Matthew 20:1–34 The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard

[Study Aired September 8, 2025]

Today we shall review the parable of the laborers in the Lord’s vineyard. In this study, we shall also take a look at Jesus foretelling of His death for the third time in this Gospel of Matthew. The latter part of the study focuses on John and James’ mother’s request for Jesus to let her children sit on His right and left side of His throne. The study ends with the healing of the two blind men that Jesus met after leaving Jericho. 

Laborers in the Vineyard

Mat 20:1  For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. 
Mat 20:2  And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 

The householder is God the Father who works through His son Jesus Christ. Therefore, we can say that Jesus is the householder who is inviting people to come and work in His vineyard. The vineyard signifies the house of Israel, which means the Lord’s children. 

Isa 5:7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

The laborers represent those who are called by the Lord to help His children to know Him. Although it is the Lord who does the work of making us come to know Him, He does it through those He had called and chosen. The work of the laborers is therefore to reap the harvest. 

Luk 10:2  Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

1Co 3:9  For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. 

Reaping the harvest means that the work of preparing the soil (our hearts) had been done, and the sowing and growing of the seeds had taken place. What is needed is harvesting the fruits. That means making known to God’s people what it takes to become His children.

It is instructive to note that the Lord is hiring labourers in every generation after His creation. Those hired early in the morning represent the Lord’s messengers until the time of the people of Israel in Egypt. These laborers or messengers included Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph as demonstrated in Hebrews chapter 11 which deals with the men of faith from the beginning of creation. 

Heb 11:4  By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. 
Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 

Now let’s turn our attention to what these messengers were promised by the Lord – they were going to receive a penny a day. This penny a day was for their subsistence and not the reward or the joy that is set before us. Those laborers who were called last were the first to receive the penny a day. The last set of laborers are those who came to believe in Jesus Christ. This gives us a clue as to what the penny a day means. All the Lord’s messengers before Christ were not given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God. 

1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: 
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 

From the word of the Lord, the penny a day therefore refers to everlasting life as shown in the following verse:

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Everlasting life is what makes us know Christ, that is, to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven.

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

We, His elect are the Lord’s workers who received everlasting life first. That is to say that we are given to know the only true God and Jesus Christ. All the other laborers of the Lord’s vineyard shall also be given everlasting life to come to know Christ later. This will be done through us.

Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
Heb 11:40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 

Mat 20:3  And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 
Mat 20:4  And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. 
Mat 20:5  Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 

The laborers called on the third hour represent the Moses, Aaron, Joshua, etc. who were called during the time that the Israelites were undergoing suffering during their sojourn in Egypt. The number three represents the process of spiritual maturity through the Lord’s judgment. The people of Israel were going through suffering as part of the process the Lord uses to bring them to Himself.  

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

Heb 11:24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 
Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.  

The sixth hour represents the period in the life of the people of Israel where they lived as mere men. As we are aware, the number six is the number of mankind. The sixth hour therefore signifies the time that the Israelites settled in the land of Canaan until the captivity of Babylon. The messengers sent during this period represent those sent in the sixth hour.

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

Jdg 21:25  In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 

The Lord’s messengers or laborers during this period were Gideon, Sampson, David, Isaiah, etc.

Heb 11:32  And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 
Heb 11:33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 

The number nine signifies the Lord’s judgment, and therefore the ninth hour shows us the period stretching from the time the Lord came to judge the people of Israel and Judah who were taken captives by their conquerors until the coming of John the Baptist. The Lord’s messengers or laborers during this period included Jeremiah, Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Malachi, John the Baptist, etc. 

Heb 11:36  And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 
Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 
Heb 11:38  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 
Heb 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 

Mat 20:6  And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? 
Mat 20:7  They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. 

The number eleven refers to the ruin and disintegration of the perfection of the flesh. It is we, His elect, whose flesh is being destroyed by the Lord’s judgment of our old man. The laborers called at the eleventh hour therefore signify all of the Lord’s elect in every generation after John the Baptist, who are being judged in this age for the destruction of their old man or flesh. We are the last to be called to serve the Lord. When the Lord came to appoint us as His laborers, we were lying idle in the churches of this world and therefore were not worthy to be hired in the service of the Lord. However, the Lord showed us mercy  by calling and choosing us.

Mat 20:8  So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 
Mat 20:9  And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 
Mat 20:10  But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. 
Mat 20:11  And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, 
Mat 20:12  Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. 
Mat 20:13  But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? 
Mat 20:14  Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 
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?  

The laborers who were called at the eleventh hour were the first to receive a penny each. As indicated earlier, the penny a day represents the everlasting life which is what the Lord has given first to us, His elect, so that we can know Christ. All of the Lord’s laborers shall also receive this everlasting life in the fullness of time so that they can also know Christ. 

To the carnal mind, we may think that the Lord has not been fair to our co-laborers in the Lord since they had worked all day long and we, His elect, just came in the eleventh hour and received the same penny a day first. We can see that we, His elect, have been favored by the Lord. 

Joh 4:36  And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 
Joh 4:37  And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 
Joh 4:38  I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 

The truth of the matter is that the Lord has the prerogative to do what He wants to do with His creation, and therefore we cannot fault Him for favoring us, His elect.  

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

This verse is the conclusion of the fact that we, His elect, are first to receive everlasting life. We are therefore the few who are called and chosen in this age. What a privilege that the Lord has bestowed on us to be called His sons in this age!!

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

Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time

Mat 20:17  And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, 
Mat 20:18  Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 
Mat 20:19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again. 

It is when we begin to know who Christ is in the spirit that we are given to know about the suffering Jesus endured resulting in the destruction of His flesh. Being raised the third day means that Jesus went through the process of spiritual maturity through judgment and is the first man to be resurrected after death. His resurrection was what made Him perfect. 

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; 
Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 
Heb 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; 

1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 
1Co 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 

As He is, so are we. We are also going through this process of spiritual maturity through judgment as our flesh or old man is gradually being destroyed. This destruction of our flesh is what guarantees the fact that we shall be perfected when we are raised from the dead during the first resurrection. 

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

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. 

The devil wants us to reject the idea of suffering which is the requirement for the death of our flesh and our being raised on the third day. In a way, he had been successful in deceiving us during our time in the churches of this world, when we taught that Jesus has already suffered for us and therefore we are not meant to suffer. Without suffering and death of our flesh in this age, there is no first resurrection.   

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

A Mother’s Request

Mat 20:20  Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.
Mat 20:21  And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. 
Mat 20:22  But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 
Mat 20:23  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. 

The mother of John and James coming to Jesus to worship Him was to present her request to Jesus regarding her two sons. She wanted her sons to sit on thrones with Christ in the fullness of time. The mother of John and James represents the church system of this world or Babylon who wants to reign with Christ but does not have an inkling as to what we have to go through to reign with Him. 

Luk 14:27  And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 
Luk 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 

John and James being two means they signify the Lord’s witnesses. As the Lord’s witnesses or elect, we were in Babylon before He came to us to drag us to Himself. During our time in Babylon, we were not given to know that we were to drink the cup that Jesus drunk and to be baptized with the same baptism of Jesus. In other words, we did not know that to reign with Christ, we must fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in our flesh for His body’s sake. 

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: 

This affliction is the Lord’s judgment of our old man or flesh, which is the cup we must drink and the baptism we must undergo in this age. John and James saying to Jesus that they were capable of drinking from this cup and being baptized with the same baptism of Christ shows our state when we were in Babylon. We had confidence in the capability of our flesh. However, it takes the Lord’s spirit to show us that of ourselves, we can do nothing.

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.    

In verse 23, the Lord saying that John and James shall indeed drink of His cup and be baptized with His baptism implies that John and James were the Lord’s elect who were destined to be judged in this age. 

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 

Jesus also made it clear to us in verse 23 that it is God the Father, who determines who should sit on thrones with Christ. The Lord’s elect are those called and chosen before the foundations of this world to sit on thrones with Christ to reign over the nations and to judge the world in an age to come. 

Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 

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. 

Mat 20:24  And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. 

As indicated in previous studies, the disciples of Christ were not converted when they were with Christ during the Lord’s ministry here on earth. It was after His death that the disciples became converted. 

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

This implies that the disciples were carnal or ruled by the flesh. An indication of this was their anger because of John and James’ discussion with Christ about sitting on thrones with Him.  

1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 

Mat 20:25  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 
Mat 20:26  But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 
Mat 20:27  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 
Mat 20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. 

Jesus used the occasion to show us some of the principles of the kingdom of God. As we are aware, our earthly leaders bear rule over us as we serve them. However, in the kingdom of God, those who want to be leaders must rather serve the brethren. Our Lord Jesus set an example for us to follow, by humbling Himself to the status of a servant for our sake. Our brother Paul also followed the same example by becoming a servant in order to gain the more.

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: 
Php 2:7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 
Php 2:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 
Php 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 

1Co 9:19  For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.  

Humbling ourselves and serving the Lord’s people is not what we see in the churches of this world. The leaders behave just like the leaders of this world who bear rule over the people. 

Jesus Heals Two Blind Men

Mat 20:29  And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. 
Mat 20:30  And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 
Mat 20:31  And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 
Mat 20:32  And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? 
Mat 20:33  They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.
Mat 20:34  So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. 

These verses recount how the Lord has shown mercy to us, His elect. The two blind men represent the Lord’s witnesses when we were minding our own business and were spiritually blind. Through the multitude, which signify the church system of this world or Babylon, we heard about our Lord Jesus Christ as shown in verse 30.  However, we faced great opposition from our brothers and sisters in Babylon, when we wanted to see Him as He is. Here we see that the key role of the church system of this world is to keep the Lord’s people blind as shown by their opposition to the two blind men from getting close to the Lord. However, if we are called and chosen, then like the two blind men, the more we are frustrated by the church system of this world from seeing Christ, the more we raise our voice to Him to show us mercy. This mercy we have received is at the expense of our brothers and sisters in Babylon as shown in the following verses:

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. 
Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 

In the fullness of time, the Lord in His mercy, came to us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness. The brightness of the Lord’s coming is His opening our eyes to see and our ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven. 

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

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

In verses 32 and 33, the Lord asking us about what we want Him to do for us and our response being that we want to see, is to show us what the Lord is doing in this age. He is opening the eyes of His elect in this age so that we can see and hear the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven.

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. 

In verse 34, we can see that it is the Lord’s compassion on the two blind men which moved Him to open their eyes. It is this compassion, which has kept us in Him to date and will continue to keep us until we are perfected by the first resurrection. 

Lam 3:22  It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
Lam 3:23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.  

Amen!!

Act 19:1-20  Jesus I Know, and Paul I Know, but Who are You?

[Study Aired July 9, 2023]

Act 19:1  And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
Act 19:2  He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
Act 19:3  And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism.
Act 19:4  Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
Act 19:5  When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Act 19:6  And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
Act 19:7  And all the men were about twelve.
Act 19:8  And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.
Act 19:9  But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.
Act 19:10  And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
Act 19:11  And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
Act 19:12  So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
Act 19:13  Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
Act 19:14  And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.
Act 19:15  And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?
Act 19:16  And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
Act 19:17  And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
Act 19:18  And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
Act 19:19  Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
Act 19:20  So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

The last words about Paul in the previous chapter tell us that he had ended his second missionary journey by going up to the church in Jerusalem, saluting the brothers there and returning to Antioch. He began his third journey when he left Antioch:

Act 18:22  And when he had [sailed from Ephesus he] landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted the church [at Jerusalem], he went down to Antioch.
Act 18:23  And after he had spent some time there, he departed, and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.

