor the voice of crying” when He receives His inheritance in us. Christ rejoices in His inheritance which is in us, and we are to rejoice in our inheritance in Him:

Isa 65:19  And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

To which Christ adds these words:

Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

“[His] people [are] His inheritance”:

Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Christ’s inheritance is in us, and ours is in Him:

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure [“Christ within us”, Col 1:27… “the earnest of our inheritance” Eph 1:14] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

However, not all “[His] people” of this age will be “faithful [and] endure to the end” in His service in “this present time”. We will all fill out every one of the days which are written in our “books” (Psa 139:16 ASV, Rev 20:12). Those “books” record in advance every little thing we do while in these earthly vessels of clay (Jer 18:4; 1Co 15:47-49), and that which is done in and of our flesh is the spiritual significance of the number ten, and all of its multiples. Here is the URL to The Spiritual Significance of The Number Ten: The Number Ten

Isa 65:20  There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

The Hebrew word for ‘child’ is ‘na’ar’ (H5288), and it means a mature young man capable of battle and of heavy labor. Here are the first two times this word appears in the Old Testament:

Gen 14:23  That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou [the king of Sodom] shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:
Gen 14:24  Save only that which the young men [Hebrew: na’ar, the young men who fought with Abraham to rescue Lot from the kings of the east] have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

Gen 18:7  And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man [H5288: na’ar]; and he hasted to dress it.

A ‘na’ar’, a ‘young man’ who dies a hundred years old’ and is not an “accursed… sinner”, in New Testament Greek, is an ”elect”, ‘uihos’, a “son of God”:

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons [G5207: ‘uihos’] of God.

Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons [G5207, ‘uihos’] of God.

Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons [G5207, ‘uihos’], God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son [G5207, uihos] into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

The fact that Isaiah 65:19 tells us that Christ “rejoices in Jerusalem… [His] people “, and the fact that verse 22, which we will cover in our next study, calls “[His] people” in this context “His elect”, demonstrates that “the child being an hundred years old shall die [to his old man],” refers to “His elect”, our “new man… in this present time”, being birthed through the death of our old man. “The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed”, because he is not dying to his old man in this present time and is therefore condemned to Gehenna, the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death. The fact that this particular ‘sinner’ also lives to be 100 years old and is called “My people”, and yet he is “accursed” and  is being contrasted with “the child [young man] dying at 100 years old, qualifies this particular “accursed… sinner” of Isaiah 65:20 as typifying those who were once known of Christ, as Judas was, and yet are cast into the lake of fire to be purified being “condemned with the world”:

Here is how Christ describes this particular ‘sinner’ who is feasting with His people in ‘Jerusalem’:

Mat 22:11  And when the king came in to see the guests [at the marriage of the king’s Son, vs 2] he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
Mat 22:12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

This is how those who are given a proper wedding garment are given to avoid the fate of that man:

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge [G1252: diakrino, verb, separate, make a distinction, to prefer] ourselves, we should not be judged [G2919: krino, verb].
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged [G2919: ‘krino’ – verb, judged in this present time] we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned [G2632: katakrino, down judged, judged against] with the world.

Being “condemned with the world” refers to the judgment against the ungodly and sinners of this present age who will “appear” at the “white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death” because they are not being judged along with “the house of God… in this present time”:

Mat 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation [G2920 Greek: ‘krisis’, judgment] of hell? [G1067 Greek: ‘ghenna’, the great white throne judgment, ‘krisis’, the lake of fire/ second death].

Joh 5:27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment [Greek: ‘krisis’, G2920] also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [at the beginning of the thousand year reign]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [Exact same Greek word translated ‘judgment’ in verse 27, ‘krisis’ G2920… the “white throne… judgment”, Rev 20:11-15].

