“The glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter” Part 3

(Know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God) (Pro 25:17-28)

[Study Aired February 5, 2026]

Pro 25:17  Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee.
Pro 25:18  A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.
Pro 25:19  Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.
Pro 25:20  As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.
Pro 25:21  If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
Pro 25:22  For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.
Pro 25:23  The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.
Pro 25:24  It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.
Pro 25:25  As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
Pro 25:26  A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring.
Pro 25:27  It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.
Pro 25:28  He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.

For the most part this last section of Proverbs 25 is talking about the interactions that we have with others in this life, and the examples given reveal that our walk is our conversation and way of life at all times, whether in fellowship or at work, wherever the Lord has us we are called to “Know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God”, which is the temple that we are, going with us wherever the Lord leads us (Rom 8:14-16).

God is with us always, and so we are always from His perspective, raised in heavenly places together and therefore in the house of God. The world thinks the house of God is a place we build for God, however we know what the scriptures say regarding the things that we build versus the things that God is building within us (1Ch 29:13-15, Isa 66:1-2, Psa 127:1, Eph 2:6).

1Ch 29:13  Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.
1Ch 29:14  But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.
1Ch 29:15  For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

Isa 66:1  Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Psa 127:1  A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

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

Pro 25:17  Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee.

Our “neighbour’s house” represents their temple, where they’re working out their own salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12-13), or where they’re living and moving and have their being in Christ (Act 17:22-28) unaware that God is working all things according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11). Paul’s approach was a gift from God as he was given the wisdom and discretion to know how to approach the men of Athens.

Act 17:22  Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
Act 17:23  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
Act 17:24  God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Act 17:25  Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
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:
Act 17:28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

We have no dominion over the measure of faith the Lord has given anyone (2Co 1:24, 1Jn 5:4, Rev 14:11-12), and this proverb implies that when we don’t remove our foot from someone else’s temple we can inadvertently come across as wanting to have dominion over their faith. As always, it takes God’s spirit, His discretion and wisdom, to know the right balance in all things, both with those who are unconverted, and those who are superstitious as these Athenians were. The more we grow in the mind of Christ the better equipped we will be in knowing when to remove our foot from our neighbour’s house, and when to speak, and when not to speak (1Ti 4:16, Pro 26:4-5).

When we see that everything is dependent on the faith of Christ working within us (Php 2:12-13), the discretion we show when we witness to others, will be manifest in how we “Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee.”(Luk 9:5, Tit 3:10, 2Jn 1:9-11)

2Jn 1:9  Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
2Jn 1:11  For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

Pro 25:18  A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.

Not withdrawing our foot at the appointed Godly time turns our witness into a “a false witness against his neighbour”. We are at that point becoming like Peter, “a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow” when using the word of God without discretion and cutting off the ear of those ‘other servants’ and thinking we are doing some great service (Luk 22:49-51). Thankfully God can repair the damaged ear for another day.

Luk 22:49  When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword?
Luk 22:50  And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.
Luk 22:51  And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.

Pro 25:19  Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.

We are of the generation who have no confidence in the flesh (Php 3:3) and do not know even Christ after the flesh (2Co 5:16).

Php 3:3  For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.(“whose praise is not of men, but of God” Rom 2:28-29)

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

We are not looking to men any longer for deliverance in time of trouble, but rather are telling each other to ‘follow me as I follow Christ’, as we look to the Lord together, and resolve our differences through the multitude of counsellors, which is the way that God has ordained that we resolve conflict in the body of Christ.

Pro 11:14  Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Pro 15:22  Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

Pro 24:6  For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.

The unfaithful man is you and me, our flesh, and it is Christ alone who can be Christ, and so we try the spirits in every situation to discern God’s will in any matter (1Jn 4:1), and in doing this we will do away with our trusting in the flesh which is akin to trusting in a “broken tooth, and a foot out of joint”.

You can’t eat spiritual food with a broken spiritual approach, and we can’t walk a Godly walk if we are leaning unto our own understanding, upon a foot out of joint, which is what all flesh is in God’s sight (Rom 3:10). When we acknowledge and accept our out-of-joint hip, and leg, or foot, or whatever physical infirmity God has placed upon us (2Co 12:8-10), we are then given His power to overcome by recognizing how to put our confidence in God alone.