Phrygia and Galatia are where Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch are located. In Lystra they met Timothy and took him with them on their journey.

Chapter 18 ended with our introduction to Apollos and his interactions with Aquilla and Priscilla and the church at Ephesus. From Ephesus, Apollos went to water the church Paul had established in Corinth:

1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

Act 19:1  And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

Here is a map of this third journey which helps us to see that in this journey the holy spirit does not forbid Paul from preaching the gospel in Asia, so he goes straight from Antioch in Pisidia to Ephesus:

Timelines of Paul’s Third Missionary Journey

“The upper coasts” certainly included “all the countries of Galatia and Phrygia” mention in Acts 18:23. On this third journey, Paul goes straight from Antioch in Pisidia and returned to Ephesus, as he had promised he would if the Lord permitted it to be so:

Act 18:19  And he came to Ephesus, and left them there [Aquilla and Priscilla]: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.
Act 18:20  When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not;
Act 18:21  But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.

These “certain disciples” whom Paul met at Ephesus were like Apollos before he was instructed by Aquilla and Priscilla. They also knew only “the baptism of John.” What that means is that they knew John had proclaimed Christ to be the Messiah, but they were not familiar with the giving of the holy ghost on the day of Pentecost.

Act 19:2  He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
Act 19:3  And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism.
Act 19:4  Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
Act 19:5  When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Paul did not baptize them “in the name of the Father and the Son and the holy ghost”. He baptized them “in the name of Jesus” as the apostles had done on the day of Pentecost when the holy spirit was first given:

Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The Catholic Encyclopedia admits that the formula of baptizing “in the name of the Father, the Son and the holy ghost” was added by the Catholic church and was not in the original Greek manuscripts. For any who are not familiar with this fact, be sure to read Is God A Trinity at this link:

Is God a Trinity?

Act 19:6  And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
Act 19:7  And all the men were about twelve.

This is the third time the gift of speaking in other languages is mentioned in relation to receiving the holy spirit. This first occurred on the day of Pentecost when the spirit was given to the 120 people in the upper room. It next occurred at the home of Cornelius, the Roman centurion when Peter was the first apostle to take the gospel to the Gentiles, and it happened the third time here at Ephesus with these 12 disciples who are also given the gift of languages when they receive the holy spirit.

In the recounting of those three events were we told anywhere that the gift of tongues is always given to those who receive the holy spirit??? Were we told that if you do not speak with other languages, then you have not yet been given the gift of the holy spirit?

No, of course not! Nevertheless, that doctrine is taught to many “carnal… babes in Christ” (1Co 3”1-4), whose “zeal for godliness, but not according to knowledge” has led them to accept a very poor counterfeit for the real languages which were spoken, “every man in his own tongue” in Acts 2.

Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Act 2:5  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
Act 2:6  Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Act 2:7  And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Act 2:8  And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

These verses demonstrate the very purpose for the gift of speaking in their own language… “every man in our own tongue wherein we were born.”

Here is the purpose for which this gift of languages is given:

1Co 14:22  Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.

There were people present of the day of Pentecost who were “them that believe not”, and this miraculous gift was a very powerful witness to them of the Truth of the gospel. Based upon the purpose for the gift of languages, it is not adding to the Word to say there were unbelievers present when these 12 men were also given the gift of languages at the same time they were given the gift of the holy spirit.

That is the exact opposite of the doctrinal statement of several Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations of men which state “the gift of unknown tongues is the initial evidence of the receiving of the holy ghost.” I, for one, agree with the inspired Word of God that the gift of languages is not given to prove the gift to other believers who have the holy spirit. Rather, the gift of the holy spirit is given to all who know the voice of the True Shepherd:

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.

The apostle Paul addresses this idea, that the holy spirit is not given unless one speaks in tongues, directly when he poses this series of questions:

1Co 12:27  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
1Co 12:28  And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, [and last of all] diversities of tongues.
1Co 12:29  Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?
1Co 12:30  Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
1Co 12:31  But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

The answer to every one of those questions is a resounding, No! Not everyone is an apostle… not everyone has the gift of healing, and not everyone speaks with tongues. In many modern-day Pentecostal and Charismatic churches the “workers of miracles [and] gifts of healing” are far more important than being an apostle, prophet, or teacher.

The word ‘unknown’ is not in the Greek and was never intended to be understood as the unintelligible syllables which pass for ‘the gift of tongues’ in many Pentecostal and Charismatic churches today.

Concerning those “best gifts” Paul specifically contrasts the gift of speaking in languages with the much greater gift of prophesying in a language which everyone present understands:

1Co 14:3  But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
1Co 14:4  He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.
1Co 14:5  I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

That is the holy spirit telling us that “he that speaks unto men to edification, and exhortation and comfort” is greater that “he that speaks with tongues.” If  the doctrine that ‘speaking with tongues is the initial evidence of the gift of the holy spirit’ were true, and ‘if we have not the spirit of Christ then we are none of His’, then anyone speaking to men to edification, and exhortation and comfort, would have to have the gift of tongues before he could prophesy and speak to men to edification and  exhortation and comfort, and yet Paul tells us that those who have these various gifts do not necessarily have the gift of tongues or languages. Let’s read those verses in 1 Corinthians 12 again:

1Co 12:27  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
1Co 12:28  And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, [and last of all] diversities of tongues.
1Co 12:29  Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?
1Co 12:30  Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

The answer to every question in those verses is an obvious and emphatic, “No!” The inference is that each member of “the body of Christ” has a different function, and it is obvious that not all possess all the gifts of the spirit, and yet they all do possess the gift of the holy spirit if anyone is Christ’s.

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.

For a more in-depth treatment of the false doctrine of speaking in unknown tongues read this article:

Speaking in Unknown Tongues

Paul spent a year and six months ministering in Corinth during his second journey:

Act 18:11  And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

He spent even more time ministering in Ephesus on His third journey beginning with three months preaching in the synagogue.

Act 19:8  And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.

This “space of three months… [going] into the synagogue disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God” was just the beginning of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus. When different men “were hardened, and believed not”, Paul stopped preaching in the synagogue and started preaching daily “in the school of one Tyrannus”:

Act 19:9  But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.
Act 19:10  And this [disputing daily in the school of… Tyrannus] continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia [including “the seven churches of Asia” (Rev 1:4)] heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

Besides the three months spent preaching in the synagogue, he spent “the space of two years” preaching there “daily in the school of one Tyrannus.”

In the next chapter, Paul informs us that in total he spent “three years… [in the area of Ephesus, Act 20:17] warning everyone night and day with tears” of a coming apostasy from the Truth of the gospel:

Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

Act 19:11  And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
Act 19:12  So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

Inwardly and spiritually “special miracles” are still taking place as they were physically and outwardly here in this case with the apostle Paul. No one performed more ‘special miracles, healed more sick people or cast out more devils than Christ:

Joh 21:25  And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.

Yet Christ Himself revealed that not even His own apostles were converted while He was still here on earth in a body of flesh. Therefore, while Christ performed so many physical miracles and healings, He did not convert one single soul during His entire earthly ministry. Not even His own apostles. This is what He told Peter on the night He was apprehended by the Jews to be crucified:

Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Luk 22:33  And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
Luk 22:34  And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

Christ performed so many miracles and healings that the world could not contain the books if they were all recorded for us to read, yet He had not converted one single soul at that time. The fact that He did not convert one single soul, and yet we do convert sinners from the errors of their ways (Jas 5:20), is what He meant when He told us this:

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

The “greater things” that we perform is the “saving of souls”:

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.

The only thing any of the apostles did which was “greater works than” Jesus did was and still is the conversion of the souls of mankind. Physical miracles are wonderful, but they are temporal. Spiritual conversion brings “life eternal”, and that is defined by Christ Himself as you and I making Christ and His Father known to a dying world:

Joh 17:1  These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
Joh 17:2  As thou [the Father] hast given him [Christ] power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Every time the Lord uses any of His saints to open the eyes and ears of another person, He is spiritually healing that person of their spiritual afflictions and spiritual diseases while also casting out the “evil spirits” which “many false prophets” have brought into the unsuspecting lives of “carnal… babes in Christ” who are not yet capable of “trying the spirits [to see] whether they are of God”:

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

Job chapters one and two demonstrate that the devil’s ‘hand’ is nothing less than the Lord’s hand:

Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:5  But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

According to Job, the works of Satan are “the hand” of the Lord. It was the Lord Himself whose hand “formed the crooked serpent” for the very purpose of serving the Lord as His adversary. As such a tool in the Lord’s hand, that “crooked serpent” does nothing more or less than what the Lord sends him to perform… ‘take all he has “only upon himself put not forth thine hand… he is in thine hand; but save his life.”

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

Here now is a story which demonstrates How the Lord uses ‘His hand’, the adversary, to make manifest who is His true servant and who are not His true servants:

Act 19:13  Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.

The Greek word translated as ‘vagabond’ is:

G4022
περιέρχομαι
perierchomai
per-ee-er’-khom-ahee

From G4012 and G2064 (including its alternate); to come all around, that is, stroll, vacillate, veer: – fetch a compass, vagabond, wandering about.

This Greek word appears in the New Testament with both a positive and a negative application. This 13^th verse of Acts 19 is one example of its negative application. Another example of its negative application is:

1Ti 5:13  And withal they [young widows (1Ti 5:11)] learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house [G4022: perierchomai, stroll, to go about]; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.

It is used in its positive application in ‘the faith chapter’, Hebrews 11, to refer to those who travel about serving the Lord and preaching the gospel, as the apostle Paul and those who traveled with him did:

Heb 11:36  And others [of faith] had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about [G4022: perierchomai] in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

These seven son of Sceva were traveling Jews, the sons of the “chief of the priests” who made a show of their exorcisms before those who followed them. There are those who do the same to this day glorifying themselves instead of the Lord.

Act 19:14  And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.

According to James Strong, the name ‘Sceva’ means ‘left-handed’. No offense is meant toward those whom the Lord has caused to be left-handed, my wife being one such person, but the negative, spiritual Biblical symbolism is to be on the wrong side of God in this age:

Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

The positive spiritual symbolism of being left-handed is spot on accuracy in battling the enemies of God with His slings and arrows:

Jdg 20:15  And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
Jdg 20:16  Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.

The symbolism of seven sons of a Jew who is “chief of the priests” signifies the complement, the completed apostasy, of the religious leaders who oppose Christ and His doctrine in this age.

Act 19:15  And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?

The question posed by this evil spirit is, “Who are we when we are still in Babylon, to think we can teach all the false doctrines of Babylon and still have the power of Christ and His Christ over the powers and principalities of this age?” Here is another way of asking this same question. This verse reveals the personal application of, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?”

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?

Act 19:16  And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

This is a perfect description of what the Lord does to us while we continue to live as a part of Babylon in this world while claiming His name and His power. Like these seven sons of a Jewish chief of the priests, our arrows, our words, are cut in pieces and work against us:

Psa 58:7  Let them [the wicked] melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.

That is what happens to all of us when we claim the Lord’s name and His power, but we refuse to do the things He tells us to do:

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

Using the Lord’s name while refusing to eat His bread and wear His apparel will place us with the seven sons of Sceva and the seven women of Isaiah 4 – on the Lord’s ‘left hand’.

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.

