Matthew 28:1– 20 The Resurrection 

[Study Aired December 29, 2025]

In our study today, we shall look at the testimony of the angel regarding Christ’s resurrection. The study is also about Jesus’ appearance to the women, the false report of the guards, Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in Galilee and finally, the commission He gave to the disciples. 

The Resurrection

Mat 28:1  In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.  

The time given here is to show us that Jesus was in the grave for three days as prophesied in the Book of Hosea as follows: 

Hos 6:1  Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 
Hos 6:2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 

We can see that everything about Christ, regarding His life here on earth, had been written by God in His Book. As He is, so are we. Our lives here on earth have been written before the foundation of the earth by God.

Psa 139:16  but with your own eyes you saw my body being formed. Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything I would do. (CEV)

Sometimes in our walk with Christ, we become confused and disillusioned as to what is happening to us. We wonder if we are going to make it to the first resurrection. Verse 1, which tells us about the time of Christ’s resurrection, therefore gives us the confidence that what God has started with us, He is able to bring to an expected end. He will not let us see corruption.

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

Psa 16:10  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 
Psa 16:11  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. 

Therefore, let’s not throw away our confidence, which will bring us the great reward of ruling over the kingdoms of this world and the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. 

Heb 10:35  Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. 
Heb 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. 
Heb 10:37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Heb 10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. 
Heb 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Our problem is that we worry about many things. This is what Jesus told Martha when Jesus went to Bethany to raise Lazarus from death. 

Luk 10:41  And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 
Luk 10:42  But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. 

The antidote to worrying is that we turn our focus from the raging storm around us and focus on Christ, that is, to believe in Him. 

Joh 14:1  Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 

It is instructive to note that here in verse 1, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulcher where Jesus was buried. These women represent the church of the Lord’s elect. What this implies is that the role of the church is to support us as we go through the dying of our flesh or our old man. The fact that there were two women means the truth that the church must be supportive of us as we go through the dying of our flesh is an established fact.    

2Co 13:1  This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.  

In 1 Corinthians 12:26, the Lord uses the metaphor of a body to illustrate that if one part suffers, every part suffers with it, emphasizing the church’s shared experience and concern for each other as we die to the flesh.

1Co 12:26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

Mat 28:2  And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. 
Mat 28:3  His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: 
Mat 28:4  And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. 

Prior to these verses, the chief priests and the Pharisees, inspired by the devil, had conspired to keep Jesus in the grave by forcing Pilate to post soldiers at the tomb. This is all to show us that what the Lord has planned for us shall not be derailed by the forces of hell. 

Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

Isaiah 14:27 “For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”

Verses 2 to 4 relates to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. All that happened – the great earthquake, the angel descending from heaven, the rolling back the stone from the door, the angel’s countenance becoming like lightning and his raiment as white as snow, and the guards becoming like dead men, are all to show us the power of the Lord’s resurrection. This is the same power the Lord avails to us when He visits us in our spiritually dead state, to lift us up to become alive in Him.

Isa 29:6  Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. 

The power behind the raising of the Lord Jesus from death is what sets us free from our prison of sin. That is why it is important to experience the power of His resurrection in our lives.

Act 16:26  And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.   

Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 
Php 3:11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 

It is worth noting that the angel’s raiment was as white as snow. During the transfiguration, Jesus’ raiment was as white as snow. 

Mat 17:1  And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 
Mat 17:2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. 

On a positive note, the Bible shows us that although our sins be as scarlet, when Christ comes to us, our sins shall be as white as snow. In other words, when we are raised from death to sit with Christ in heavenly places, we shall put on Christ’s righteousness.

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 

Because of the fear of the angel, the guards became like dead men. Dead men in the Bible signify all those who are not given eyes to see and ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God. These guards therefore represent our brothers and sisters who see the physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus but are not given to know the power of His resurrection in their lives.   

Isa 59:10  We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

Mat 28:5  And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
Mat 28:6  He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 
Mat 28:7  And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. 
Mat 28:8  And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

It is the church of the Lord’s elect, symbolized by the women, who were given to know about the Lord’s resurrection. That is why when Jesus was resurrected, He did not show Himself to the Chief priests, Pharisees and Sadducees. Rather, it was the church in Jesus’ day that met the resurrected Jesus in Galilee. It is important to note that it was in Galilee that Jesus was to meet the disciples. Galilee in the Old Testament and in Jesus’ time was referred to as Galilee of the Gentiles. In other words, although Galilee was a Jewish city, there were many Gentiles living there, hence the name, Galilee of the Gentiles. 

Mat 4:15  The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 

Isa 9:1  Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.  

Jesus meeting the disciples in Galilee after His resurrection is therefore to show us spiritually that His death and resurrection was for the whole world and not just the prerogative of the physical Jews. 

Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 
Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 
Eph 2:16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

In verse 8, the women left the sepulchre with fear and great joy as they ran to bring the good news of Christ’s resurrection to His disciples. As we know, the women represent the church of the Lord’s elect, and it is the church which is to make known to the body the fellowship of the Lord’s suffering and the power of His resurrection. 

Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 
Php 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.     

The women departing with fear and with great joy was because of the message they had received from the angel. The fear here is the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. 

Pro 9:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. 

It is the word of the Lord which brings joy and comfort to our soul as we are refreshed by what every joint supplies. 

Phm 1:7  For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. 

Mat 28:9  And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.
Mat 28:10  Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” 

The women taking hold of Jesus’ feet when He appeared to them signify the church of the Lord’s elect’s profound respect, humility, and worship as it acknowledges the Lord’s divine authority. As the bride of Christ, we must submit to Him in all things.

Eph 5:24  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 

One of the tools used by the devil against us is to cause us to be afraid or to fear the unknown. Today, the Lord is telling us not to be afraid of whatever circumstance in which we find ourselves. This is because the Lord is in control of everything as all authority has been given to Him after His resurrection. 

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  

The Lord’s instruction to the church, represented by the women, was that they should meet Him in Galilee. At every point in time, the Lord has predestinated us to be at certain places, and it is these places that when we seek Him, we shall find Him, although He is not far from us. 

Act 17:26  And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 
Act 17:27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 

The Report of the Guard

Mat 28:11  Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. 
Mat 28:12  And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
Mat 28:13  Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. 
Mat 28:14  And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. 
Mat 28:15  So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. 

The chief priests here signify the leaders of the church system of this world. In the Bible, a city stands for a church, either positively or negatively. The elders represent the political leaders who are in league with the church system of this world.  

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

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels.

The guards who came to the city represent us when the Lord first came into our lives. We were very willing to share the resurrection power of the Lord in our lives with the leaders of the church system of our day. However, the church system offered us the false doctrine of prosperity as signified by the money the chief priests gave to the guards. This is because the church system is in league with the government and are not interested in the truth, as we see the chief priests consulting with the elders or the kings of the earth.

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

In verse 13, the chief priests came up with falsehood by telling the guards to say that Jesus’ body was stolen in the night by His disciples, which the guards accepted because of the money they had received. This is a clear example of the false doctrine spewed by the devil, which the church system of this world accepts. 

Rev 12:15  And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 
Rev 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 

We can conclude from this incident that the church system of this world or Babylon does not love the truth. This is because the minds of our brothers and sisters in Babylon have been polluted with false doctrines propagated by the devil and his messengers. We were filled with false doctrines at a certain stage of our walk with Christ, which prevented us from knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection.

2Co 11:12  And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. 
2Co 11:13  For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 
2Co 11:14  And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 
2Co 11:15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. 

The second thing we can conclude from this story with the guards is that the church system of this world spews false doctrines which clouds the minds of people who have begun their journey with Christ.

2Co 4:3  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 

Thirdly, most of the preachers of Babylon are motivated by the love of money which is the root of all evil. 

1Ti 6:9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 
1Ti 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

The Call to Teach all Nations

Mat 28:16  Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 
Mat 28:17  And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 
Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 

As we have learned from previous studies, a mountain on a positive note represents the assembly of the Lord’s elect as shown in the following verses:

Isa 2:2  And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 
Isa 2:3  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Isa 56:7  Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. 

Therefore, the Lord wanting to meet the eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee is another way of saying that where two or three people are gathered together in His name, He is there with them. This implies that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as He speaks to us through what every joint supplies. 

Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 
Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 
Heb 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: 

It is instructive to note that among the eleven disciples who met Jesus in Galilee, some of them doubted. This implies that in our gathering, we are not of the same level of faith. However, we all have the same mind of seeking to know the Lord. 

Psa 122:9  Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good. 

Jesus proclaiming that all power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth is not to make us see how powerful He is. It is to make us aware that He is making this power available to us, His elect, to bring us to an expected end as His brothers. Verse 18 is the same as what is spoken in John 3:35 as follows:

Joh 3:35  The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.  

All of these verses show us the Lord’s intention and powerful ability to fulfill His purpose concerning His elect, in this age, and the rest of the world later. It entails working through our trials to bring about His ultimate plan of uniting all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. 

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  

2Pe 1:3   According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

Eph 3:20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 
Eph 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. 

Mat 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 
Mat 28:20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. 

Here in verse 19, Jesus is admonishing us to go and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To be able to understand verse 19, we need to know what the sum of the Lord’s words says about discipling people of the nations. This is because many have used this Bible verse to spend their resources to go to the nations preaching to people who do not even have a clue as to who Jesus is.

Psa 119:160  The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. (ESV)

Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman gives us a clue of what we are to do. 

Mat 15:22  And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” 
Mat 15:23  But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”
Mat 15:24  He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 
Mat 15:25  But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 
Mat 15:26 And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 

As Jesus is, so are we. Our mission is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The lost sheep of the house of Israel are God’s people who have gone astray and are scattered in the nations of this world. We are to preach to our brothers and sisters in Babylon who are deceived, when given the opportunity. If we look at Paul’s ministry in the Book of Acts, he was ministering mostly to the Jews scattered in the nations. 

Act 17:1  Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 
Act 17:2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,   

Apostle Peter puts our responsibility to preach the gospel to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, this way:

1Pe 3:15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
1Pe 3:16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 

According to verse 19, if our hearers respond to our message of Christ, we are to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christ’s words are spirit, and therefore this does not mean that we have to physically baptize them in water. According to Acts 1:4-5, we are to baptize them in the Holy Spirit and with fire. 

Act 1:4  And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 
Act 1:5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.  

Luk 3:16  John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: 

Baptizing them with the Holy Ghost means helping them to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. This entails opening their eyes to understand the word of the Lord in the spirit. Baptizing them with fire means making them to understand that it is through our suffering that we learn righteousness.

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 
1Pe 4:2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 

Verse 20 makes it clear that our role is to disciple those whom the Lord makes available to us to talk to. We are to teach them to become obedient children of the Lord. In His words to the disciples, Jesus told them that He is with them always, even to the end of the world. This calls for us to fight the good fight of faith knowing that we are not alone in this fight.

Jos 1:9  Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. 

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.

Glory be to God. Amen!!

[Study Aired February 6, 2022]

Jer 30:13  There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.
Jer 30:14  All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.
Jer 30:15  Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.
Jer 30:16  Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.
Jer 30:17  For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
Jer 30:18  Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.
Jer 30:19  And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
Jer 30:20  Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.
Jer 30:21  And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD.
Jer 30:22  And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Jer 30:23  Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.
Jer 30:24  The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.

In our last study the Lord told us:

Jer 30:11  For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.
Jer 30:12  For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.

This lament is repeated a second time just a few verses later in today’s study:

Jer 30:15  Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.

It is of utmost significance that we take note that all this lamentation for the sad spiritual condition of our old man is for the purpose of producing the Lord’s ultimate outcome. The Lord’s goal in our lives is expressed in verse 11 of last week’s study. I will quote it again with verse 12 which connects us with today’s study:

Jer 30:11  For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.
Jer 30:12  For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.

The book of Revelation reveals that the Lord’s elect, who are being judged in this age, must endure His wrath just as those who will come up in “the resurrection of judgment”. They will also endure the wrath of God in their judgment which is called in scripture ‘the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/ second death’ (Rev 20:7-15).

Because we will “not be left altogether unpunished” we will therefore be punished for our iniquities and our sins in the very same ‘fiery words’ that will judge those who are “cast into the lake of fire”.

The last verse of our last lesson gives us the reason we will not be left altogether unpunished:

Jer 30:12  For [H3588: ‘kiy’, because] thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.

The Lord goes on to explain why our bruise is incurable, why our wound is grievous, and why our “sorrow in incurable”:

Jer 30:13  There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.
Jer 30:14  All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.
Jer 30:15  Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.

“[Our] bruise is incurable… [our] wound is grievous… [our] sorrow is incurable for the multitude of [our] iniquity”. The Lord uses our own self-righteousness, which is inherent in “the vessel that He made of clay” (Jer 18:4) as the occasion He can always count on to justify His judgment of the rebellious kingdom of our self-righteous old man. It is only through the purifying flames of our destruction that we are cleansed of the corruption, rebellion, and the loathsome stench of self-righteousness that is this vessel of clay:

Psa 51:2  Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
Psa 51:3  For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Psa 51:4  Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Look closely at what we just read… “[So] that you might be justified when you speak and be clear when you judge me, I have sinned against you and done this evil in your sight!” That is the very purpose for our sins and our self-righteous transgressions. Our self-righteous transgressions are as much a part of “all things” as are the “good works which God has ordained that we should walk in them”:

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

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.

These words are written when King David had been shown his own sins by the prophet Nathan.

Psa 51:1  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

The Lord is showing us that our sins are first and foremost against the Lord Himself, giving Him every right to ‘make us again, another vessel as it seems right to The Potter to make us’:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. [with me]
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me [both good and evil (Pro 16:4, Isa 45:7)]: and many such things are with him.

2Sa 12:9  Wherefore [Why] hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

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.
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.

The Lord is not afraid of what we might think of Him. He makes His part in our trials very clear… “the vessel that He made of clay was marred in the hand of the Potter… I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one…” It pleases Him to bruise us, and to give us a fiery judgment and to destroy the kingdom of the enmity that is inherent in our carnal minds. It is He who brings us to our “wits’ end” before He brings us to our “desired haven”:

Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

It pleases the Father to do everything “after the counsel of His own will” including ‘bruising’ our Lord and us:

Isa 53:1  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
Isa 53:2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Isa 53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isa 53:4  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isa 53:6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him [on us (Lev 16:10)] the iniquity of us all.
Isa 53:7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth [Rom 12:1, 1Co 15:31, Gal 2:20, Col 1:24].
Isa 53:8  He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken [Col 1:24].
Isa 53:9  And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Isa 53:10  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed [His elect], he shall prolong his days [Through the resurrection (Rom 6:1-4)], and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Isa 53:11  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities [Lev 16:7-10 and 21-22].

This 53^rd chapter of Isaiah is to the Jewish religion and commentators what Colossians 1:24 is to the orthodox Christian community. They simply cannot understand how Christ can be spoken of in these terms:

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:

You and I, through Christ within us, ought to identify with every word of Isaiah 53:1-11. We should do so because the Lord tells us:

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

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.