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Pro 25:20  As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.

This is an admonition to know how to behave ourselves in the house of mourning, which is what the house of God is (Ecc 7:2). The garment we take away from others is their spirit of mourning that is needful and necessary for the time that that person is being exercised with the blueness of that wound that is actually bringing healing (Pro 20:30).

There is  right way to comfort each other is what this proverb is explaining, and as we grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (2Pe 3:18), we will grow in becoming greater comforters as a result of the comfort that God gives us in our times of sorrow (2Co 1:3-4). With Christ’s mind growing in us we will not take away others’ comfort in cold weather, and with the best of intentions sing songs to an heavy heart, whose hearts’ heaviness does not need that song at that time.

Imagine coming up to someone in their hour of great grief and saying, “oh you’ll be okay, you can get over this”, no, that’s singing a song at the wrong time, putting vinegar in baking soda (nitre) so to speak. Lord willing we will always be given greater sensitivity toward each other and learn by God’s hand how to be the proper comforters that He can turn us into, knowing that the affliction of the widow is really a parable that speaks of the entire body of Christ’s need to be sensitive to one another’s dying daily mourning process that we are going through.

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

In one instance if an enemy is having a change of heart, and bringing forth fruit meet unto repentance, they will have a hunger for the word of God, “If thine enemy be hungry”. We don’t turn away our enemy like the church wanted to turn Saul of Tarsus away, but by God changing our hearts, we are then able to give them bread to eat: and if they are thirsty, we give them water to drink: both symbols of the word of God.

God’s elect will be giving bread and water for a thousand years to the world who end up rebelling against the camp of the saints. Our love toward the world is being demonstrated by those actions of giving food and drink, sometimes very physically, or with the word of God, just as Christ loved us while we were yet in our sins (Rom 5:6-10).

Rom 5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Rom 5:7  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
Rom 5:8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:9  Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Rom 5:10  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

In feeding our enemies we have obeyed God’s command to love our enemy, and those very actions may be the turning point for them to acknowledge that God is indeed in this place. Your kindness and love toward your enemy heaps coals upon their head, coals being the word of God that end up destroying the enemy’s false doctrines in his head, if God will permit this (1Pe 4:7-8, Heb 6:3).

1Pe 4:7  But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
1Pe 4:8  And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

The reward will come from the LORD, “and the LORD shall reward thee”, for such ordained actions and is explained this way in the books of Jude and James (Jud 1:23-24, Jas 5:19-20).

Jud 1:23  And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Jud 1:24  Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

Jas 5:19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
Jas 5:20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins [that is our reward, that is our joy 1Th 2:19-20].

Pro 25:23  The north wind driveth away rain: so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.

Pro 25:23 A north wind travails forth a downpour, And a clandestine tongue makes a menacing face.” (CLV),
Pro 25:23 As surely as rain blows in from the north, anger is caused by cruel words.  (CEV)

Judgement comes from the north (Jer 50:41, Psa 75:6-7), and its wind comes with driving rain that physically hurts and stings. The wind and rain in this instance typifies the damaging use of God’s word that results in unmerciful judgement, using cruel words instead of a “soft answer” (Pro 15:1, Pro 25:15).

Pro 15:1  A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

Pro 25:15  By long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone.

Positively, when God receives us we are received through his chastening judgement (Heb 12:6) that comes from the north and brings with it spiritual increase from God (1Co 3:6).

Psa 75:6  For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
Psa 75:7  But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.(Eph 1:11, Rom 8:28)

Pro 12:18  There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.

Pro 15:2  The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.

A backbiting tongue is a tongue that speaks maliciously or slanderously about someone. It is a sure way to create discord in the body of Christ and something that God considers an abomination (Pro 6:16-19)

Pro 6:16  These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
Pro 6:17  A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
Pro 6:18  An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
Pro 6:19  A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Pro 25:24  It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.

The brawling woman in a wide house is clearly Babylon, whose ecumenical house is very broad or wide and not the narrow way that is only achieved by our communion in the upper room (Luk 22:12), the housetop where we are raised in heavenly places and resting on the corner stone Jesus Christ who God drags us to so that we can achieve that blessed spiritual rest in Him (Joh 6:44, Heb 4:10-11).