Contrast this story of the seven sons of Sceva with the stories of Paul casting the spirit of divination out of the damsel in Philippi, or calling blindness down on Elymas, another Jewish false prophet, in Paphos…

Act 13:6  And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus: [Greek: son of Jesus “another Jesus” (2Co 11:4)]
Act 13:7  Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God.
Act 13:8  But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
Act 13:9  Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him,
Act 13:10  And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
Act 13:11  And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.
Act 13:12  Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.

…with the damsel at Philippi on Paul’s second journey:

Act 16:16  And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
Act 16:17  The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.
Act 16:18  And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit [of devination], I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.

This evil spirit knew who Jesus was, and it knew who Paul was, but it was not at all subject to the false spirit in the seven sons of Sceva, and this event, like the blindness of Elymas, also made everyone who heard what happened to “be astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.”

Act 19:17  And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

Paul and his company gave all the credit for what was done to the Lord to whom all credit belongs.

Act 19:18  And [as a consequence of the 12 men being given the ability to speak in languages and as a consequence of this one demon possessed man overpowering the seven sons of Sceva, after acknowledging that it knew Jesus and Paul] many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.

Confessing and showing their deeds are two ways of saying the same thing. They confessed their sins and demonstrated their repentance:

Mat 3:5  Then went out to him [John] Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
Mat 3:6  And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

Act 19:19  Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
Act 19:20  So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

The word ‘pieces’ you will notice is in italics, signifying that it is not in the Greek. All the scholars agree that this verse refers to the most common silver coin in the Roman empire at that time, which was a ‘dinarius’. A ‘piece of silver’ was called a dinari, which was a day’s wages for a common laborer. The ‘penny’ given the laborers in the Lord’s vineyard was a dinari:

Mat 20:1  For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
Mat 20:2  And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny [G1220: denarion] a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

Several commentaries agree that “fifty thousand” day’s wages in today’s money would be 5.5 million U.S. dollars. That book burning in Ephesus had to have been one of the most expensive deliberate book burnings of all time.

Spiritually it signifies the burning out of all the false doctrines in our heavens as we are given to repent of believing those lies while they are being burned out by the fiery words of God:

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

2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

The sooner the better!

2Pe 3:12  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
2Pe 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

[Study Aired September 6, 2020]

Isa 65:7  Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
Isa 65:8  Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
Isa 65:9  And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
Isa 65:10  And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
Isa 65:11  But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.
Isa 65:12  Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.

The Lord has deemed it essential to our salvation that we know “the pit from whence [we] are digged”.

Isa 51:1  Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

Much of this chapter will be reminding us of the marred condition into which our old man was placed by the hand of the Potter.

Isa 65:7  Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

This verse reaffirms what was said of our rebellious old man in the previous verses:

Isa 65:2  I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
Isa 65:3  A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;
Isa 65:4  Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
Isa 65:5  Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
Isa 65:6  Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,

The message of our verses for today is essentially the same as the message of chapter 51, a few words of which I will repeat here before going to verse 7:

“Isa 51:1  Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 

“From what rock are those who “follow after righteousness… hewn”? From what pit are we all digged? It is the same for all men, Abraham included:

Isa 51:2  Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. 

What do we see when we ‘look to Abraham and Sarah’ when the Lord called them? We should see a barren, unfruitful couple of idol worshipers who had nothing to offer the Lord. Should not the Lord at least have chosen a couple who were not infertile if He intended to make of them a nation and a multitude of nations and to bless the world through them? That is certainly the way any natural man would go about producing a nation and a company of nations. Neither Abraham, nor any herdsman, would ever have picked a couple of cattle which had produced no offspring for over a decade, much less 98 years, to build up his herds. Nevertheless, the Lord chose an infertile couple, past the age of childbearing, to build a nation and a company of nations through which He would bless all other nations:

Gen 18:18  Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?” (End Quote)

What both chapter 51 and these verses of this 65^th chapter are telling us that God has chosen and still chooses, only the most despised, weak, and foolish of this world, and He does so deliberately for this express purpose:

1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

The first six verses of this 65^th chapter tell us that we are first a rebellious people who provoke our Lord to anger continually to His face” (Isa 65:2-3).

Moses made it clear that our election is not because of us or because we are righteous, rather it is despite us and in spite of our unrighteous, rebelliousness:

Deu 9:6  Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

Deu 9:13  Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

Through the story of King Hezekiah the Lord is even now encouraging us to repent of our “stiffnecked”, rebellious ways and to yield ourselves to Him and to His ways:

2Ch 30:8  Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.

The Lord has ordained that it is only through His chastening and scourging justice that we are brought to repentance and to yield ourselves to Him as we read in the last verse of our last study:

Isa 65:6  Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,

However, the Lord does not cause us to reap what we sow just for the purpose of getting even with us for “provoking Him to anger continually to His face”. Rather, His judgments are always out of His love for us:

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
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?

In the New Testament, this Biblical principle of reaping what we sow, and chastening us with our own works, is expressed in these words:

Mat 18:23  Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
Mat 18:24  And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents [An unpayable debt].
Mat 18:25  But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
Mat 18:26  The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Mat 18:27  Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
Mat 18:28  But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
Mat 18:29  And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Mat 18:30  And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
Mat 18:31  So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.
Mat 18:32  Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Mat 18:33  Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mat 18:34  And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Mat 18:35  So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

Two other scriptures are a condensed statement of what we are being told in this parable of this ungrateful, unmerciful servant.

Gal 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

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

Therefore, the Lord repeats His warning of reaping what we sow in the very next verse:

Isa 65:7  Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

Speaking specifically of this present time and His work with His elect who He has preordained to be the conduit of His mercy to all men, we are told:

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

This “blessing… in… the cluster” is “found” only by crushing the grapes.  In the time of our own judgment, and in the judgment of the rest of the world, the Lord will destroy all but a few of His ‘grapes’ and through the crushing of those few that are left He will in His time bless all the others. “Destroy it not… destroy… not… them all… for a blessing is in it”. This ‘blessing’ is the Lord’s blessing upon Abraham and his seed in type and in shadow. This ‘blessing in the cluster’ is in anti-type, and in the fulfillment of this type the “blessed and holy… few… who have part in the first resurrection”, which is “the redemption of the purchased possession”.

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

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

Isaiah has prophesied of this very thing twice before:

Isa 17:4  And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.
Isa 17:5  And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
Isa 17:6  Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.

Before we go to the next place where Isaiah prophesies of the remnant grapes, let’s first consider the meaning of this phrase “in that day”. This phrase in the Old Testament almost always speaks of the day of our judgment:

Deu 31:17  Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?
Deu 31:18  And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.

Isa 10:20  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them [our unmerciful old man]; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

These “gleaning grapes” are “the remnant… [the] few chosen”. These “gleaning grape” are the elect remnant upon whom “judgment must… first begin”:

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.

When Christ’s glory is revealed to us, then we should by all means “be glad… with exceeding joy”.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

“The ungodly and sinners… will appear [at the] great white throne… judgment” where they will be judged by those who are being judged in “this present time”, and for whom they unwittingly are “earnestly… waiting”:

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.

It is our fiery trials which are our judgment which is now upon “the house of God”. Those trials and fiery judgments must “first begin at us”. Being judged now is the greatest blessing the Lord can bestow upon us, because it is through Christ’s mercy that we are being judged in “this present time” (Rom 8:18). We are not being judged and saved at “this present time” through the Lord’s mercy upon us simply for our own salvation and nothing more. Rather our “first-fruit” salvation is for the purpose of making us “saviors” and the conduits of our Lord’s mercy upon all the rest of mankind who has ever lived:

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

We judge this world, and we rule it with a rod of iron for “a thousand years”. That is not the end of  our judging. We are also the judges of the “great white throne… judgment” after the rebellion which takes place “when the thousand years are expired”. It is here that we will also judge “the devil and his angels”:

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Who is doing this judging of the dead at this “great white throne”? The first thing to note is that the throne is a “white throne”, and the next thing we need to remember is that:

1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world [To the later chastening judgment at this great white throne].

As for who is doing the judging of the dead at the great white throne judgment, this is what we are told, and I repeat:

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? [“The kingdoms of this world” (Rev 11:15)] and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? [At the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death/ prepared for the devil and his angels] how much more things that pertain to this life?

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.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again [to be judged with the devil and his angels] until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Judgment is not taken away from these judges when the thousand years of reigning with Christ on this earth is expired. That thousand-year reign was just a period of preparation for a much greater time and a much greater judgment and harvest than the first-fruit wheat harvest, which is being judged now at “this present time”. All who are not given a part in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection” are unknowingly “waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God” who will be their merciful judges when “the dead are judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works”:

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.

Verse 19 should remove any doubt about who the judges are of the great white throne judgment.

Why is Paul contrasting “the creature” with “the manifested sons of God”?

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

“The creature” means all in Adam. It is not referring to cats and dogs. It is only those who are “in Adam” who are “wait[ing] for the manifestation of the sons of God”, and it is “we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the spirit” who are “groaning within ourselves waiting for the adoption… the redemption of our body”.

What we were just told here in Romans 8 is that it is “through [our] mercy” that “all the families of the earth… shall … be blessed”. Yes, that is exactly what Paul tells us just a few chapters later in this same epistle to the Romans:

Rom 11:30  For as ye [Gentiles] 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.

Knowing that physical Israel will be brought to God via spiritual Israel (Gal 6:15-16) gives these four verses of Isaiah 24 both an inward and an outward application:

Isa 24:10  The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
Isa 24:11  There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
Isa 24:12  In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
Isa 24:13  When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

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

The name ‘Babylon’ means ‘confusion’. “The city of confusion” here in Isa 24:10 is the same “great harlot” city of:

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

And:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

That the first Israel is rejected of God and is replaced by the later spiritual Israel is made even clearer by the first recorded sermon given by our Lord, and by the message within the words of the parable of the workers in His vineyard.

Telling the Jews they would be replaced by a spiritual ‘Israel’ almost cost Christ His life:

Luk 4:16  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luk 4:17  And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luk 4:20  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Luk 4:21  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luk 4:22  And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
Luk 4:23  And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
Luk 4:24  And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Luk 4:25  But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Luk 4:26  But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
Luk 4:27  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
Luk 4:28  And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
Luk 4:29  And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Luk 4:30  But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

The parable of the workers in the vineyard conveys this same message inasmuch as the first will be last, and the last will be first:

Mat 20:1  For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
Mat 20:2  And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
Mat 20:3  And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
Mat 20:4  And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.
Mat 20:5  Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
Mat 20:6  And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
Mat 20:7  They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.
Mat 20:8  So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
Mat 20:9  And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.
Mat 20:10  But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
Mat 20:11  And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
Mat 20:12  Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
Mat 20:13  But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
Mat 20:14  Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
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 [spiritual Israel] shall be first, and the first [physical Israel] last: for many be called, but few chosen.

It is through Christ living His life within His “few chosen… elect” that the “blessing” mentioned in Isaiah 65:8 and the inheritance of our next verse will be fulfilled:

Isa 65:9  And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

The “Seed of Jacob [and the] inheritor of [the Lord’s] mountains” is Christ, and “His inheritance [which is] in [His] elect… in the saints”:

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

Christ within His Christ are His elect who are the “inheritors of [His] mountains” and those ‘mountains’ are typified by “Sharon… and the valley of Achor”:

Isa 65:10  And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.

It is only the Lord’s elect of “this present time whose “flocks” will increase and pasture in peace in “the valley of Achor. Flocks in peaceful pastures typify the peace and prosperity which the Lord’s elect firstfruits will know during the thousand years, and beyond to “the consummation of the ages”. It is the Lord’s elect who will be the first to experience the joys, the glory, and the power of “the consummation of the ages”:

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.