These verses identify us with the Christ of Isaiah 53 and with the scapegoat of Leviticus 16:

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

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

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.

We should identify with every word of Isaiah 53 because the scapegoat symbolizes us as “a living sacrifice” who ‘fill up in our [own] bodies that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ’:

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:

Our suffering as “a living sacrifice” fills up that part which “the live goat”, the “scapegoat” fulfilled as it also “made an atonement with [Christ]”.

Our suffering as “a living sacrifice… [puts] all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins… upon the head of the [scape]goat… to make an atonement with [Christ]”:

Lev 16:7  And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Lev 16:8  And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
Lev 16:9  And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
Lev 16:10  But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

Lev 16:21  And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man [“Christ in us”, Col 1:27]  into the wilderness:
Lev 16:22  And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you [“a fit man”, Lev 16:21], the hope of glory:

We are the Lord’s scapegoat. We are His living sacrifice who are “crucified with [Him], nevertheless [we] live, yet [it is not we who live] but [it is] Christ who lives in us… bear[ing] all their iniquities”, all the iniquities of “His body which is the church”.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live [as the Lord’s scapegoat]; 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.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ [“Crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20)] in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

How did Christ endure all of this? He did it the same way we endure it. He did it through the power of His Father’s spirit within Him:

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

The same is true for us. Without Christ, who lives His life within us by His Father’s spirit, we, too, “can do nothing”:

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Joh 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Joh 15:26  But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Joh 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Here we have the truth about the Godhead right from the mouth of the Lord Himself. “The comforter… is the holy spirit… the comforter… is the spirit of Truth”. Then, who is this spirit called “the comforter”?

To answer that question, we first have to become aware of the fact that the Greek word translated ‘comforter’ is G3875 ‘parakletos’. This word is translated as ‘comforter’ four times, and all four times are in John; once in John 14:6, twice in John 15:26, and once in John 16:7.

G3875
παράκλητος
paraklētos
Total KJV Occurrences: 5
comforter, 4
Joh_14:16, Joh_15:26 (2), Joh_16:7
advocate, 1
1Jo_2:1

Notice what e-Sword reveals. This Greek word ‘parakletos’ appears a fifth time in the epistle of this same apostle John in 1^st John 2:1. As though cleverly and deliberately hidden from our eyes, the revelation of who this ‘parakletos’ is in that verse is not translated as ‘comforter’. Instead, it is translated as ‘advocate’.

Who then is this ‘comforter’ who is also called ‘the holy ghost… the spirit of Truth [and our ‘advocate’? Here is to whom it is that all these different titles apply:

1Jn 2:1  My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate [G3875: ‘parakletos’] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

Now we can understand what Christ meant when He told us in John 16:14 that the comforter would “receive of mine and show it unto you”:

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Joh 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

The very next verse explains what Christ meant by “receive of mine…” Christ can call His Father’s spirit “mine” because His Father gave it to Him for Christ to give His Father’s spirit to us “from the Father”. The holy spirit is called “the holy spirit of God” (Eph 4:30) because it is the spirit of the “one God, the Father”, and it is Christ Himself who informs us that “the comforter, which is the holy spirit… proceeds from the Father”:

Joh 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Joh 16:15  All things that the Father hath are mine [including His holy spirit]: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Joh 15:26  But when the Comforter [our “Advocate… Jesus Christ” (1Jo 2:1)] is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

1Co 8:6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things [including Christ and “the holy spirit of God”, Eph 4:30], and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

Eph 4:30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

After we have been judged and have learned that “our righteousness is of God” and is not of ourselves, then our old man and those whom the Lord used to judge us will themselves be judged:

Jer 30:16  Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.
Jer 30:17  For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
Jer 30:18  Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.

“The city shall be builded upon her own heap” is telling us that our salvation comes to us at the expense of the destruction of our old man and all his false lying doctrines. The false doctrine of the trinity, upon which the false doctrine of an immortal soul is based, has now become spoil to me and these lies are mine “for a prey”, and I am being healed of all the wounds all those false doctrines inflicted upon me. I am indeed “called… an outcast” but such persecution is “not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” if we are given to “endure to the end”:

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.

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.

Jer 30:19  And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
Jer 30:20  Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.
Jer 30:21  And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD.

The holy spirit tells us that “Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving… I will glorify them”. What this reveals is that we are “out of… Jerusalem above the mother of us all”, who is also known as “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”. That is who we are!

“Their nobles shall be of themselves” means we will all be “of the same mind” (1Co 1:10).

Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

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.

Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

“Their governor” sounds as if it is speaking of an individual, and to the extent that we are “one in Christ”, it is speaking of a single governor. However, if we are “in Christ” then we are a nation of kings and priests who will govern all nations. First, we must be granted to govern all the nations and principalities within us, and then we will be given to govern the nations of “this world”:

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;
2Co 10:6  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world [within us first (Rev 1:3)] are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Jer 30:22  And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Jer 30:23  Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.

Carefully notice the change of tone between these two verses. Verse 22 proclaims the glorious outcome of the Lord’s purpose and His plan (Rom 8:28). “Ye shall be My people and I will be your God.” Verses 23 and 24 proclaim the judgment which is required to bring about that purpose and that plan (Heb 12:6).

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.

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:

Job 23:10  But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

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

Jer 30:24  The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.

It requires “the fierce anger of the Lord” against the rebellious kingdom of our old man and against this rebellious world to “perform the intents of His heart”. The ultimate “intent of His heart” is for all men to be saved. The intent of His heart for this present time is that through His “fierce anger, and His fiery judgments to save a “few… a very small remnant”, and then through those few He will judge and save all the rest of mankind:

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.

Mat 20:16  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

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

1Ti 2:4  Who 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. [It does not read ‘Exclusively of them that believe”]

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

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

What the Lord wants, the Lord gets. He Himself performs in me and in you and in all men what He desires:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

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

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

Having His mind is to have His spirit, and it is His spirit which imparts to us His peace, and His peace surpasses all understanding because we are given to know that all His judgments will, in the end, teach all men His righteousness.

We will conclude this study with two very encouraging and peaceful sections of scripture which concern the outcome of all we have been given eyes to see and ears to hear:

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

Therefore:

Php 4:6  Never worry about anything. But in every situation let God know what you need in prayers and requests while giving thanks.
Php 4:7  Then God’s peace, which goes beyond anything we can imagine, will guard your thoughts and emotions through Christ Jesus.
Php 4:8  Finally, brothers and sisters, keep your thoughts on whatever is right or deserves praise: things that are true, honorable, fair, pure, acceptable, or commendable.

Here are our verses for our next study as we continue to be shown how the Lord preserves us even as He judges us:

The Lord Will Turn Mourning to Joy

Jer 31:1  At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:2  Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
Jer 31:3  The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jer 31:4  Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
Jer 31:5  Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.
Jer 31:6  For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.
Jer 31:7  For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
Jer 31:8  Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.
Jer 31:9  They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
Jer 31:10  Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
Jer 31:11  For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
Jer 31:12  Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
Jer 31:13  Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
Jer 31:14  And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.
Jer 31:15  Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
Jer 31:16  Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
Jer 31:17  And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
Jer 31:18  I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.
Jer 31:19  Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
Jer 31:20  Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.

Dan 3:1-30 They Serve not thy Gods nor Worship the Golden Image

[Study Aired November 22, 2021]

Dan 3:1  Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. 
Dan 3:2  Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. 
Dan 3:3  Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 
Dan 3:4  Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, 
Dan 3:5  That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up: 
Dan 3:6  And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. 
Dan 3:7  Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. 
Dan 3:8  Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews. 
Dan 3:9  They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live for ever. 
Dan 3:10  Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall down and worship the golden image: 
Dan 3:11  And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. 
Dan 3:12  There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. 
Dan 3:13  Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king. 
Dan 3:14  Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 
Dan 3:15  Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Dan 3:16  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 
Dan 3:17  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 
Dan 3:18  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. 
Dan 3:19  Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. 
Dan 3:20  And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 
Dan 3:21  Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 
Dan 3:22  Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 
Dan 3:23  And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 
Dan 3:24  Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. 
Dan 3:25  He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. 
Dan 3:26  Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. 
Dan 3:27  And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. 
Dan 3:28  Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. 
Dan 3:29  Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. 
Dan 3:30  Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon. 

Daniel Chapter 2 ended with Daniel being given great gifts and made a ruler by Nebuchadnezzar.  This is to let us know of the great gifts our Lord is giving to us.

Dan 2:48  Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. 

As we indicated in the previous review, becoming partakers of His divine nature through escaping from the corruption that is in the world through lust, is what these great gifts from the Lord are achieving in us. That is what will guarantee us the prize which is also the joy that is set before us. This joy entails reigning with Christ when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.  Daniel, together with the three Hebrew men, were made rulers to assure us that we shall also possess the crown of rulership in the fullness of time.

1Co 10:11  Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

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

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

Today’s study of Daniel chapter 3 focuses on who we are and how through our fiery trials, represented here by the furnace, those called and chosen are not given to worship the image created by Nebuchadnezzar.

Dan 3:1  Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. 

This image of gold created by Nebuchadnezzar represents the beast or the old man in every human being.  This is confirmed by the measurements of the image. It has a height of 60 cubits and a breadth of 6 cubits. As we are aware, the number 6 signifies the number of man. The number 60 = 6×10. The number 10 means completeness of the flesh. It shows our complete rebellion against our Lord. So, the image represents the beast or the old man within who is the source of all our rebellion against God.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 
Num 14:23  Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

The image set up by Nebuchadnezzar was made of gold, which signifies how the old man corrupts the truth of the word of God. In other words, we turn the precious word of the Lord into images of men or idols of the heart which is the same as false doctrines, which is the stumbling block of iniquity during our time in Babylon powered by the old man (the image of gold). This old man is also empowered by the devil.

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

It is significant to know that the image of gold was set up in Dura of Babylon. Dura means ‘dwelling’. So, what we are being told is that during our time or dwelling in Babylon, we were under the influence of this image or our old man.

Dan 3:2  Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. 
Dan 3:3  Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 

The list of those invited to come for the dedication of the image of gold included all the prominent people of Babylon. In verse 4, those invited also included people, nations and languages. This means all the people of the world were present at the dedication.

Dan 3:4  Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages,

The dedication of the image represents the observance of days, times and seasons which is part of the weak and beggarly elements of the world as spoken of by Paul as follows:

Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 

According to Strong, the element here means the rudiment or principle of this world. A “rudiment” is a basic, elementary principle or act of worship which became one of the subjects of Paul’s teaching. This rudiment or element does not involve God’s laws at all but rather worldly and pagan teachings.

Col 2:20  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 
Col 2:21  (Touch not; taste not; handle not; 
Col 2:22  Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 
Col 2:23  Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.  

Examples Paul gave regarding this rudiment or principle or element of the world involved the observance of days, months, times and years.

Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. 

So, what verses 2 and 3 are showing us is that all people of the world, who are all dominated by the beast or the old man, are sold out to the observance of days, times and seasons. We used to also follow the rudiments of the world until our Lord started opening our eyes to see and our ears to hear.

During the early part of this year, I was talking to a pastor who was trying to invite me to the mother’s birthday celebration. I responded that I cannot be part of the birthday celebration because of Galatians 4:10 which talks about us not taking part in weak and beggarly elements of the world. The response that came out of the pastor’s mouth was this: “But we are doing it for the Lord. We are thanking God and giving Him the glory for adding another year to our mother.”  I was going to say that Saul also spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to offer sacrifice to the Lord but was rejected for not obeying the word of the Lord to destroy everything that breathed. However, I felt that I should not continue the discourse as the pastor is entrenched in the ways of this world. I, therefore, left the pastor to continue in ignorance.

1Sa 15:14  And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? 
1Sa 15:15  And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. 

Dan 3:5  That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up: 
Dan 3:6  And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. 
Dan 3:7  Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. 

As indicated earlier, the image signifies our old man or the beast within every human being. The verses here imply that all humanity bow down and worship the image or the beast. We all bow down and worship the beast during our time in Babylon.

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 

Dan 3:8  Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews. 

As shown in the first review of the Book of Daniel, the term “chaldea” came to include practically all of Babylonia and was virtually synonymous with the neo-Babylonian empire. Chaldea means ‘clod breakers’. A clod refers to a lump of earth or clay. The Chaldeans therefore are those that the Lord used as an instrument of judgment to discipline God’s elect, signified by the Jews. Thus, the accusation raised by the Chaldeans against the Jews is all part of the process of perfecting the elect to conform to the image of Christ.

The woman who was caught in adultery and being brought before Jesus by her accusers was for the purpose of stoning her or putting her to death. However, this experience which was meant for evil turned out to benefit her in the sense that she came to know Jesus’ voice and also realized that she was sinful. This fiery trial that this woman went through was as if she had been resurrected from death to life. So, what our accusers meant for evil, actually ends up for our good.

Joh 8:10  When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 
Joh 8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. 

We are this woman caught in adultery in the sense that we committed whoredom while in Babylon. We were destined to be put to death by stoning. In this case it is the old man that is being put to death. The stones here represent the word of God, which put to death the old man within us through stoning, and simultaneously bring to birth the new man after the image of Christ.

As we shall see later, this accusation resulted in the three Hebrew men undergoing judgment from the king, resulting finally in being exalted to higher positions. Yes, it is very troubling when we are being accused or undergoing judgment, but our Lord will not tempt us beyond what we can bear. May His name be praised!!

Dan 3:9  They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live for ever. 
Dan 3:10  Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall down and worship the golden image: 
Dan 3:11  And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. 
Dan 3:12  There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. 

It is God’s elect, represented here by Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who do not bow down to the beast nor serve other gods (another Jesus).

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 

Dan 3:13  Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king.
Dan 3:14  Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 

When the devil realizes that we have overthrown him from his hold on us through the daily dying of our old man, resulting in us refusing to worship the beast, the devil comes with great wrath knowing his time regarding his influence on our lives is very limited or short.

Rev 12:7  And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 
Rev 12:8  And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 
Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 

Rev 12:12  Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Dan 3:15  Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?

It is those who are dying daily to the flesh or the old man who are the ones who are cast into a burning fiery furnace to speed up the destruction of the old man.

Isa 48:10  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 

When we are under the illusion that we control our will or destiny, then we behave like Nebuchadnezzar thinking that not even God will prevent us from getting what we want since He has given us our will. It is when we enter the house of God that we realize that without Him, we can do nothing and that there is no such thing as having our own will to do whatever we like!! Everything is of God!!

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Dan 3:16  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 
Dan 3:17  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 
Dan 3:18  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. 

These verses are to let us know that the three Hebrew men did not love their lives even unto death. They were prepared to lose this life to gain it. That is also what happened to Esther. She was prepared to come before the king uninvited and suffer the consequence of losing her life in the process. The word of God says that these things were written for our admonition.

Mat 16:24  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 
Mat 16:25  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Est 4:15  Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, 
Est 4:16  Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. 

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

Dan 3:19  Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. 

The furnace being heated seven times is to let us know that we are speaking here of the complete trials we face in this life which destroy the old man in us. This furnace represents our trials and the heat of the fire from the furnace signifies the word of God which is the fire that purifies us seven times.

