Matthew 24:36–51 The Coming of the Son of Man

[Study Aired November 10, 2025]

Our study today focuses on the coming of the Lord. In the previous studies on Matthew 24, our focus was on the spiritual application or the inward application of the Lord’s coming. In other words, how the coming of the Lord applies to our lives today.

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

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

In today’s study, we shall look at the outward application of the Lord’s discourse with His disciples about His coming. As we apply the Lord’s words inwardly in our lives, we also have to be watchful of the outward manifestation of His word especially that which pertains to His physical appearing in the fulness of time when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. It is this coming of the Lord that He will reward us, His elect.

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 22:12  And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 

It is important to note that the Lord’s coming coincides with the first resurrection and as indicated, that is the beginning of the reward the Lord has promised us.

1Th 4:13  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
1Th 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1Th 4:15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 
1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 
1Th 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The Lord’s elect in every age have been looking forward to His physical appearing or coming. It is in this spirit that John admonished us as follows:

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

Rev 1:7  Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

This is what Paul also has to say about this:

Rom 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
Rom 13:13  Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
Rom 13:14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

No One Knows That Day and Hour

Mat 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. 

In verse 36, the Lord says He does not know when He will return with His reward, which He referred to as the “summer” in verse 32 in the previous study. If our Lord does not know, then it means that no human being knows the day and hour. This is because whatever the Lord has received from the Father, He makes it known to us.

Joh 17:8  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Mat 24:39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 

The days of Noah before the flood was characterized by the unsuspecting nature of the people living in those days of the coming of the flood. This is what is highlighted by verses 37-39. This implies that the coming of the Lord will also surprise the people living here on earth when He comes. However, to the Lord’s elect, the Lord’s coming should not take us unaware because the Lord has painstakingly given us all the clues that we need that will herald His coming, although we will not know the day or the hour.

In verse 38, we are told that before the flood, the people of the earth were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. The activities mentioned here are the mundane activities that we perform on daily basis. This implies that everything will be normal as we go about our daily routines when the Lord comes. When the Lord came to us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness, we were going about our business as usual and did not expect Him to come to us. In a similar vein, the Lord’s coming will be a surprise to the people of this world. Here in these verses, the Lord is warning His elect, not to be caught off-guard.

Luk 12:39  And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Luk 12:40 Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.     

In order for us to be watchful, we need to pay close attention to what the Lord has said in His words regarding the days before the flood. This is what happened during the days before the flood:

Gen 6:1  And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
Gen 6:2  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
Gen 6:3  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
Gen 6:4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Gen 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen 6:6  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Gen 6:7  And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Gen 6:8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Gen 6:11  The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Gen 6:12  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Gen 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

From these verses above, we can see that the period before the flood was characterized by the sons of God marrying the daughters of men and producing mighty men or men of renown.  The sons of men were the Lord’s elect and the daughters of men signify the church system of this world or Babylon. In Genesis 6:2, we see that the sons of men were attracted to the daughters of men by their fairness or beauty. Her deception is her attraction or beauty as shown in the following verse:

Pro 31:30  Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Pro 7:21  With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.

The false doctrines of Babylon are attractive to the flesh but are of no value to a man of the spirit. It is worth noting that this marriage union of the sons of God and daughters of men produces men of renown. In other words, becoming well-known men or women of God is one of the main attractions of Babylon.  As we can see, there are many of the Lord’s elect who have been seduced by the harlot. That is what the Lord told us in Matthew 24:29 that the stars shall fall from heaven. When we see these things, then we must be aware that the Lord’s coming is near.

2Ti 4:3  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
2Ti 4:4  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

We are also told in Genesis 6:5 that the wickedness of man will be great and that every imagination of the thoughts of people’s heart will be evil. Throughout the history of man, the imagination of people’s heart have been evil. However, it is the visibility of this evil imaginations of people’s heart everywhere which characterized the time of Noah. We do not have to go far to see the wickedness of men being displayed in every country both in governance and by the people in the world today. All of these are pointing to  the time of the Lord’s physical coming where the kingdom’s of this world becomes the kingdom’s of our Lord and of His Christ.

Again, in Genesis 6:11, we are told that the world was filled with violence just before the flood. This is what Paul has to say about this period before the Lord’s coming:

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;

Mat 24:40  Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Mat 24:41  Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 

The two people in the field in verse 40 represent the Lord’s elect and our brothers and sisters belonging to the church system of this world or Babylon. The one who is taken refers to our brothers and sisters in Babylon. The other that is left represents the Lord’s elect who is transformed at the Lord’s coming.

1Th 4:15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

We know that a woman in the Bible signifies the church. The two women grinding the mill symbolizes the two types of churches – the church system of this world and the church of the Lord’s elect. The church system of this world is the same as Jerusalem, which is in bondage with her children and the church of the Lord’s elect signifies Jerusalem which is above and is free.

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

The fact that both were grinding at the mill implies that these two types of churches are trying to break down the word of the Lord to feed their children. However, the church system of this world or Babylon who are the many, is not given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. It is rather the church of the Lord’s elect, who is given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

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

It is therefore the people of the church system of this world who will be taken away, while the Lord’s elect will be with the Lord as the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of 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.

The Need to Watch for the Lord’s Coming

Mat 24:42  Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Mat 24:43  But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Mat 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. 

Every watchman knows what he is watching out for. The Lord’s admonition that we must be watchful of His coming is because He has revealed to us the signs that precedes His coming in glory and therefore, we must not be taken unaware of His coming, although we are not given to know the day and the very hour of His coming. It is significant to note that the Lord describes His coming as a thief in the night. This implies that we may not know the hour that He comes but we must be on guard, watching out for His coming. The verses below describes our role as watchmen as follows:

Eze 33:1  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 33:2  Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
Eze 33:3  If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
Eze 33:4  Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 
Eze 33:5  He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. 
Eze 33:6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.
Eze 33:7  So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
Eze 33:8  When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Eze 33:9 Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

Mat 24:45  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
Mat 24:46  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 

As we can see in these verses, the faithful and wise servants of the Lord are those who will be working in the Lord’s vineyard at the Lord’s coming. It is not about how we begin or what we do half-way, but it is about how we endure to the very end. The very end is the coming of the Lord or the time of our death.  This endurance calls for our steadfastness as we navigates life’s difficulties, while at the same time, keeping our hearts set on the promise of salvation. In other words, spiritual resilience is required to attain the reward at Christ’s coming.

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

If we are to endure to the very end, then we must pay heed to the following words of the Lord:

Heb 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 

These verses in Hebrew 10:24-25 show us that one of the things we have to do to ensure that we endure to the very end is that we do not neglect the assembling of the Lord’s elect. It is through our gathering together that we provoke one another to love and good works. In addition to our gathering together, we must do the following:

Heb 10:32  But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;
Heb 10:33  Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.
Heb 10:34  For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
Heb 10:35  Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
Heb 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
Heb 10:37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

From these verses above, we are required to endure great fight of afflictions, if we are to make it to the very end. The Lord’s elect in every generation have endured great afflictions and we must continue to the very end. He who has called us, will strengthen us to endure to the very end.

2Co 6:4  But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 
2Co 6:5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; 

In Hebrews 10:35, we are also admonished not to let go of our confidence. We must have the confidence that He who has started this good work in us will see to its completion.

Another requirement for us to make it to the very end is to able to exercise patience, as shown in Hebrews 10:36.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

If we are to be recipients of the Lord’s reward, then like Paul, we must also forget those things which are behind and strive for the price of the higher calling of God. We need to forget our failures, and even our successes, if we are to be found doing at the Lord’s coming.

Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 
Php 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Finally, we must pay attention to the reward ahead of us. In Jesus’ life here on earth, His focus was on the reward and therefore He was able to receive it. Moses, a symbol of the Lord’s elect, also paid attention to the reward, just like Jesus did.

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

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.

Mat 24:47  Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. 

As stated here in verse 47, we shall be made rulers when the Lord comes to find us still laboring in His vineyard. This rulership will begin when the kingdoms of this world becomes the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

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

Mat 24:48  But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
Mat 24:49  And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
Mat 24:50  The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
Mat 24:51  And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

As indicated in verse 48 and 49, when we lose our patience in this journey of the Lord, we shall surely go back to our vomit, as we become worse off. In this case, the day of the Lord will come at a time we are not suspecting, just like the people of the world when the flood came in Noah’s time.

Heb 10:26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 
Heb 10:27  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 
Heb 10:28  He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Heb 10:29  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Heb 10:30  For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Heb 10:37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Heb 10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Heb 10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. 

May the Lord continue to lead us in this path of righteousness for His name’s sake, until we receive the reward that He has in store for us. Amen!!

The Book of Habakkuk – Hab 2:1-20

[Aired March 22, 2025]

The first chapter of Habakkuk continues in chapter 2 with our Babylonian self-righteousness looking outwardly and down at other poor wretches devoid of knowing the Jesus we know, oblivious that he is the oft repeated term, ‘another Jesus’ (1Co 11:1-4). What we should have been doing is as Habakkuk, the emblematic Elect, pleads with Israel not to rely on the strength of the Chaldeans, similar to Job standing upon his righteousness. To Job’s later God-given credit for acknowledging his sins, he, like the other righteous prophets, begins to be aware that God’s power must somehow powerfully influence the individual than by his own works. 

Job 23:1  Then Job answered and said,
Job 23:2  Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Job 23:3  Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! 
Job 23:4  I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
Job 23:5  I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. 
Job 23:6  Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me. 
Job 23:7  There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge. 
Job 23:8  Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: 
Job 23:9  On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: 
Job 23:10  But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 

Now we, like Habakkuk and John in Revelation, the watchmen within, standing on the walls of the New Jerusalem, watch, seek, and find our Lord’s revelations to be approved workmen worthy of the hope of glory. Our breasts are like watch towers over our city within, symbolising our Husband’s peace of a unified heart with His.

Son 8:10  I am a wall around a city, my breasts are towers, and just looking at me brings him great pleasure. (CEV) – Jerusalem means ‘peace’, and no greater pleasure is there for a husband than her unified heart of mind, body and spirit with his, signified by her breasts standing guard over his love for her (Pro 5:20). 

Significations

Hab 2:1  I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved [Rebuke; chastisement]. 

Our decreasing harlot ways were raucous in the streets of Old Jerusalem within and of our Babylonian churches, committing wholesale spiritual adultery with one another and encouraged by our first mother and father – the Orthodox Christian church and Satan.

When our alleged spiritual knowledge is unwittingly derived from those two sources, and our responses are like women and children in control, we speak as fools.