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.

1Co 10:11 Now all this befalls them typically. Yet it was written for our admonition, to whom the consummations of the eons have attained. (CLV)

The “folds of flocks” in Sharon, and “the herds… lying down in Achor” typify “The glory that shall be revealed in us”. This peace and glory is contrasted with the fate of our old man in “this present time” as well as the rebellious carnal minds of all men of all time who “through [our] mercy… shall receive mercy” in the great white throne judgment (Rom 11:30-31 and Rev 20:11). That contrast is the subject of our last two verses of today’s study:

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

“That troop [and] that number” is those who “no man could number of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” (Rev 7:9). “That troop [and] that number” also includes our own old man and the old man of all men of all time, who have always resisted Christ, including all men of “this present time” and those who will be living in the “short season” of rebellion which immediately follows the thousand year reign “of our Lord and His Christ”.

This is the marred condition of all men right from “the Potter’s hand”:

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.

Act 7:51  Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

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

“Numbered to the sword” is just another way of saying that our old man was “made to be taken and destroyed”:

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Outwardly and dispensationally, “that troop [and] that number” symbolizes all the troops of all the armies of all nations which will “compass the camp of the saints about” in the last stand of the carnal mind of mankind against the irresistible power of “our Lord and His Christ”:

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

Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Rev 21:4  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

That is our study for today, and these are the verses for our next study in which we will learn that we are to be given a new name, a new heavens and a new earth, all of which are completely unfamiliar to the “cursed” ‘name’ of our old man:

Isa 65:13  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:
Isa 65:14  Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.
Isa 65:15  And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:
Isa 65:16  That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.
Isa 65:17  For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Isa 65:18  But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-parables-of-luke-14-17-part-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-parables-of-luke-14-17-part-2 Wed, 26 Feb 2020 00:48:53 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=20339 The Parables of Luke 14-17 Part 2

The Parables of the “Marriage Supper” and the “Great Supper”

[Study Aired February 25, 2020]

In the last study we saw that the parable of the wedding feast is about how the body of Christ is to present ourselves as we come together. We are to present ourselves with humility and act as a child believing what God is saying. The parable of the “Great Supper” will expand on that same theme. Here are the parables of the “Marriage Supper” and the “Great Supper”.

Luk 14:7 And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them,
Luk 14:8 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;
Luk 14:9 And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
Luk 14:10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
Luk 14:11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Luk 14:12 Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
Luk 14:13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
Luk 14:14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
Luk 14:15 And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
Luk 14:16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
Luk 14:17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
Luk 14:18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
Luk 14:19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
Luk 14:20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
Luk 14:21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
Luk 14:22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
Luk 14:23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
Luk 14:24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

As we learned last week, the “Wedding Supper” means the coming together of the body of Christ. Likewise, the dinner or supper means the same.

Let’s see what we can learn from this parable.

Luk 14:12 Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
Luk 14:13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
Luk 14:14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

When we make a “dinner or a supper” we are preparing a spiritual meal.

Deu 8:1 All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.
Deu 8:2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
Deu 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

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

Christ says we are not to call our friends, brothers, kinsmen and our neighbors to this dinner. Why can we not call on them? Which friends is Christ referencing?

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

2Ti 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2Ti 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
2Ti 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2Ti 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
2Ti 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Here are two other translations of this section of the parable to help us see what is being said a little clearer.

Luk 14:12 (BBE) And he said to the master of the house, When you give a feast, do not send for your friends and your brothers and your family or your neighbours who have wealth, for they may give a feast for you, and so you will get a reward.

Luk 14:12 (GNB) Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors—for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did.

We do not desire the rewards of mankind. We seek the rewards of God.

2Jn 1:4 I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.
2Jn 1:5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
2Jn 1:6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
2Jn 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
2Jn 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

Joh 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
Joh 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
Joh 4:36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages [rewards], and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
Joh 4:37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.
Joh 4:38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.

Mat 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Rev 22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
Rev 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
Rev 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Continuing with the parable here is the next section.

Luk 14:13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
Luk 14:14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

Why are we to invite the poor, maimed, lame and blind?

Isa 35:3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Isa 35:4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
Isa 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Isa 35:6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

Isa 58:6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Isa 58:7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

How are we recompensed?

Isa 58:8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.

Psa 41:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

When are we recompensed?

Luk 14:14b …for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

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

Now let’s finish the parable keeping in mind all we have been shown so far.

Luk 14:15 And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Joh 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Luk 14:16 Then said he unto him, A certain man [Jesus Christ] made a great supper, and bade many:

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

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

Luk 14:17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.

Psa 116:16 O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

Rom 6:18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Luk 14:18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
Luk 14:19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
Luk 14:20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

Heb 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Heb 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Heb 4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Heb 4:5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Luk 14:21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

Isa 35:3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Isa 35:4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
Isa 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Isa 35:6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

Isa 58:6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Isa 58:7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Luk 14:22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
Luk 14:23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

Isa 11:16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

Isa 35:8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

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

Joh 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
Joh 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Luk 14:24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

1Co 15:21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1Co 15:27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

I will end with these verses from 1John 3.

1Jn 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1Jn 3:17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-421-9-mine-elect-in-whom-my-soul-delights/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-421-9-mine-elect-in-whom-my-soul-delights Sun, 19 May 2019 02:40:38 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=18822

Isa 42:1-9 Mine Elect in Whom my Soul Delights

---

Isa 42:1-9 Mine Elect in Whom my Soul Delights - Discussion

1 file(s) 16.34 MB

Download

---

Isa 42:1-9 Mine Elect in Whom My Soul Delights

Isa 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 
Isa 42:2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 
Isa 42:3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 
Isa 42:4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
Isa 42:5 Thus saith God the LORD , he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: 
Isa 42:6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; 
Isa 42:7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. 
Isa 42:8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. 
Isa 42:9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. 

This is a most revealing chapter because it is the words of “the Lord” Himself which concern and inform us of ourselves as “His Servant… His Christ”. As we will see “His Christ”, His “elect”, are not described in words which we might have thought they would be.

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 

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

Rev 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

These words in Isaiah are the words of our Lord, and in this chapter, He is speaking of “[His] servant… [His] elect… His Christ”, and He is telling us what we should be looking for in “[His] servant”.

Ten years ago, Steve Crook did a study on this very subject. It is entitled ‘The King’s Prisoners – Part 1’ which I encourage everyone to review at this link: The King's Prisoners - Part 1

Christ comes to let His elect out of prison, so we are first His prisoners to sin before we are released from that ‘prison’ by “the brightness of His coming” (2Th 2:8).

Let’s get started learning what our Lord wants us to know about “[His] servant… His Christ”:

Isa 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

Taken by itself this verse makes it sound as if the Lord’s servant, “Mine elect… His Christ” is a very special person indeed, possessing His spirit and having the power of a judge… “He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles”. Indeed, this is a prophecy of Christ Himself and His coming to judge the Gentiles in this age. 

However, this is also a prophecy about the Lord’s “elect” whom He sends to save this world just as His Father sent Him. These two verses confirm this fact:

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

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

Christ’s Father sent Him into this world “that the world through Him might be saved”. That is what the Father and His Son, His Christ desire, and what the Lord desires is what He does:

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

The Lord “will have all men to be saved” (1Ti 2:4), and to that end He has determined to use multiple “saviors”, not just the Lord Himself. He has determined that all men will be saved by “the Lord and His Christ” as we just read in Acts 4:26, Revelation 11:15 and 12:10.

Obadiah confirms this:

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.

The definition of the noun ‘Christian’ is ‘a follower of Christ’, but the flesh wants to separate itself from Christ and convince us that we simply cannot really be like Christ. After all, Christ was a spotless Lamb who never sinned, while we are all obvious sinners. But what say the scriptures? This is the mind of Christ Himself on this subject:

Mat 25:40 And the King [Christ] shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Act 22:8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

If the extent to which Christ identifies with us has not yet been understood, He goes so far as to say, through the pen of the apostle John:

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.

Christ will always be our head, and we will never be His head, but we are ‘His body, of His flesh and of His bones’, and with Him we are also the “saviors” of mankind:

Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

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

What more should we know about the Lord’s servant… His Christ?

Isa 42:2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 
Isa 42:3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

That this is speaking of Christ Himself and of His Christ there can be no doubt, because Matthew tells us that Christ withdrawing Himself from the rulers of His day is the fulfilling of this prophecy and “as He is so are we in this world”:

Mat 12:9 And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue: 
Mat 12:10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him. 
Mat 12:11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? 
Mat 12:12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. 
Mat 12:13 Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other. 
Mat 12:14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. 
Mat 12:15 But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; 
Mat 12:16 And charged them that they should not make him known: 
Mat 12:17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 
Mat 12:18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. 
Mat 12:19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. 
Mat 12:20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. 
Mat 12:21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.

What are we being told about the Lord and His Christ? We are told the Lord’s servant “shall not strive, nor cry” in this age. “Neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets” in this age. We are told that He will not break a bruised reed nor quench a smoking flax UNTIL “He sends forth judgment unto victory”. 

That is what we are told to look for in the Lord’s servant. A “bruised reed” would normally be broken off and pruned from among the reeds so the healthy reeds could flourish. A smoking flax, as a wick in an oil lamp would normally be quenched before the house was full of smoke, but the servant of the Lord does not lift his voice or attempt to change the unjust or do anything to try to save this dying world at “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.

Rev 22:11  He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

As the Lord’s servants, we are not working against Him and trying to make straight what He has made crooked, neither are we attempting to save a world He is intent upon destroying with the brightness of His coming. But notice the last part of this verse:

Mat 12:20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. 

The Lord’s servant is not involved in the affairs of this age “till He send forth judgment unto victory”, but then things change. When the Lord sends forth judgment, then He and His servant become very involved in the affairs of this world. 

Look at the contrast between these two statements about the Lord’s elect:

Isa 41:15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

Isa 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 
Isa 42:2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 
Isa 42:3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

Inwardly the Lord’s “servant… [His] elect” have lived all of these verses. We know that He did not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. He did not break a bruised reed, and the smoking flax He did not quench until He brought forth judgment unto truth within His elect, within His ‘kingdom’:

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

“Until He bring forth judgment” is the way it is quoted in the New Testament:

Mat 12:18  Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. 
Mat 12:19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. 
Mat 12:20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. 

The Greek word translated as ‘till’ is:

G2193
ἕως
heōs
heh'-oce

Of uncertain affinity; a conjugation, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place): - even (until, unto), (as) far (as), how long, (un-) til (-l), (hither-, un-, up) to, while (-s).

The point being made is that the Lord’s judgments upon us, and our judgment of this world, is only within us at this present time, and we do not engage in the affairs of this world “until” the appointed time. As all who are now being judged know, when the appointed time comes… when it is time for ‘judgment to begin at the house of God’, then when that time finally does come the Lord uses “a threshing machine with teeth” to begin judging our lives and destroying every mountain and hill within our heavens and every thought which exalts itself against the knowledge of God within us:

2Co 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 
2Co 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 
2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

This is all a part of the judgment which “is now on the house of God”:

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

Being judged at this time does not make us judges of this world at this time. There is a time for us to “judge this world”, and when that day comes, we will be endowed with the power to do so:

1Co 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. 