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment [G2917: ‘krima’, noun, neuter, same root as the Greek noun, ‘krisis’ G2920: feminine, noun], must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? [They will be “condemned with the world to the “resurrection of damnation [Greek: ‘krisis’, Joh 5:27-29]
1Pe 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

That is our study for today, and here are the verses for our next study where we will learn that all “[the Lord’s] elect”, who are in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection” are even now in down-payment form, given to build and plant the things of the spiritual ‘kingdom within’ ourselves, and to even now eat the fruits of the spirit, and to have dominion over every beast in our lives, even in “this present time” as the elect of the Lord:

Isa 65:21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
Isa 65:22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Isa 65:23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
Isa 65:24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
Isa 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

Download Discussion

Isa 62:1-6 I Have Set Watchmen Upon Your Walls O Jerusalem

[Study Aired July 5, 2020]

Isa 62:1  For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
Isa 62:2  And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
Isa 62:3  Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
Isa 62:4  Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
Isa 62:5  For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
Isa 62:6  I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,

The first verses that came to my mind in picking the title for today’s study were:

Act 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

“Oversee… [watch] all the [Lord’s] flock… therefore watch” and be the “watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem”. This warning and this commission here in Isaiah has little to do with world affairs. Those who oversee the Lord’s flock are watching out for “men who speak perverse things” and bring to us the necessary “heresies among you”:

1Co 11:19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

As I have demonstrated many times, it is typical of Hebrew writers to state the same thing twice using two different items or names to make their point. When we read:

Gen 48:2  And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.

It is obvious that ‘Jacob’ and ‘Israel’ are one and the same person.

When Isaiah says:

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.

It is again obvious that ‘Sodom’ and ‘Gomorrah’ are speaking of one and same peoples.

Likewise, when we read in the first verse of this chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 62:1  For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

It is again obvious that ‘Zion’ and ‘Jerusalem’ are again the same people of God.

However, there is a process which ‘Zion’ must endure before she is made righteous.  The fact is that the words ‘Sodom’ and ‘Gomorrah’ are also two more names which refer to Zion as the great Harlot which she must acknowledge herself to be, and of which she must repent before her “righteousness goes forth as brightness and [her] salvation… as a lamp that burns.”

The Truth is that the words, “Ye rulers of Sodom; [and] ye people of Gomorrah” in the introduction to this Isaiah prophecy is also addressed to Judah, Jerusalem and Zion, all types of us as the Lord’s special people.

Let’s return to the first chapter of this prophecy and just look at how the Lord addresses us as His own people:

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.

“Judah and Jerusalem” typify the Lord’s elect, but notice closely how the Lord’s elect first appear to Him in His perception of what he first made us to be:

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.

Israel, Judah and Jerusalem are all types of the Lord’s chosen people of Zion, as we see here in chapter 62 where we are being shown the glorious end product of our fiery trials, and where we are being made to know what is the “redemption of the purchased possession” and what is meant by “to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ”:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Look at how Paul speaks of our own beginnings. Just as the holy spirit revealed that “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me” was required in Isaiah’s prophecy of Israel, Paul, too, was moved of the same single-minded holy spirit to make us to know that we also, being the true “Israel of God” (Gal 5:16), are first, by our Maker’s design, servants of “the prince of the power of the air”. We, too, must first be the sons “of [our] father the devil” (Joh 8:44):

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

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

Joh 8:44  You come from your father, the devil, and you desire to do what your father wants you to do. The devil was a murderer from the beginning. He has never been truthful. He doesn’t know what the truth is. Whenever he tells a lie, he’s doing what comes naturally to him. He’s a liar and the father of lies. (GWV)

Here we have Christ telling the “Jews that believed on Him” (Joh 8:30-31) they are “of [their] father the devil”. The church of Christ’s day, represents the churches of our day who profess Christ but hate His doctrines. Then we have the apostle Paul, speaking under the inspiration of the same holy spirit, tell us, “We all…were…by nature…the children of wrath even as [all] others.” Then Paul informs us that because God has “predestinated us” to be “to the praise of His glory” that we are now seated with Him in the heavens (Eph 2:6). How is it possible for us to have been “as others, walking according to the… prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience… fulfilling the desires of the flesh… by nature the children of wrath” and yet now be seated “with [Christ] in the heavens” (Eph 2:6)? The answer is that it is all the predestinated work of His own hands fulfilling what He promised to us “before the world began”:

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of [our] 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 first man, Adam”, as death-bound, earthy, marred and corruptible as he is, still typifies “the last Adam… a life-giving 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.
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.