1Co 5:1  It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. 
1Co 5:2  And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. 

Pro 29:11  A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. 

Jas 1:19  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 
Jas 1:20  For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 

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. 

The most honourable answer to the Lord’s chastisements is the simplicity of authentically acknowledging our sins.

Jer 3:12  Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. 

Hence, Habakkuk’s first complaint in chapter one, his lamenting of endless suffering and his second grievance of how slow the Lord appears to be in reproving his enemies are answered in the next verses of chapter two.

The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith

Hab 2:2  And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 
Hab 2:3  For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 

The Babylonian ‘silly women’ churches brag about their visions and dreams, which most laity take with a proverbial grain of salt yet love the theatre. They are not equipped to prove if their visions are truthful. Just as women secretly love romantic lies, the Babylonian churches love emotionally driven spiritual delusions. Christ calls us to discern the truth accurately, testing the spirits of the visions against other scriptures, the “sum of his word” (Psa 119:160 YLT), for us to be reproved and approved upon the tables of our fleshy hearts left and right ventricles sending nourishment to our spiritual Temple.

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 [racously proclaiming their visions and dreams], 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 [40,000 splintered Christian denominations who can’t agree] laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 
2Ti 3:7  Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

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 a heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Hab 2:4  Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his [Christ’s] faith. 
Hab 2:5  Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people: 

All our self-righteousnesses is our self-styled faith piously portrayed in us, the man of perdition, sitting on God’s throne prematurely presenting himself as God, drunk on the blood (“wine”) of doctrinal lies, now paradoxically the Great Whore herself. Never satiated, death and the grave reside in her heart and soul.

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

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

Pro 7:10  And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart. 
Pro 7:11  (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: 
Pro 7:12  Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) 

Rev 17:4  And the woman [You and I while residing in Babylon] was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 

Woe to the Chaldeans

The Chaldeans ruled as kings of Babylon from 626-539 BC and remain hidden, spiritually violent in the world, spilling the blood of doctrinal lies, decreasingly within Christ’s Elect, to this very day.

Hab 2:6  Shall not all these [The Lord’s Elect against themselves] take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay! [The weighty pledge of debt]
Hab 2:7  Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? 

Still under the Old Covenant, unwittingly mostly kept by Orthodox Christianity, they deludedly think, as we once did, that they are free from sin, that Christ did it all for them on the cross, rich and increased with goods, “increasing that which is not his”, not knowing that it is only in this age since the cross, that it is his Elect who fill up behind the same destruction of our old man as did Christ, his. Consequently, that weighty pledge of clay representing our old man has alarmingly bitten us on our posteriors to alert us that its understanding is food, the spoils of plundering our old ways that the ‘booties’ of their destruction represent, to bite us no more.

Act 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 
Act 15:11  But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. 

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: 
Col 1:25  Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 
Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 

Babylon once kept us from seeing Christ’s truth, and now that the tables have turned, it is his little flock, the remnant, who, at Christ’s hand, take vengeance upon our old man. Woe, indeed, if we fail to be that watchman upon the wall of the New Jerusalem, the “nest” atop the towers of our hearts, causes Christ to be crucified over and over again.

Hab 2:8  Because thou hast spoiled [plundered] many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. 
Hab 2:9  Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! 
Hab 2:10  Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul. 

Since the cross, to this very day, Orthodox Christianity, driven by elements of the Old Covenant, has held Christ’s word unrighteously and thus “spoiled many nations” throughout the world. The remnant, the hidden Elect of God, spoils those same Babylonian lying doctrines within themselves by being alert to Babylon’s inhouse, her internal consulting shame comparing her doctrines with her harlot churches doctrines rather than from the sum of God’s word — not that she could have understood since she isn’t called to understand nor given the keys to the mysteries of heaven (Mat 16:19). She thus covers her evil as righteousness to her shame.

Pro 28:13  He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. 

Heb 9:22  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 
Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens [Christ’s Elect being made as he is] should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices [In Christ] than these [… the old man of sin]. 
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands [The stone tablets of the Covenant] which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 
Heb 9:25  Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 
Heb 9:26  For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 
Heb 9:28  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. 

Dying once to our sins feels like an impossible task, and it truly is. Conflictingly, we read that “as often as we sin,” and the question of how many times our Lord forgives can lead the Babylonian within to throw his hands up in confusion over the paradox. However, our maker knows that we are created in weak, corruptible flesh, subject to replaying sins repeatedly. He guarantees the Saints to drink the cup of his wrath in chastisements, expectedly decreasingly until we are given of him to overcome.

1Co 11:26  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.
1Co 11:27  Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. [We drink unworthily if we rely on our strength to overcome, consequently…]
1Co 11:28  But let a man examine himself, [if he is a sound watchman trumpeting for Christ’s power and might to kill the enemy within,] and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 
1Co 11:29 [… and if we don’t…]  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 
1Co 11:30  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 
1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. 

We “consult shame in our house”, the temple we are, by concealing our sins, not seeking the truth of a matter through a multitude of Godly counsel, but rather excusing ourselves to continue pursuing our lusts, now an idol of the heart. That action indicts our conscience, enlivening the stones, even the gems — the jewels (Mal 3:17) of the Bride’s joints, her unified members to cry out, judging herself.

Accordingly, the very joints of the heavenly New Jerusalem, the Bride herself, cry out when wood, hay, and stubble are present in the construction of the Temple within when our works of sweat and blood are discovered and consumed by the chastising fire of God’s word. Accordingly, she has learned not to hold her tongue against her old man and as a witness against those without.

Luk 19:40  And he [Christ] answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these [his disciples chastised by the Pharisees] should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. 

Hab 2:11  For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. 
Hab 2:12  Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity! 
Hab 2:13  Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? 
Hab 2:14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. 

When the Bride is fully repented in ravished unification and marriage to her Husband, Christ, it is time for Satan’s release as an occasion for God to destroy her brothers and sisters at the end of the One-Thousand Year reign, followed by the flood of fire baptising the sea of mankind in the Lake of Fire.

2Pe 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 
2Pe 3:5  For this they willingly [by the counsel of Christ’s own will] are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 
2Pe 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 
2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment [The Lake of Fire] and perdition of ungodly men. 

Mat 3:11  I indeed baptise you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptise you with the holy ghost, and with fire: 
Mat 3:12  Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Hab 2:15  Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! 

To most females’ gratitude, paradoxical discomfort and intrigue, males are primarily visually sexually aroused, to which all women, particularly young women, to varying degrees of impropriety, easily manipulate to their advantage — to which equally dissolute males, abdicating their headship, eagerly consent. Likewise, women are visually stimulated outwardly for all ‘pretty things’ other than male sexuality. Satan was the first emblematic ‘male’ to put a bottle of lust to the woman, Eve, so that he could look upon her utterly innocent nakedness, mostly devoid of God’s spirit. God didn’t deem the graphically designed occasion too vulgar in Habakkuk 2:16 to deliberately illustrate the scene, nor should we with its interpretation. Correspondingly, the Serpent, uncircumcised of heart, not being ‘covered’ by God’s purity, unashamedly spiritually aroused, spewed his spirit of lies into Eve’s fertile mind, in turn inciting Adam to mutually bring forth bastard doctrines through his wife, signifying harlot churches.

The act of consciously inciting another person with alcohol or your effervescent (Scripturally, wine means to sparkle) conversation with the intention of sexual conquest directly corresponds to inflaming him with Christ’s word, knowing that he is unlikely to understand its potency and thus take on immature and rash understandings, him now adrift without a spiritual rudder. His spiritual nakedness is now evident; he relies on you, the perceived greater authority, to be aroused further, incapable without the holy spirit to flourish in truth, feeling compelled to pursue God’s word, possibly without Christ choosing him to endure to the end.

Deu 18:9  When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 
Deu 18:10  There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 
Deu 18:11  Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer [1. to resort to, seek, seek with care, enquire, require. Vivaciously engaging another person spiritually to incite him; you, now dragging him to Christ]. 

Joh 6:44  No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draw [G1670] drag him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Sexual ravishment directly corresponds to the naturally glorious nature of being spiritually ravished by Christ’s word as the Bride is for him, and he, for her, is made clean with circumcised hearts.

The flesh is sin, meaning corruptible and unclean, just as the Old Covenant was and is without the holy spirit, depicted as ‘unclean’ when uncircumcised. Any moist, warm physical environment like the mouth, underarms and enclosed male and female privy biomes needs personal care for cleanliness; hence, and representative of mankind, the uncircumcised foreskin is intentionally designed to represent uncleanliness in the male — him (correspondingly to his wife as one in him) representing Jesus’ ceremonial circumcision and progression to purity in headship and authority. The male member also represents the means of spiritually disseminating Christ’s spirit and truthful doctrine, and while in the flesh, regardless of circumcision, remains ritualistically unclean in that it is responsible for the primary facilitation of creating more corruptible flesh.

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

Luk 2:21  And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel [Christ] before he was conceived in the womb. 

Hab 2:16  Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. 

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. 

Astonishingly seen earlier, Satan is the originator of desecrating every detail of what Christ created (Joh 8:43-44) as ‘good’, as good as flesh can be in its first state, beginning sexually. He reflects the intrinsic nature of women’s scheming (Eccl 7) endemic to mankind and Habakkuk 2:16’s outward representation of a male deliberately inventing means to sexually inveigle a female. His inevitable shameful emission upon looking on her nakedness is equal to Satan’s explosive enlivenment of beguiling lies exciting Eve, spiritually, him shamefully glorifying in steering Adam and Eve away from the Tree of Life. It reflects the nemesis of Christ’s “glory” of righteous insemination of truth in our circumcised hearts. It is the last thing the Zionists today want to hear since it destroys their power outwardly and, unwittingly, exceptionally inwardly since it is not their time to understand Christ’s word.

Php 3:2  Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. 
Php 3:3  For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. 

Rom 2:24  For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
Rom 2:25  For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. 

Rom 2:25  For circumcision [OF THE HEART] verily profiteth, if thou keep the law [the NEW COVENANT, CHRIST’S LAW]: but if thou be a breaker [As are Christ and his Christs are…], [and insist on being a keeper] of the [Old Covenant…] law thy circumcision [YOUR self-styled cleanliness] is made uncircumcision. [… in other words, if we insist upon doing our works by our faith, sweat and strength, we are unclean, depicted as uncircumcised]

The biblically definitive theatrics of exploiting an intoxicated person’s nakedness is, of course, Ham’s chance view of his father, Noah, who lay disrobed on his bed with the tent fly carelessly open for the air to cool his wine-wracked body (Gen 9:20-29). The occasion was incredibly opportunistic for Ham not to mock his father before his brothers. Spiritually, Ham’s actions are ours when we misuse our God-given righteous understanding of scripture to ‘spew’ Christ’s truth into the mind of a spiritually uncircumcised brother. 