When the Lord comes to us, He judges us, but His kingdom is not of this age. If it were, then we would fight against those who would hurt Him and His Christ. Here are His Words:

Joh 18:33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? 
Joh 18:34 Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? 
Joh 18:35 Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? 
Joh 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world [Greek: aion - eon, age]: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. 
Joh 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

Jesus tells us His kingdom is not of this age, but He also tells us “To this end came I into this world…”, and the truth is that at the appointed time He will be the king of this entire planet:

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. [Greek: ‘the ages of the ages’]

Let’s continue our study and see what more we can look for in “the Lord and His Christ”:

Isa 42:4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

The Lord and His Christ, “His elect” as Isaiah puts it, will “not fail nor be discouraged” even as they are being “counted as sheep for the slaughter… dying daily” and being “crucified with Christ” in this age because He and His elect know:

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.

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.
Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

“The whole creation”, from Adam until “God [is] all in all”, is groaning and travailing "in pain together until now”. It is all part of a plan the Lord is working to bring all things, “all in Adam”, to Himself, and it is being, and will all be, accomplished through “The Lord and His Christ”.

Isa 42:4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till [Hebrew: until] he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

The holy spirit, through the apostle Paul, elaborates on what Isaiah is telling us about why we must never be discouraged in “the sufferings of this present time”:

Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 
Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

There is an order in which the Lord is working His plan for all of mankind, and we must “wait upon the Lord” to carry out His plan in His own order:

1Co 14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order.

1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 

During this period of waiting for our promised salvation we are told that we are “sealed with the holy spirit of promise”:

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

“The redemption of the purchased possession” is the delivery of the promised salvation to the Lord’s elect whom He knows and upon whom He is to bestow great honor. It is all in very good hands, and our salvation and glorification is as certain as the rising of the sun because:

Isa 42:5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

This is a proclamation of the sovereignty of our Creator over all His creation. The Old Testament is not at all bashful about declaring the sovereignty of God, even over all the evil in the world. Consider just a few Old Testament statements which outline the extent of the Lord’s sovereignty over all His creation.

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

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

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

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

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

The holy spirit in the New Testament confirms these words and makes them more personally applicable by informing us that this sovereignty extends even into the thoughts and actions of all of mankind:

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

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.

Pharaoh had nothing to do with the role he played in the Lord’s plan other than to play out that role. He was created for the purpose of being destroyed by the Lord. The same is true for our old man. Pharaoh is a Biblical type of our flesh, our rebellious old man. Our old man was created to be destroyed so the Lord could show His power within each of those who are His elect. But Pharaoh was cast away from the Lord in this age while the Lord’s elect are not cast away in this present time. We can no more escape our election than we can escape the destruction of our old man. Neither could Pharaoh avoid his destruction. We are even told that our election was determined “before the world began”:

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

“The Lord’s servant… His elect” were chosen to be “in Christ before the world began”, and He will not fail to see them through every trial to the end:

Isa 42:6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
Isa 42:7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

Remember who the subject is of this chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

It is the Lord’s elect who are the first to have their eyes opened and to come out of the “darkness out of the prison house”. Then He uses them to “open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison”. This fact is repeated in the 49^th chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 49:8  Thus saith the LORD , In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; 
Isa 49:9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. 
Isa 49:10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.

All of this is repeated in the New Testament, and in the King James, these words are mistranslated as “the day of salvation”:

2Co 6:1 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. 
2Co 6:2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

Replacing the article ‘a’ with the article ‘the’ has given many a Babylonian minister an excuse to teach and preach that today is “the [only]” day of salvation “the [only] accepted time” to receive salvation. Such a doctrine denies the message of this entire chapter. That message is the message of all the rest of scripture. That message teaches that all the Lord’s creatures are “moaning and travailing together until now waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.”

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

The kingdom and rulership in that kingdom is the reward the Lord has promised only to His “elect” who are the first to be judged and are then given the honor of judging the rest of mankind and reconciling all things in heaven and in the earth to the Lord. In due time, life will be given to all as the parable of the workers in the vineyard demonstrates. However, the “crown of life” is given only to those who in the parable are hired at the 11^th hour and are given their wages first. They are declared to be “blessed and holy” above and before all the rest of mankind and above all the other workers in the Lord’s vineyard, and the parable itself demonstrates that truth does not sit well with those who are not given that calling.

Mat 20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. 
Mat 20:2 And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day [A day’s wages], he sent them into his vineyard. 
Mat 20:3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 
Mat 20:4 And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. 
Mat 20:5 Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 
Mat 20:6 And about the eleventh hour [“The ends of the ages” 1Co 10:11] he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?
Mat 20:7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. [“Thy will be done” - Mat 6:10 and Luk 11:2]
Mat 20:8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 
Mat 20:9 And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. 
Mat 20:10 But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. 
Mat 20:11 And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, 
Mat 20:12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. 
Mat 20:13 But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? 
Mat 20:14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 
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.

Those who were hired first, worked the longest and got paid last did not like the order in which the Lord rewards those who work for Him. They hated His ways and “Murmured against the goodman of the house”. The Lord’s conclusion at the end of this parable is “…For many are called, but few are chosen [Greek: eklektos, elect]”.

Here are the wages given to “the Lord’s servant… His elect” Isa 42:1] those who were hired last and got paid first:

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. 
Rev 20:5 But the rest of the dead [Including the “many called” who get paid last] lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. [Those who were hired last and were paid first, at “the first resurrection”]

The honor of being in the “blessed and holy… first resurrection” is “the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. This glory and honor are not given to those who are raised up in “the resurrection of judgment, the great white throne… judgment/ lake of fire/ second death”.

That is what is meant by these words:

Isa 42:8 I am the LORD : that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Isa 42:9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

Mat 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 
Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 
Mat 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Mat 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Those who teach that there is “one resurrection in two parts”, and that “if you see anything ordinally you can and you will be missing the spiritual meaning of the Word” are flatly denying that “the first shall be last and the last shall be first, for many are called but few are chosen… in this present time”. Anyone who tells you there is no “blessed and holy” honor bestowed by Christ upon His elect whom He will resurrect a thousand years before the rest of mankind are not saying “thy will be done”. What they are doing is setting the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their faces and placing an idol in their heart and telling you that Christ’s words “Man shall… live… by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” nullify the message of the parable of the workers in the vineyard, and that the first resurrection which is our “crown of life” (Rev 2:10-11) is common to all men. They are in effect teaching “the resurrection is past already [it took place inwardly]”:

2Ti 2:17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

Such an unscriptural doctrine is a spiritual “graven image”, which phrase is Biblical symbolism for the false doctrines of men, also called “idols of the heart and the stumbling block of their iniquity”:

Eze 7:19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold [Their false doctrines] shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

Eze 14:3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

An “idol in the heart” is a false doctrine, a stumblingblock of iniquity, which the Lord will not tolerate.

Isa 42:8 I am the LORD : that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images [false doctrines].

If we are faithful to the words of Christ, we “shall be hated of all men” in this present time.

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.

The Lord alone of all the gods is capable of telling us what has been and what will be:

Isa 42:9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

It is few men indeed who are even aware that we are never to so much as “think above what is written”:

1Co 4:6 Now these things, brothers, I applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us ye might learn not to think above that which is written, so that ye may not be puffed up, one over the one against the other. (ACV)

Inevitably men demonstrate that they are false prophets by speaking above that which is written and speaking forth idols of their own hearts from their own dreams and their own fertile imaginations.

In our next study, we will glorify the Lord for all He is doing in the lives of His elect for the purpose of bringing about the salvation of all men through His “servant, His elect”:

Isa 42:10 Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. 
Isa 42:11 Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. 
Isa 42:12 Let them give glory unto the LORD , and declare his praise in the islands. 
Isa 42:13 The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies. 
Isa 42:14 I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. 
Isa 42:15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. 
Isa 42:16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.
Isa 42:17  They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/awesome-hands-part-123-blessings-and-punishments-as-seen-in-leviticus-26/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=awesome-hands-part-123-blessings-and-punishments-as-seen-in-leviticus-26 Mon, 23 Oct 2017 06:37:01 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=14833

Audio Links

Download Part 123

---

Awesome Hands - part 123 Discussion

1 file(s) 13.39 MB

Download

---

Awesome Hands – part 123

Blessings and Punishments as seen in Leviticus 26

October 20, 2017

Many times we think about blessings as positive things that happen to us and punishments as things that happen to us due to the Lord’s relationship with us going sour.

However, for Christians today, the way the Lord deals with us is much more for our growth in the new man than it is simply just to punish us for our sins.

Ultimately, the wages of sin is death, so we will certainly partake of those “wages”, but we also can participate in the love that the Father shows us in the forgiveness we have been given through and by Jesus Christ.

At the end of the day, we are being shaped into the new man so that we, too, can show forgiveness and mercy to those whose lives we affect and by whom we are affected. Our verses today should help us understand where the Lord is coming from as it pertains to these various sides of the coin of disobedience versus obedience and ultimately how we are to treat others in our lives.

Punishment for disobedience

It is often said by mainstream Christianity that the Lord loves us, therefore he doesn’t cause us to fear Him. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the fear of the Lord, and fear of disobeying Him, that causes us to realize the blessings of obedience to Him and the punishments for disobeying Him.

Another way to say it is He either gives us life or He gives us death. We are going to cover chapter 26 of Leviticus in this study since our “hand” verse for today are found in verses 25 and 46. The whole chapter will serve as a good foundation for this topic. First, let’s start with the punishment.

Lev 26:14  But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
Lev 26:15  And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
Lev 26:16  I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
Lev 26:17  And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
Lev 26:18  And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
Lev 26:19  And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
Lev 26:20  And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.

Things just got intense! In a very real sense, the Lord rewarded or punished His people in an outward way that everyone could see. So, these verses we just read, and will be reading, tell us that if you listen to or ignored the Lord, there were very serious results that happened.

For mostly everyone reading or listening to this study, we know that the power and might of the Lord is not something of which you want to be on the losing end. What we just read culminates in pride, one of the three things that is “all that is in the world” (1Jn 2:16).

What we are being told very bluntly in these verses is that the Lord will turn off the rains of the heavens and will cause the earth to no longer bear any fruit. “I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass,” should be something to which we all relate.

We shouldn’t think that we are any different than the Pharaoh was when the Lord sent Moses to free the Israelites. When the Lord is working on us, we tend to not enjoy the situation.

When I am disciplining my children, there have been times that they believe the discipline is not just or is unfair, so what do they do? What do we all do when we feel the Lord has “wronged” us somehow, when we have this mindset?

We double down on our position. We dig our heels in and stay the course of our mindset. Then, we lose against the “bigger” and “stronger” force and authority!

Lev 26:21  And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
Lev 26:22  I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
Lev 26:23  And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;
Lev 26:24  Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
Lev 26:25  And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Lev 26:26  And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.

When you look at all the symbolism in this chapter, it yells out to us just how much the Lord abhors the old man in us, but that He endures the old man so that the new man can come to life. This process happens throughout our whole lifetime, but as we see it happening, we start to get closer and closer to the Lord as more of the old man dies.

“Will punish you yet seven times for your sins,” tells us this is judgment happening for these sins. Ten women baking bread in one oven tells us that the flesh is completely going to be consumed by the Lord, and specifically the old man is doomed by what is produced by him. You’ll never get your fill and be content as it pertains to sinning and the old man.

Lev 26:27  And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
Lev 26:28  Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

Now, we’ve really done it! The Lord has poured out His punishments, yet we still do not hearken unto Him. We yet again “walk contrary” to what we know we should be doing, and the Lord is now going to pour His fury out on us. His complete fury is going to come on our entire household! Not only that, but we will turn on our OWN FLESH!