We need to notice that it does not say ‘The first man Adam was made a living soul; Jesus Christ was made a quickening’. While that is certainly true, it does not make the point the holy spirit is making, and it doesn’t make the point the holy spirit wants us to understand, which is:

Heb 2:11  For both he that sanctifieth [Christ] and they who are sanctified [all mankind] are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Now look at the preceding verse:

Heb 2:10  For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

“Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things” is “not ashamed to call [us His] brothers”. That is how He sees us, and that is how He wants us to see Him. He is not ashamed of us. We are “His workmanship”, His brothers. We are the work of His hands, and He identifies with us:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Heb 2:15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Heb 2:16  For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Heb 2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Christ made us as we are, and to demonstrate His love for us He emptied Himself of the glory He had with His Father, and took on Himself the seed of Abraham and became subject unto death.

Php 2:7 but did empty himself, the form of a servant having taken, in the likeness of men having been made,
Php 2:8 and in fashion having been found as a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient unto death–death even of a cross, (REV)

It was He who made “the first man Adam”. Of what character and composition are we made by Him?

This is what we are told about what this “first man Adam” is:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

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

This how Jeremiah makes this same point:

Jer 18:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2  Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
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.

“The vessel He made of clay was marred in the Potter’s hand”, because, as Ephesians two explains:

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; [in the Potter’s hand]
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature [“In the hands of the Potter”] the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Did any of us vote to be “dead in trespasses and sin”? Of course, we did not ‘vote’ to be “dead in trespasses and sins.” Instead we all “by nature… fulfill the desires of the flesh and the [carnal] mind” whether we wanted to do so or not. We are all “by nature… dead in sins”, and yet the Lord has taken a chosen few in this present time (Rom 8:18) and “made us to sit together in the heavens”.

We have all been led by the great whore and her daughters to believe that “the first man Adam” was a perfected creation of God. We have all been lied to and led to believe that Adam and Eve, of their own free will, rebelled against God and plunged all mankind into a fallen state. Nothing could be further from the truth. “The fall of man” is not a Biblical phrase, nor is it a Biblical doctrine, and yet I have heard a very well known man with an international TV ministry say, “The first thing I am going to do at the resurrection is to walk right up to Adam and punch him in the nose.” This minister and many, many others believe that God Created mankind in a state of perfection from which Adam fell when His listened to his wife who had taken her instructions from the fallen serpent.

The fact is that God, our Creator and Maker, can make us any way He pleases, both in the garden of Eden and right this moment as He continues here in Jeremiah 18 to explain to His adulterous wife, Israel:

Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

It is therefore by our Maker’s decree that we are all, as were our original parents, Adam and Eve, “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the same in hope”:

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,

“Subjected… the creature… to vanity… in hope” does not mean that the Lord hopes in vain to save a few of mankind from death and destruction. Remember, what the Lord wants or hopes for is exactly what He gets!

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

Does the Lord tell us what He desires for mankind? Yes, He does, and He tells us over and over again:

1Ti 2:4  Who [Christ] will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

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.

Does “specially of those that believe” mean ‘exclusively of those that believe’? Absolutely not!

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

The Lord tells us that He is in fact using the unbelief of most of mankind for the occasion He is seeking to keep the vast majority of mankind spiritually deaf and spiritually blind, “lest He should heal them and they should be converted.”

Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

The Lord revealed to the apostle Paul that He intended to use a very select few as the channel and conduit through which He “will have all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the Truth.”