The symbolism of physical circumcision has futile value due to the impossibility of its advocates adhering to every detail of the Old Covenant Law. Its inevitable failure of its benefactors of Old Israel fixated on circumcision being a necessity for salvation starkly highlights their inherent uncleanliness of depending upon that Law, and are thus considered uncircumcised, dead in your sins since by the Law without the holy spirit, it is impossible to please God.

Rom 2:26  Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? [… counted as righteousness?] 
Rom 2:27  And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? 

Simply put, the Law was necessary to point out that the flesh can’t keep God’s Law. Circumcision was a highly expressive way for God to portray our transition from uncleanliness to a clean, spiritually circumcised heart.

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

Returning to Habakkuk 2:16, an uncovered foreskin highlights two conclusions. Firstly, as we observed, it indicates the physical deliberate impairment of another’s and or your morality to voyeuristically or sexually take advantage, corresponding spiritual degradation of Christ’s word cast before symbolic swine. Secondarily, the natural honour and glory of male arousal is sanctified in marriage alone with one’s wife, and not the shameful vomiting of Christ’s word spiritually inseminating the minds of multiple women representing churches of Orthodox Christianity — the act of harlotry (Rev 17:5).

Accordingly, to keep the Old Covenant, it engenders violence and whoredom in the land, represented by an uncircumcised uncovered foreskin of beast-like men, barbarians, spreading the seed of the Serpent far and wide.

Col 3:8  But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication [uncircumcised, false doctrine] out of your mouth. 
Col 3:9  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 
Col 3:10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: 
Col 3:11  Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

Hab 2:17  For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee [as represented by the symbolic nature of a foreskin], and the spoil of beasts [of uncircumcised spewing of falsehoods], which made them afraid, because of men’s blood [representing uncleanness of the flesh], and for the violence of the land, of the city [you and me], and of all that dwell therein. 
Hab 2:18  What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?

The worship of women and sex is an outstandingly dumb idolisation, indicting mostly men, yet probably more so insidiously women idolising women, them seeking the validation of other women more than they do from men. As such, what profits women (or men) from idolising women? (Act 19:24) Outwardly, it is a representation of Orthodox Christianity glorying ‘growing churches’ in other nations, going over land and sea to make a ‘twofold child of hell worse than themselves, their shameful ‘spewing’ the engraving of lies on the hearts and minds of ignorant babes. Such an idol-maker profits disastrously, amplifying personal ignorance. It all is initiated by the father of lies, Satan, our first father, when we, with an uncircumcised heart, trust in the dumb idols of our hearts.

Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

Hab 2:19  Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. 
Hab 2:20  But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

Accordingly, it is formerly we who are ravished by a dumb idol of false doctrines we all zealously pursued and taught to any who would listen when in Babylonian Christianity, defrauding our Lord of his gold and silver (Hag 2:8-9) twisted and engraved in smooth words for the consumption of the equally witless nations agape, violated in silence between the temple and the altar.

Mat 23:33  Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? 
Mat 23:34  Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 
Mat 23:35  That upon you [the incipient Elect] may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar [… in our journey and transition in being recreated as Christs]. 
Mat 23:36  Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation [… the Elect alone!]

Next week, Lord willing, we will conclude the Book of Habakkuk on a far more positive note.

Ezekiel 33:1–20 Ezekiel is Israel’s Watchman

[Study Aired September 30, 2024]

INTRODUCTION

Today’s study is about being a watchman for the people of Israel. Before we can understand what being a watchman to the house of Israel means, we need to know who a watchman is. The Hebrew word for watchman is ‘tsaphah’ and it means ‘to lean forward, to peer into the distance; by implication means to observe, behold, spy out, wait for, keep the watch.’ In the Old Testament period, because of the many enemies of the people of Israel, the city of Jerusalem was protected by thick walls around the entire city. As a matter of fact, most big cities in the Old Testament were protected by thick walls. Israel’s watchmen were therefore guards who would stand on the walls and in the towers to look out upon the land for messengers, unusual activity, and most importantly, any sign of an enemy or approaching army. Immediately when these watchmen see any sign of an enemy, they have to sound the alarm. A watchman therefore plays a leadership role in the protection of the people of the Lord.

As we are aware, the Bible was written for the Lord’s elect, first. We are therefore required by the Lord to be like watchmen. When we fail in this role, then we are just like the watchmen of Israel (Babylon) described in the Book of Isaiah as follows:

Isa 56:9  All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.
Isa 56:10  His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. 
Isa 56:11  Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
Isa 56:12  Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

As indicated in Isaiah 56:9, when we are not watchful, we become mincemeat to our old man or flesh. That is to say that we are dominated by our flesh. Here the watchmen are described as ‘blind, ignorant, dumb and greedy dogs, cannot bark, sleeping, and loving to sleep’. The watchman being blind implies that one cannot see the enemy’s devices. As indicated by Paul, we, the Lord’s elect, must know the devices of the enemy.

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 

Being ignorant refers to our inability to comprehend the scriptures. When we are ignorant of the scriptures, we end up establishing our own righteousness and do not understand the power of God.

Rom 10:2  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 
Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 

Mar 12:24  And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? 
Mar 12:25  For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
Mar 12:26  And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?

As indicated in Isaiah 56:11, the Israel’s watchmen were  tagged as dumb and greedy dogs which means that they cannot rightly divide the word and are also never satisfied with what the Lord has given to them. Dumb means we cannot speak and the reason we cannot speak is because we do not know how to divide the word of truth.

2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 

Sleeping or lying down or loving to sleep implies that as watchmen, we do not stay alert and are not sober-minded to know that the enemy is prowling around looking for an opportunity to devour us.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 

Isaiah 56:9-12 therefore show us the role of a watchman. In the New Testament, we do not read about actual watchmen anymore. However, our leaders are given the role of spiritual watchmen, to watch over our souls and to feed us His word.

Heb 13:17  Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

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

On another level, we, His elect are called to become watchmen over our bodies so that we can offer them as living sacrifice to the Lord. We are to be vigilant as we watch for any move by the adversary who is a roaring lion looking to devour us. We are also to watch our doctrine, to make sure that it aligns with the truth of the word of the Lord.

1Ti 4:16  Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Today’s study focuses on our role as watchmen as we are given more insight into how we can become effective watchmen of our temple and the body of Christ as a whole.

Eze 33:1  Again the word of the LORD came me, saying, 
Eze 33:2  Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: 

The word of the Lord coming to Ezekiel, means the Lord coming to His elect with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness, which is His judgement. The Lord bringing the sword upon our land is His judgement of our old man or flesh. What verse 2 is therefore showing us is that when we share the word of the Lord with one another, then we are playing the role of a watchman. In verse 2, the focus is on becoming aware of the Lord’s judgement in our lives. When we know that it is the Lord coming to us with His judgement through the agency of the evil one, to bring us to an expected end, then we are strengthened to withstand the devices of the enemy.  ‘A man from their coasts’ in verse 2 means one of our brethren. Therefore, the people of the land taking a man of their coasts for a watchman means our brothers among us who share the word of the Lord with us about our impending judgement are acting like watchmen of the Lord’s elect.

Eze 3:17  Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. 
Eze 3:18  When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Eze 3:19  Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

Eze 33:3  If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; 
Eze 33:4  Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 
Eze 33:5  He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

These verses show us the role of a watchman in the body of Christ. As indicated, the sword upon our land represents our fiery trials or judgement which is an evil experience the Lord takes us through to refine us. As the story of Job tells us, the devil, our enemy is the executor of this sword upon our land.

Isa 54:16  Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 
Isa 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

As the Lord’s watchmen, we are to sound the alarm or sound the trumpet to our brothers and sisters of our impending judgement. In the Book of Revelation, the voice of the Lord is likened to the sound of the trumpet as follows:

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 
Rev 1:11  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
Rev 1:12  And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

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

Sounding the trumpet as the Lord’s watchmen therefore means speaking the word of the Lord. As we are aware, our fiery trials is the Lord’s way of destroying our old man or flesh within us to make us His sons. It is the central theme of the word of the Lord which we are to warn our brothers and sisters about it.  Even our Lord Jesus had to go through suffering or judgement during His days here on earth to perfect Him.

Heb 5:6  As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
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; 
Heb 5:10  Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

Our message as the Lord’s watchmen is to proclaim the Lord’s sword upon our land and also to indicate the Lord’s way of dealing with this enemy in our land.

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Many of our brothers and sisters have fallen victim when the enemy came upon their land with the sword. In verse 5, the Lord is assuring us that we are exonerated from what happens to our brothers and sisters if we warn them and they do not pay heed to the warnings. In this case, their blood is upon their own heads. This is what Apostle Paul said about being a watchman which is consistent with verse 5:

Act 20:25  And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
Act 20:26  Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. 
Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 
Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

Eze 33:6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. 
Eze 33:7  So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. 

In verse 6, the Lord is telling us that if we are negligent in sounding the alarm of the Lord’s judgement in our land, we, as the Lord’s watchmen, shall be liable for the spiritual death of our brethren.  In our lives in the churches of this world or Babylon, we were never warned of the Lord’s judgement or sword in our land. On the contrary, we were told that suffering is not our portion in this life. No wonder we were swept away by the flood of the enemy and became spiritually dead. This is what we were taught in Babylon:

Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Verse 7 shows us that the Lord has appointed us, His elect, for the special role of being a watchman. As we are aware, Ezekiel who is referred to as the son of man, an accolade that Jesus used to refer to Himself when He was here on earth, is a symbol of the Lord’s elect. Therefore, being given the honor of being a watchman is part of our calling.

Eze 3:17  Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. 

Eze 33:8  When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. 
Eze 33:9  Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. 

Being a watchman is not only to warn them of the impending judgement of our old man, but to tell them about the way of peace which leads to life and also the way of death, which brings destruction. This is what Joshua, an example of the Lord’s watchman, told the people of Israel:

Jos 24:14  Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
Jos 24:15  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Jos 24:19  And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
Jos 24:20  If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. 

Apostle Peter, in playing His role as a watchman, admonished us to leave our wicked ways which bring death. If through our admonition, a brother or sister continues to persist in his or her wicked ways, we are not guilty of his or her blood.