Lev 26:29  And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
Lev 26:30  And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
Lev 26:31  And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
Lev 26:32  And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
Lev 26:33  And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

Now we are going to see a shift of sorts. The Lord is going to cause us to leave the land onto which He has sent desolation, and we will become scattered, but even a scattered people still have their God! This process will allow the “land” (of which land you are) to find REST.

Lev 26:34  Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
Lev 26:35  As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
Lev 26:36  And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
Lev 26:37  And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
Lev 26:38  And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
Lev 26:39  And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

If we haven’t gotten the clue yet, the Lord means business. He’s not playing around. If you noticed, He has been very patient with us to a point, but when enough is enough, He will pour His fury out on us so that we, our households, our neighbors and our nation are all driven out and away from the blessings the Lord has given us. Yet, this is still hope if we understand what this all means for us.

What we need at this point is repentance. Think about the first words of Jesus’ ministry after being baptized by the Holy Spirit.

Mar 1:14  Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
Mar 1:15  And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

What we need, all we need to do, to recognize the kingdom of God is at hand, is to REPENT. In the context of our study today, we need to repent of the iniquities and sins we’ve committed against the Lord.

What we are guilty of is allowing the pride of our life to dominate our relationship with the Lord. Of course, we know that the Lord has caused it all to happen. So we also must admit that He is FULLY in control and has caused us to act out against Him SO THAT we can then be reconciled to Him.

Lev 26:40  If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
Lev 26:41  And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
Lev 26:42  Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
Lev 26:43  The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
Lev 26:44  And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.
Lev 26:45  But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.
Lev 26:46  These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

The Lord will not utterly cast us away if we do these three things:

1) Confess our iniquity and sins.
2) Humble ourselves.
3) Accept the punishment of our iniquity/sins

See, the Lord just wants us to acknowledge what He is doing in our lives. If we ignore that He is working the good and bad, He will just give us more of the bad until we wise up. There will come a time, if we continue down the destructive path of building up the old man, that the Lord will do everything it takes to bring us to our knees before Him.

Blessings for obedience

For the sake of this study, I reversed the order of how this chapter operates. No, I do not think I can do or say it better than that Lord can; However, I wanted to leave this study on a positive note for all the blessings the Lord will pour out on the new man in us as we follow His statutes, judgments and laws.

Lev 26:1  Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.

It seems straight forward. Don’t worship idols. Now, you must take an inventory of what you do with your time and actions and determine what things are idols in your life. Then, eliminate them from your life. Simple, if you desire to please the Lord and follow His laws, and the Lord does give us the desires of our hearts when we are speaking about the new man and the “heart” of God.

Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Psa 37:3  Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Psa 37:4  Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Continuing, we must keep the sabbaths and keep them holy.

Lev 26:2  Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
Lev 26:3  If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
Lev 26:4  Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Lev 26:5  And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

The fruit of our work and of our land will be manifest. The Lord will bless these things because we are willing to keep His commandments.

Lev 26:6  And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
Lev 26:7  And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
Lev 26:8  And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
Lev 26:9  For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
Lev 26:10  And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
Lev 26:11  And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
Lev 26:12  And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
Lev 26:13  I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

The Lord will bless us in many ways when we keep His commandments.

1. We shall have peace in our land.
2. We won’t be afraid of anyone
3. Evil beasts will be gone from our land
4. Our enemies will flee from us
5. The Lord will have respect “unto us”
6. We will be well nourished since our new fruits of the land will replace what we already have in store
7. The Lord’s tabernacle will be set among us.
8. The Lord will walk among us and be our God and we His people

Notice these eight blessings of the Lord! Everything we need is right here. Now, apply these inwardly, and you really get a picture of what the Lord promises His spiritual Jews of the HEART.

After all, that is where the circumcism happens so that we confess with our mouth our iniquities. This is where our humbleness finds its abode, and this is where we accept whatever it is the Lord has planned for us.

When we look at the 'one through eight' list above, we are the land, we will not be afraid of anyone or their doctrine, the Lord will cause our land to be cleansed of “beasts”, our enemies are anyone that are the enemies of the cross of Christ will flee from the doctrine of Christ that is in us because we are as He is in this world, and the Lord will have respect toward us because we are the bride of Christ whom He adorns.

We will be spiritually nourished by the Lord and the very land that He gives us. This land is our mind, and we will not be tormented but rather nourished by His mind. He will make us His TEMPLE, and He will walk among us there.

These are the things which we are promised now, both on the disobedience and the obedience side of things. It sounds very dreadful for the old man, but it is wonderful news for the new man in us.

This chapter should bring hope to us all because we are ahead of the curve so to speak. The disobedience towards the Lord comes from us all, and we gain the reward of that disobedience. However, because we know the laws and commandments of the Lord, we also are positioned to take full advantage of the blessings the Lord can pour out on us.

So, let us confess our sins, humble our hearts and accept whatever it is the Lord has planned for us because we KNOW He will work it all out for good for us and everyone around us. We might as well take advantage of the extra blessings as the old man is killed off.

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/foundational-themes-in-genesis-study-85/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=foundational-themes-in-genesis-study-85 Thu, 05 Mar 2015 07:09:19 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=9166 Foundational themes in Genesis – Study 85 (Key verses: Gen 30:25-43; Gen 31:9-13)

The life of Jacob was written down for us to see our own road of being sanctified to be God’s true servants. Jacob’s name means “heel catcher” or “supplanter” because that is the way he came out of the womb of his mother, Rebekah, holding onto the heel of his twin brother, Esau. In the scriptures a name relates to the nature of that person, and this nature of being a supplanter in Jacob was further manifested when Jacob took away the rights of the firstborn from Esau, and also, with the help of his mother, Rebekah, received the blessing of the inheritance of the firstborn (Gen 2:19; Gen 25:29-34; Gen 27:6-29; Gen 27:42-45). Fleeing from the fury of Esau, Jacob was sent to Haran to Rebekah’s brother, Laban, to also look for a wife there (Gen 27:43; Gen 28:2; Gen 28:10). On His way to Haran, God appeared to Jacob in a dream where God confirmed the promise of a land and an offspring to Jacob, as God also made this covenant with his grandfather Abraham, and his father Isaac:

Gen 28:12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
Gen 28:13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
Gen 28:14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Gen 28:15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

God works all things in our lives from start to finish, and this is also what Jacob will learn although we all, like Jacob, think that we can manipulate events to somehow ‘help’ God achieve His purposes in our lives. It is this delusion that needs to be removed from our carnal understanding of God’s sovereignty, which the foundational theme of sanctification deals with as God also sets His elect apart from the world for our correct position and righteous function in His plan (Lev 11:44; Mat 5:48; Mat 19:21; Joh 17:17-23; 1Pe 5:10; 1Pe 1:15-22). Jacob typifies the new man in Christ who indeed supplants the old man Adam in all of us (1Co 15:22; 1Co 15:45-46). But this sanctification process is done through our time in service of the old man first, as this evil selfishness in our fleshly nature will be purged by the fire of God to prepare His elect for their service to Him:

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

In Haran Jacob met Rachel, his cousin and daughter of Laban, and was introduced into the family. Jacob loved Rachel and arranged with Laban to work seven years for her, but after the seven years Laban beguiled Jacob by bringing Leah, his older daughter, to Jacob in the evening as the veiled bride with whom Jacob then slept:

Gen 29:25 And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me?
Gen 29:26 And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.
Gen 29:27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
Gen 29:28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
Gen 29:29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
Gen 29:30 And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

Leah and Rachel, together with their two handmaids, gave Jacob eleven sons and one daughter while he was working fourteen years for Laban for his two daughters in Haran (Gen 27:43; Gen 28:2; Gen 28:10). The two seven-year periods Jacob worked for Leah and Rachel, respectively represent our service to God in the false church and then in the true church afterward. Joseph was born as Rachel’s first child after she was initially barren after ten sons were born to Jacob through Leah and the two handmaids, Zilpah and Bilhah. It is after the birth of Joseph that Jacob approached Laban with the request to leave Haran and return to Canaan which God promised He will do in Jacob’s dream in a place which called Bethel afterwards (Gen 28:15):

Gen 30:25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.
Gen 30:26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service which I have done thee.

Jacob is our type of being diligent and faithful in service, even when we are under the tutors and governors of this world, because it is here that our testimony is established when the world cannot point fingers at this aspect in our lives (Gal 3:22-25; Gal 4:1-3). If the world persecutes us, it must be because of our “good works which they shall behold” and not because of our evil works “as evildoers” (Mat 5:20; 1Pe 2:12-20; 1Pe 4:14-15). Here are a few verses from the mouth of Peter for our learning in this respect:

1Pe 2:12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

1Pe 2:15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
1Pe 2:16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

Like all of God’s servants, Jacob is being sanctified by God through his righteous deeds and “well doing” even while he was in service to Laban:

Gen 30:27 And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
Gen 30:28 And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.

When God’s favour is on a person, even the enemies cannot deny that (Pro 16:7). Laban was blessed by God for Jacob’s sake and Jacob’s diligence in his service to Laban. Even though Laban “lifted up his heel” against Jacob by abusing his goodness in service for the two wives, Jacob showed no vile against Laban even when Laban benefitted from all of his service up until this point. This reminds us of the truth of why we should love our enemies as they and those who “despitefully use” God’s elect will not triumph over us in the end (Mat 5:44):

Psa 41:9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.
Psa 41:10 But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.
Psa 41:11 By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.

Jacob submitted and did not resist the evil. God brings all evil and trials to us for a good purpose, as it is only if we can endure those trials through His strength and faith in us, that we will be found fit for His higher service in His temple (Gen 22:1-2; Luk 9:62; Act 14:22; 2Ti 2:21; Rev 15:8). Christ and His followers do not enjoy the trials they are put through, but when God brings the evil, they also learn progressively how to submit to God and give their backs to be beaten, give their cheeks to be smitten, and give their hands and feet to be nailed (Mat 5:39-48). The elect know why this is to be done:

Isa 50:5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
Isa 50:6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Isa 50:7 For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
Isa 50:8 He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

With the help of God, the elect of God see beyond the temporary things as there are so much more spiritual benefits to be gained when our focus is on the high calling in Christ (1Co 2:9-10; Php 3:14; Heb 12:1-8). Jacob also confirmed Laban’s testimony of the much increase in Laban’s flock while he was in service to Laban:

Gen 30:29 And he [Jacob] said unto him [Laban], Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me.
Gen 30:30 For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude; and the LORD hath blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall I provide for mine own house also?

We will only move out of spiritual Babylon at the time when we personally hear the Word of God, even through the voice of an angel of God.

Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her [“Babylon… the great whore”], my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Laban could not deny the claims made by Jacob and agreed with Jacob to establish his own household and his own flock away from Laban. Jacob then explained to Laban which of the new-born flocks he will take for his own:

Gen 30:31 And he [Laban] said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock:
Gen 30:32 I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown [Hebrew: “chûm” = dark coloured] cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.
Gen 30:33 So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.