Psa 12:6  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

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. 

Dan 3:20  And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 

Being bound before being thrown in the furnace is to let us know that we are all servants of corruption (slaves of sin) and therefore in bondage to our old man. That is why we have to go through the furnace to completely (seven times) set us free from our bondage to sin.

2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 

2Ti 2:26  And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. 

Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 

Dan 3:21  Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 

Being bound in their coats and other garments means that we were entrenched in our self-righteousness which is iniquity. Casting their garments into the furnace symbolizes the destruction of our self-righteousness – a negative application of garment.

Gen 35:2  Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:

2Ki 25:29  And changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life.

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

The positive application of garments represents the righteousness of Christ.

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

Dan 3:22  Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

The flame of fire that slew the men that took the three Hebrew men into the furnace is the word of God. To us, this fire, or the word of God, is light to our path and liberates us from our shackles of sin. On the other hand, this word of God, or flame of fire, becomes darkness to those not given to know Christ in this life.  The flame of fire slaying them means that those who are not elected in this life become spiritually dead.

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

Dan 3:23  And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 
Dan 3:24  Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. 
Dan 3:25  He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. 

We go into our trials (furnace) bound, but we end up being free from our bondage to sin (signified by the four men loose and walking) by the death of our old man. In other words, we learn righteousness from our fiery trials.

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

The fact that Nebuchadnezzar saw four men loose is to let us know that all of God’s called and chosen of every generation must experience fiery trials. That is what will set them free from all bondage.

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. 

Nebuchadnezzar said that the fourth man he saw was like the son of God. We know that this son of God is our Lord Jesus Christ who is with us in our tribulation.

Isa 43:1  But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. 
Isa 43:2  When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. 

His coming to us in our fiery trials is for the purpose of providing a way of escape so that we can bear these trials.

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Dan 3:26  Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. 

In the fullness of time, we shall be called out of the furnace of affliction of this life into glory. The world we live in is like a furnace. To the elect, it is the furnace that destroys our old man and brings us into righteousness. To those who are not given to know Christ in this life, it is a cloud that darkens their understanding of the love of Christ and therefore does not produce righteousness.

Job 14:14  If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. 
Job 14:15  Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.  

Dan 3:27  And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. 

The statement “the fire had no power, nor an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them” is just another way of saying that nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ.

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.

The negative application of the fire having no power over them is that the suffering experienced by those who do not know Christ in this life does not result in righteousness. Rather, it darkens their understanding.

Gal 3:3  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 
Gal 3:4  Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

We, the elect, are those who are coming out of the great tribulation first. Later, the whole of humanity will also come out of this tribulation.

Rev 7:13  And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 
Rev 7:14  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
Rev 7:15  Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

Dan 3:28  Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. 

We are those who put our trust in the Lord to deliver us from all our afflictions in this life.

Psa 125:1  A Song of Ascents. Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. 
Psa 125:2  As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore. 

We are also those who change the king’s word. To change the king’s word means we are those who put emphasis on the spiritual implication of the word of God and not the letter or the physical words of the Lord. In other words, we recognize that the word of Christ is spirit.

Joh 6:63  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 

To yield our bodies means we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. We can offer our bodies as sacrifice because the tribulation we are going through is achieving for us the righteousness of Christ.

Rom 12:1  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 

Another characteristic of those who have gone through or are going through tribulation unscathed is that they do not serve other gods except our God. This means that we are not in any adulterous relationship with another Jesus. We have come out of Babylon, the place where we serve other gods, to worship our Lord Jesus Christ.

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 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. 

Dan 3:29  Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.

This verse is the same as saying that no weapon formed or fashioned against us shall prosper.

Isa 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. 

Dan 3:30  Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon. 

The promotion here is the reward or the joy that is set before us. This joy entails reigning with Christ when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

1Co 10:11  Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.   

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

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

Conclusion

Here in Daniel chapter 3, we are being shown who we are. In other words, the image represents our old man or the beast within us who is worshiped by everyone except those who are marked as God’s elect. Our journey in Babylon is to bring us to this point of knowing who we are. This gives the Lord the occasion to come into our lives to judge us. This judgment is the furnace that the Hebrew men were thrown into.

The lesson we can learn from this chapter is that if we love our life, we will end up losing it, but if we lose our life, we shall gain it. Loving our lives means bowing down to the image created by Nebuchadnezzar or being under the influence of the flesh. If we love our lives, we do not go into any furnace in this life, but if we lose our lives, we are destined to be in the furnace of affliction of this life. The suffering we are all going through now attests of the reality of this furnace of affliction.

Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 

But that is not the end of the story!! The three Hebrew men came out of the furnace unscathed!! In other words, they ended up being overcomers. We are also predestined to come out of this furnace of life victorious. This present suffering is achieving for us incomparable glory which shall be revealed in the fullness of time!!

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. 

Jer 18:13-23 Let Us Not Give Heed to Any of His Words

[Study Aired September 26, 2021]

Jer 18:13  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
Jer 18:14  Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? Or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
Jer 18:15  Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
Jer 18:16  To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
Jer 18:17  I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
Jer 18:18  Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Jer 18:19  Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
Jer 18:20  Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
Jer 18:21  Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
Jer 18:22  Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
Jer 18:23  Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

Whenever our study begins with the word ‘therefore’ we must review the last verses of our last study:

Jer 18:11  Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
Jer 18:12  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

That is the ‘therefore’ that provokes the Lord to ask:

Jer 18:13  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

The Lord catches us in our open adultery and tells us of our adulterous ways. Then He admonishes us with great patience to “return” to Him, but we refuse to do so. “Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things” is the same message the holy spirit is dealing with in the church at Corinth, when the apostle Paul admonishes us:

1Co 5:1  It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.

Leaving the Lord, our spiritually legal husband, to worship our flesh and the great red dragon, is the equivalent of leaving pure life-giving waters to drink from a sewer. The fact that we do this provokes the Lord to ask:

Jer 18:14  Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

These words are addressed to each of us because we just naturally take our spiritual husband’s love for granted, and we just naturally use the knowledge of His sovereignty to turn His grace into lasciviousness so we can continue to please our flesh and continue in our sins and our false doctrines. These actions place us in the spiritual position of ‘worshiping the dragon who empowers the beast’ which we all are by nature (Ecc 3:18, Rev 13:4).

The waters from the melting snow in Lebanon flow down and refresh the Lord’s people. Just as the Lord’s wife “spoils the Egyptians” (Exo 3:22), and inherits ‘cities they did not build, and vineyards they did not plant’ (Jos 24:13). Lebanon is not Israel, but Lebanon also belongs to the Lord, and He uses the snow of the mountains of Lebanon as He sees fit, to refresh His people, and yet they turn from Him to other gods.

The message here is the same as in the previous chapters:

Jer 2:7  And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.
Jer 2:8  The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
Jer 2:9  Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.
Jer 2:10  For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.
Jer 2:11  Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
Jer 2:12  Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
Jer 2:13  For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Jer 2:14  Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled?

The question the Lord is asking us is why are we forsaking pure, clean, cool, refreshing waters to drink from the muddy waters of “Sihor”, the Nile, in Egypt or the Euphrates in Babylon? Why do we change the Truth in His Word, for the lies of Egypt and Babylon?

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

Jer 2:18  And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria [Babylon], to drink the waters of the river?

Jer 17:13  O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth [as opposed to “in heaven” (Luk 10:20)], because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

Christ tells us that “fountains of living waters” is speaking of Him, and He tells us just how precious His ‘waters’ are:

Joh 4:13  Jesus answered and said unto her,  Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
Joh 4:14  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Like Esau we place no value on things that are in the distant future. Rather we live for the moment to please our flesh, and we forget the promise of “water springing up into everlasting life”.

It is much easier to do all the things that cause us to be accepted by family, friends, and the society we live in, than it is to be faithful to the Lord and be divided from that comfortable position in this world. We find it easy to forget what our calling entails:

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.
Mat 10:23  But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
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?

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.
Mat 10:40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

Notice just how redundant the holy spirit is in repeating over and over again how we, the Lord’s own people, have turned away from Him in our desire to do what we want to do. Our flesh just naturally hates being told what to do. That is especially true because those commandments are contrary to our natural mind and our natural inclinations:

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

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.

If you think that because you have been aware of the Truth for some time that your flesh is now subject to the law of God, then you are in for a rude awakening. It is true that if we “walk in the spirit we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh”:

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

It is also true that “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” is in the King James Version of the scriptures:

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

What tense do you suppose that statement is? Yes, of course, it just happens to be in the aorist tense and should read “the law of the spirit frees me from the law of sin and death”. Both the John Mitchell Version and the CLV correctly put this statement in the continuing aorist tense:

Rom 8:2   For the law of the spirit of The Life within Christ Jesus [or: For the Law of Life’s spirit, within Christ Jesus; or: For the Spirit’s law of life within Christ Jesus] frees you [sets you free] away from the Law of the Sin [the Failure; the Miss] and of the Death. (JMV)

Rom 8:2 for the spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus frees you from the law of sin and death. (CLV)

We are being supported by the spirit to overcome our flesh, but we must never ever think that we need not be diligent, vigilant, sober, and alert to the pulls of our flesh, and the power the Lord has given the adversary to try our faith, and make us forget who we are in Christ:

Jer 18:15  Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;

After listing all His accomplishments and all of his degrees bestowed upon him by men, Paul counts it all “loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ”:

Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them  but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Then He gives us the mindset which will never forget the Lord and who we are in the Lord. Here is the mind of Christ concerning how we are to think in order to “endure to the end”:

Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

‘Attained… apprehend and apprehended’ are all in the aorist tense and ‘being perfect [and] thus minded’ are in the present tense within the understanding that ‘perfection’ is a process that is taking place within the aorist tense. Perfection in the flesh was beyond even Christ’s abilities:

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 [being resurrected] I shall be perfected.

When we “stumble in [our] ways” we are being disobedient to His established Truth. To “cast up” a ‘way’ and a ‘path’ is to properly prepare that ‘path’ and that ‘way’ by building up what is right and proper and by removing every rebellious stumbling block which is not right or proper:

Isa 57:13  When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;
Isa 57:14  And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people.
Isa 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity [‘inhabits the future’ (CLV)], whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

‘Putting our trust in the Lord’ means that we love Him, and we fear to disobey or disappoint Him. Love is obedience:

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

“Know[ing] that we love the children of God” comes only through being obedient to Him and His doctrines. We should not claim we know Christ if we will not be obedient to His commandments.

This is how Christ wants us to show that we love Him:

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.

“The high and holy place where the Lord dwells” (Isa 57:15) is in the heavens of our minds, which are at this very moment being purified and prepared for His habitation:

Heb 9:22  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

The “purify[ing] of [our] heavens” is the “daily… dying” (1Co 15:31) of our old man who is the subject of our next verses in the form of plural pronouns:

Jer 18:16  To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
Jer 18:17  I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

‘Their’ and ‘them’ is the rebellious, ignorant, carnal mind we are all born with, and which must be made “desolate… in the day of [our] calamity”, which is really the best day of our  lives.

Until that day arrives we are all just unrepentant, self-righteous, Job (Job 26:5-7 and the entire 29^th chapter), and this is what we do to those who attempt to expose our self-righteousness:

Jer 18:18  Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

Once again, the plural ‘they’ is hiding from the world the fact that this verse is addressed individually to every person who reads it. This is what we all say of those who bring Him and His Truth to us. Those who bring The Truth to us are simply those who came before us and who, like Job, came to realize just how “vile” they are:

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

The answer to the Lord’s rhetorical question… “Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?” is, “Yes, that is exactly what we all do” before we come to see just how ‘vile’ we really are as verse 18 reveals when we maintain: “for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite [Jeremiah, as a type of “the Lord and His Christ”] with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”

We are “the souls under the altar” of the fifth seal:

Rev 6:9  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they  held:

“The altar” signifies the cross upon which we all present our bodies as a “daily dying… living sacrifice” (1Co 15:31 and Rom 12:1).

As verse 18 demonstrates, it was Jeremiah’s ‘words’ “…the words of God and…  the testimony [he] held” which ‘they’ (you and I… our old man] hated so much.

Rev 6:10  And they [our new man] cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

Let’s look at verse 18 once more:

Jer 18:18  Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

These words reflect the self-righteous spirit of Job before the Lord Himself came and confronted this most heinous self-righteous spirit, which is manifested in these words of Job:

Job 27:1  Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Job 27:2  As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
Job 27:3  All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
Job 27:4  My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
Job 27:5  God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

Job had not yet learned the wisdom of these inspired words:

Pro 27:2  Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.

As we saw earlier in Job 40, Job was granted to see that his “enemy” was the Lord Himself, as the Lord ‘judged him out of his own mouth’ (Luk 19:22) for referring the Lord, who had “risen up against” Job “as the wicked… as the unrighteous”. That is no way to speak of the Lord, not even in ignorance.

We all at first think just that way of the Lord and His Christ, and the whole world agrees with us at that time, which causes our new man to cry out to the Lord:

Jer 18:19  Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
Jer 18:20  Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.

We all long for the day when we are given revenge over our old man and his vengeful ways. Again, it is always my own old man who is referred to with a plural pronoun:

Jer 18:21  Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
Jer 18:22  Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
Jer 18:23  Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

“The force of the sword” is the power of the Word of God:

Heb 4:12  For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of both soul and spirit, and of both the joints and the marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It is the Lord Himself who referred to “their men” as evil, lying ‘men’ when He said:

Mat 4:19  And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;

The apostle Paul admonishes us:

Rom 3:4  God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Unless the name ‘Adam’ is qualified by the words “second man Adam” or “the last Adam”, Adam is always to be understood as “the natural man… the first man Adam… the man of sin” in all of us. So it is with the word ‘man’ or ‘men’. Unless otherwise qualified by phrases like “good man… (Mat 12:35) wise man… (Mat 7:24) new man… (Eph 2:15 and 4:24) or last man… (1Co 15:45)”, the word ‘man’ is always to be understood as “the first man, Adam… the man of sin… the beast… made to be taken and destroyed.”

It was the Lord Himself who told us that ‘men’ and ‘children’ both signify false doctrines:

Mat 13:18  Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

“Receiving seed” is “hearing the Word”. However, ‘the Word’ is also called “the children of the kingdom”:

Mat 13:36  Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
Mat 13:37  He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
Mat 13:39  The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

The ‘good seed’ are the children of the kingdom and the ‘tares’ are the children of the wicked one. When we read in Jeremiah:

Jer 18:21  Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

That is the desire of “the souls under the altar”. Those ‘souls’ are not intent upon seeing their physical enemies suffer excruciating revenge. Such a spirit will not be given to rule over others. What ‘the souls under the altar’ want to see is the death and destruction of the kingdom of their own old man as well as that same destruction of the “old man” in all men. “Their young men… their children… their wives (false churches), and their blood” are one and all the lies of the adversary within all men. I want my own “old man” to suffer the vengeance of God upon him and his kingdom. I want him and anything about him… everything that breaths (Deu 20:16)… to be completely destroyed “by the sword… of the Word… in battle”.