Luk 22:12  And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready.(1Co 10:16)

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Pro 25:25  As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

The far country is the heavenly places that we are now blessed to be together in (Mat 25:14), and ultimately the fullness of the country that we seek is going to be realized in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye (1Co 15:52). The “good news” is the gospel of the kingdom of God, a kingdom that is now within, and one day going to be revealed to all the world both within and without (Rev 11:15).

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.

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.

Pro 25:26  A righteous man falling downH4131 before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring.

It’s true these things ought not to be so (Jas 3:10-11), but we live by every word of God and therefore we are going to stumble or fall seven times in the wilderness (Pro 24:16) and bring forth the bitter waters of Marah (Exo 15:22-23) that need to be made sweet by the body and blood of Christ (Mar 8:24, Exo 15:25).

Jas 3:10  Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Jas 3:11  Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

Exo 15:22  So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
Exo 15:23  And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
Exo 15:24  And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
Exo 15:25  And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
Exo 15:26  And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee. [this is how the waters can be made sweet within the body of Christ via the holy spirit that washes and cleanses the bride of Christ and delivers us from all our spiritual diseases].

Our prayer is that God will hold us up in His ways.

Psa 17:5  Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slipH4131 not.

The second encampment of the Israelites was ElimH362, which symbolically represents a witness of where God is taking the elect spiritually in this life as we ‘come out of her my people’ (Exo 15:27).

H362 ‘êylim BDB Definition:
Elim = “palms”
1) second encampment of the Israelites after the Exodus
Part of Speech: noun proper locative
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: plural of H352 (From the same as H193; properly strength; hence anything strong; specifically a chief (politically); also a ram (from his strength); a pilaster (as a strong support); an oak or other strong tree: – mighty (man) lintel oak post ram tree.)

Exo 15:27  And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

Pro 25:27  It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.
Pro 25:28  He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.

In last week’s study we reviewed verse 16, “Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it”, which speaks about the measure of faith that we need, and being grateful for what God supplies, knowing that He knows our needs and is teaching us to be content whether we have a little or a lot (2Co 8:15, Exo 16:18, Rom 12:3, Php 4:12). Honey is the symbol for the word of God (Rev 10:10), and we are to eat such as is sufficient for us, operating in the measure of faith that the Lord gives us, lest we find ourselves with this spirit of wanting more honey to glorify our own selves in those things which God says we are to receive in the right measure (Rom 12:3-4).

Rom 12:3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Rom 12:4  For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

God will always provide what each joint needs to supply in love (Eph 4:16), so that we learn how a many-membered body works together for the church to grow (1Co 12:18), in order that we may “know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1Ti 3:15, Joh 13:35).

Together we are learning how to rule over our own individual houses, by the grace of God that teaches us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lust in this age (Tit 2:12).

Having no rule over our spirit is another way of saying the Lord is not working in our heavens, “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls”. God’s elect are called to learn to hold fast to the crown of life that God has given unto each of us who love His daily appearing in our heavens, an appearing, or visitation, that gives us the ability to have rule over our spirits, and proper spiritual defenses, the “walls” that keep us safe (Rev 3:11-12, 2Ti 4:8).

Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Rev 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

2Ti 4:8  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

The Book of Hosea – Part 6, Hos 6:1-11

[Study Aired May 18, 2024]

In the previous chapter, Hosea 5, our Lord forecasted punishment upon the Bride of Christ. Typically, from experience and old Israel’s espousal to her Lord, it is a long and arduous process to route all the iniquities from our land.

We, the Gomer-like harlot that we were, if weak in the faith without implicit dedication to our husband, sometimes dally, tickling our ears with our old adulterous lovers’ (doctrines) and with dull, weak Leah-like unreciprocated eyes, like Jacob, despise her disunified spirit.

In the flesh, a husband’s marriage to an unconverted spouse has the same disunified spirit as a harlot has with her client. In the case of the converted husband and his unconverted wife’s refusal to be washed by the unifying word of God, she is deemed “unclean” effectively like Leah was to Jacob, to the point that he hated her even while she was ‘pleased to dwell with him.’ Conversely, the converted wife, married to an unconverted husband, has the spiritual tool of “chaste conversation” coupled with enthusiastically giving him her whole body as the Bride does for her Lord. Comparatively, it is much harder for a converted husband to win an unconverted wife since his only mechanism for winning her is spiritual, where her innate physical connectivity is mostly cursed.