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.

In the end, the Lord will “have mercy upon all”, but that mercy of God will come “through your mercy”. In the interim both His elect and the masses of mankind are predestinated to have an experience of evil and misery, groaning and travailing in pain together until now:

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

This “experience of evil… given to the sons of humanity” by the Lord Himself, is the same as being “made subject unto vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the same in hope” as we read earlier:

Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

“The bondage of corruption” is these bodies of sinful flesh and blood which are defined in those very terms:

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

Let us go back to the first chapter of Isaiah where we read earlier in this study the Lord tells us that we have “rebelled against Him”:

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.

It is in this state of “the bondage of corruption” (Rom 8:21) and rebellion (Isa 1:2) the Lord first begins to speak to us as it was revealed in the first chapter of this prophecy of Isaiah:

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.
Isa 1:8  And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Isa 1:9  Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
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.

It is from that sad state in chapter one, having become “a harlot” (Isa 1:21), that the Lord drags us out of that great harlot through ‘falling seven times’ (Pro 24:16), through being tormented day and night in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb (Rev 14:8-12), and by our fulfilling the seven last plagues of the wrath of God (Rev 15:7-8), to the glorious blessing of:

Isa 62:2  And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
Isa 62:3  Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

The Lord reveals all these glorious blessings to us because He knows we need to be encouraged, and lifted up and built up in the spirit.

Isa 62:4  Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.

‘Hephzibah’ means:

H2657
חֶפְצִי בָּהּ
chephtsı̂y bâhh
khef-tsee’ baw
From H2656 with suffixes; my delight (is) in her; Cheptsibah, a fanciful name for Palestine: – Hephzi-bah.

‘Beulah’ means:

H1166
בָּעַל
bâ‛al
baw-al’
A primitive root; to be master; hence (as denominative from H1167) to marry: – Beulah have dominion (over), be husband, marry (-ried, X wife).

“Beulah… Your land shall be married” tells us this:

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.

The marriage union is but a type and shadow of Christ and the church:

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

As the wife of our Lord, we must call Him our Lord and obey His doctrines:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

If we do what our Lord tells us to do, then we will “know of the doctrine” whether it is of the Lord or of men.

Joh 7:17  If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

Isa 62:5  For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.

This is one more verse which demonstrates that in scripture a son of God is also the bride of Christ, just as Christ is both the son of God, and at the same time submits to His father “as unto the Lord” as his head (Eph 5:22 quoted above) and:

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

“The head of Christ is God” does not reveal a trinity. What it does reveal is that Christ’s Father is also His husband to whom He submits as a wife to her husband.

Joh 14:28  Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

We are called “the sons of God”:

1Jn 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

At the same time, we are told we are “espoused to one husband… Christ”.

Like our Lord we are both a son and a wife, and in the spirit that is no contradiction at all.

Isa 62:6  I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,

We are “a chaste virgin espoused to one husband” (2Co 11:2), we are “sons of God” (1Jo 3:1-2), we are shepherds and bishops of the Lord’s flock (Act 20:28). We are spiritual soldiers in the Lord’s spiritual army (2Ti 2:4), and we find that we are also “watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem” and are expected to be ever vigilant and sober and diligent to watch over the Lord’s flock as Paul warned the Ephesian elders:

Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

“Overseers” are “watchmen” who the Lord has placed “on the walls of Jerusalem… [to oversee His flock. The Lord’s true watchmen] shall never hold their peace day nor night: [If we] make mention of the LORD, [we will] keep not silence”.

We have all fallen to the wiles of men arising and speaking perverse things while in Babylon, but we have also “of [our] own selves [had] men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves”.

There is one reason and one reason only why we ourselves are not taken in by such “men… speaking perverse things”, and that one reason is this:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jacob treated Esau worse than Esau treated Jacob. King David’s sins against Uriah and Bathsheba and against Israel were greater than the sins of King Saul. Yet the Lord had already decided who would and who would not be written in His book. These things are types of us in that we take credit for nothing, and yet we can take great comfort and encouragement knowing what is the mind of God and His love toward us.