Jer 18:22  Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
Jer 18:23  Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

‘The troop which comes suddenly upon them’ signifies all the truths which expose the lies by which we have been snared and which we have been living under for so long. These two verses are the fulfilment of what the Lord said He would do in the first part of this same chapter. He does all this because of our stubbornness and our rebellion against Him:

Jer 18:11  Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
Jer 18:12  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

‘Their… them… and they’ are plural pronouns which are designed to hide from the eyes of those who are not being judged at this time, the fact that all those pronouns refer to the kingdom and the economy of our old man who is the first to be judged in “this present time”:

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

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God [“this present time” (Rom 8:18)]: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

We are “the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” who have insisted on ‘walking after our own devices and doing the imagination of our own evil heart’. The Lord is mercifully judging us in “this present time” however.

We have nothing to fear because nothing depends upon us. Everything depends only upon Him who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”:

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

And “all things [are being] worked together for good to them that love God and who are the called according to His purpose”:

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.

So, we need not worry about the ship going down. If Christ is in the ship, it will not go down.

Here is that story. It is a story about each of us and the trying of our faith:

Mar 4:35  And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.
Mar 4:36  And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
Mar 4:37  And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
Mar 4:38  And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
Mar 4:39  And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
Mar 4:40  And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?
Mar 4:41  And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Both “the wind and the sea”, the spirit and the flesh “obey Him”, so we need not fear. It is He who is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure:

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

Which “good pleasure” is:

Luk 12:32  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

That is our study for today and these are the verses for our next study:

Jer 19:1  Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
Jer 19:2  And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
Jer 19:3  And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
Jer 19:4  Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
Jer 19:5  They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
Jer 19:6  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
Jer 19:7  And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 19:8  And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
Jer 19:9  And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
Jer 19:10  Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
Jer 19:11  And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
Jer 19:12  Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
Jer 19:13  And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
Jer 19:14  Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people,
Jer 19:15  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

Jer 4:10-20 Your Way and Your Doings Have Procured These Things Unto Thee

[Study Aired February 28, 2021]

Jer 4:10  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.
Jer 4:11  At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
Jer 4:12  Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.
Jer 4:13  Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.
Jer 4:14  O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
Jer 4:15  For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.
Jer 4:16  Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
Jer 4:17  As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 4:18  Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.
Jer 4:19  My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Jer 4:20  Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

Our first verse refers to what the Lord said earlier in this chapter:

Jer 4:1  If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
Jer 4:2  And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
Jer 4:3  For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

As we pointed out earlier, these words alone would lead us to believe that if we repent, then we can avoid being judged for our sins. However, ‘the sum of the Lord’s words’ (Psa 119:160 ASV, ESV, etc.) reveals otherwise, and the prophet goes on to reveal that judgment is already on the way:

Jer 4:6  Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
Jer 4:7  The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
Jer 4:8  For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

The sum of the Lord’s Words reveals that as surely as the Lord has ordained that all men must first be made of corruptible dust and clay, He has also ordained that judgment for our corruption must precede our deliverance from these sinful dying bodies. That is what is meant by these very general words which speak to “every man” who has ever or will ever live:

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.

We are not at first given to see “the sum” of the Lord’s Word, and thereby the Lord Himself first deceives us, makes us all wicked men for our own ‘day of evil’, and hardens our hearts and makes us to err from His ways:

Eze 14:9  And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10  And they shall bear the punishment [judgment] of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;

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

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

To our flesh these words are as repugnant as anything can get. We just naturally ask, “Why have you made me thus?” In doing so, we are contending with God.

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

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

Jeremiah was as perplexed as any man and tells the Lord:

Jer 4:10  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.

We cannot help but ask, “Why have you made me thus? Why have you made me wicked for my own day of evil, and then lead me to believe that all I must do is repent, and you will not judge me? Then You send a sword that reaches to the soul?”

In being deceived by the Lord, we are totally unaware that by questioning the Lord we are self-righteously ‘contending with and reproving’ our own Lord. We are disannulling His judgment and condemning our own Maker to make ourselves righteous’:

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

The entire book of Job deals with the Lord’s judgment of Job’s insidious sin of self-righteousness, and it is a fiery judgment indeed. However, if the Lord loves us above all others in “this present time” (Rom 8:18), then He will judge us first with His fiery judgments with the promise of a glory to follow which will make our suffering in this time unworthy to be compared to that impending glory.

Jer 4:11  At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
Jer 4:12  Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.
Jer 4:13  Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.

“At that time” refers to this previous verse:

Jer 4:7   The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

“A dry wind” is an unprofitable, destructive ‘wind’ akin to ‘clouds without water’:

Jud 1:12   These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

A “dry wind” withers everything and produces “a famine of the Word”:

Amo 8:11   Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

This ‘famine’ has long been upon all of Babylon, yet the Lord uses this ‘famine’ to try “the daughter of My people”. This is all a prophecy of the coming of Nebuchadnezzar to carry the Lord’s people off into Babylonian captivity where the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water is taken away from Judah and Jerusalem:

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,

“Not to fan or to cleanse” was understood by all to mean ‘not to blow away and cleanse away the chaff’ when the wheat or barley are being processed. This ‘wind’ is not being sent from the Lord for that purpose. The ‘fanning and cleansing’ will now be accomplished only through a fiery experience of being carried away into the bondage of Babylon, where we will spend a symbolic “seventy years” serving our Babylonian masters:

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.

Seventy years completes the time of our total deception. After a symbolic ‘seventy years’ we begin to be given eyes that see and ears that hear the things of the spirit.

“This wind”, this evil ‘ruach’ (spirit), refers outwardly to Nebuchadnezzar who is called a destroying lion in this verse:

Jer 4:7   The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

Inwardly this ‘wind’ which destroys our cities and our land and our entire kingdom, typifies the many false doctrines which we have formulated from our youth. They are who we are. Our doctrines are our children. They make up our cities and our villages and become our whole land. Every one of them must be destroyed and burned up by the word of God in the mouths of His prophets:

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.

It is “written in [our] book” to be spoiled by Babylon for a symbolic seventy years. It is “seventy years” because ‘seven’ signifies ‘completion’, and its multiple, ten times seven, simply intensifies the message of the necessity of enduring the Lord’s fiery judgments right down to the last dregs of the seven bowls which “fill up the wrath of God” upon the kingdom of our rebellious old man. That ‘fiery judgment’ is the invincible Word of God which is in the process of judging the works of every man of what sort they are:

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

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Rev 15:2   And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Rev 15:3   And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
Rev 15:4   Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
Rev 15:5   And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: [His “judgments are made manifest”]
Rev 15:6   And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
Rev 15:7   And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.

Jeremiah and all the prophets of Israel typify and foreshadow both this ‘beast’ who gives the seven angels the seven bowls of the Lord’s wrath, as well as the seven angels themselves. Both are types of you and me if we are His redeemed in this present time. Just look at what both symbols reveal about themselves and about who it is they symbolize:

Rev 5:8   And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 5:10   And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

These four beasts represent the Lord’s redeemed who will reign with Him a thousand years prior to the rebellion which precedes “the resurrection of judgment… the great white throne… judgment”.

Joh 5:27   And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28   Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29   And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [Greek: ‘krisis’, judgment, the great white throne judgment (Rev 20:11)].

The seven angels also tell us who they symbolize:

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 19:9   And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
Rev 19:10   And I fell at his feet to worship him [“The angel that showed (John) these things” (Rev 22:8)]. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Lest we fail to believe what we have read here, it is repeated for us in:

Rev 22:8  And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
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.

The Lord’s call for our repentance does not nullify His justice or His judgments. “The fire shall [still] try every man’s works” (1Co 3:13), and “no man can enter the temple till the seven plagues [of the wrath of God] of the seven angels is fulfilled” (Rev 15:17).

As Jeremiah said earlier:

Jer 2:22   For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD. [Until the seven plagues of the seven angels us fulfilled in our lives].

The judgments pronounced by the Lord’s prophets must be fulfilled in the lives of every man who is blessed to enter the temple of God. It is only through the pain which the Lord’s words inflict upon the kingdom of our old man, signified by the word ‘fire’, that any of us come to know our God who “is a consuming fire”:

Heb 12:27  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken [the things of the spirit of God] may remain.
Heb 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
Heb 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.

It is through His fiery words that He pleads with us as His children whom He loves:

Jer 4:14  O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

Our “vain thoughts lodge with [us]… till the seven plagues of the seven angels have been fulfilled”:

Jer 4:15  For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.
Jer 4:16  Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

This may sound like Nebuchadnezzar has sent Rabshakeh to tell us to surrender to him (2Ki 18:28-32), but the phrase “far country” is also used to indicate the heavens from which the Lord speaks through His prophets:

Mat 25:14   For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

Luk 19:12   He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.

This same message of judgment “against Jerusalem” is found in the New Testament:

1Pe 4:12   Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

1Pe 4:17   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?

Jer 2:22   For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD. [Until the seven plagues of the seven angels us fulfilled in our lives].

1 Peter 4:12 and Jeremiah 2:22 inform us of our imminent unavoidable judgment:

Jer 4:17   As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 4:18   Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.

These words are common to all men of all time. The wickedness of every man “is bitter, because it reaches unto [our] heart”. Corruption is our very DNA:

Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

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

The following three sins are common to all men and there is no one, other than Christ, who has not succumbed to these three sins:

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

The only difference between the Lord’s Israel, His Judah and Jerusalem, and all the rest of mankind is “the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17). That judgment is indeed a fiery judgment which is so severe that it makes us cry out:

Jer 4:19   My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Jer 4:20   Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

Our wicked, bitter ways and doings are the work of our flesh, which is a work of our Lord. The sound of the trumpet that makes us afraid of the impending war we are facing is also “of the Lord”:

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

Jeremiah 4:19-20 are addressed to the Lord’s harlot wife, Judah and Jerusalem:

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

Here is the New Testament version of these two verses:

Rev 18:1  And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Rev 18:2   And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Rev 18:3   For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4   And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5   For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6   Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7   How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
Rev 18:8   Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10   Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

The destruction of this great harlot is first accomplished within us. “[This] is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God and who have the faith of Jesus” (Rev 14:8-12).

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

Then we are told what her destruction is inwardly within us back in Revelation 14:

Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9   And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10   The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. [What does this accomplish?]
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

There is much more to be revealed here in the prophecy of Jeremiah about our judgment in this present time. The Truth is that we just naturally do not have any faith of our own in the Lord, and we certainly do not want to hear what is facing us in our certain judgment. This instead is our natural response when anyone begins to tell us where our ways are leading us:

Isa 30:8   Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
Isa 30:9  That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
Isa 30:10   Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
Isa 30:11   Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

Those verses are speaking of each of us. We ask the Lord what we should do. We have seen it time and again when we are asked, “What does the Lord say?” Then the person asking rejects what the Lord reveals to be His mind on the question at hand. The reason is always the same. We want the Lord’s name, but we do not want to eat His food or wear His apparel:

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

That is the same as telling the Lord, “I want to be associated with your powerful name, but don’t think for one moment that I am willing to give up my own will or my own opinions and doctrines just because a few of the Lord’s counselors agree together that what I think or what I have said is wrong.” It is the same we have witnessed time after time. An individual or a group of individuals comes to the elders in the Lord’s body, seeking their input, and then they ignore the counsel they sought and do the exact opposite. We want to have the Lord’s name, but we have no use for His righteousness, His apparel, or for His food… His doctrines and His way of thinking.

Jeremiah had this very experience when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and let Jeremiah and a remnant of the Jews remain in Judah. Nebuchadnezzar placed a man named Gedaliah as governor over those who were left in Judah (Jer 40:5). Another man named Ishmael, who was of royal descent, was sent by the king of Ammon to kill Gedaliah. Gedaliah was informed of this plot by a man named Johanan who had learned of this plot and warned Gedaliah that the king of Amon had plotted with Ishmael to take his life. The governor, Gedelaliah, ignored Johanan’s warning, and he lost his life at the hand of Ishmael. Ishmael then killed all the men at the governor’s house and took the women and children to return to Amon, before the Babylonians returned to settle the score.

Word immediately got to Johanan and his men about what Ishmael had done, and Johanan and his men rescued those who were kidnapped and brought them back to a place called Chimham near Bethlehem. They went there in preparation of fleeing into Egypt for fear of a Babylonian reprisal for what Ishmael had done:

Jer 41:15  But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites.
Jer 41:16  Then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after that he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, even mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought again from Gibeon:
Jer 41:17  And they departed, and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt,
Jer 41:18  Because of the Chaldeans: for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land.

Before leaving for Egypt, they actually sought word from the Lord concerning what they should do. The truth was that they had already made up their minds to go to Egypt. This is what is within each of us:

Jer 42:1   Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near,
Jer 42:2   And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us)
Jer 42:3   That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.
Jer 42:4   Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the LORD your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.
Jer 42:5   Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us.
Jer 42:6   Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.
Jer 42:7   And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah.
Jer 42:8   Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
Jer 42:9   And said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him;
Jer 42:10   If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.
Jer 42:11   Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
Jer 42:12   And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.
Jer 42:13   But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God,
Jer 42:14   Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:
Jer 42:15   And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;
Jer 42:16   Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.
Jer 42:17   So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
Jer 42:18   For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.
Jer 42:19   The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day.
Jer 42:20   For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.
Jer 42:21   And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.
Jer 42:22   Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.

This story is telling us what is within us. It is we who seek the mind of the Lord and then spit in His face and disobey His words which He has given us. Here is what the next prophet calls such actions:

Eze 14:1   Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. [Just as with Jeremiah]
Eze 14:2   And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3   Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity [Their own righteousness, their own opinions and doctrines] before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; [You want to go to battle against Ramothgilead, go ahead and go to battle (1Kg 22:14-15); You want to go down to Egypt, go down to Egypt (Jer 42:15); You think I am a hard man, then I will show Myself a hard man towards you (Mat 25:26); etc.]
Eze 14:5   That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Eze 14:6   Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7   For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8   And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 14:9   And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10   And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;
Eze 14:11   That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 33:13   When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

When we become self-righteous and place “[our] own righteousness” and our own doctrines above that which is written, and above the counsel of those whom the Lord has given us as our counselors, then the Lord “will stretch out [His] hand upon [us], and will destroy [us] from the midst of [His] people Israel.”

We are all full of self-righteous iniquity, and we all trust in our own self-righteous iniquity in our own time. Let us all pray that the Lord judges us and destroys our self-righteous old man in “this present time” (Rom 8:18).

That is our study for today, and here are our verses for next week:

Jer 4:21   How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet.
Jer 4:22   For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Jer 4:23   I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Jer 4:24   I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Jer 4:25   I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Jer 4:26   I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
Jer 4:27   For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
Jer 4:28   For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
Jer 4:29   The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
Jer 4:30   And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
Jer 4:31   For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers?

Heb 9:18-28 “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” -Part 6

[Study Aired December 31, 2020]

Heb 9:18  Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. 
Heb 9:19  For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 
Heb 9:20  Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 
Heb 9:21  Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. 
Heb 9:22  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 
Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 
Heb 9:25  Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 
Heb 9:26  For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 
Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 
Heb 9:28  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. 