However, and for the time being, like old Israel and Judah, we need to be vigilant not to return to our Gomer-like whoredoms only to again have our unrepentant hearts shredded (Hos 6:1). For the Bride of Christ, the cycle continues with repentance and His forgiveness on an expectant decreasing scale.

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.

Israel and Judah are Unrepentant

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.

It is upon the witness of two days having gone through the figurative past six days of man’s life on earth that Christ first gives His Elect a double portion of spirit for their understanding of the seven seals of Revelation 5. Can you feel the enlightenment, the deep understanding that comes from this revelation? Christ is the seventh-day Sabbath that revives us. Being smitten as Christ was physically smitten and having our flesh torn and being ground to powder, His little flock goes ahead of their brothers and sisters who remain in Babylon, and Christ begins to rebuild the New Man of God, the budding Christs (plural) on their figurative seventh day, today. The entire affair of change from the old man to the new is a symbolic three days of Christ-like ministry for personal spiritual change.

The term “birthday” is only twice featured in scripture, with a third mention alluding to Job’s children, who were apparently celebrating a birthday of one of the siblings. On each occasion, someone lost their head or, in Job’s children’s case, were crushed by the symbolised stone riches of Job’s wealth collapsing upon them.

Gen 40:20  And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.

Mat 14:6  But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.

Mat 16:21  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

The number three symbolises the spiritual progression for the completion of judgment, and we torturously endure many revelations of denying Christ all the way to the First Resurrection before our perfection.

Mat 26:34  Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 

2Co 11:25  Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;

A most damning condition for the incipient Christian is reflected in the meaning of the name Capernaum, a village in Palestine. She represents our former Babylonian selves in the past, resting luxuriously in imagined peace believing we are saved without needing to be chastised.

Mat 11:23  And thou, Capernaum [G2584 = village of comfort. From G5151 Definition: 1. thrice From G5140 – three], which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

In fact, the Lord was so critical of Capernaum’s arrogant luxuriating in comfort that, most shockingly, she is depicted worse than Sodom.

Mat 11:21  Woe unto thee, Chorazin! [Chorazin = a furnace of smoke 1. a town in Galilee] woe unto thee, Bethsaida! [Bethsaida = house of fish 1. a small fishing village on the west shore of Lake Gennesaret, home of Andrew, Peter, Philip and John. Dung, mire]  for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, [1. an ancient and wealthy city of Phoenicia, on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, less than 20 miles (30 km) north of Tyre. Known for worshipping Ashtoreth] they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

Luk 12:48  But he that knew not [Sodom, Tyre & Sidon], and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given [Babylonian Christianity and supremely the Elect of God], of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. 

Regarding Paul’s thorn in the flesh that remains in each of the Lord’s Elect before being perfected on the third day IN the developing New Heavenly Jerusalem, where he and we spiritually perish, he says,

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.
Luk 13:33  Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

Hos 6:3  Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Mal 4:1  For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
Mal 4:2  But unto you [The Bride who…] that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Christ is the rising sun, the morning star who has healing in His wings, pictorially seen as shafts of light imaged as a red anvil-shaped storm cloud, an eagle’s wing lanced with bright shafts of sunlight. He is the sailor’s warning for the deluge of life-giving rain on the Saints today and the latter fiery rain at the end of the One-Thousand Years culminating in the Lake of Fire upon every conception of human life since the creation.

Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you [Old Israel physically and now, the Elect of God] on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman [Old and New] were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

Calves grown into young yet mature beasts are stall-fed grain (not genetically modified grain and hormone enhanced) and specialised fodder, which enhances the meat’s flavour, particularly when seasoned with salt (Col 4:6). Being raised in a stall restricts muscle movement and makes the meat more tender on the plate. That imagery represents our Lord’s tender mercies upon His young Wife. As Christ is, so is she.

Isa 53:1  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? [His Bride, of course!]
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.

Php 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 
Php 2:6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

Hos 6:4  O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

To the non-spiritual eye, our Lord sounds as if he is lamenting Ephraim and Judah’s wretched plight of harlotry as something beyond his control. She is depicted as a fatted calf in its youth, even as his very own Aholibah, glorying in her seductive beauty only to dry up in the midday heat of chastisement as just another old harlot with bruised teats.