That is our study for today. Here are our verses for our next study:

Isa 62:7  And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
Isa 62:8  The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured:
Isa 62:9  But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness.
Isa 62:10  Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
Isa 62:11  Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
Isa 62:12  And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.

Audio Links

Awesome Hands - part 130 Discussion

1 file(s) 9.61 MB

Download

Awesome Hands – part 130

Denied by Edom

February 9, 2018

Many times in our lives we find ourselves in need. Whether it is for the basic needs of life like food and shelter, or for those times where we need a helping hand, the Lord has created in us a capacity to always need one another.

He uses this capacity to cause us to look toward one another for help, and how we act or react shows us where our hearts and minds are towards our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. This is also true for the general population of people around us who may not be apart of the household of faith yet.

Our study today finds us with the children of Israel being denied access to a resource that would have made their travels and lives a lot easier. Being denied, the Israelites “turn away” from Edom.

The answer is no

Our verses for consideration today are found in Numbers 20. We are going to be picking up form where we left off last week. Moses has just struck the rock, instead of speaking to it, thus denying himself passage to the promised land.

Numbers 20:14  And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:
Numbers 20:15  How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers:
Numbers 20:16  And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:
Numbers 20:17  Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.
Numbers 20:18  And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword.
Numbers 20:19  And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet.
Numbers 20:20  And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.
Numbers 20:21  Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.

The children of Israel are in a strange land, which is not their land, and they are trying to get to where they have been promised by the Lord. Sound familiar?

Along the way, they hearken to their family for help on this journey.  The family of course were their kin folk the Edomites. Edom was founded by Esau, and the Israelites are the descendants of Jacob.

No doubt, Moses was appealing to this family connection when he asks the king of Edom for passage while mentioning to Esau about their “travail”. After all, aren’t family supposed to help family? Well, this would not be the case for Edom helping the Israelites.

There is a particular part of these appeal of Moses to the Edomites that reveals to us a lot about how we are received in the world and specifically by our families. Our Christian families are especially important to note in this story.

Numbers 20:16  And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:

If you remember the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, it was Moses who was used to go to the Pharaoh. It was Moses who has been used to intercede with the Lord so that His will was made known to the people. Yet, we are told clearly that “an angel has brought us forth out of Egypt”.

Here are some more complimentary verses to help us understand this discrepancy.

Exodus 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:

Exodus 32:34  Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.

Acts 7:34  I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
Acts 7:35  This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

From these verses it is apparent that Moses was speaking with an angel of God who spoke on behalf of God. We are not left to wonder who this angel of God is.

1 Corinthians 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
1 Corinthians 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
1 Corinthians 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
1 Corinthians 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

If that doesn’t make it any clearer, I will read from John to see if that sheds any light on the subject.

John 5:31  If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
John 5:32  There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.
John 5:33  Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.
John 5:34  But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.
John 5:35  He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
John 5:36  But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
John 5:37  And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
John 5:38  And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.

Jesus Christ was sent to do the will and works of God the Father. These works bear witness that Jesus is who He says He is. Jesus finishes this section of John by telling these Jews, who wanted to kill Him, that they do not have his word abiding in them.

Just before Jesus says this, we see whom it is Jesus is speaking with and sent to at this time.

John 5:16  And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
John 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
John 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

I want to be crystal clear in what I am saying, and how Moses petitioning the king of Edom to let the Israelites pass through the land, is just like us being sent into the world to do the same thing. We just want passage through this wretched world we live in.

Jesus just proclaimed something that will cause us to be mocked and hated by all men for his names sake.

“ ‘He’ …. said also that God was His Father, making himself EQUAL with God”.