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 
1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 
1Pe 4:3  For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
1Pe 4:4  Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:
1Pe 4:5  Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

Eze 33:10  Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? 
Eze 33:11  Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 

During our time in Babylon (house of Israel), our sins really weighed us down and as a result, we could not understand the extent of the Lord’s mercies. It is when Christ came to us that we were given to know that our Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked and that He wants the wicked to turn from their ways and live, as shown here in verse 11. Since our Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, He therefore devises means by which His banished shall be saved.

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

1Ti 2:3  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 
1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 

Eze 33:12  Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth. 
Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it. 

In verse 12, we are told that the righteousness of the righteous will not save him when he rebels or sins against the Lord. In the Book of Hebrew, we are also told the same thing that if after we have tasted of the heavenly gift, we end up rebelling against the Lord, then we are basically crucifying our Lord Jesus Christ again and putting Him to open shame. In that case, it becomes difficult to come to repentance and be saved. This is not speaking about falling into sin during our walk with Christ since the Holy Spirit convicts us to repent and move on. What this verse is speaking about is becoming entrenched in our sin and therefore becoming unrepentant.

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. 
Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
Heb 6:9  But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. 

As the word of the Lord says, if we repent from our sins and come to Him, He is able to save us.

1Jn 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
1Jn 1:10  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

In verse 13, we are being warned that if we trust in our own righteousness and we continue to commit iniquity, we shall die in our sins. Trusting in our own righteousness is the same as leaning on our own understanding.

Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 
Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 

Eze 33:14  Again, when I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; 
Eze 33:15  If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die. 
Eze 33:16  None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. 

We, His elect, were once the wicked destined to die. However, the Lord came to us in His mercy to deliver us from our sins and to give us hope. This mercy that we have received from the Lord is the same mercy that will be shown to the world who now represent the wicked, in the fulness of time.

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. 

Eze 33:17  Yet the children of thy people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal. 
Eze 33:18  When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby. 
Eze 33:19  But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby. 
Eze 33:20  Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways. 

When we did not know the Lord, we behaved like the people of Israel who said that the way of the Lord is not fair. The Lord’s response to our accusation that He is unfair in His ways is given in the parable of the laborers of the vineyard who complained that He paid those who came late first instead of those who came first. This is the parable and His response:

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

Our limited minds sometime make us think that we are wise. The Lord has told us that His ways are past finding out and so we cannot comprehend many things that He does.

1Co 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 
1Co 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

The judgement of the Lord is what causes us to have the mind of Christ. That is why in verse 20, we are told that when our minds are different from the mind of Christ as we think that His ways are not fair, then we must go through His judgement. However, in this age, it is only the Lord’s elect who are privileged to be judged so that they have the mind of Christ.

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 

May the Lord help us to have the mind of Christ as we die to our flesh daily!! Amen!!

Act 20:21-38  Of Your Own Selves Shall Men Arise Speaking Perverse Things

[Study Aired July 30, 2023]

Act 20:21  Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Act 20:22  And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
Act 20:23  Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
Act 20:24  But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Act 20:25  And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
Act 20:26  Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
Act 20:32  And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
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.
Act 20:36  And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.
Act 20:37  And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him,
Act 20:38  Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.

Our last study ended with Paul summoning the Ephesian elders to meet him in Miletus, a city about 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) south of Ephesus. This is all part of his third and final missionary journey, and Paul was intent on being at Jerusalem for Pentecost. He didn’t have time to spend with all those in Ephesus with whom he had already spent three years and had made many friends. He apparently felt it would not be proper to go there and not spend more time than he had with all those friends.

Instead, he made a stop at Miletus, a city south of Ephesus, and he had obviously sent someone, perhaps it was Timothy or Silas, to summon the elders of Ephesus to meet him there. Here are the last verses of last week’s study:

Act 20:17  And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.
Act 20:18  And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
Act 20:19  Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:
Act 20:20  And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,

The Lord had given Paul so much to share with the churches he had raised up, and now he had a special sobering message for these Ephesian elders, and he felt obliged to preface that message with a reminder of how closely they had gotten to know each other. Paul, who was inspired by the holy spirit, tells us that we should all get to “know them which labor among you.”

1Th 5:12  And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
1Th 5:13  And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.

Know whether your minister is telling you the Truth. Be a ‘Berean’, and read your own Bible, and do your own studies. If we study to show ourselves approved, then we will be given by the holy spirit the discernment whether our minister is ministering out of a spirit of love and concern for the Lord’s flock, with the fear of God, or if he is doing so for “filthy lucre.” “Know them which labor among you”, and if they are of the proper spirit, then “esteem them highly in love, for their work’s sake.” You all know that not one of your teachers has ever, in all the years we have been together, asked any of you for one red cent in remuneration for all the hours of service they have spent ministering to the Lord’s flock.

Paul had spent more time in Ephesus than in any other city, and these elders all knew that he was indeed of a humble mind, and that he had shed ‘many tears as he endured many trials from “the Jews”, the established church of that day which was constantly attempting to destroy him and his message. These Ephesian elders knew that Paul had freely taught them everything the Lord had given him. They also knew he had never asked any of them for a single penny because they all knew Paul trembled at these words of our Lord:

Mat 10:8  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

Act 20:21  Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Greek word twice translated as ‘toward’ is G1519 ‘ice’, and it is far more commonly translated ‘into’. This is a typical example:

Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into [G1519: ‘ice’] your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Gal 4:7  Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Our repentance places us ‘into God’, and our gift of faith (Eph 2:8) places us ‘into Christ’ fulfilling these words of our Lord:

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

If Christ is ‘in His Father’ and we are ‘in Christ’, where does that place us but right there with Christ ‘in His Father’!

Act 20:22  And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
Act 20:23  Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.

We are not given the details, but Paul informs us that long before he met the Jewish prophet, Agabus, in Caesarea, in “the house of Philip the evangelist”, he had already been informed “in every city” by “the holy ghost… that bonds and afflictions” were waiting for Paul when he got to Jerusalem.

Act 21:10  And as we tarried there [in Philip’s house in Caesarea] many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.
Act 21:11  And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

That story of the prophecy of Agabus will be in next week’s study. At this time at Miletus, Paul was already aware of what Agabus would later prophesy.

Act 20:24  But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Consider what Paul had already endured long before this his last trip up to Jerusalem:

2Co 11:23  Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
2Co 11:24  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
2Co 11:25  Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
2Co 11:26  In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
2Co 11:27  In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
2Co 11:28  Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

God can arrange events which bring us to the point of not being suicidal, but very much looking forward to the next eon and having a great willingness to “be absent from the [physical] body” knowing that the next conscious moment will be in the presence of the Lord in a spiritually glorified immortal body, absent all the ‘stripes, prisons, deaths, beatings with rods, being stoned, suffering shipwreck, spending long hours in the deep, always on a journey, in perils of water, of robbers, by our own countrymen, and by the heathen, always having to be on our guard against those who would love to destroy us and our message of the True Christ.

Act 20:25  And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.

Those in Ephesus, against whom Paul later warned Timothy to beware, were not yet known when Paul was given this revelation that he would see their faces no more. Therefore this was a shocking and sad moment for everyone, including any future adversaries like Phygellus, Hermogenes, Alexander the coppersmith and Hymenaeus and Philetus, all of whom became lying false prophets right there in Ephesus, who withstood Paul’s words and did him “much evil”:

1Ti 1:19  Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
2Ti 2:16  But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
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.

2Ti 4:9  Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:
2Ti 4:10  For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
2Ti 4:11  Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
2Ti 4:12  And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus.
2Ti 4:13  The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.
2Ti 4:14  Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
2Ti 4:15  Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
2Ti 4:16  At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. [“Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luk 23:34)]
2Ti 4:17  Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion [the adversary].
2Ti 4:18  And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Act 20:26  Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

Notice how Paul frames the spiritual state of anyone who hides his talent in the ground and fails to “declare unto you all the counsel of God.” He frames it as, “I am pure from the blood of all men, because I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” When we fail as the shepherds of the Lord’s flock to declare His counsel in all things, we are guilty of the blood of those we are given to feed and nourish and guard against all the wiles of the devil. Their blood is on our hands as Ezekiel tells us:

Eze 33:4  Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
Eze 33:5  He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Eze 33:6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.
Eze 33:7  So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

This is the “blood of any man” to which Paul refers. Paul was diligent in warning every man to be a good watchman and to sound the trumpet when he sees the enemy approaching and false doctrines beginning to creep into the Lord’s flock.

Here in Acts 20 Paul is sounding the trumpet in the ears of these Ephesian elders, and in doing so, he is also sounding the trumpet in the ears of all who are given ears capable of hearing what the spirit says to the churches:

Rev 2:7  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Rev 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Rev 2:17  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 2:28  And I will give him the morning star.
Rev 2:29  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Rev 3:5  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Rev 3:6  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Rev 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
Rev 3:13  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

As the Lord Himself declares, it is “few” indeed who are given eyes that see and ears that hear the Lord’s trumpet:

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.

Mat 22:11  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
Mat 22:12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

This feast is not some future event because no one is accidentally raised up in the first resurrection without a wedding garment. This parable applies to “grievous wolves” bringing damnable heresies into the Lord’s flock in this age.

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

The man without a wedding garment in our Lord’s parable of the wedding feast is those “of [our] own selves”, those of our own fellowship whose pride will not permit them to go before the counselors within the church of God and follow that counsel. We have witnessed men without wedding garments feasting with us time and again.

Jude speaks of this same spirit in the man at the wedding feast without a wedding garment:

Jud 1:12  These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Jud 1:13  Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

A ‘wedding garment’ signifies ‘the righteousness of saints’:

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.

‘The righteousness of saints’ is the love and fear of God, which is unwavering obedience to His commandments:

1Jn 5:1  Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

If we say we love God while we hate our brother, we are liars. The love of God, the fear of God, and the faith of Jesus are all interconnected and inseparable:

1Jn 4:20  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

John repeats this thought while instructing us how we can discern whether our brother really does love us and whether we truly love out brother:

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments [Do the things He tells us to do (Luk 6:46)].
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

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

If we claim to know Christ but we do not do the things He tells us to do, we are fooling only ourselves:

1Jn 2:4  He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Paul continues his admonition to the elders of Ephesus and to each of us:

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.

Paul knew that the history of all the trials and rebellions of ancient Israel signified the trials and rebellions which would come upon the New Testament church. Both epistles to the Corinthians were written from Macedonia and before Paul spent three years in Ephesus, and this is what we find concerning Paul’s experience with false apostles who were already seducing the Lord’s flock at Corinth:

2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
2Co 11:5  For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.