Laban thought he could even benefit much out of this idea coming from Jacob because from his perspective the chances of getting a huge flock of brown sheep and speckled and spotted goats were extremely slim. Laban further even removed the old “ringstraked”, “speckled”, “spotted” and brown among his current flock which were with Jacob and gave them to his sons:

Gen 30:34 And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
Gen 30:35 And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.
Gen 30:36 And he set three days’ journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

The name “Laban” means “white”, and here we find the negative spiritual application of this colour which God revealed to Moses as it also associates with the way Laban operated and dealt with Jacob:

Lev 13:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying,
Lev 13:2 When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests:
Lev 13:3 And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.
Lev 13:4 If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days:

“White” here associates with leprosy, and spiritually this connects with everything relating to flesh. In this separation between the flock of Laban and Jacob we also see a type of the separation between that which is of the flesh and that which is after the spirit – the latter relating to the “ringstraked”, “speckled”, “spotted” and brown flock which Jacob will take with him. It is only the flock of God who is called out of spiritual Babylon that will be used to mature further in the promised land. This is the most important separation the elected servants of God will be exercised in as they grow in their discernment on what is beneficial to them in spiritual terms. The three-day journey which was between the flocks of Laban and Jacob spiritually points to the intensifying process of judgment to reveal this separation in us to bring us to spiritual maturity:

Heb 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

There has been much speculating about this method of Jacob, and as usual the interpretations according to the wisdom of the world are much more about human ingenuity than giving God the honour in all of this. It reminds us of the time Jesus wrote on the ground when the woman caught in the act of adultery was brought to Him to judge (Joh 8:1-11). In the annals of worldly exegesis more attention is focussed on the writing on the ground than on the words written down for us which Jesus spoke at that time that made the woman’s accusers to retreat:

Joh 8:7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

The world’s focus is always on the earthly things. The natural man is limited to his own human concepts and earthly designs as he can only trust his physical senses (Exo 8:7; Lev 19:31; Pro 3:7; Pro 21:2; Ecc 3:18; 1Co 2:14; 2Co 11:13-15; 2Ti 3:8; Rev 13:13-14). The natural man lives in Babylon which is spiritually “on the other side of the flood”, meaning he is not yet under the judgment of God as he cannot see how God works all things after the counsel of His will (Jos 24:2; Isa 26:9; Eph 1:11; 1Pe 4:17; Heb 9:27). Jacob, still “on the other side of the flood” in Haran, is also still led by the immature state of his natural mind, and is deluded by what his own eyes want to see through his own methods and manipulation:

Gen 30:37 And Jacob took him rods of green [Hebrew: “lach” = new/immature] poplar [Hebrew: “libneh” from lâban = white], and of the hazel [Hebrew: lûz = links to the almond tree with its white flowers] and chesnut tree [Hebrew: “armôn” = bare/stripped known for its high stature]; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
Gen 30:38 And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.
Gen 30:39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.
Gen 30:40 And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban’s cattle.
Gen 30:41 And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.
Gen 30:42 But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
Gen 30:43 And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.

If one believes that what we do in the natural world will steer God into action or cause Him to change His one plan which He concluded before the world began, we are in spiritual delusion (Num 23:19; Psa 139:16; Isa 46:10; 2Ti 1:9). The types of sheep and goats born to the flock of Jacob were all from God as Jacob only revealed this to his two wives after the six years for working for his own flock, as his eyes were opened to this truth:

Gen 31:9 Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
Gen 31:10 And it came to pass at the time that the cattle [Hebrew: “tsô’n” / “tse’ôn” = flock/small animals] conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked [Hebrew: “âqôd” = striped], speckled [Hebrew: “nâqôd” = marked], and grisled [Hebrew: “bârôd” = spotted by hail].
Gen 31:11 And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I.
Gen 31:12 And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.

Jacob was told to “lift up” his eyes, meaning he must look beyond his natural understanding to see how God’s will is done and how things come into being on the earth (Isa 55:8-9; Mat 6:10). God told Jacob that it was God Himself who produced a significantly different type of flock from the ‘normal’. As this flock is linked to Jacob as a type of the elect, we can see why the flock of God is also distinctly different from what is ‘normal’ according to worldly standards. God’s people are indeed peculiar as He marked them to be different in their thoughts, words and behaviour to the world around them:

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:
1Pe 2:10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Yes, the spiritual flock of God is indeed first the dark-coloured, “ringstraked”, “speckled”, and “grisled” ones as we all are marked and chosen by God even long before we knew about our election. The elect of God are first among all the fruitless trees of this world before they are “pilled” to bring forth the white raiment of His righteousness as they are connected to the tree of life to bring healing to the nations (Deu 20:19; Joe 1:12, 19; Eze 47:7):

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.

Rev 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

Rev 22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Jacob’s increase was not by his works and his methods, but by God who works this all behind the eyes of Jacob and the eyes of his flock. His flock and his increase was not in the kind of trees he used; it was not in the many stripes he cut in the rods of those trees; it was not in what the eyes of the flock perceived! It was all God’s work as He alone makes “ringstraked”, “speckled”, and “grisled” flocks as also revealed in the dreams Jacob had (Gen 28:12-15; Gen 31:10-11). God does not need counsellors for advice or our intelligence and insights to assist Him, but we do need Him and His counsellors all the time to remind us of our own spiritual blindness and inabilities (Pro 11:14; Pro 15:22):

Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Our dreams, vows, words, prayers, actions, among all other modes of communication with God and the world, are inspired by God Himself and have been established first in heaven as He also appoints the time of those communications to be fulfilled on the earth (Mat 6:10; Mat 18:18-19 CLV). It is not the mode of communication that is the focus, but the words of God. No person can do anything unless God causes that to happen – that is the order of things. Everything in the physical comes from “things which do not appear”:

Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

It is the ultimate purpose of God to get us founded on the Word and not on the methods He devises to bring that Word to be established in our hearts. God speaks “in divers manners” with us, but in the final analysis, when we are in our “last days”, we only recognize the Word as the first and the last (1Co 10:11; Rev 1:8):

Heb 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Heb 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Heb 1:4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

When Laban saw all of this happening to his flock, he kept changing the terms according to the colours of the animals which were birthed. Laban was there throughout this whole process and wanted to manipulate the offspring, or so He thought. But he was always too late with each round of births as God changed the outcome before Laban or Jacob could figure out what to do. God works long before we become aware of His actions – God acts, and we react. Laban tried to deceive Jacob ten times, but could not succeed in predicting the outcome as it was God who determined the colour of the newly born. This is also what Jacob later in humility acknowledged to his two wives. Even in this confession afterwards we see the process of sanctification in Jacob’s life as he progressively learns about God’s sovereignty in all things:

Gen 31:7 And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.
Gen 31:8 If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked.
Gen 31:9 Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.

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

Names in Scripture
The Meaning of Names Being Changed
Colors in Scripture
Awesome Hands–part 19 “Into the Hand of His Sons”
Numbers in Scripture

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/what-does-god-think-of-socialism-part-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-does-god-think-of-socialism-part-2 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=5317

Hi Mike,

Considering the current discourse on socialism in our culture, I was surprised that someone hadn’t brought this question up sooner. It’s a valid question for our country which was founded on individual freedoms as opposed to living under the heel of a tyrannical government.
Your response was helpful for this individual on one level, but I think there is more to the issue than laziness or being responsible for filling your own lamp. Scripture does exhort us to physically and spiritually contribute to our brother’s well- being. Following are a few examples of this thinking:

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] Christ.
1Co 12:13  For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [ we be] Jews or Gentiles, whether [ we be] bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Co 12:14  For the body is not one member, but many.
1Co 12:15  If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:16  And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:17  If the whole body [ were] an eye, where [ were] the hearing? If the whole [ were] hearing, where [ were] the smelling?
1Co 12:18  But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
1Co 12:19  And if they were all one member, where [ were] the body?
1Co 12:20  But now [ are they] many members, yet but one body.
1Co 12:21  And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
1Co 12:22  Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
1Co 12:23  And those [ members] of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely [ parts] have more abundant comeliness.
1Co 12:24  For our comely [ parts] have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that [ part] which lacked:
1Co 12:25  That there should be no schism in the body; but [ that] the members should have the same care one for another.
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.

While Paul acknowledged in 2 Thessalonians that while he had the right to request the support of the church but did not, so as to be an example to them, he also encouraged the church to support the weak and infirmed (spiritually and physically) in the 20th chapter of Acts:

Act 20:33  I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel.
Act 20:34  Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
Act 20:35  I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. 

The apostle James approached this from another angle:

Jas 1:27  Religious observance, pure and undefiled with our God and Father, is this—to be visiting orphans and widows in their affliction, unspotted, to keep, himself, from the world.

Christ himself made it very clear in this passage:

Mat 10:42 And whoever should be giving one of these little ones only a cool cup to drink, in the name of a disciple, verily, I am saying to you, by no means should he be losing his wages.

And again in Mar 9:

Mar 9:41 For whosoever should be giving you a cup of water to drink in the Name, seeing that you are Christ’s, verily I am saying to you that by no means should he be losing his wages.

Finally, this passage is one that clearly commands us to make ourselves responsible for our brother’s needs:

Jas 2:14 What [ doth it] profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
Jas 2:15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
Jas 2:16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be [ ye] warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what [ doth it] profit?
Jas 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Jas 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

Having said all of this, none of this takes away from what you said regarding our own responsibility to work and provide for our own needs. I despise the progressive’s agenda to try to re- distribute the wealth in our world by taxing those who work harder or smarter as if somehow it is unfair that they benefit from their labor. I’ve seen the results of disincentivizing the poor who sit on their porches all day and pay for their groceries with EBT cards while they’ve obviously spent sizable amounts on things like acrylic jeweled nails.
What the person you were responding to was asking had much to do with what a Christian should do when it comes to helping those who are not in great need. Your response to that was right on. What many confuse for socialism in the original church was the church taking care of itself, not the world or even Israel/ Judah. That confusion exists in the church today, with the multiple ministries feeding the poor and housing the homeless, etc. We should be taking care of our brother where absolutely necessary, but not as an ongoing crutch where we support addictions and laziness.
Christ spelled it out in no uncertain terms when answering the question of which commandment was the greatest,

Mat 22:36 Teacher! which commandment, is greatest in the law?
Mat 22:37 And, he, said unto him—Thou shalt love the Lord thy God—with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind:
Mat 22:38  This, is the great and first commandment.
Mat 22:39  The second, like it, is, this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40  In these two commandments, all the law, is contained, and the prophets.

Loving your neighbor as yourself does mean being willing to give up your life if necessary:

Joh 15:12  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
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.]

… but does not necessarily mean you must give away everything you acquire to those who are capable of providing for their own,

2Th 3:10  For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
2Th 3:11  For we hear that  there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
2Th 3:12  Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.

These were some additional thoughts to the excellent ones you explained in your letter.

Your brother in Christ,
R____

Hi R____,

I really do appreciate what you have added to this subject. This helps to add balance and more of the sum of God’s Word on what the scriptures teach about our need to help others when that help is warranted.
Thanks for taking the time to share this with me. I will now share it with others.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

A____ wrote:
Mike, in Mat 23 are the things Jesus is saying about the scholars and Pharisees the same words he would have for the Pastors and Catholic Priests of today?  If yes, then how do they respond when they are confronted with this fact?  Obviously they deny it, but how exactly do they explain it away? Also, these churches today that have book stores and coffee shops in their lobbies and justify it by saying they are using the proceeds to do God’s work, are they guilty of  the same things that the money changers were doing in the Temple back when Jesus went in and tried throwing them out? Mike, one last thing what does Scripture say about today’s religious leaders that are making huge profits by selling their books, Cd’s, DVDs, etc.?  Is that what the Bible is talking about when it says “freely you have been given freely you should give”?  Are we commanded to give freely of everything we have, including our products and services if we are business people and have faith that all our needs for food, water, shelter, clothing, etc. will all somehow be met.  I am very confused on this topic, so if you would please try and help me clear this up I would be very grateful.  Thanks for all your help, A____

Mike wrote:
Hi A____,
You asked about how the Protestant ministers and the Catholic priests respond when confronted with the scriptures which are acturally referring to the masses of Christianity who are not chosen. You refer specifically to Mat 23.
The answer to that question is that they see Mat 23 as referring only to the Jews in Christ’s day who wanted Him dead. They have been blinded to the fact that Christ spoke in parables to keep the masses who believed on Him from knowing who He was.