Yes, my own flesh bulks at that comment. Why? Because if Jesus claims to be the Son of God, and was killed for making Himself equal with God, then I too must be doing the same exact thing when I proclaim to be the son of God? Right?

1 John 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1 John 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and IT DOTH NOT YET APPEAR WHAT WE SHALL BE: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:3  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

1 John 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

When I proclaim to be equal with God, what I am proclaiming is that I have been adopted into the family of God as a son. This hope in me proclaims that I do not know what I shall be when I resurrect, but NOW I am a son of God. This hope purifies me.

Taking this concept back to Moses and the king of Edom, who is it we will continue to go to war with while in this life and age if it is not with our own family?

Of course I am speaking about our physical families, but knowing that we are all children of God, and that everyone will come to know this as the Truth eventually, it is beneficial for me to realize that all men will hate me because the “mind” of men is in EVERYONE! The old man in all of man will hate the NEW MAN in ME and You!

That is how all men will hate us.

Our lives and our walks are very simple in concept, but very hard to walk out. It was quite a simple concept that Moses was to take the Israelites to the promised land.

If they had taken a “straight” path, approximated to be 250 miles along the sandy coast, they would have went directly to enemy territory in Philistia. They didn’t go through the Sinai Peninsula which would have probably baked them all since it is a plateau.

Instead, they went south down a coastal plain and then onto many stops along the way. All told, they wondered in the wilderness for 40 years.

This tells us much of how our walk will go with the Lord and with those He places in our lives.  We go on a harder and more round about path to the Lord in living our lives with the hope in us that I spoke of before.

The “obvious” and easiest path is the one that is wide. The path that is narrow is the one much less traveled. On most journeys we take, we want comfort and surety. We certainly to not want stress and uncertainty.

We don’t like the unknown and we have a fear of it. Instead of doing something new that many have never tried, we would rather go back to what we know, Egypt in this case of the Israelites.

We need to accept these truths because, like it or not, when we go to our brother Edom, we are going to be rejected.

Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

Mark 12:10  And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner:

Luke 7:28  For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater              than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
Luke 7:29  And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.
Luke 7:30  But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.

You and I will be rejected, just as the people of God were, because we 1) claim to be God’s people, His sons, and 2) claim to be as He is in this world.

We cannot be accepted because being sons to the King of kings, makes us all kings, and that means there is a kingdom we are all apart of.

Luke 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luke 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:22  And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
Luke 17:23  And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
Luke 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
Luke 17:25  But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
Luke 17:26  And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Luke 17:27  They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

Moses and the Israelites pleaded with the king of Edom to allow them to simply just pass through his land. They wouldn’t use anything of value and they would go via the kings highway. The kings highway is just another way to say the public road.

Numbers 20:18  And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword.
Numbers 20:19  And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet.
Numbers 20:20  And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.

When we clarify with our friends, family, loves ones and others that we simply just want to move along and be no burden to them or others, they then get even more aggressive in our attempts to be less intrusive to them.

In other words, the more we desire to have PEACE, they want to make war with the new man IN US.

Numbers 20:21  Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.

Our hearts and minds are no very different from those who experienced this happening to them all that time ago. Eventually, we will see where the hearts and minds of our loved ones are and then it will be time for us to turn away from them.

There is no cruelty in this, but it is simply what needs to be done. We simply turn and go away and in a different direction than our family and friends.

This will be used as an occasion against them however, as the Lord will not forget this behavior being perpetrated against His name in and on you.

We see this played out in other parts of scripture, but the message for today is to except these things to befall you as the sons of God from those whom you’d least except it to come from.

Do good to all men, especially to those of the household of Faith, and rejoice in the hope that has been given to you.

Galatians 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6:8  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Galatians 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Galatians 6:10  As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Hello all,

I need help understanding what is “their first estate” and “habitation” that the angels leave. I know that “angels” just means messengers, so this is referring to God’s elect.