2Co 11:12  But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.
2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Obviously, this admonition to these Ephesian elders to ‘take heed to themselves and to the flock because of grievous wolves of their own selves arising to draw away disciples after themselves’ was born out of Paul’s struggles against false apostles, in Corinth, and is not peculiar just to the elders of Ephesus. This is something the adversary has been doing since before the days all the 400 prophets of Ahab were sent a lying spirit from the Lord, and it continues until this very day.

I love this story of the prophecy of Micaiah to King Ahab and his “four hundred” lying false prophets, because it reveals that business in the spiritual realm is carried on just like the natural realm. The only difference is that in the realm of the spirit, everyone knows God is sovereign.

1Ki 22:6  Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
1Ki 22:7  And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might enquire of him?
1Ki 22:8  And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
1Ki 22:9  Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah.
1Ki 22:10  And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them.
1Ki 22:11  And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith the LORD, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them.
1Ki 22:12  And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramothgilead, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the king’s hand.
1Ki 22:13  And the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good.
1Ki 22:14  And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak.
1Ki 22:15  So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
1Ki 22:16  And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the LORD?
1Ki 22:17  And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master: let them return every man to his house in peace.
1Ki 22:18  And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil?
1Ki 22:19  And he [Micaiah] said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
1Ki 22:20  And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
1Ki 22:21  And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
1Ki 22:22  And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
1Ki 22:23  Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.
1Ki 22:24  But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee?
1Ki 22:25  And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself.
1Ki 22:26  And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son;
1Ki 22:27  And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.
1Ki 22:28  And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the LORD hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you.

It is indeed “good and pleasant for brothers to dwell together in unity” (Psa 133:1), but it is better to be separated from one’s brothers by the Truth than to be united in a lie.

We will all do well to ‘hearken’ to the inspired words of the apostle Paul concerning how the Lord will try our faith in every generation. I will repeat:

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

Act 20:32  And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

“To give” is in the aorist tense because in this age we possess only the downpayment of our inheritance, but the words ”are sanctified” are in the perfect tense, because in Christ we presently ‘are sanctified’ by His atonement. Our ultimate inheritance, referred to by the spirit as “the redemption of the purchased possession” is yet future “among all them which are sanctified.”

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.

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.

While preparing for the future is a Biblical principle, no true minister of the gospel preaches the gospel for personal gain. Any minister in whom Christ dwells is vigilant for the souls of the Lord’s flock because he knows he must give an accounting for whether he sounded the trumpet when he saw the grievous wolves approaching. Paul has set us a good example of how we, too, must never give an inch to the “false apostles… the grievous wolves” who are constantly attempting to seduce the Lord’s flock to “draw away disciples” after themselves.

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.
Act 20:36  And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all.
Act 20:37  And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him,
Act 20:38  Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.

Being warned of coming trials does not make those trials any less painful and disappointing, but it should help prepare us and inspire us to ask the Lord to help us to take oil with our lamps so we can trim our lamps and be prepared for our Lord at His appearing:

Mat 25:3  [The virgins] that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
Mat 25:4  But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

Ti 4:5  But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

2Ti 4:6  For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
2Ti 4:7  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
2Ti 4:8  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

[Study Aired December 24, 2022]

[Ironically] And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? Gen 3:9

A young couple in love constantly think about each other and, when apart, rehearse the most arousing moments together in their minds. They lust for more sensual occasions and look for any excuse to be together. It is precisely what the Bride does today with her Lord. She doesn’t have to be told to remember to meet with her brothers and sisters since she is the iconic Shulamite spiritually aroused for her beloved as she “sees the day approaching”.  She seeks any excuse to sustain that arousal and magnify it for her wedding day, yet, not breach her wall, the hedge, and veil of her spiritual virginity until He pleases. After all, she is the Bride of Christ and has learned to rule her lusts and have them work for her righteous joy, not impatiently to serve the flesh.

Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Heb 10:21 And having an high priest over the house of God; 
Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Just as Adam and Eve were born into the earthly Paradise, the Garden of Eden, the Lord is coming to the spiritual Paradise with unity in spirit of the Father now in the Bride, the image of the heavenly.

The Lord, in the first verse of this study, is coming into His garden, His wife, His Sister, and His Spouse ~ in spirit, they all are one and the same.

Son 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. 

The Bride Searches for Her Beloved

Son 5:2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. 
Son 5:3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? 
Son 5:4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. 
Son 5:5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. 
Son 5:6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
Son 5:7 The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
Son 5:8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. 
Son 5:9 What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us? 

The Study:

Son 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

In the past six thousand years, it is only recently that relatively wealthy nations have been given by God to attain higher standards of living and access to hygiene. For most of this time, society was agrarian-based, where beautiful perfumes and spices effectively redirected one’s mind from the ever-present odour of animal dung, urine and its host’s unique scent.

Myrrh, frankincense, spikenard and the various aromas of spices were expensive and not easily acquired. Since the mode of transport was by hoofed beasts along well-dunged paths and roadways, the dust mixed with these wastes boiled up from the hooves and covered everything with its pungency. This, mixed with human sweat, was the characteristic smell of all travellers, and those perfumes mentioned above brilliantly masked the earthy. Men’s and women’s natural body odours in those times were no doubt more easily tolerated than in today’s sterile environment.

In the Old Covenant and the Laws of Moses, the God-given human sweat and subsequent washings and applications of frankincense, spikenard, myrrh, and incense burning all depicted the vast difference between our Lord’s spiritual cleanliness and the self-righteousness of our works. They depicted our tortuous trials and progressions from the natural to the spiritual. Christ, in this first verse, has already been proven worthy by His Father, and the Bride now is gloriously ‘tortured’ with joyful anticipation for his hand to unbolt her door.

… I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

As we all are well accustomed, wine in moderation physically and spiritually is a joy to man and God, as portrayed in,

Num 15:7 And for a drink offering thou shalt offer the third part of an hin of wine, for a sweet savour unto the LORD.

Ecc 10:19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.

Like the Bride’s mind, the Groom’s mind is on her, and he rarely thinks of anything other than his beautiful wife-to-be. His pre-wedding celebrations with his friends and drinking wine almost merge with breakfast (possibly fermented milk or curd), and as such, time is lost with these jubilations before travelling to be with his beloved. Neither did he have time to separate his honey from the honeycomb, so he ate it whole (for strength 1Sa 4:27).

For the Bride of Christ, her Lord is about to break his ‘breakfast’ that literally was for him, but for a short time. 

Rom 9:27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: ~ the Bride of Christ.
Rom 9:28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

In the God realm, that timeframe is very short, from Christ’s death on the cross to his wedding feast; he thus mixed his wine with his milk.

He drank milk and wine on earth in Palestine; thus, he symbolically mixed his wine, his spirit and his strong word with the weaker vessel, his Bride (milk), inclusive for the world and the beginning of the New Covenant. The Bride is the youngest, the “less” whom her elder sisters serve. She remembers being unskilful in her Lord’s (milk of the) word; now, she is blessed by being changed in spirit by her “better”, Christ. (Heb 5:12-13)

Heb 7:7 And indisputably, the lesser is blessed by the greater. (BSB)

Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

Son 5:2 I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
Son 5:3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

Rom 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Rom 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

The Bride is washed, clean and sleepy. Sleep is often difficult for lovers as they think of little else but each other. However, the Shulamite has her lamp trimmed and filled with oil and is ready for the sound of horse’s hooves. With her heart pounding, she recognises the voice of the Shepherd.

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Our Lord has finished His work for the first fruits of the First Fruit in Him, and his short work in creating the Bride is barely finished; he has the odours of a traveller now mixed with the mist of the night condensed on his head and clothing. Upon the Bride opening the door to him, their first impulse would be an impassioned embrace and kisses; he is naturally somewhat abashed that his “undefiled” Bride is washed and elegantly perfumed, whereas his mist-laden hair and beard smell more of work on a threshing floor; a man wielding a sword against the wicked, even a potter working smelly clay. Incidentally, most women admire a working man dressed in his occupation’s attire, as his presentation says a lot about his honour and diligence in work that substantially makes him desirable (1Ti 5:8). Those mentioned physical labour’s scents, among the many not stated, all represent our Lord’s spiritual scent from His labours after having almost finished making the Bride whole. He and His Bride are about to enter their rest on the Seventh Day, the One Thousand Year reign, and she will be made equal with God under Him.

Jesus, upon having healed a man of his infirmity by the pool of Bethesda, says,

Joh 5:15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole. 
Joh 5:16 And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. 
Joh 5:17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

The derivative of “Dew”, (H2929), is H2926, mentioned only once in scripture,

– Original: טלל
– Transliteration: Talal
– Phonetic: taw-lal’
– Definition: 
(Piel) to cover with a roof, cover over, roof 
– Origin: a primitive root
– TWOT entry: 808
– Part(s) of speech: Verb 
– Strong’s: A primitive root; properly to strew over that is (by implication) to cover in or plate (with beams): – cover. 

Total KJV Occurrences: 1 
covered, 1
Neh_3:15

Upon Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, the rebuilding represents the Bride’s former self, old Jerusalem, with the following verse’s many rich symbols to be teased at the Saint’s pleasure in Nehemiah 3.

Neh 3:15 But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered^[H2926] it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah [shee-lo’-akh – fountain] by the king’s garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David. 

The Bride in the Song of Solomon frequently refers to herself as a “garden”; her purity is ‘locked’, and she is a walled city with a drinking fountain, a pool of pure water covered by her Lord from spiritual contamination.

If we have lifted a well’s cover, we first note that condensation collects on its underside, distilled drops from the previous night. Solomon’s dewy head and beard are his wife’s covering of the pure pool of the Lord’s word within her as she receives his kisses that are better than wine.

…  I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? 

Our gentile brother and sister Christians see that we are a peculiar people. We know that our Lord has washed our walk and made us holy; the Bride is undefiled and holy, though in the Song of Solomon the couple express the poetic earthy. The Shulamite imagines her beloved coming to her with the odours of travel, not realising (in her time and order) that her Groom was made pure two thousand years ago.

Son 5:4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole^[H2356] of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.

A “hole of the door” is simply an entrance through a wall or into a cave. Ezekiel, in his visions of the abominations of Israel, in like manner spoke of a doorway as a “hole in the wall”.

Eze 8:7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole ^[H2356] in the wall. 
Eze 8:8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

H2356 – Transliteration: Chowr
– Phonetic: khore
– Definition: 
hole, cave 
– Origin: the same as H2352
– Strong’s: the same as H2352; a cavity socket den: – cave hole.