Mat 13:1  The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.
Mat 13:2  And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
Mat 13:3  And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Christ spoke to the multitudes “who believed on Him” in parables “because to them it is not given… to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” These were “those Jews which believed on Him.”

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [ then] are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

These “Jews which believed on Him” typify the Christian multitudes which believe on Christ today. But just look at the attitude of “those Jews which believed on Him:”

Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [ even] God.
Joh 8:42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Joh 8:45  And because I tell [ you] the truth, ye believe me not.

“Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word” (vs. 43)

And that is why, to this very day, the masses of Christianity CANNOT believe that Christ really meant it when He said “love thine enemies.” It is not because they don’t want to obey Christ; it is because they “cannot hear my word.” I often refer to a sermon by a well- known minister who preached a very convincing and convicting sermon on the fact that we ought all to love our enemies and return good for evil and turn the other cheek. He went to great lengths to make the point that this was not mere rhetoric on the part of Christ, but words by which we must live daily under the severest trials. I was glued to the radio. This was a mainstream Baptist minister who was actually teaching what Christ taught. I could not believe my ears. I was hearing this in our car as we commuted to a Bible study at the home of a friend. I commented to my entire family how unbelievable it was that this mainstream minister was staying true to the words of our Lord, that as His followers and as those who bore the name of our Father we must obey His words under every circumstance.
But it was not to be. In the true form of the Adversary himself this minister gave 99% of a half- hour program telling the truth and insisting that the Truth was hard to keep, and that we must simply make the sacrifice needed and humble ourselves to the abuse of our brothers and obey the words of Christ to “love thine enemies…” In the last minutes of his sermon he made it very clear that he did not really mean a word he had spoken. In the final minutes of a half- hour radio program entitled ‘Love Thine Enemies’, this pastor concluded: ‘Having said all of this about how you are to treat those who do you wrong, am I saying that if someone breaks into your house and is threatening to kill your wife and your children that you should say to that person that they need to get to know the Lord? Absolutely not! If someone is breaking into your house to harm your family, you are to step on that person like a cockroach! If someone is threatening your country, you need to join the armed forces of your country and go out and confront and destroy that enemy and step on him like a dirty roach!’
And that is what Christ meant when He told the parable of the good Samaritan. A Samaritan was the equivalent of a traitor because Samaria was the city which Jereboam established as his capitol when he broke away from Judah and took ten of the tribes of Israel with him. It was in Samaria that Jereboam changed the feast of Tabernacles from the 7th month to the 8th month and made a golden calf and told the peole of Israel to worship the golden calf in Samaria instead of in Jerusalem. When Christ told the “Jews which believed on Him” to “love thine enemies,” He wanted to make it clear that He was not simply talking about family and fellow believers. By using the example of a traitorous Samaritan, “who was a neighbor to him” it is demonstrated that as far as Christ is concerned, your worst enemy, even a traitor such as Samaritans and Judas himself, must be loved and forgiven. Is this to say that we would not die with our Savior in order to save the lives of those who our enemies want to kill? Absolutely not! But Christ’s definition of dying for your friend is not the same as that of this minister or that of the unconverted apostle Peter. Just as this minister advised his congregation and the entire world to do, the apostle Peter took a sword to defend to the death his Lord. Now the life of our Lord is worth more than the lives of all the wives and children and husbands and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and fathers and neighbors and friends in the entire world. Nevertheless just look at the word of our Lord to the apostle Peter who was doing nothing less than following the advice of this very well- known Christian minister. Here is what Christ said to Peter who wanted to “step on these intruders like a dirty roach.”  After all, these peole were threatening the life of the Son of God:

Mat 26:51  And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear.
Mat 26:52  Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

It is not a physical sword which causes those who “take the sword” to perish. What causes those who “take the [ physical] sword” to perish, is rather that which causes us all to die to the flesh. It is the Word of God. But Peter had not yet died to the flesh to the extent of being able to “love thine enemy.” Like all of us at first, and like all the ministers of “historical orthodox Christianity” who teach that we ought to ‘love our enemies unless they really are our enemies and mean us and our families bodily harm, in which case you ought to step on them like a dirty roach,’ Peter was not yet converted:

Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Luk 22:33  And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.
Luk 22:34  And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.

Like Peter, our flesh is indeed willing to die for Christ and God and family and country. But we are not willing to be “crucified with Him.”

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.

But the answer to your question: “how do they respond when they are confronted with this fact.  Obviously they deny it, but how exactly do they explain it away?

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

Confronting Babylon with the fact that she is a harlot does not give her the eyes to see or the ears to hear what she truly is. All she will do is what she did to Christ when He told her that she was “of your father the devil.” What she did was to “seek to kill me,” and indeed they placed Him on the cross. And Christ’s physical cross and His physical death on that cross is the shadow of our cross and our death as we present our bodies as living sacrifices to Christ and His Father.

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.

I have in my youth tried to force ministers of Babylon to see their own spiritual condition only to be told by the Protestants that Babylon is the Catholics and by the Catholics that Babylon was Judaism. There are many creative interpretations of exactly who is Babylon. It takes divine revelation to show who really is Babylon the great, the mother of harlots. In the final analysis she is not without, that is outside, any of us. She is within us all. ‘Babylon the great’ is nothing less than the “beast which comes up out of the earth” in all of us.

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

“Another beast coming up out of the earth” is the beast in us which has “two horns like a lamb.” But this beast which is “like a lamb” is actually full of all kinds of false doctrines. In reality “the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water has been taken away from” this beast and though he “appears as an angel of light,” though he has “two horns like a lamb,” yet for those with ears to hear, he “speaks as a dragon.”

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,

A minister of Babylon can speak on the stay of bread and the stay of water for a long time, but before he is finished he will taint that bread and water with his heresy. The unchosen Levites simply cannot eat the food of the chosen priests:

Num 18:3  And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.
Num 18:4  And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you

Babylon serves to bring God’s elect to Christ:

Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

“After faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster,” no longer in Babylon which is our “schoolmaster to bring us [ literally billions] to Christ.” Coming out of Babylon is coming out from under this ‘schoolmaster,” the “many called but not chosen” Levites who cannot eat the meat or the shewbread of the priests:

Heb 13:8  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Heb 13:9  Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For [ it is] a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
Heb 13:10  We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

It is the Levites who “serve the tabernacle” but cannot eat of the shewbread or of the priests meats who are Babylon in each of us before we come out of Babylon and become priests just as Aaron came out of the tribe of Levi to become the high priest of Israel. But Babylon will never be able to see herself as such. Only after we ourselves “come out of her my people” are we able to “look behind” ourselves and see from what we came.
I hope that answers your first question.
Your second question was:

“Also, these churches today that have book stores and coffee shops in their lobbies and justify it by saying they are using the proceeds to do God’s work, are they guilty of  the same things that the money changers were doing in the Temple back when Jesus went in and tried throwing them out?

The answer is; yes, they are guilty of the exact same thing. “Freely ye have received freely give” is about as understandable to Babylonian ministers as is “love thine enemies.” They simply “cannot hear my word,” they simply cannot eat the same meat and bread which is “lawful only for the priests.”
Your last question is:
“Is that what the Bible is talking about when it says “freely you have been given freely you should give”?  Are we commanded to give freely of everything we have, including our products and services if we are business people and have faith that all our needs for food, water, shelter, clothing, etc. will all somehow be met?”
No, we are not to give freely of our services as business people to whoever asks us. Here are Christ’s words on this subject:

Luk 10:7  And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.

And this parable:

Mat 20:8  So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.

1Co 3:8  Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

Eph 4:28  Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Believe me when I tell you that if you do not have a wage or a contract you can very well end up working for nothing and having nothing “to give to him that has need.” We are all expected to provide for our families. We are not expected to provide for the families of strangers except as we are able:

1Ti 5:8  But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house , he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

Luk 3:14  And the soldiers likewise demanded of him [ John the baptist], saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.

“Freely ye have received freely give” is true of God’s word. You do not receive your house or your apartment or your groceries for free. So there is nothing wrong with charging for your services. The fact of the matter is that it would be wrong not to receive a wage for the work you do to provide for the needs of your family.
“As also saith the law” is applicable today as it was in Moses’ day so far as wages are concerned:

Lev 19:13  Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.

Jer 22:13  Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

Mal 3:5  And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger [ from his right], and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

God expects us to charge a fair wage for our efforts to meet the needs of our families, and He is extremely upset at those who fail to pay those wages when they are due.
I hope this has answered your question to your satisfaction.
Mike

M____ wrote:
Hi Mike,
Another quick thought because you had mentioned in your article about the apostasy of the church that the mark of someone who is apostate is they retail God’s Word to profit.  2 Cor11, where Paul mentions this “other Jesus” and “another gospel”, the whole chapter is about him robbing one church to meet another’s need and not Paul not being a burden to them.  Paul later in the chapter says straight out that it these that are the false ministers appearing as apostles of Christ. 
This is just another witness to that point you brought out, which in fact is Paul’s point in this chapter if we can “see” it.
 M____

Thank you, M____,
Yes indeed, Paul is making the point that he did not mention money to the Corinthians. The other so- called ‘apostles’  were overtly requiring money from the Corinthian church and they “loved to have it that way.”

Jer 5:31  The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

It was this fact, plus the fact that  those other so- called apostles had “another Jesus”, another spirit and another gospel, that separated Paul from those “false apostles.”
Paul admits that he “took wages” from “cheerful givers” who willingly came to his assistance without his urging. That is how God conducts His work. And that is one reason why His work with such people is, was and always will be “few” and “small.” There were no campaigns to feed the hungry of the uncalled world. The only campaign to feed the physically hungry mentioned in scripture was the mission of Paul and Barnabas, to collect food and clothing to assist the “poor saints in the churches of Judea.”

Rom 15:25  But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.
Rom 15:26  For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.
Rom 15:27  It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.
Rom 15:28  When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.

There is a letter on iswasandwillbe. com about the alabaster box of ointment that deals with the subject of how God’s elect ought to be doing their giving. The essence of scripture on this subject is that the body of Christ comes before the world:

Gal 6:10  As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

But while Babylon is doing a lot of good works in and for this world, God’s elect are working in and for the body of Christ. Now, just as then, the carnal minded consider this selfish and self- centered. This in spite of the fact that there is not one example of any of the apostles urging the people in their charge to even attempt to feed the physically poor of this world:

Mat 26:11  For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always.
Mar 14:7  For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.

Christ fed those who followed after Him twice in a miraculous way. But then He said ‘No more physical food. That is all you want is physical food.’ Here is how Christ ‘fed the poor:’

Luk 7:22  Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.

This is “the true bread from heaven” on which God’s elect concentrate to this very day.
Anyone who is serving the gospel for money is not serving the gospel at all. Any such person is serving himself. God knows our hearts and we are fooling no one but ourselves.
Mike