Jdg 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting [ age- lasting] chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Thank you,

B____

Hi B____,

Thank you for your question. You ask:

Can you tell me what was “their first estate” and “habitation” that the angels left, that Jude refers to in this verse?:

Jdg 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting [ aionian] chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

To understand Jdg 1:6, you need to read 2Pe 2. Here are both with the surrounding verses:

Jdg 1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jdg 1:5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
Jdg 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting [ aionian] chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

The subject Jude is dealing with is “people… that believed not”, it is not spirits which are angels that rebelled against God’s rule, as many teach. Peter makes the same argument in slightly different words:

2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2Pe 2:2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
2Pe 2:3 And through covetousness shall they [ false prophets] with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
2Pe 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
2Pe 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
2Pe 2:6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
2Pe 2:7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

The sins of “the old world” are the same as the “false prophets” who are likened to “the angels that sinned”. The “false prophets” of 2Pe 2:1 equate with “the angels that sinned” of verse 4. Notice how the word ‘angel is used in these verses:

Num 20:14 And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:
Num 20:15 How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers:
Num 20:16 And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:

Both the word “messengers” in verse 14, and the word “angel” in verse 16, are the one Hebrew word ‘malak’, meaning ‘a messenger’, Verse 14 is referring to human messengers, and verse 16 refers to a spirit messenger. The Greek equivalent is the Greek word ‘angelos’ which is found in the two verses we are considering, and it too, can mean either spirit of human messengers. In the case of the verses in 2Pe 2:4, and Jude1:6, it is definitely referring to men who “as Sodom and Gomorrah… went after strange flesh”. “The word ‘angels’ means ‘messenger’, and God’s ‘messengers’ to that “old world” were the descendants of Seth, who God gave Adam and Eve instead of “righteous Abel”, and to be His ambassadors, His messengers or ‘angels’ on this earth in that day.

Gen 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

That is why Seth was so named. Here is what the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia tells us about the name ‘Seth’.

“In Gen 4:25 the derivation of the name is given. Eve “called his name Seth: For, said she, God hath appointed (sha th) me another seed instead of Abel.”

So ‘Shath’, Seth, was “appointed… another seed instead of Abel”. It is his seed, as opposed to Cain’s seed, which is traced to Noah of whom we are told:

Gen 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

The previous eight verses inform us:

Gen 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
Gen 6:2 That the sons of God [ Seth’s descendants, “the angels that sinned, [ and] kept not their first estate” 2Pe 2:4 and Jdg 1:6] saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. [ Angels “neither marry nor are given in marriage”, Mat 22:30]
Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
Gen 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Gen 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

So while evil spirits are indeed awaiting judgment, that is not the subject of 2Pe 2:4 and Jdg 1:6. The subject is “the world that then was” and that world was made up of “all in Adam”, who is the father of all who are in “vessels of clay”, also known as bodies of ‘sinful flesh’.

Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

So that it is only “the first man Adam [ and] the last Adam”, who have no physical father. I hope all these verses make clear that “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation” refers to God’s chosen people, before the flood, leaving their position as God’s habitation’, to corrupt their generations, by seeing “the daughters of men that they were fair; and [ taking] them wives of all which they chose”.

Exo 15:2 The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

It was the children of Seth who were called “the sons of God” before the flood, just as Israel was called God son after the flood (Hos 11:1).

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

It was “the wickedness of [ men who had] kept not their first estate [ as God’s typical, ‘chosen people’, and had left their habitation” as His habitation, which caused God to cast them down to ‘tartaroo’ and reserve them to the day of judgment of ungodly men”.

Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Now let’s look at 2 Peter one more time, and notice what it was that brought down God’s wrath upon mankind:

Jdg 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Jdg 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Whatever it was that these “angels” did, it was the same “as Sodom and Gormorrah, [ not ‘as spirits’], going after strange flesh”, and that is what is “set for an example [ for us] suffering the vengeance of aionian fire”.

Your brother in the Christ,

Mike