Eze 23:1  The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Eze 23:2  Son of man, there were two women [representing Ephraim and Judah], the daughters of one mother [… one church with one doctrine made void by fornication]:
Eze 23:3  And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. 
Eze 23:4  And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria [representing Ephriam in the north of Israel] is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah [in the south].
Eze 23:5  And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours.

Eze 23:11  And when her sister Aholibah [The Priests of God represented as Jerusalem portraying the future Bride of Christ] saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. 
Eze 23:32  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou [the younger, Aholibah] shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much [humiliation].

Eze 23:43  Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them? [… when you’re just an old dried-up harlot having dissipated the glory of your youth upon all the outwardly superb young men?]
Eze 23:44  Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that playeth the harlot: so went they in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women.

To the stubborn and stony heart, those scriptures humiliatingly stop the mouths of the mighty lions we once thought we were in the glorious beauty of our Aholibahish youth.

Hos 6:5  Therefore have I hewed [divided into two parts, Judah in the south and Ephriam representing the rest of Israel in the north ~ Aholah and Aholibah; Old Israel and the New Israel of God] them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. 

Those with spiritual eyes easily see in those scriptures the multiple representations of the two prime women (fatted spiritually – negatively and positively) in scripture. Hosea, Jehu, and all the prophets preceding and succeeding her amply warn of her luxuriating in her beauty and disregarding her Lord’s admonitions to be colloquially seen as ‘mutton dressed as lamb.’ The Lord’s chosen to hopefully become the very Elect are the King’s (meaning, Christ’s) daughter who has previously been known to dress and refurbish herself to optimistically seduce her ‘bedfellows.’

2Ki 9:30  And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. 
2Ki 9:31  And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?
2Ki 9:32  And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. 
2Ki 9:33  And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. 
2Ki 9:34  And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter.

Hos 6:6  For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

There is no greater “mercy” upon any man than what Christ is doing to his Elect, His Wife! Since ‘all things are hers’ (1Co 3:22-23), she, with wide eyes now that she spiritually sees, starkly understands her miserable condition all the way from Egypt to the cross. Her endless works of sacrifice and by the sweat of her strength, even for some into the twenty-second century, she is alarmed yet joyfully sees her former self.

Isa 1:11  To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
Isa 1:12  When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Isa 1:13  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 
Isa 1:14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 
Isa 1:15  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Isa 1:16  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 
Isa 1:17  Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 
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. 

That “mercy” the Lord desires is in the ridiculously simple act from our heart to acknowledge our sins and rely on Christ’s strength to rebuild the spiritual Temple within. When compared to the Old Covenant Laws, how gloriously merciful is the simplicity in Christ’s methodology in relying totally on His strength to overcome the man of sin. Looking back to Sodom, Egypt, Babylon and Old Jerusalem being one and the same and recalling an exhilarating sensuality or material item long gone is not advancing the spiritual Adam but covertly displays one’s underlying heart not fully devoting our ‘land’ to our Husband (Account of Ananias and Sapphira – Act 5:1-11).

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband [not a husband of the Old Covenant and personal sacrificial works], that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
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.

Hos 6:7  But they like men [the flesh as opposed to the spirit] have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

Our “covenant” is the sacred marriage agreement we have with Christ, our spouse. Our natural feminine tardy desire to stir up the gift of God, the holy spirit, can result in insidious hypocrisy of accusing our spouse of the very thing we do spiritually to Christ. Thankfully, Christ’s desire for mercy over judgment emphatically keeps Him from being hypocritical (as if!) of His law. We know that it is impossible for God to lie (Heb 6:18), but not so many husbands in the flesh become bitter against their wives, remembering her in the glory of her youth, full of righteous sensuality, vigour and enchantment.

2Ti 1:6  For this reason, I am reminding you to fan into flames the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands (ISV).

The fast-disappearing orthodox act in the apostolic era of the laying on of hands was a symbol of being imbued with the holy spirit. A person of the time, and likewise today, having his eyes and ears open for the first time, is being highly spiritually aroused that we all first equate with the natural in sensual incitement. As we naturally age, those heady days of glorying in our youth often become a dull glow that the directly correlating spiritual likewise needs to be fanned alive daily.