The following verses in Luke 23:34-37 reveal how the carnal mind does not understand that Christ’s flesh had to die (Heb 2:14) in order to then bring judgment into the world which would begin at the house of God (Heb 9:27, 1Ti 2:5-6, 1Pe 4:17).

Luk 23:34  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted^G1266 his raiment, and cast lots.
Luk 23:35  And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God [Mat 22:14].
Luk 23:36  And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar
Luk 23:37  And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.

G1266
parted
diamerizō dee-am-er-id’-zo
From G1223 and G3307; to partition thoroughly (literally in distribution, figuratively in dissension): – cloven, divide, part.

Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die [each man in his own order at an appointed time], but after this the judgment:

1Ti 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6  Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time [Heb 9:16 Christ and his Christ (Rev 11:3)].

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? [Rev 11:3, Heb 9:16, 2Co 4:10]

Christ suffered in his flesh as a man so that he could be a mediator between God and man, and tell the body of Christ that we have been called to suffer so we can reign with Him as saviours who will judge the world or mediate as part of God’s government (Php 1:29, 2Ti 2:12, Oba 1:21, 1Co 6:3).

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

2Ti 2:11  It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

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

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

The timing of the words of our Lord are always significant as they are in this verse: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” even while He was being derided by the rulers that were with the crowd, and soldiers who were mocking him, coming to Him and offering Him vinegar, and saying, “If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself”. [a parable for us, soldiers here telling Christ preserve your flesh with this vinegar…]

Christ had been greatly humbled in His flesh and abased by this bruising He was enduring, and it is in our broken state, as Christ was, that we learn obedience by the things that we suffer (Heb 5:8). This most extreme circumstance on the cross was the climactic conclusion of Christ’s lifetime of learning obedience by the things He suffered as He witnessed to us the power of God that was able to deliver Him (Heb 5:8, 2Co 4:10, Rev 11:3, Rom 5:10, Heb 7:25). This is what pleased the Father so His power could be demonstrated through the lamb of God (Isa 53:10). This is how the God of all comfort was making a way for us through Christ to be able to be armed with his His mind in our hour of temptation and fiery trials so that we can now comfort others with the same comfort that we are comforted with (Rom 5:10, 2Co 1:4).

Just prior this happening: “And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others.” Christ said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” then “they parted^G1266 his raiment, and cast lots.”

While we are yet carnal in our thinking, we don’t know how to distribute the garments of Christ which represent His righteousness, as Joseph did in the correct manner to his brothers. God’s favour was upon Benjamin who represents the elect in this instance, being shown grace from Joseph who represents Christ, given 300 pieces of silver (the riches of his goodness expressed through this process of repentance that silver represents 3×100 – Rom 2:4) and five changes of raiment which represent God’s grace that is given to God’s elect in order to be received of the Father (Rev 19:8, Gen 45:22, Heb 12:6).

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

Gen 45:22  To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

We are anything but righteous (Rom 3:10) as we “cast lots” within ourselves, thinking we are in control of this situation and demanding that Christ take control and “save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.” Although we have this hope of glory within, we need to learn something about ourselves from this crowd and not demand anything of God, but say rather, “Lord willing we will do this or that” (Jas 4:15, Mat 5:33-37). Those unrighteous actions of the crowd against Christ were forgiven by our Lord as He recognized that all things were working according to the counsel of God’s will, including the casting of the lots that represents mankind’s lots which are cast into the lap without knowing “the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD” (Pro 16:33, Eph 1:11).

Rom 3:10  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

Pro 16:33  The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.

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:

Christ was being chastened and scourged for our sakes in order for us to be able to be received, and this section of scripture in Luke 23:34-37 brings to light the fact God knows our hearts and how we are going to dispose and reject Christ and His Christ. This is “marvellous in our eyes” because we know that this rejection from the world of our Lord was written for our sakes and ordained of God (Act 4:26-28) to remind us how we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Joh 15:13). Nothing can separate us from that love of God (Joh 18:9) which causes us to love our enemies, pray for those who falsely accuse us, and not resist evil (Psa 118:22, Joh 15:13-14, Rom 8:35-37, Mat 5:38-48).

Psa 118:22  The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
Psa 118:23  This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.

Joh 15:13  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Joh 15:14  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

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.

Heb 9:18  Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. 
Heb 9:19  For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,

The outward actions of Moses typify what God’s elect will do during the thousand-year reign when the world will be as full of the knowledge of God as the oceans are with water (Hab 2:14). Instead of “the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people“, the elect with be used to water and plant God’s word for a period of time that is symbolized by the words ‘a thousand-year reign’ (Rev 20:6). The statement “Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood” is typical of the word that we will share with an unconverted world. God sees the whole lump as being holy and in need of going through a process, baptized with water, and then with fire (Rom 11:16, Mat 3:11, Joh 3:5).

Hab 2:14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Twice (witness) we see the phrase “all the people” in verse 19, which represents all of mankind that needs to be baptized with water and then with the spirit (Joh 3:5-6).

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

This witness is reiterated with the first half saying the same thing as the last half of this same verse:

First, we see that “Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law” akin to “the earth” being “filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14).

The second half: “he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people“, is another symbol of the washing of the word that is only understood with outward ordinances until the holy spirit is given to the church so we can then identify all these things as something that Christ is doing within us (Isa 26:9, Jer 22:29, Joh 4:25).

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. [God’s judgements will be in the earth through the thousand years but will only be received on the surface of the sea; “cover the sea” (Hab 2:14)]

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

Joh 4:25  The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

In other words, Moses speaking to all the people foreshadows the Father speaking of the true witness, Jesus Christ, who represents all these sacrifices offered in Hebrews 9:19 (Mat 3:17).

Heb 9:20  Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 
Heb 9:21  Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. 
Heb 9:22  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

What Moses told and did for the congregation is again typical of what God will do with all the world – each man in their appointed time. What Moses said was, “This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you,” and what he did was “sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.” That blood typifies the life of Christ in us which enjoins us unto God and His son. That is what Moses stated, and we know that word will not return void because it is God’s word (Isa 55:11). It does not return void and will accomplish what God has ordained it to do, which is to sprinkle “the tabernacle” that we are, seven times, (Lev 4:15-17, Lev 14:51) and all the “vessels of the ministry”, meaning the words of God are also going through a purifying process within the earthen vessels we are (Psa 12:6).

Isa 55:11  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Lev 4:15  And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock before the LORD: and the bullock shall be killed before the LORD.
Lev 4:16  And the priest that is anointed shall bring of the bullock’s blood to the tabernacle of the congregation:
Lev 4:17  And the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, even before the vail.

Lev 14:51  And he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:

Psa 12:6  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, [2Co 4:7] purified seven times.
Psa 12:7  Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever [1Ti 2:15].

1Ti 2:15  Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

(God’s elect are this woman or church being preserved, or purified through the process of judgment – 9 months pregnant, and it is by continuing in “faith and charity and holiness with sobriety” by abiding in God’s word (Joh 8:31-32) that the manchild will come to maturation in the blessed and holy first resurrection.)

Again, “almost all things are by the law purged with blood”, meaning the word of God sanctifies us (Joh 17:17); but these early types of that sanctification also represent how the law of Moses required blood to be sprinkled only on the outside of “both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry“. Those services of the priest along with those who came to sacrifice in the temple was their way of dedicating their life unto God. This ceremonial way of serving God is what reserves the world until judgment. One day all that was done by those priests and the rich young rulers of the world (Luk 18:21-23) will be understood, when grace abounds through God’s holy spirit and the law convicts them of their need for a living sacrifice and saviour, Jesus Christ  (Rom 12:1, Heb 12:1-2).

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

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, [this is the meaning of “purged with blood” for God’s elect today and is accomplished  when we look unto Jesus]
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.

The law that makes sin evident (Rom 5:20-21) is typified by the outward action of sprinkling blood on “both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry“, and just as those actions demonstrate, we can have the word of God in our midst or sprinkled on our tabernacle, but it requires the miracle of God’s goodness to convict our hearts of what that blood should mean to us (Rom 2:4, 1Pe 1:18-20).

Rom 5:20  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Rom 5:21  That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

1Pe 1:18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
1Pe 1:19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1Pe 1:20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

Our Adamic blood is shed when we die daily and are baptized into the death of Christ, typified by all the blood that was spilt of those beasts and sprinkled on the tabernacle and vessels. “Without shedding of blood is no remission” [our remission comes from Christ’s blood being poured out, His word which sanctifies us (Joh 17:17) as we are baptized into his death (Rom 6:1-3)]. We may read Hebrews 9:22 and think of Christ’s blood that is being shed for the remission of sins, and that is true, but it is also Christ’s body that is being shed for the remission of sins if we have the life of Christ in us (Rom 8:9, 1Jn 4:17, Col 1:24, Col 1:27).

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.

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

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:

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 

God has mercifully given us all these patterns in the old covenant (1Co 10:11, 1Pe 1:12) that reveal in type and shadow how our minds, or our heavens, “should be purified with these”.

The “heavenly things themselves” are speaking of the body of Christ who are blessed to have the reality that all these shadows point to Jesus Christ in our heavens. He is the better sacrifice in our heavens who gives us the power to lay down our lives at the altar which is the cross, where we present ourselves through Christ, who makes it possible for us to be raised in heavenly places (Eph 2:6, Joh 14:20) as a “better sacrifice than these” being accepted in the beloved” (Rom 12:1, Eph 1:6, 1Jn 4:17).

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

Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

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.

To further drive this point home, the holy spirit inspired this section of scripture to say: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands“, meaning it does not take a brick and mortar church to come to know God, neither does it require the work of some mans hands, but rather God working in “heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us“. Being found with our own righteousness is just building another church in our minds that is independent of the body of Christ, which is the church (Php 3:9, Col 1:27).

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

“The figures of the true” are important inasmuch as they point to the reality of our Lord who is the one who can purge our minds of sin and set us free (Joh 8:36) as He enters into our heavens to do away with a lifetime of idolatrous worship of God (Mar 7:7-8) that is a result of having the man of perdition on the throne of our hearts (2Th 2:8). Christ tears down the old temple so we can see the new temple emerge (Joh 2:19). That new temple is a holy place where we can worship in spirit and in truth (Joh 4:24) and it is on that foundation, that can only be built by Christ (Psa 127:1), that we can “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Php 2:12-13).

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

Mar 7:7  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mar 7:8  For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Heb 9:25  Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 
Heb 9:26  For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 

More contrast is drawn with these verses to show us how there is no rest in the types and shadows. They only typify the rest that we can have in the Lord through labours that are being accomplished by our high priest who is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Heb 4:11, Php 2:13). These priests of old “entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others“, but Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient for the sins of the world and so we are told that this happened “once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself“. If we don’t see ourselves connected to this sacrifice, then the words “the end of the world” will have no significance to us. On the other hand, if we are a living sacrifice, dying daily and being baptized into Christ’s death, then we understand that this sacrifice is for us now, and occurring in an ongoing (aorist) manner in the lives of those who are being judged and having their “world” within judged, which brings about its “end” (1Jn 2:16-17, 1Jn 4:17) to “put away sin“.

The idea of being saviours is connected with the sacrifice of our lives which belong to God as we  believe and suffer for His name’s sake today (Php 1:29, Act 9:16, Mat 10:22), in order to share in bringing the entire world into a relationship of holiness with our Father, Christ and His body. “The end of the world” has come upon us for that reason, as God’s kind of first fruits (1Co 10:11, Jas 1:18).

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

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.

Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 
Heb 9:28  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. 

Saying we are ‘dying daily’ today (1Co 15:31), or “dying you shall die” (Gen 2:17 [LITV]) or “once to die” of Hebrews 9:27 is all saying the same thing)

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” is referring to the blessed few who are entering into the house of mourning where we are learning that it is more precious in God’s sight to die daily to self today (Ecc 7:2, Psa 116:15). In losing our life for Christ’s sake (Mat 10:39-40), we are finding life now that is abundant (Joh 10:10) which Life will be used to nourish the rest of God’s creation who, for the time being, are eating and drinking and giving in marriage, for tomorrow in the second resurrection, they will die to self, but not today (1Co 15:32, Luk 12:19).

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

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

Ecc 7:2  It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

Psa 116:15  Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Mat 10:40  He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

1Co 15:32  If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die [Gal 3:1-4, Php 3:9].

Luk 12:19  And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry [1Ti 6:12].

“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation“, and God’s elect are being dragged to Christ (Joh 6:44) and believe and understand that He has appeared to us now in this earnest relationship (Eph 1:14) which we have, and has appeared this second time “without sin unto salvation” [He first appeared in sinful flesh]. That is good news for those who can receive it, because it confirms that we are being saved and can believe that salvation can only come through Christ alone who “was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Eph 1:4).

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:

Christ can and does bear our burdens and takes away the sin that can so easily beset us (Heb 12:1), as we are taken by the hand of a fit man (Christ – Lev 16:21) and carried through this life, filling up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ for His body’s sake which is the church (Col 1:24). Christ is now appearing within us, and we are bearing each other’s burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ (Gal 6:2), which is not the law of Moses that only pointed to this living sacrifice which we are now becoming by the grace and faith that God has granted His elect in this age (Eph 2:8). This is God’s elect’s appointed time to die daily as we are judged (1Pe 4:17, 2Co 13:5).

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?

2Co 13:5  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Heb 3:7-19 “Today If You Will Hear His Voice, Harden Not Your Hearts”  – Part 2

[Study Aired July 2, 2020]

Heb 3:7  Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 
Heb 3:8  Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 
Heb 3:9  When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 
Heb 3:10  Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
Heb 3:11  So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
Heb 3:12  Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 
Heb 3:13  But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Heb 3:14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 
Heb 3:15  While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 
Heb 3:16  For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 
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? 
Heb 3:18  And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? 
Heb 3:19  So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. 

Last week we looked at why we must “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.” This week we will be looking at how that through the ongoing pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ (Php 3:14) we can be granted the victory in this life over our deceitful and desperately wicked hearts that can only be brought into subjection to Christ by grace through faith (Rom 7:24-25, Eph 2:7-9).

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

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 [Gal 2:20]; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Whatsoever is not done in faith is sin (Rom 14:23). However, if we are granted to hear the voice of the true Shepherd, the faith that comes from God through hearing and seeing spiritually what His word means (Rom 10:17, Mat 13:16) will lead to our victory over the sin of unbelief (1Jn 5:4, Joh 6:28-29).