In her heightened state of anticipation for her Lord’s coming, the Bride lives with great hope and expectation; it is natural in the flesh to sometimes doubt that he would choose her above the other daughters of Jerusalem. As she waits patiently, she seems to stare at the door and imagines that her Lord came out of the dark misty night to her door and just as quickly departed. A deep dread embittered her emotions. Myrrh’s negative origin means “bitter”^(H4843).

Interestingly, the name Smyrna equates with bitterness and is one of the seven churches in the creation process of the single Church within the Bride of Christ. In her carnal state in the Song of Solomon, she has moments of doubt and dreads the thought of the second death, yet her spiritual side, ironically, is dripping with myrrh’s exotic perfume synonymous with Christ, the spiritual Jew.

Original: Σμύρνα
– Transliteration: Smurna
– Phonetic: smoor’-nah
– Definition: Smyrna = myrrh
an Ionian city of Asia Minor, on the Aegean Sea, 40 miles (65 km) north of Ephesus 
– Origin: the same as G4666
– TDNT entry: None
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Location 
– Strong’s: the same as G4666; Smyrna a place in Asia Minor: – Smyrna.
Definition: 1. myrrh, a bitter gum and costly perfume which exudes from a certain tree or shrub in Arabia and Ethiopia, or is obtained by incisions made in the bark: as an antiseptic it was used for embalming.

Rev 2:8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; 
Rev 2:9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. 
Rev 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 
Rev 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Son 5:5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. 
Son 5:6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

For the Elect of God, the Shulamite’s intensely romantic fantasies are with them when they have jubilantly enjoyed the taste of Christ, the heavenly gift, and sometimes doubts about their calling momentarily cross their imaginations. The sweet-smelling myrrh of Christ’s word and her following His commandments are the spiritual works of her hands dripping because of the overflowing abundance of his word. With her hands wet with myrrh, He has given her sole right to unlock that which is locked.

Rev 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 
Rev 3:8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

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.

The Lord guarantees His Elect trials following their opening of the door to Him, and it seems after many years and weariness in their ninth hour, they feel abandoned as Christ experienced on the cross. King David often despaired for the Lord’s seeming withdrawal, most strikingly in all of Psalms 22.

Psa 22:1 To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

Mat 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? [G4518 – Phonetic: sab-akh-than-ee’– Definition: 1. thou hast forsaken me] that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

The seeming abandonment of us by our Lord exercises our faith muscles. From experience, our increasing God-given maturity by the shrewdness of Christ keeps our eyes on Him even in the depths of despair in the temporary prison of our trials.

Pro 1:20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 
Pro 1:21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 
Pro 1:22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? [as opposed to His shrewd designs working in us] and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 
Pro 1:23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. 
Pro 1:24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 
Pro 1:25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 
Pro 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 
Pro 1:27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Pro 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Pro 1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 
Pro 1:30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 
Pro 1:31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 
Pro 1:32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 
Pro 1:33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. 

The entire process of creating the New Adam, the Bride of Christ, is rich with a turbulent birthing, yet, a known end keeps her focused on her Lord.

Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jer 29:14 And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

The Shulamite knows that her Lord will answer since she implicitly believes His word for the expected end. The drama continues to amplify her anticipatory arousal for her husband.

Son 5:7 The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

The Bride is fully aware that she is one of the “watchmen” continually looking for enemies within. She was wounded by her brothers and sisters, her other watchmen of the New Jerusalem, for the love they expressed during her many failings of nakedness in their presence. Her Lord’s word had wounded her, for seventy times seven times, she was forgiven. The veil of her flesh is about to be fully removed before entering into spiritually consummative unveiled holiness in her Lord.

Mat 27:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
Mat 27:52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints [the Bride] which slept arose.

Not long ago, the Bride’s Lord went before her in the like manner with his mother, Mary, asking the gardener where he was laid.

Son 5:8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love. 
Son 5:9 What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?

The Elect of God doesn’t need their Babylonian sisters, the daughters of Jerusalem, to tell them where Christ is or that they are lovesick for him. The spirit of the occasion is similar to Joseph indiscreetly rubbing his ten brother’s nose’s in his God-given sovereignty.

The camp of Israel, our Babylonian Christian brothers and sisters, are given no regard for the first and holy resurrection; they gleefully parrot that they are all saved anyway, so what’s the big deal?

Jer 4:22 For my people [the camp of Israel] is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish [foolish] children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

Joh 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 
Joh 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 
Joh 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
Joh 15:21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Joh 15:22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
Joh 15:23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
Joh 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
Joh 15:25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
Joh 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Joh 15:27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Isa 46:9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 
Isa 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: 

The irony is that in the beginning, it was the Lord searching for Adam, and now at the end, it is the Bride in a lovesick search for her Lord ~ tongue-in-cheek, on both occasions, each knew where the other was.

Every husband delights in an engaging and enthusiastic wife, his fruitful ‘garden’.

Son 5:1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. 

… and we do!

1Ki 6:4-7 “Shew the house to the house of Israel”

[Study Aired September 30, 2021]

1Ki 6:4  And for the house he made windows of narrow lights.
1Ki 6:5  And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about:
1Ki 6:6  The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.
1Ki 6:7  And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

Last week’s study was about recognizing the temple which we are (1Co 3:16) that is being built “in a fitting and orderly way”. There are no more foundational words that describe where the foundation of our temple is to be built in a fitting and orderly way than the words of our Lord to Peter in Matthew 16:18.

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Our Father and Christ are one in mind and purpose (Joh 10:29-30) and we are being built upon Christ and are as He is in this world, with one mind and purpose “which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (1Jn 4:17 1Co 2:16, 2Ti 1:7-9). God is love (1Jn 4:16), therefore we are being built up together as a holy temple so that through Christ, where we abide and are accepted (Joh 15:4-5 Eph 1:6), we can now reflect the love of God and worship our Father in spirit and truth as He gives us that increase which makes this possible (Joh 4:23, 1Co 3:6, Rom 5:5).

Joh 10:29  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
Joh 10:30  I and my Father are one.

1Co 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

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,

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

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

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

The cleansing of our heavens is a process we are going through when we are blessed to believe the words Christ speaks to us (Joh 6:28-29), and this is how the foundation is laid in our lives so we can then abide in Christ and bring forth much fruit (Joh 15:8-9). The fruit in our life is symbolized by the temple that is built upon the foundation of Christ, who is the chief cornerstone of the temple who stabilizes and bears the burden of all the temple through each joint that supplies (Mat 21:42, Eph 2:19-22, Gal 6:2).

Eph 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Eph 2:20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Eph 2:21  In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Eph 2:22  In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ [Col 1:24,27]

Only when we are given to become a hearer and a doer of the words of Christ are we being given the keys to the kingdom (Mat 16:19) to now grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Christ the rest of our lives (2Pe 3:18). We have that confidence through Him that what He has started in us as His body will be finished as we fill up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ for His body’s sake which is the church (Col 1:24). This section of the book of Kings will give us more insight through the type and shadows within the temple of what God’s workmanship can accomplish within us as we are built upon the foundation of Christ.

Jas 1:25  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

The Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven – Part 1

Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

God has called us to have confidence in what He has promised that He will start and finish in our lives through Christ, who is the author and the finisher of our faith (Php 1:6, Heb 10:35). With that faith being tried and tested, we can then bring forth the fruit of love that is described for us in these verses in 1Corinthians 13:3-10. We are the workmanship of God’s hand, and that love has been growing and maturing in each one of His children to His glory so that we can all come into the unity of the faith “and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (1Jn 5:4, Eph 4:13). That fullness of Christ is accomplished in the church, which is Christ’s body, as we learn together as one body that all things really do “work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” which is how the bride is going to be made ready (Rom 8:28, Rev 19:7-9, Php 4:4-7).

Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

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.

Php 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

With all these foundational verses in mind let’s now look at what God is building upon the foundation of our loving Saviour (Mat 16:18) and see how it applies to each and every one of our own day-to-day dying daily walks in the Lord which is being refined or sanctified so that we can one day, Lord willing, be raised in the first resurrection and judge the mount of Esau, which is what we will be doing when we “shew the house to the house of  Israel” and are given to “measure the pattern” today (Eze 43:10, 1Co 15:31, 1Jn 1:5-7).

1Jn 1:5  This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1Jn 1:6  If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
1Jn 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Eze 43:10  Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern.

1Ki 6:4  And for the house he made windows of narrow lights.

After the foundation of any building is laid, which consequently is the part that takes the longest, then things begin to happen rapidly. Christ is that foundation and the rock upon which Peter, who represents all of God’s elect, is going to be built. All the prophesies in God’s word point back to our Saviour and how each man in his order will be dragged to Him of our Father (Joh 6:44) in order to become a new creation through Him (1Co 8:6, Col 1:15-17, Php 4:13). If we are as Christ (1Jn 4:17), then Christ must have had a typical event of being in Babylon or Egypt and then been called out of it, just as we have our time in Babylon which is represented by this later verse we will look at later (1Ki 6:7) which tells us there is a place where preparatory work is being done in the life of the elect, before the temple of God is-was-will be, built without hands (Hos 11:1).

1Co 8:6  But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

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

This first verse, “And for the house he made windows of narrow lights“, tells us something about our perception of our Father and Christ while we are in this fleshly temple that looks through a glass darkly (1Co 13:12).

1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

The light enters in through “windows of narrow lights” because today we have this relationship with our Father and Christ in earnest and not in the fullness, and have been told by Christ that broad is the path which represents our flesh that leads to destruction and cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but narrow is the way that leads to life (Mat 7:13-14).

Mat 7:13  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it [Mat 22:14].

Christ is the one who makes it possible for us to endure through this life seeing he is the one who gives us light and life (Joh 14:6) through God’s holy spirit that makes it possible for us to see and understand what is going on in the temple of God (1Co 2:10) that we are so blessed to be part of today (Eph 1:14, Psa 119:105).

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

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

Psa 119:105  NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

This word narrow^H331 [aw-tam’], which means ‘to shut’ or ‘to stop’, is used in a few other areas of the temple’s construction and elsewhere in the bible…

“Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth^H331 his lips is esteemed a man of understanding” (Pro 17:28)

…is one such verse that reminds us that as the temple of God we must be very discreet ambassadors in this life who are learning to let our speech be seasoned with salt (Col 4:6), and, Lord willing, we will be given that bridle on our tongue that we need in this world which vexes us with its filthy communication, knowing how to answer those who opppose and resist the truth (2Ti 4:14-16), and knowing when we should not answer others even to their being marvelled at our conduct in doing so (Joh 19:11, Psa 141:3-4, 2Pe 2:7, Mar 15:5). Also, we must know when enough is enough, and no further witness is needed (Tit 3:10). As God’s ambassadors we are always to be striving for the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ (Php 3:13-14) which is found by staying above the fray of this society.