Job, speaking concerning Leviathan, is the forthright antipathy of Christ in every respect of Job 41:21! With the experience of Shulamite poetic arousing drama, it is easy to see the righteous sensuality depicting its spiritual counterpart using only one verse from Job:

Job 41:21  His breath [Leviathan’s/Christ’s] can ignite coal; and flames proceed from his mouth.

Son 1:2  Let him kiss me over and over again! Your love is better than wine (ISV).

Only a harlot would suffer with righteous disdain for her hire’s dissolute repetitive kissing of lies, but not the Shulamite, the Bride of Christ she represents.

The most lamentable form of dealing treacherously against our husband is graphically experienced in the flesh of Leah-like disunity of spirit with Jacob. Jacob was unaware that Leah’s marriage to him was the tradition that the elder daughter must be first married before her younger sister Rachel, whom he loved. Jacob effectively ‘hated’ Leah for her God-given separation of like-mind, just as the Great Whore today unwittingly hates the Lord’s Bride. As such, Jacob unconsciously dealt treacherously with Leah. Try as she might to win Jacob’s affection with mandrakes sensualities and subsequently the majority of tribal Israel, disunion of spirit will never trump the works of the flesh.

Spiritually, our treacherous transgression of the covenant in Hosea 6:6-7 is blaming Old Israel, alive and well today, for the world’s plight of Zionism. In our physical marriages, it is represented as a converted husband blaming his unconverted wife (symbolically Old Israel) for not understanding nor wanting to be washed by Christ’s commandments. It is first experienced most ‘bitterly’ by a husband and his wife’s innate indolent boudoir intimacies consequent to Eve’s curse from Eden. Since a husband is to be head of the wife and understand spiritually Christ’s word, there is barely a husband in the flesh who understands her curse and is thus more profoundly likewise cursed and condemned for (unconsciously) not understanding that curse. Mercy is to be expressed by a believer for the babe in Christ or non-believer, and if that believer rages his Deuteronomy 24:1 displeasure upon his spouse for their unbelief, the following verse is likely to apply:

Jas 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Hos 6:8  Gilead [Gilead = rocky region] is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

A husband dealing treacherously with the innate and inevitability of a physically dis-inflamed wife unwittingly condemns himself equally innately with a “rocky” (i.e. stony) heart that pollutes the New Temple he is supposed to represent with the blood of his iniquity.

Hab 2:12  Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity! 
Hab 2:13  Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?

Such an obtuse husband labors with his two-fold child of hell-like self-righteous inflamement vainly attempting to change his wife when he should rather have mercy upon her God-given tardiness.

Eze 3:18  When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not [meciful…] warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

The hypocritical husband who is self-righteous and gives no mercy earnestly seeks mercy himself.

Probably no more profound measure of mercy is there than Christ for His Bride’s sins even before she has learned to swiftly acknowledge them herself (Jer 3:13, Rom 7:24-25).

Hos 6:9  And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness. 

There is no greater robber than Satan, who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. So, too, we were such while in Babylon, heaping to ourselves co-conspirators to justify our lies. Accordingly, they murder Christ and His word afresh and relatively innocent blood is on their hands.

2Ti 4:3  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 
2Ti 4:4  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Hos 6:10  I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

It is bad enough that Ephraim, representing the body of Israel, is full of harlotry. However, the greater blame lies at the feet of her Priests in Judah, you and I, who hold the oracles of God with Oholibah’s intent. A little bit of wink and nudge harlotry, colloquially expressed as ‘boys will be boys’, had already leavened the entire Body.

Gal 5:9  A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. 

1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

1Co 5:5 [Reverse order] To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 

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

Hos 6:11  Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

The little harvest of the first seeded fruits is with Judah, representing the little flock of the Lord’s faithful Elect whose harvest is in progress this very day since the cross – it is only she who can begin to understand that statement.

Luk 18:7  And shall not God avenge his own Elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 
Luk 18:8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

The Priests of God, His Elect who are predestined before the creation to be His Priests, receive the most blessed inheritance of Christ, their Husband. In being given that office, they are automatically given mercy, initially seen as torturously being ground to powder and utterly consumed by fire. Upon them joyfully enduring their chastisement, they “returned [their] captivity” in coming out of Babylon and are named by their Husband as “my people.”

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. 

Amen!