Rom 14:23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Rom 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

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

1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Joh 6:28  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Joh 6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

The sons of God are led by God’s spirit just as Christ was (Rom 8:14-17, 1Jn 4:17) so that we can please Him (Heb 11:6). We please our Father when we do what He commands us to do, and that obedience is something which can only be learned through suffering (Heb 5:8). The body of Christ is being led to repentance (Rom 2:4-6), unlike Christ who was tempted in all diverse manner yet without sin (Heb 4:15). Christ’s purpose as our savior is to teach His disciples how He and we are to overcome in this life, and He outlined the way this can be done with this prayer:

Luk 11:2  And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Luk 11:3  Give us day by day our daily bread.
Luk 11:4  And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

The only part of this prayer not applicable to Christ personally was “forgive us our sins” (1Pe 1:19), and the words of life in this prayer were given to those who would be quickened by the holy spirit (Joh 6:63) being cleansed and sanctified (Joh 17:17) in this age through the manifold trials and temptations (1Pe 1:3-6) from which God has promised to deliver us through our perfect high priest (Rom 5:10, 2Co 1:3-5, 1Co 10:13). We are brought to perfection on the third day for the same reason Christ was so that we can now, as mature sons, discern good and evil and “comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” That comfort is what we give to each other when we are granted to overcome in this life and share in the communion of Christ’s suffering (Heb 4:15, Luk 13:32, Mat 24:13, 1Co 10:16).

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1Pe 1:4  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
1Pe 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1Pe 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

1Co 10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

God was “grieved with that generation” in the wilderness because there was no conversion happening despite the trials that came to Israel for forty years. Their groanings in the wilderness were not for “the redemption of our body” as is the case with God’s elect whose hearts are being softened through our suffering that cause us to cease from sinning so that we can spend the rest of our lives fulfilling the will of God (Heb 3:9, Rom 8:22-23, Rom 8:28, 1Pe 4:1-2). God never intended that generation in the wilderness to overcome, but what they went through was written for our sakes upon whom the ends of the ages are come, and serve as a admonition of what the body of Christ must go through in order be saved (1Co 11:10, 1Pe 1:12, Mat 23:35).

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

What happened “between the temple and the altar” is typified by Israel in the wilderness who could not overcome and were meant to continue to grieve God because of that unbelief, even as the world will not be able to change inwardly during the symbolic thousand-year reign. The world will be ruled with a rod of iron, but just as with the Israelites of old, there will be no change of heart, no conversion (Rom 9:15-21, Mat 20:15-16). Conversion is initially only granted to those who are judged (1Pe 4:17) and brought to see themselves as these unconverted generations which are guilty of all (Luk 11:51). The thousand-year reign of God’s elect under Christ is another witness that will testify against the true nature of man which cannot change (Isa 63:17) without experiencing the miracle of God’s holy spirit being given that softens our hearts and destroys the wretchedness of the old man as Christ the new man increases in us (Eze 36:26, Rom 8:36-39, Rom 8:9).

Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses [1Pe 1:12], I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion [Rom 11:30-31].
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.
Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

Mat 20:15  Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
Mat 20:16  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. [The carnal mind cannot accept the goodness of God described in these verses (Rom 11:30-31).]

In type and shadow, “for some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses”, means, in type and shadow ,some did come out, but many did not (Mat22:14). The answer to whom it was that did not continue to come out of Egypt is clearly shown in the next two verses (Heb 3:17-18) reminding us that belief and unbelief are both a work of God, and God knows those who are His, those who are in His hands and bound to the altar. God willing, we will do this or that [sin or not sin, believe or not believe] as we continue to steadfastly look to our Lord who alone can give us the power to leave “the principles of the doctrine of Christ” and “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. And this will we do, if God permit.” (Heb 6:1-3, Jas 4:15-16, Rom 11:20-22)

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

Jas 4:15  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Jas 4:16  But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

Rom 11:20  Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: [Heb 5:7]
Rom 11:21  For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
Rom 11:22  Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: [Rom 2:4] otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

Rebellion continued in the wilderness, and rebellion will continue during the reign of God’s saints among the future camp of Israel, as we understand Israel in the negative sense to represent the world. It may not look like rebellion on the surface, and sin, like leaven, does not manifest its fruit immediately (Gal 5:9), but over the course of time it will become evident just as it was in Christ’s life that people appreciated Christ’s miracles, but their hearts were not converted and were far from being truly obedient. God’s elect will put down all overt rebellion during this period. However, that does not mean that the heart of mankind will change just because of the rod of iron rule being administered (Luk 6:46). It is only those few who are being dragged to Christ today and who have this earnest relationship through God’s holy spirit (Eph 1:14) who will be able to endure the seven last plagues (Rev 15:8) likened to a stone that must crush us in this life. This is the workmanship of our Lord within (Php 2:13, Heb 12:6) that we must experience in order to become disciples indeed who are received as sons built upon the rock or corner stone Jesus Christ. (Mat 21:44, Joh 6:55, 1Co 10:16, Mat 16:18, Eph 2:19-20).

It is those who give an accounting in this age, and who acknowledge being guilty of all and the chief of sinners who will be considering and looking to “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus” whose hearts will be blessed to read, hear and keep the sayings of the prophecy (Rev 1:3). We must die daily and go through much tribulation to enter into the kingdom of God, and in this section of Hebrews we are being told to think it not strange that this is the case, for without those trials and judgment within our life we would spiritually go astray (1Pe 4:12, 1Pe 4:17, 1Jn 4:17, Pro 6:23).

Pro 6:23  For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
Pro 6:24  To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman [churches of Babylon that say there is not need to endure the seven last plagues (Job 2:10)].

There is a hope-filled message being given in regard to the certainty of what God can and will do through those few whom He had determined to save since the foundation of the world (Eph 1:9-12). The lesson for us now is to keep asking God to help us in our unbelief (Mar 9:23-25) so we can see and believe that we are His workmanship that needs his judgment in our life which is perfecting His love within us (1Jn 4:17). Together we are experiencing this judgment and overcoming by looking to Christ who alone can create the zealousness that is being formed within us through repentance (what godly sorrow produces – 2Co 7:11). We are being brought to give an accounting of all the dead works in our lives which need repentance, all the giants in the land that will be bread for us (Num 14:9), including our initial inability to see the need for the trial of our faith so that we can go beyond the foundational faith spoken of in Hebrews 6:1-3 that has not yet been matured through fiery trials (Rom 2:4, Rev 3:18-19).

There is no room for boasting as this work of faith unfolds in the lives of the few who are being dragged to Christ in this age (Mat 22:14, Joh 6:44) and so we are admonished in the book of Romans to be careful to not be conceited in our thinking by looking down on anyone who is in the bondage of unbelief that we are miraculously being taken out of (Rom 11:13-32, Joh 8:36). Therefore we say “Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts” which is where that conceited heart will hold us. No, instead we ought to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession”, Christ Jesus, who understood, as we should, that everyone is exactly where they’re supposed to be in God’s plan, either in the bondage of sin through unbelief or being made free from sin, appointed at this time to be granted that liberty of going from glory to glory (2Co 3:18) to the glory of God: “but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (Joh 8:36, Joh 9:1-5). God’s workmanship or the works of God are both the light and the darkness and the good and the evil over which He is sovereign and working all of it according to the counsel of His own will (Isa 45:7, Eph 1:11).

Heb 3:7  Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 
Heb 3:8  Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 
Heb 3:9  When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 

The word “today” applies solely to the elect who are blessed to hear the true Shepherd’s voice and called to be led by God’s spirit today (Joh 10:27, Rom 8:14-16).

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.

It is not just in the hearing but in the doing that we will be justified (Rom 2:13), and that justification is predetermined (Rom 8:30-33), as explained in this parable in Matthew 21:28-32 showing us that the elect are led to repentance and eventually do not despise that correction, but rather give thanks (Luk 17:17) for His wonderful work in our heavens leading us to our safe haven, Jesus Christ (Psa 107:30).

Mat 21:28  But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.
Mat 21:29  He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
Mat 21:30  And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
Mat 21:31  Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
Mat 21:32  For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.

Can I really prevent my heart from being hardened if God has purposed that my heart is hardened? The answer is emphatically ‘no’ (Pro 16:1-4). It was just as impossible for the Israelites of old who could not do anything other than what was predestined for them to do “in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness”. Therefore when we read this impossible request of God, let’s look for the answer He provides through the exceeding great and precious promises (2Pe 1:4) which tell us that He has made a way for us to overcome this heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked and easily tempted in the wilderness. Yet through Christ we can bear the trials and suffering we must endure as we are strengthened through Him who makes a way for us to bear or carry our cross (1Co 10:13). If God was not true to his word and did not give us the way of escape through Christ, we would in turn live the rest of our lives fulfilling the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and pride of life. God, however, does give us the power to resist that pride in ourselves and gives us the grace we need to overcome so we can live the rest of our lives fulfilling His will (Jas 4:6-10, 1Pe 4:2).

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 16:2  All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
Pro 16:3  Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.
Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

Inwardly it is our old man that is being symbolized when we read “your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years” and so we need to consider Moses, who was a type of Christ and lived for 120 years, demonstrating the process of fiery trials (3×40=120) which is needed in order for us to overcome our rebellious hearts that God is changing through much tribulation (Act 14:22). These fiery experiences (Deu 8:15, Psa 21:9, Dan 3:15, Dan 7:10, 1Pe 4:12) are confirmed as something that absolutely must happen in our lives to inherit eternal life and be part of that foundational government that God is going establish (120).

The endurance we need to run this race is happening as a result of God’s love being shed abroad in our hearts, a spirit of love that is described as one of power and love and soundness (2Ti 1:7) and can bear all things, endure all things and hope all things, as God fills us with that hope through Jesus Christ, each joint supplying what is needed for this new creation in our Lord to be formed (1Co 13:7, Gal 6:2).

Deu 8:15  Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;

Psa 21:9  Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.

Dan 3:15  Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?

Dan 7:10  A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

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

1Co 13:6  Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
1Co 13:7  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Heb 3:10  Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
Heb 3:11  So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
Heb 3:12  Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

The bible is written in such a way that it leads the natural mind to believe we have free moral agency, with words such as “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” In reality God is telling us that those who do give heed are those who are given to believe and act upon this admonition that states we should “hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (of verse 6).

Heb 3:6  But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Inwardly, what is not going to inherit the kingdom of God is any part of our raw, not-tried-with-fire, unclean, leprous, weak flesh, our old man (Lev 13:14-15, 1Pe 1:7, Mat 26:41, Mar 14:38). “So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest“, but the new creation that is being formed through Christ has already, from the foundation of the world, been determined to endure until the end.

Lev 13:14  But when raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be unclean.
Lev 13:15  And the priest shall see the raw flesh, and pronounce him to be unclean: for the raw flesh is unclean: it is a leprosy.

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:

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

Mar 14:38  Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

We were made in weak flesh that cannot claim the end from the beginning as God the Father can, Who knows who will endure until the end, and Who knows exactly when Christ will return dispensationally as the King of kings and Lord of lords, and who knows who those kings and lords are. He has purposely put a veil over our eyes that is being ripped as we cry out to God with fear and say, “Take not your spirit from me and let no man take my crown” (Psa 51:11, Heb 5:7, Rev 3:11).

God’s language is adamant in regard to that generation that “do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways“, and goes on to describe what we must do the rest of our natural lives until our last breath, not taking anything for granted, realizing at the same time that God is able to finish what He has started in us through Christ (Php 1:6).

“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” is an admonition of how we are to live the rest of our lives dying daily and examining ourselves to see if we are in the faith (2Co 13:5). Last week’s study focused on how it is by our cleaving to Christ by considering “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus” that we will be given or supplied all that we need to endure until the end (Php 4:19).

Heb 3:13  But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 
Heb 3:14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 
Heb 3:15  While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 

The next step that follows with what we do after we look to the Lord from whence comes our help (Psa 121:1) is that we spend the rest of our days exhorting “one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin“. Sin is deceitful, and the breeding ground for it is in a spirit of neglect of those things which we are admonished to do and all the more as we see the day approaching (Heb 10:25, Mal 3:16).

Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

God willing, we are being made “partakers of Christ“, and if God has determined that then we will “hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end” and nothing shall take us out of the hand of our Father (Joh 10:28). ‘Don’t be discouraged’ is the simple straightforward message of this section of Hebrews, said in this manner: “While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” If God’s spirit is bearing witness with you that you are his son (Rom 8:16), and that is the manner of love He is bestowing upon you (1Jn 3:1), then rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice (Php 4:4). Recognize who you are (Joh 8:12-16, Mat 5:14, 1Jn 4:17), and don’t give the devil opportunity to discourage you in this life. Resist him, and he will flee from you (Jas 4:7, Heb 12:4, 1Pe 5:7-10).

1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

Heb 3:16  For some, when they had heard, did provokeG3893: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 
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? 
Heb 3:18  And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? 
Heb 3:19  So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

The word “provoke”^G3893 in verse 16 has its root in the word ‘bitter’ or ‘to make bitter’, and this bitterness is what leads to unbelief and rebellion as we saw unfold in the example of Korah (Num 16:1-3) where “two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown…gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?”

A new testament example of this disgruntled rebellious spirit is spoken of in (3Jn 1:9). A root is something that grows over time and this old covenant example in the book of Numbers is also written for our own selves upon whom the end of the ages have come, and is why we must diligently examine ourselves day by day  “whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you (Col 1:27, Joh 21:22), except ye be reprobates?” (Heb 12:15, 2Co 13:5).

“Provoke” G3893 parapikrainō par-ap-ik-rah’ee-no
From G3844 and G4087; to embitter alongside, that is, (figuratively) to exasperate: – provoke.
G3844 para par-ah’

A primary preposition; properly near, that is, (with genitive case) from beside (literally or figuratively), (with dative case) at (or in) the vicinity of (objectively or subjectively), (with accusative case) to the proximity with (local [especially beyond or opposed to] or causal [on account of]). In compounds it retains the same variety of application: – above, against, among, at, before, by, contrary to, X friend, from, + give [such things as they], + that [she] had, X his, in, more than, nigh unto, (out) of, past, save, side . . . by, in the sight of, than, [there-] fore, with. In compounds it retains the same variety of application.

G4087 pikrainō pik-rah’ee-no
From G4089; to embitter (literally or figuratively): – be (make) bitter.
G4089  pikros  pik-ros’
Perhaps from G4078 (through the idea of piercing); sharp (pungent), that is, acrid (literally or figuratively): – bitter.

Heb 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Heb 12:15  Looking diligently (Heb 11:6) lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

[Esau let go of his birthright that typifies the crown of life in Revelation 3:11 for one idol of his heart, one false doctrine, and this was written in his book for our sakes to admonish us to not be a spiritual “fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright“]

Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears.

[This story of Esau despising his birthright is a type and shadow of those who cannot be renewed again unto repentance “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.” (Heb 6:4-6, Rom 2:4)]

What Korah and his camp were accusing Moses of was akin to Diotrephes in the new covenant who, with a spirit that was centered around the subject of wanting preeminence, was not able to humble himself (3Jn 1:9). Moses was a threat to their already established position of being renowned in the congregation, and God used the spirit realm to manifest this heresy within the camp of Israel for the sake of those who would be preserved through this fiery trial that tried the entire camp of Israel. Pride was allowed to enter in to demonstrate to us how we must be grateful and thankful to be the door keeper as we operate in the measure of faith that God gives us (Psa 84:10, Php 4:12-13). If we are being judged in this life, we are in the day of the Lord, the only day that makes it possible for very few to go unto perfection on the third day as we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God (2Pe 3:8, Luk 13:32).

Psa 84:10  For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Korah, and the entire camp of Israel, was accusing Moses of not doing the right thing, yet scripture confirms that Moses really did want all to be able to prophecy, and he was willing to utter these words for the sake of others: “Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin –; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written” this being a type of the selfless life of Christ who did divest Himself from His position of power for the sake of everyone else (Num 11:29, 1Co 14:1, Eph 4:16, 1Co 12:22, Exo 32:32).

Num 11:29  And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!

1Co 14:1  Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.

Later on, in the right spirit of giving advice and not with the spirit of Korah, Moses was instructed by the Lord through Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, to divide his work load up and share it with others. Notice the difference in attitude and how there was no spirit of competitiveness or jealousy. Instead it was a spirit of only wanting what was good for the whole nation of Israel, which typifies the Israel of God, God’s elect. There are different administrations and diversities of operations within the body of Christ that God gives to us in order to get the work done which we are to be careful to maintain together. Exodus 18:5-24 is a type and shadow of these later new covenant diversities of operations that are working within the body of Christ today (1Co 12:5-12).

Exo 18:5  And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God:
Exo 18:6  And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.
Exo 18:7  And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent.
Exo 18:8  And Moses told his father in law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the LORD delivered them.
Exo 18:9  And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
Exo 18:10  And Jethro said, Blessed be the LORD, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
Exo 18:11  Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.
Exo 18:12  And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father in law before God.
Exo 18:13  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.
Exo 18:14 And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?
Exo 18:15 And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God:
Exo 18:16 When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.
Exo 18:17 And Moses’ father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.
Exo 18:18 Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.
Exo 18:19 Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God:
Exo 18:20 And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.
Exo 18:21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
Exo 18:22 And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.
Exo 18:23 If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.
Exo 18:24 So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.

1Co 12:4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
1Co 12:5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
1Co 12:6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
1Co 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
1Co 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
1Co 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
1Co 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is [the] Christ.

The ongoing admonition for those who God is working with today is this:

“To day if ye will hear his voice” and therefore we are to “exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

…and that exhorting must be done by our being careful to listen to all the commandments of God “as the Holy Ghost saith” so we can be found living the rest of our lives according to His will as we are led by His spirit (1Co 2:4, Rom 12:1-2, Rom 8:14-16).

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

[Study Aired April 2, 2020]

Psa 148:1  Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. 
Psa 148:2  Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. 
Psa 148:3  Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. 
Psa 148:4  Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. 
Psa 148:5  Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created. 

Praising God is another way of saying we give glory to God, and glory is an ongoing is-was-and-will-be event in the lives of those with whom God is working as we go from “glory to glory” or obedience to obedience, glorifying God or praising Him more perfectly every day (Php 2:12-15, 2Pe 1:19, Mat 5:16) with all that we say and do. It is through Christ that we’re given to bring every thought into subjection (2Co 10:5-6), glorifying God through the process. Through Christ we are being set free (Joh 8:36) so that we can endure until the end through Him (Psa 148:1, 2Co 3:18, 1Co 10:31, Mat 24:13, Php 4:13).

2Pe 1:19  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: [Col 1:27]

Mat 5:16  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Psa 148:1  Praise^H1984 ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.

H1984 BDB Definition:
1) to shine
1a) (Qal) to shine (figuratively of God’s favour)
1b) (Hiphil) to flash forth light
2) to praise, boast, be boastful
2a) (Qal)
2a1) to be boastful
2a2) boastful ones, boasters (participle)
2b) (Piel)
2b1) to praise
2b2) to boast, make a boast
2c) (Pual)
2c1) to be praised, be made praiseworthy, be commended, be worthy of praise
2d) (Hithpael) to boast, glory, make one’s boast
2e) (Poel) to make a fool of, make into a fool
2f) (Hithpoel) to act madly, act like a madman

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

1Co 10:31  Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

God’s elect are those who are “counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” in this age (Mat 10:22) and are “having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled”. There is a spirit of rejoicing and giving praise to God for that knowledge of knowing we are being counted worthy to suffer for Christ, as these following verses demonstrate revealing the patience and faith of the saints which is glorifying God as we bear those stripes of rejection for the world’s sake: (1Pe 4:12-14, Act 5:41, 1Pe 4:13, 1Pe 5:10, Act 16:22-25, Rom 8:18, 1Pe 2:20)

It is the “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word” (vs 8) that are governed by God and used to typify His power which judges God’s elect today (1Pe 4:17). He is working everything on the earth and in our heavens to that end, and so we are told “his glory is above the earth [the church] and heaven” (vs 13), meaning he is working it all — the “Fire, and hail [Isa 28:17]; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word” according to the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11) — and it is by God that all things consist, whether that part of His creation is being perfected in this life through judgment or not (Col 1:17, Rom 8:21-28).

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 [each man in his order 1Co 15:23].
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. [Eph 1:12]
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. [Luk 21:19]
Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. [Rom 5:5]

God’s elect are not separate from His creation being in the world but not of it (Joh 17:15-16, Joh 15:19), and are spoken of in the last verse of this Psalm 148 as those who also give glory to God because he “exalteth the horn of his people“, giving us power to overcome and filling us with praise and thanks for the obedience He is working in our lives, blessing us (1Pe 3:9) to be “a people near unto him“, with the joy of that relationship expressed so well in this earlier Psalm (Psa 126:1-6):

Psa 126:1  A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Psa 126:2  Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.
Psa 126:3  The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
Psa 126:4  Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.
Psa 126:5  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. [Col 1:24]
Psa 126:6  He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. [The sheaves explained in Leviticus as being Christ and His Christ mentioned in our last study (Lev 23:10-18)]

It is because of that close proximity, “a people near unto him” (vs 14), we have been blessed to have with God and His Son that we can worship them in spirit and in truth and go “from glory to glory”. It is also our communion in Christ found at the altar which is the cross where we are bound (Psa 118:27) where we will receive that power from on high, expressed as “He also exalteth the horn of his people“(Joh 17:3, Joh 4:23, Heb 10:22-25, Heb 4:16, Heb 10:20, Mat 27:51).

Heb 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb 10:23  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Heb 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Heb 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Heb 10:20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; [The new and living way is with the body of Christ his flesh Eph 5:30, Col 1:24].

God’s power changes and establishes us for “ever and ever” (vs 6). God spares nothing for His children (Rom 5:10), and so we see even those who don’t believe and who have been blinded by the god of this world are experiencing that for our sakes as well (2Co 4:4, 2Co 4:15-16). They are holy “the lump also” (Rom 11:16) meaning they are set apart for their specific role that is working together in our heavens for good because of God’s goodness being shown to us in this age (Rom 2:4, Rom 8:28).

Rom 11:16  For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

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.

God declares the end from the beginning in this Psalm and uses the heavenly hosts as a type of the elect who praise God, or give glory to God. Just as the physical sun, moon and stars are coursing about in a predestined direction, so the life of God’s children are also being directed and guided by the One through whom all things consists “whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Col 1:17-20, Isa 45:7).

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

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isa 45:8  Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

As we look at these verses with the inward intent in which they were primarily to be understood, we can see God’s mighty hand throughout the entire process of our lives, and that is why we give praise and thanks to Him, because “great is thy faithfulness” to carry out all the decrees that have been written in the hearts and minds of His people. The figurative language of this Psalm helps us remember His greatness and love toward the body of Christ where all things are working for the good for those who love God and were called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28).

There is a “hope of glory” being explained throughout God’s word, and we come together often to remind each other of that glory, of that praise which is ongoing and unfolding in the lives of His people. It is in “the hope of the gospel…which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven” that we can “continue in the faith grounded and settled“, and as this section in Colossians goes on to declare, it will be through the suffering and affliction we endure together as a body of Christ which will enable us to “continue in the faith grounded and settled” (Col 1:24, 1Pe 5:10-11, Col 1:23-24, Col 1:27-28).

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:

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
1Pe 5:11  To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; [2Pe 1:19]
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:

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Col 1:28  Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Col 1:29  Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

Keeping under our own bodies results in our taking the lower seat and remaining entreatable, actions that in turn keep us under our own body, the body of Christ which we are (1Co 9:27). We need every joint that supplies in love (Eph 4:16) and the safety that is found in a multitude of counsellors, and by examining ourself as the starting point as to whether we’re in the faith or not (2Co 13:5) we have the right foundation that makes it possible for us to be subject unto the rest of the body as unto Christ (Rom 12:4-5, Eph 5:21, 1Jn 4:1, 2Co 10:5).

Psa 148:1  Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. 
Psa 148:2  Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. 
Psa 148:3  Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. 

It is “the heavens” and “all his hosts” and “the sun and moon” and “the stars of light” that are praising God and working together for a good purpose that God has purposed within the body of Christ created to be the first fruits who first trusted Him and “praise him” in a spirit of truth and love.

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things [“the heavens” and “all his hosts” and “the sun and moon” and “the stars of light“] work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

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 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

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

The reason we live is to worship God, our loving Father who has given us all things through Christ, the one through whom we are accepted and able to bring all those typical elements of the heavens into subjection unto him [“the heavens” and “all his hosts” and “the sun and moon” and “the stars of light“] being far above them all through Christ.

1Jn 4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: [Psa 148:5]

Eph 1:21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
Eph 1:22  And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23  Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; [Psa 148:5]
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Psa 148:4  Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. 
Psa 148:5  Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.

These next verses speak to the order of God’s spiritual creation that is typified through the physical creation [What are the Three Heavens?]

It is the “heavens of heavens” and “ye waters that be above the heavens” that typify the elect of God who “praise him” for the witness of Christ in our lives, the spirit that bears witness that we are the children of God (Rom 8:16).

The “heavens of heavens” is a place reserved today for those who have God’s spirit in this earnest relation where we worship Him in spirit in truth being raised in heavenly places in the third heavens typified with these words “ye waters that be above the heavens“.

Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Of that group of  true believers to whom God is giving the power to continue in the truth, we are told “Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created“, reminding us that we are here today by the grace and faith of Christ and were created for this purpose to show forth praise unto God who are the first fruit workmanship of his hand that “were created” and  called to have this confidence that what God has started in us He will finish.

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.

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

Next week, Lord willing, we will look at the last nine verses of our study which point to that hope filled message of what God is doing within His little remnant who are blessed today to continue to “Praise ye the Lord” for His wonderful works to the children of men.

Psa 148:6  He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.
Psa 148:7  Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
Psa 148:8  Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:
Psa 148:9  Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
Psa 148:10  Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:
Psa 148:11  Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth:
Psa 148:12  Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:
Psa 148:13  Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.
Psa 148:14  He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD.

[Posted February 6, 2020]

[Updated December 30, 2020 and January 26, 2024]

Hello Mike,

I hope this finds you well.

I am starting to understand the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Each day a tiny bit more of His truth seems to crystallise in me.

I hope you don’t mind me taking your time and emailing you directly. I don’t doubt it is something quite straight forward for you, but I am still grappling with it.

I understand and even see the beauty in what God does to His children through fiery trials and the chastening we receive. I don’t look back on what I’ve been through and grieve for a moment of it because I can see His purpose in it through the beautiful blessing of spiritual sight He, for whatever reason, has given me.

How do you make sense of or think about how such a great deal of people suffer extensively in often the most horrific ways since birth and them not given the privilege of understanding His greater purpose? I personally take great heart in knowing that they will all be saved, refined and transformed into His image, but that is of no comfort to them now as they cannot understand this.

I know we are all just vapor and dust, but I struggle to deal with helping these most tormented and afflicted people who don’t see any hope or point in their lives.

I am not at all questioning the potter, and I know it will just be a shortcoming in my understanding,​ but I guess I am curious as to what you think about all of this or, as would be better, what the Bible says about this.

Forgive me if it’s all quite straight forward, but alas it troubles me.

Many blessings to you and I am ever grateful for your fellowship and teachings,

M____

Hi M​____​,

Thank you for your question. It is one which I, too, have struggled to understand, but over the years I have come to see that it is my self-righteous carnal mind which simply cannot accept the fact that God’s love is superior to what my carnal mind calls love. My carnal mind tells me that suffering has nothing to do with ‘love’. However, as any parent knows, suffering has a lot to do both with being a good parent and with the true Biblical “love of God” as our own spiritual ‘parent’:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

My carnal mind tells me there is a big difference between a parent lovingly chastening his son and all the seemingly needless suffering of so many innocent children, the elderly, and so many victims of what appears to us to be needless violence. The hardest thing for me to accept is the torture and abuse of innocent children. The long drawn out suffering of adults who are simply standing on their Babylonian faith, and the suffering of the elderly, as well as the life-long suffering of so many afflicted people, just all seems so unnecessary to me as a natural man.

My flesh tells me in no uncertain terms that if I were God I would have come up with a much more humane and merciful way of saving all men. As ‘God’ I would just make every man alive and full of love and humility, and respect for his fellow man, and I would simply have perfected everyone in a spirit body to begin with. I would have just left off this messy, bloody thing called “the cross” with all of its unnecessary suffering.

With all of those thoughts, and without the Lord’s mercy, I would have been overwhelmed with resentment toward the Lord for not doing His work my way and not being more loving and more merciful toward His creatures. However, through His mercy, I have been made to see and to accept the absolute Truth that I am not God, and therefore I do not know better than God what is the best way for Him to work with His own creation.

When I was thirteen years old I remember my Father telling all six of his children that the Bible was the Word of God, and that the answers to all of our questions were in the Bible. God gave me at that tender age to believe what my father was teaching me. His father, my grandfather had told him the very same thing, and while neither of them were given eyes to see nor ears to hear the things of the spirit (Mat 13:9-15), they both were given great faith in the letter of the Lord’s words.

So all I have to offer anyone is what I have been given faith in the Word of God to believe and to understand about any question I am asked. I cannot bequeath to you faith in the Word of God. Faith in God and in His Word is a gift from Him to those to whom He chooses to give it in this age:

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

Eph 1:4  According as He has personally chosen us for Himself before the foundation of the world in order that we might be holy and blameless before Him in love; (AFV)

Although I was given a deep regard for the Bible from my youth, like all of us, I “forsook [my] first love” (Rev 2:4) and had to be chastened and scourged and crushed to powder to be brought back to a much deeper respect for the Lord’s voice, and a much deeper understanding of who the Lord is, the necessity of all of my own suffering, and a much deeper understanding of what His love is. I am now very grateful for all the suffering I endured because it brought me to overcome ungodliness in my own life in this present age.

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [Greek: (G3811) paideuo, chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

As an aside, the revelation that “the grace of God… chastens us” is just one more Biblical refutation of the two false doctrines of a ten-second sinner’s prayer and a substitutionary atonement in which Christ died for us so we don’t need to die. Both of those doctrines have robbed many people of the Truths of the Words of God which teach that “grace… chastens us” and that we must “die daily… be crucified with Christ… and suffer with Him” if we want to reign with Him:

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

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.

Rom  8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

2Ti 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

I was granted the faith to discover that knowing the Lord was the very definition of eternal life:

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

My father was a very strict religious Pentecostal who required the whole family to listen to Him read a chapter of scripture every morning and every night. As a child I cannot tell you how much I resented coming in late at night after putting up hay all day long, eating dinner and then having to listen to my father read a chapter of scripture. I always went to sleep, but at the same time the Lord permitted my father to instill a deep respect for God’s word. He told us over and over with his little Babylonian faith, “Whenever it seems that the Bible is contradicting itself, the problem is your lack of understanding. There are no contradictions in the word of God.”

Those words stuck with me and were used by the Lord to get me past my struggles with all the suffering we see in the Lord’s creation.

The Lord has granted me to accept the fact that the suffering of this age, as painful as it is to experience and to contemplate all the pain felt by others of all ages and circumstances, is all a temporal experience which He has designed as an evil foil against which He is in the process of displaying His love for all men of all time.

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

This is a verse of scripture which tells us up front what the Lord is in the process of doing:

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. (CLV)

“To humble them by it” tells us that we have been given over to pride by the Lord’s design. One of the functions of the very evils you and I are discussing is the suffering which the Lord has placed upon “the whole creation”.

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 

In the Lord’s own time, the Lord will drag all mankind to bow in desperation to the feet of His elect, who, typified by Joseph, will administer judgment upon all His brothers and will drag all men to Himself:

Joh 12:32  And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw [G1670: helkuo, drag] all men unto me.

Rev 3:9  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

The Greek word translated as “draw” in this verse in John 12 is helkuo, and here is how Strong’s correctly defines the meaning of this Greek word:

G1670
ἑλκύω, ἕλκω
helkuō  helkō
hel-koo’-o, hel’-ko
Probably akin to G138; to drag (literally or figuratively): – draw. Compare G1667.

Going back to what the Lord tells us in Ecclesiastes 1:13, we must acknowledge that the way He is dragging us to Himself is through “an experience of evil to humble [us] by it”.

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
1Pe 5:11  To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Returning to your question concerning how you are to deal with “the same affliction of your brothers [who] are in this world”, the Lord Himself has left us the perfect example “that [we] should follow His steps”:

1Pe 2:21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.

After being beaten so severely that He died before the other two men who were being crucified with Him, Christ spoke these words of comfort to one of those men:

Luk 23:39  And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
Luk 23:40  But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
Luk 23:41  And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.
Luk 23:42  And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
Luk 23:43  And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

The fact is that both of the thieves with whom the Lord was crucified will be brought up in the great white throne judgment to be purified with the same fiery words which are purifying us in this age. However, these men were not being dragged to Christ even though one of them was granted to know who Christ was. He still had not been given the holy spirit because the spirit was not yet given.

Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Joh 7:39  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

We are to count ourselves as being on the cross with Christ:

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

“Is crucified” is in the Greek aorist tense, which means that this is not just a past event, but our dying is a “daily dying [and] being crucified with Christ” ongoing experience. In us Christ continues to be crucified daily. Here is how Paul put it:

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

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.

The Lord is our example. As we interact with the whole creation with whom we are suffering in this age, we must follow Christ’s example and speak words of comfort to them. Christ did not attempt to explain to the thief that the thief would die and sleep in the dust of the earth for the thousands of years between his death and the great white throne judgment which follows the thousand-year reign. He simply spoke very comforting words: “you will be with me in paradise”.

Crucifixion is an excruciating way to die, but our Lord endured His own crucifixion to bring life to all men:

Joh 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw [Greek: helkuō, drag] all men unto me.

Eternal torment in everlasting flames of literal fire has no basis in scripture. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” is the doctrine of Jesus Christ concerning His plan for all of suffering mankind.

There is no truth to the false doctrine of a ten-second sinner’s prayer or the substitutionary atonement through the death of Christ. Rather, this is the Truth of how we must enter into the kingdom of God:

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.

Mat 24:12  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Mark repeats this straight-forward refutation of the false doctrine of a ten-second sinner’s prayer:

Mar 13:13  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

The preceding verses in both Matthew and Mark warn us against believing the words of “many… false prophets… coming in Christ’s name” (Mat 24:11 and Mar 13:6). Those false prophets invariably tell you that God does not make men wicked, does not create evil, and certainly does not make us “to err from [His] ways”, and does not intend for us to suffer. However, what does God Himself say?

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

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

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

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.

In that way they attempt to shift the responsibility for all the evil in this world from God’s very wise and sovereign will over onto the weak shoulders of His poor, marred, struggling creatures. If indeed Christ is beginning to grow within you, then you will know that is not the voice of the True Shepherd, and you will hear His voice in His own scriptures:

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Joh 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

“His voice” teaches us that all the suffering in the world is the fruit, not of our free will choices to do evil, but rather it is all the result of the “dying… experience of evil [which] the Lord has given mankind to humble him by it”:

Gen 2:17  and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it–dying thou dost die.’ (YLT)

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.

God is in the process of creating mankind in His own image. We must “enter into His rest” (Heb 4:1-4) on the seventh day before that plan will be completed.

In the meantime, He has given mankind an experience of evil to humble us and to make us to appreciate the fact that, although He has given us an experience of evil, He has also devised means that His banished be not expelled from Him:

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

If indeed all the suffering God has placed upon mankind did not eventuate in the salvation of all mankind, then the Lord would indeed be the evil monster which the eternal hell-fire ministers of “historical Christianity” proclaim Him to be. God really has “devised means that His banished be not expelled from Him and “all in Adam… shall be made alive”:

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

The wonderful news is that this will all be accomplished through you if you are given to believe on Him and suffer with Him:

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.

Paul summarized the purpose for all the suffering we see around us and all the suffering we endure in these words:

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
2Co 4:11  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
2Co 4:12  So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
2Co 4:13  We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
2Co 4:14  Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
2Co 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

I pray these verses help you to cope with all the suffering you see which the Lord is working within us and all around us as the foil against which He is wisely in the process of displaying His great mercy upon all men of all time.

Your brother in the Christ, Mike

[Study aired August 8, 2019]

Psa 126:1  A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. 
Psa 126:2  Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. 
Psa 126:3  The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. 
Psa 126:4  Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south. 
Psa 126:5  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 
Psa 126:6  He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. 

This week, as with every day in the Church (Col 1:24), we were blessed to learn together with our family in Christ in various degrees and manners how the Lord is making a way for us to bear our much promised tribulation in the Lord together (Act 14:22). 

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

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

We all continue to experience many diverse temptations and trials in life which are “common to man” and are also “accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1Pe 5:9). The difference being as God’s elect, as the body of Christ, we are described in these type and shadow words as “the captivity of Zion” who are first learning to trust that “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 

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

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

It is impossible for the natural man to understand how you could have the word “confirming” in the same sentence that says “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God”, but with the mind of Christ we are blessed to learn to trust God through our afflictions and persecutions as we discussed last week, and our much tribulation we come to see as all working together for the good for the body of Christ who have God’s love being shed abroad in their hearts giving them the hope that needed in this age to accomplish His will.

Rom 8:28  And we know [the world in us does not know or those who are blind to God’s sovereignty don’t know, but Christ in us does know Col_1:27] that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Eph 2:7).

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Rom 5:5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 

These verses in Psalm 137:1-9 describe for us what spiritual captivity is, using the physical nation of Israel who is a type of the Israel of God (Gal 6:14-16), and it is very instructive to notice the last two verses of this Psalm as we discuss “when the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion” and what that means for us today as the body of Christ. It pleases God to bruise Babylon within us who is likened unto a daughter and her “little ones”, her children which represent false doctrines wrapped around the idol of our hearts that are dashed “against the stones”, against Christ and His Christ, where God says nothing should enter into the kingdom within us today to defile that holy place (1Co 4:6, Rev 21:27). It pleases God for this reason to bruise the body of Christ so we can be sanctified and drink the cup, which is required and only possible to drink through Christ, in order that we may be found as “they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life”.

Psa 137:1  By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Psa 137:2  We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 
Psa 137:3  For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 
Psa 137:4  How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land? 
Psa 137:5  If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 
Psa 137:6  If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. 
Psa 137:7  Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. 
Psa 137:8  O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. 
Psa 137:9  Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. 

Gal 6:14  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 
Gal 6:15  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. 
Gal 6:16  And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. 

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 [nothing shall enter into the kingdom within us today to defile that holy place].

Rev 21:27  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life. 

We will look at this very encouraging section of scripture which I pray will serve to remind us of how “all things” are working “of him” “of whom are all things” (Rom 11:36, 1Co 8:6, Rom 8:26-28), and He has given us to know that “we know” “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose“; a purpose likened to coming out of captivity by having the scales removed from our eyes which God alone can cause to fall away from our eyes (Act 9:18). We need not fear the captivity the Lord has designed for each of us, but should rather rejoice and sing songs of praise to the One who says we can do this, we can endure all things through Christ who strengthens us (Php 4:13, Heb 12:12).

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

1Co 8:6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. 

Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 
Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 
Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 

Act 9:18  And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. 

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 

Heb 12:12  Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; 
Heb 12:13  And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. 
Heb 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 
Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Psa 126:1  A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. 

Psa_126:1  A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again^H7725 the captivity^H7870 of Zion, we were like them that dream.

This is the only time this Strong’s number [captivity H7870] is used in the bible showing us that the ‘restoration’ of the house can only come about by being “turned again”, and it is speaking first of the elect, who are “the captivity” or the ‘property’ of our Lord. It is a hope-filled message as we look at (Isa 52:8) where the same Strong’s number translated “turned again” H7725 is here translated as “bring again”.

Captivity H7870 Definition: restoration; Origin: By permutation from H7725; a return (of property): – captivity. (speaking of Zion Isa 52:8)

Isa 52:8  Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring againH7725 Zion. 

It is when the Lord is working with us as his workmanship that we experience this miracle of being spiritually healed as we begin to see that ‘the-dream-is-one’ principle applies to God’s elect and to His word which becomes very singular in the heart of His children (2Co 11:3). God’s word bears witness just as these dreams did to Pharaoh to which Joseph bore witness and that we bear witness (Gen 41:32, Rom 8:16). 

2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 

Gen 41:32  And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. 

Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 

“We were like them that dream” also reminds us that it is in the night that the Lord works with us (Psa 16:7, 1Th 5:6-9), meaning while we are in this darkened flesh which is likened to night, we are blessed to be judged by our Lord and consider ourselves “of the day” even at night. Day and night are the same to Him, but it is the light of Christ, our hope of glory within, who is our dream and the one who gives us the vision to continue on in this life, in this shadow of the valley of death (1Pe 4:17).

Psa 16:7  I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. 

1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 
1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 
1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 
1Th 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 

Psa 126:2  Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them. 

We just looked at the hope-filled verse 8 of Isaiah chapter 52 above, and the very next verse describes the fruit of that turning back or repentance God causes in the lives of those with whom He is working. This is the reason “our mouth [is] filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing” (Rom 2:4) as we heard said amongst “the heathen” within us, symbolized by the gentile spirit, The LORD hath done great things for them, spoken of in (Col1:27). It also brings to mind this zealous spirit and the rejoicing which comes when we are finally blessed to be brought to our safe haven, Jesus Christ (2Co 7:11, Psa 107:30).

Isa 52:9  Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 

2Co 7:11  For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. [and again the breaking forth into joy and singing together after we are turned from sin (Psa 107:31). Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!]

Psa 126:3  The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad. 

What are those “great things“, but “his wonderful works to the children of men”, “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men?”.

All men will praise him one day for that healing word that He will send forth through the elect, who will bring about that healing through judgement (Rev 22:2, 1Co 6:3-4). We will be glad then just as our Father is glad now to receive us as His sons in this age through the chastening and scourging process we all must endure together through this life (Heb 12:6).

Psa 126:4  Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.

God is going to drive away our captivity by putting us into captivity (Rev 2:10). Being released from that captivity and being put in it are both works of His hands which are needful and necessary for the new creation to be formed within us (Isa 45:7). The captivity, as we discussed, is the captivity of sinful flesh into which all men ever born come. It is the veil that must be ripped, and that is done through the church or in the temple of God and to the glory of God in this age for God’s children (Heb 10:20). Unless we are granted to repent (Rom 2:4) we will die in our sins and need to have that veil ripped later in the second resurrection (Luk 13:3-4).

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. 

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

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

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 

Luk 13:3  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 
Luk 13:4  Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 

The significance of these “streams“H650 in light of our “captivity” is that it is God, “He“, who will deal with leviathan within us.

H650 (verse 4 of the psalm) “streams”: 19 entries in KVJ: rivers (10), brooks (1), stream/s (2), channels (3), mighty (1) in Job_12:21, scales (1) in  Job_41:15 

Job 12:15  Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. 
Job 12:16  With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the deceiver are his. 
Job 12:17  He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools. 
Job 12:18  He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle. 
Job 12:19  He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty. 
Job 12:20  He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. 
Job 12:21 He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty^H650. 
Job 12:22  He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death. 
Job 12:23  He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again. 
Job 12:24  He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. 
Job 12:25  They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man. 

Job 41:11  Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. 
Job 41:12  I will not conceal his [“leviathan” of verse 1] parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion. 
Job 41:13  Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle? 
Job 41:14  Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about. 
Job 41:15  His scales^H4043 [“armed”]^H650 are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. 

The significance of these streams “in the south“^H5045 is that they represents that parched land which is the marred vessel God has promised to make anew through a process that will take a lifetime of overcoming (Jer 18:4, Rev 2:7).

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.

Rev 2:7  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

H5045 “south”: 112 entries in KVJ:   From an unused root meaning to be parched; the south (from its drought); specifically the negeb [Nekeb] or southern district of Judah occasionally Egypt (as south to Palestine): – south (country side -ward). 

Eze 47:7  Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.
Eze 47:8  Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.
Eze 47:19  And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And this is the south side southward.

Jos 20:1  The LORD also spake unto Joshua, saying, 
Jos 20:2  Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses:
Jos 20:7  And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. 

So there is a correlation being made in God’s word showing us that the south is a parched land at first, and it is where God purposed to create “cities of refuge” which ties into our theme in this study looking at whom these words are speaking “When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion”. We are hidden in the Lord, and He is our “cities of refuge” where we are raised together (Col 3:3, Eph 2:6).

Psa 126:5  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 
Psa 126:6  He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

These last two verses discuss the sowing and reaping process which is so hard on our flesh but so good for our spirits. God does not hide the fact that our journey will be hard, but He also gives us great hope in the promises to which we hold fast, knowing that they are given to us as an anchor for our souls (2Pe 1:4, Heb 6:19).  

2Pe 1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 
Heb 6:20  Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. 

Those who go into captivity can be likened to a mother giving birth “bearing precious seed” that we are promised will come to fruition (Joh 16:21). We will “come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves” just as Joseph prophesied to his family, and if we are blessed to bear that seed of Christ today and endure to the end, we will also bear witness to all others in the great white-throne judgment that we were among those first fruits or feast of ingathering group that God purposed to reap in advance of all the world and for the benefit and blessing of all others, just as Joseph was to his own family and all of Egypt.

Joh 16:20  Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. 
Joh 16:21  A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. 
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. 
Joh 16:23  And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 
Joh 16:24  Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.