•narrow, 4 1Ki_6:4; Eze_40:16; Eze_41:16; Eze_41:26
•shutteth, 1
Pro_17:28
•stoppeth, 3
Psa_58:4; Pro_21:13; Isa_33:15

– Original: אu1496 םpar – Transliteration: ‘atam
– Phonetic: aw-tam’
– Definition:
1. to shut, shut up, close
a. (Qal) to shut, stop (of lips)
b. (Hiphil) of the wicked stopping their ears (fig.)

– Origin: a primitive root
– TWOT entry: 73
– Part(s) of speech: Verb
– Strong’s: A primitive root; to close (the lips or ears); by analogy to contract (a window by bevelled jambs): – narrow shut stop.

1Ki 6:5  And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about:
1Ki 6:6  The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.

These chambers^H3326 that are spoken of in this section of the book of Kings represent the rest into which we labor to enter (Heb 4:11, Joh 6:27). That rest is “against the wall” meaning that when we have done all we can, stand, and others can then rest on us as we become walls, or pillars, where that rest can be found (Eph 6:13, Mat 11:28). The chamber is a couch or bed, and they were systematically placed throughout the temple “round about“, and symbolize the continual rest that can be found in God which He gives us in the Lord as we sojourn unto perfection on the third day as He prepares our hearts for each and every trial and restores us as at these resting points or chambers as we go further toward Christ who is in the oracle^H1687 which is the holy of holies.

Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Mat 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Joh 6:27  Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

It is when we look back that we see God’s mercy (Rev 1:10) that has taken us along the way and held us up throughout our walk that He guided as a shepherd of His little flock whom He led by still waters to restore our souls, never to try us beyond the measure we can endure (1Co 10:13) and always making a way where their often seems to be none.

(Psa 23:1-3, Psa 1:1-3, Luk 12:32 – ‘couches’ and ‘beds’ symbolize the mercy and rest we find in the Lord – Isa 43:19, Joh 5:8 – and picking up our bed is working out our own salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is God who is working in us both to will and do of His good pleasure Php 2:12-13.)

Psa 23:1  A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psa 23:2  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Psa 23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

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

Psa 1:1  Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Psa 1:2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Psa 1:3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (Psa 23:2, Joh 15:16)

“The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad“: the five cubits like the five pillars at the entry into the temple symbolize how we enter into God’s rest by putting off our flesh by the grace and faith of Christ which causes us to be abased, or found in the nethermost chamber which is where we should always want to abide (Luk 14:8, Mat 23:12, Php 2:7, Luk 18:13-14, Isa 66:2).

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;

Mat 23:12  And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

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, [Mar 10:18] and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross [Gal 2:20].

Luk 18:13  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
Luk 18:14  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted [1Jn 1:9].

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

The “middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad” reminds us that God knows our form that originally is without form (Gen 1:2) as beasts, symbolized by six cubits who need rest that is found by casting all our cares upon the Lord (1Pe 5:7), as we labour in the word and pick up our bed (Joh 5:8) and go onto completion or perfection which the third area of couches represents being “seven cubits broad“.

Gen 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Joh 5:8  Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

We are told that “for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house”. They are not fastened to the temple because they represent those who are joined unto us like Levi and who God extends his mercy toward by giving them their good things (Luk 15:31) just as we should do good unto all men as the temple of God that we are, but especially unto the household of God (Gal 6:10, Mat 5:44-48).

Luk 15:31  And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

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 [narrowed rests round about on the outside and couches on the inside of the temple].

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Mat 5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Mat 5:47  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Mat 5:48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

1Ki 6:7  And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

The Lord wants us to know this critical point:

“And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither:  so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building“

…which admonition is stated this way in the book of Psalms:

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

Unless the Lord has been the author and finisher of our faith from start to finish, or in other words unless we went into Babylon and were dragged out, we cannot be a stone that has been prepared by God and made meet for the master’s use in His temple that we are (2Ti 2:19-21).

2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

[depart from a mindset of taking glory unto yourself and believe that God is working all things, the light and darkness, the peace and the evil (Isa 45:7); if we are Christ’s, all such self-righteousness will be burnt out and the bride will be made ready]

2Ti 2:20  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
2Ti 2:21  If a man therefore purge himself from these [Joh 8:36], he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

God must grant us to hear the voice of the true Shepherd in each other so we can follow each other as we follow Christ (1Co 11:1) bearing each other’s infirmities in hope that we will hear less and less the “hammer” or the “axe” or the “tool of iron“, all symbols of our fleshly opinion and not the voice of the true Shepherd that we are learning to discern: “And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building” (Joh 10:27-28).

Joh 10:27  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
Joh 10:28  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

There are stages to the building of God’s temple which we are (1Co 3:16, Rom 8:9), and this seventh verse in type and shadow tells us that every part of the elects’ life from the first breath we draw until the last in this Adamic flesh was purposed by God to accomplish His work within us as was typified by Jeremiah (Jer 1:5, Gal 6:16, Rom 15:13).

Jer 1:5  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Gal 6:16  And as many as walk according to this rule,  peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

Rom 15:13  Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

It is a true saying that the marriage of the Lamb is for a blessed few who are called unto this ‘arranged marriage’ (Rev 19:9) from the foundation of the world where God had willed that Christ’s bride would be born again and as such, all things would work out in our lives according to the counsel of God’s will for this good purpose of election (Joh 1:13, Rom 8:29-33). Part of God’s good purpose was to prepare the stones that we represent, off-site, only to later gather His elect from the four corners of the earth (Mat 24:31) to build His temple that we are (1Pe 2:9, Eph 2:20-22).

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.

Joh 1:13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren [1Jn 4:17].
Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

Mat 24:31  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

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 (Rom 2:28-29):

We are being judged in this life so that all things can work together for good, which includes our being given to endure until the end and be found in that blessed and holy first resurrection (Rev 19:7, Rev 20:6, Mat 24:13). Being born of the will of God in this life is the same as saying we are born again (Joh 3:3), and we truly know that we cannot understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God unless Christ our hope of glory is born within us as our wisdom who reveals the very parables that God uses to blind the world (Eph 1:11, Rom 8:28, Mat 13:13, 2Co 5:17).

2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

There always has to be a sense of urgency in regard to the work that God is doing within us (Luk 21:36, Psa 127:1) and all of the scriptures are ‘yes’ for us (2Co 1:20) and are filled with the exceeding great and precious promises that all point to the truth that we are more than conquerors through Christ. These promises are given to encourage us to not give up the good fight of faith as we “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”, forgetting those things that are behind and urgently pressing as Noah did in the building of the ark which represents the church, the body of Christ (2Pe 1:4, Rom 8:35-37, Joh 8:36, Php 3:14, Heb 11:7).

Luk 21:36  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

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

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

We are seeing with our own blessed eyes and hearing with our own blessed spiritual ears, which is a gift of God (Mat 13:16), the building of the temple of God made without hands and so we do give all glory and honour to the One who is doing this work within us both to will and to do knowing that we, like Christ, must labor to enter into that rest being doers of the word (Jas 1:22). There must be a diligence that is formed in us through our trials and suffering in this life, and God can and will keep us motivated together as the body of Christ (Php 2:12-13).

As God gives us increase through the labour to which He has called us in His vineyard, the certainty of what Christ has started and will finish has already been declared (Php 1:6), and our job now is to be about our Father’s business (Luk 2:49, 1Jn 4:17) showing the house to the house to each other by staying unspotted from the world and coming together often “and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” to visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction (Heb 10:25, Jas 1:27).

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

Isa 21:1-10 Babylon Is Fallen, Is Fallen - Part 2

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Isa 21:1-10 Babylon Is Fallen, Is Fallen - Part 2

Isa 21:1  The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.
Isa 21:2  A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
Isa 21:3  Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
Isa 21:4  My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.
Isa 21:5  Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
Isa 21:6  For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
Isa 21:7  And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:
Isa 21:8  And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:
Isa 21:9  And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.
Isa 21:10  O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

This is the second part of our study on the first ten verses of Isaiah 21 which concern themselves with the fall of Babylon. Last week we stopped our study in the scriptures which demonstrate the tremendous loss we experience as we are given to come out of her. As the apostle Paul puts it:

1Co 3:15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

We covered just the first two verses of this chapter in our last study. These two verses just begin to inform us of the great sense of loss we feel when we are finally dragged out of the harlot system which we thought loved us and cared for us. Indeed that system hates to lose any who contribute to her welfare, and she will do all in her power to keep us addicted to her lies and her fornication.

Here is a little about that loss which we went over at the end of our last study:

Isa 24:16  From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
Isa 24:17  Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
Isa 24:18  And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
Isa 24:19  The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
Isa 24:20  The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
Isa 24:21  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
Isa 24:22  And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
Isa 24:23  Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

"The foundations of the earth do shake" because we discover that everything we have ever been taught by this self-centered whore is a lie. "The earth" in these verses symbolizes world-wide Babylon, the religions of mankind, who refuses to hear the Words of the Lord. It is "that great city wherein our Lord was crucified... Babylon the great" (Rev 11:8) to whom these words are addressed:

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

These words are addressed to the Lord's own apostate people:

Jer 22:1  Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

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

Babylon had brought great distress and sighs and groaning to many nations, and now their sighs are ceasing as Babylon is being destroyed. This is a reiteration of what we were told in:

Isa 14:3  And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy travail, and from thy trouble, and from the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve,
Isa 14:4  that thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say: How hath the oppressor ceased! the exactress of gold ceased!
Isa 14:5  The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers,
Isa 14:6  That smote the peoples in wrath with an incessant stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.
Isa 14:7  The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet; they break forth into singing.
Isa 14:8  Yea, the cypresses rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon: 'Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.'

How sweet it is to "come out of her" and no longer bear all of her many demanding burdens. How liberating it is to come out from under either the law of Moses or the law of the Gentiles. Both are called in scripture "the elements of this world" (Gal 4:1-3 and 9-10), and both make us slaves to "the traditions of men" (Col 2:8):

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.

Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

But we do not come out from under the law without paying the ultimate price, and that price is the death of our old man and the destruction of his entire rebellious kingdom. That is why Isaiah, as a type of you and of me, walked naked before Israel as a sign of what God was doing to Egypt and Ethiopia within us, and that is why we now read these words regarding the fall of Babylon and how that destruction also affects the kingdom of our old man:

Isa 21:3  Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.

Isaiah confesses that the fall of Babylon "filled [him] with pain." He confesses, "I was dismayed at the seeing of it". When we are told, and when we finally come to see, that the son of the bondwoman, the symbol of our old man, cannot be made heir with the son of the free woman, we all just naturally cry out with Abraham:

Gen 17:18  And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

Also, the apostle Paul, being the original "replacement theologian" he was, tells us and the Gentile Galatians:

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

Being human we feel the loss of the things of our flesh, and it is so severe that we say:

Isa 21:4  My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.

Here is the fulfillment of these words concerning the fall of Babylon and how it affects us in the book of Revelation:

Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Rev 18:11  And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

It is painful to watch our own flesh be destroyed and die.

Isa 21:5  Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
Isa 21:6  For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

We are this watchman, and as such we have an altar, a "table", at which they that serve the tabernacle  have no right to eat:

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 Babylon and her daughters who are really in the service of Christ, our "tabernacle", and unlike the daughters of the harlot who all subscribe to the mantra "agreement in the essentials, tolerance of the non-essentials, but love in all things", God's elect know there are no "non-essentials" and instead:

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

It is only Christ's elect who have His mind which teach the exact opposite of Babylon's all-inclusive mantra with these words:

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

It is our heart that pants, that is "affrighted" and turned into fear. We are afraid because we are this "watchman", and it is we who see what is coming upon Babylon within us.

Eze 3:17  Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

So we are the Lord's watchmen in every generation, and as such we had better have this mindset, which Christ told Peter to have:

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

Yes, those words do prove that the words of Christ are spirit, but that fact does not mean that the aions (eons) do not have a consummation or that this age will not come to a climactic end. This age will come to a climactic end, and we need to have a scriptural mindset concerning the end of this age for which Peter tells us to always be prepared, and not to have the mindset of those who died in the flood of Noah:

2Pe 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2Pe 3:5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2Pe 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

"The world that then was [and] the heavens and the earth, which are now" are two of the three steps of the process of judgment. There is still a "shall be" third step to that process of "fiery... judgment and perdition of ungodly men" and that third step is the perdition and death of our flesh which produces a new man who is conformed to the spiritual image of Christ.

There are yet many people, to this day, who still think "all things [will just simply] continue as they were from the beginning of the creation", and they do not believe that "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout" and raise those who "are asleep in Christ" to reign with Him a thousand years:

1Th 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
1Th 4:15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [Greek: phthanō - precede] them which are asleep.
1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

I pray that none of us are of that false spirit, and that rather we have this Biblical mindset concerning end time events:

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:11  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
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.
2Pe 3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
2Pe 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Notice that Elam and Media of verse 2 here in Isaiah 21 are the same as "the Medes" of chapter 13:

Isa 13:17  Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

Later these same peoples are called the Medes and the Persians. As the Assyrians and the Babylonians before them, they are both one and the same people.

Daniel tells the last Babylonian king, King Belshazzar, to whom his kingdom is being given:

Dan 5:28  PERES; Thy kingdom [Babylon] is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

This prophecy of Isaiah was prophesied many years before the prophet Daniel. Then Daniel witnessed the outward physical fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecies concerning the physical downfall of the kingdom of Babylon at the physical hands of "the Medes and the Persians".

These physical events "happened unto them and they are written for our [spiritual] admonition" (1Co 10:11). The inward spiritual and the outward end time fulfillment of the fall of spiritual Babylon is symbolized by "ten kings" who will destroy the harlot, Babylon, and then they will fight against, and be conquered by, "the Lord and His Christ":

Rev 17:12  And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Rev 17:13  These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
Rev 17:14  These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The spiritual details of the work of these "ten horns", who "shall make [the whore] desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire" are given us in Revelation 18. Those details of Babylon's destruction are not the topic of our study today. However, it is in Revelation 18 that we read the words from this chapter of Isaiah, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen..." as we are about to see:

Isa 21:7  And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:
Isa 21:8  And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:

The watchman saw "horsemen... asses... and camels" and yet He answers, "A lion my Lord". Having discussed this in great detail with our brother Dave Rogers, I have come to see that the word 'lion' is as out of place as it appears to be, and that the Septuagint is apparently a better translation here in this verse. Here is how the Septuagint translates verse 8:

Isa 21:8  And call Uriah to the watchtower of the lord! And he said, I stood always by day, and over the camp I stood all the night.

Uriah was the high priest in the time of this writing, and he typifies who we are with Christ as His watchman. Uriah the priest symbolizes us, as the Lord's Christ, the watchman who witnesses the fall of Babylon and shares what he came out of with others whom the Lord is dragging out of Babylon, just as the angels dragged Lot and his wife and two daughters out of Sodom:

Gen 19:15  And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
Gen 19:16  And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
Gen 19:17  And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

As such we have this same vigilant spirit and mindset which Peter also admonishes us to maintain. We tell the Lord "I stood always by day, and over the camp I stood all the night" as we sound the alarm at the impending fall of Babylon:

Isa 21:9  And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

This is the first appearance in scripture of the phrase "Babylon is fallen, is fallen", and it comes out of the mouth of the Lord's watchman whom He has placed there to inform His people. There is no warning of the fall of Babylon as there is against the evil shepherds here in the book of Isaiah. We look behind us and see what occurred in Babylon in our lives, but we had no warning. However, we are admonished to warn the Lord's flock against false doctrine (Act 20:28).

Eze 3:20  Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Eze 33:6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.

We simply witness to what has happened within ourselves, and we share that experience with others: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods He has broken to the ground!"

This is who we are within the body of Christ:

Eze 33:1  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 33:2  Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
Eze 33:3  If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
Eze 33:4  Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
Eze 33:5  He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Eze 33:6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
Eze 33:7  So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

In the book of Revelation the "the graven images of her gods" are the false doctrines which are called "idols of [her] heart" (Eze 14:1-9). In the book of Revelation, however, those same false doctrines are called "her fornication", and it is "her fornication" which precipitates the wrath of God upon the religions of this world.

The warning given by the Lord's watchmen is His Truth in opposition to all the lies which are constantly attempting to invade and destroy the Lord's flock. When we fail to point out the lies of the treacherous shepherds which come to us and attempt to destroy and scatter the Lord's flock, the Lord says "his blood will I require at the watchman's hand", and we are guilty of that blood. Here are the words of Ezekiel 33:6 in the words of the apostle Paul:

Act 20:26  Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

The Greek word for 'overseers' is 'episkopos', and it is most often translated as 'bishop', but a Godly 'bishop' of the Lord's flock is a good "overseer" of the Lord's flock. Paul was "innocent of the blood of all men" simply because He had fought hard against all those who would devour and scatter the Lord's flock. While He was able, he did not let the fornication of spiritual Babylon infect the Lord's flock:

Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Isa 21:10  O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

"That which I have heard of the Lord... have I declared unto you." Or as Paul puts it:

Act 20:26  Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.
Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

These prophecies are not pleasant to have to give to the Lord's Israel or to Babylon. Nevertheless "that which [we] hear of the Lord [is what we must] declare unto you." Neither Christ nor the apostle Paul preached "smooth things". They "preach[ed] the Word... in season and out of season."

2Ti 4:2  Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

It was the word they had heard of the Lord. Their message never changed. Christ was right up front with His disciples, and He is right up front with all of us when He tells us:

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36  And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

If we are good watchmen and we are given to 'lose' our life in Christ's service, then we have this promise:

Mar 10:28  Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
Mar 10:29  And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's,
Mar 10:30  But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
Mar 10:31  But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will cover these verses:

Isa 21:11  The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
Isa 21:12  The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.
Isa 21:13  The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim.
Isa 21:14  The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled.
Isa 21:15  For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
Isa 21:16  For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail:
Isa 21:17  And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it.

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 77 Discussion

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Isa 21:1-10  Babylon Is Fallen, Is Fallen, Part 1

Isa 21:1  The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.
Isa 21:2  A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
Isa 21:3  Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
Isa 21:4  My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.
Isa 21:5  Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
Isa 21:6  For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
Isa 21:7  And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:
Isa 21:8  And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:
Isa 21:9  And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.
Isa 21:10  O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

We must remember that this entire prophecy of Isaiah is all addressed to "Judah and Jerusalem".

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

This entire prophecy is "concerning Judah and Jerusalem", and yet to this point it's the third chapter of this prophecy which also concerns itself with Babylon. Two previous chapters, chapters 13 and 14, and now these ten verses of this 21st chapter are all concerned with Babylon.

These first ten verses of this chapter are a reiteration of the judgment of Babylon, which we were given back in Isaiah 13.

Here is how Isaiah 13 ends:

Isa 13:19  And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isa 13:20  It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
Isa 13:21  But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
Isa 13:22  And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

The next chapter, Isaiah 14, is the chapter so commonly mistaken as being addressed to Satan as "Lucifer, son of the morning". While those words are in that chapter, they simply do not mean what has been read into them by those who believe that 'Lucifer' is another name for Satan, instead of a description of how the king of Babylon perceives himself "in [his] heart":

Let's look at it for ourselves.

Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Isa 14:13  For thou [the king of Babylon (vs 4)] hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

The vast majority of Christian denominations believe that this chapter, along with Ezekiel 28, are both teaching us that Satan was made perfect and then rebelled against God and fell from heaven. By teaching that false doctrine they are denying the Truth, which is that Satan, as he presently is, is a work of the Lord's hand along with everything else that exists:

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

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

Isa 54:16  Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

Now since these ten verses are about Babylon, and since Isaiah 14 is also called a "proverb against the king of Babylon", let's take a closer look at what the scriptures themselves tell us is actually the subject of Isaiah 14 which is also the subject of our study today.

Isa 14:3  And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
Isa 14:4  That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
Isa 14:5  The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

The previous chapter, chapter 13, this 14th chapter, and now the first ten verses of the 21st chapter are all addressed to "the Israel of God", telling us what the Lord will do to Babylon, which He uses as a terrible affliction upon all nations on earth. This is what the Lord tells us is how He used the Assyrians and the Babylonians for His own purposes "after the counsel of His own will" (Eph 1:11):

Isa 10:5  O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

Assyria and Babylon are two city states which were both located in "the land of Shinar" (Gen 11:2). They are both the same people whom the Lord used to punish all the nations of the known world in the days of ancient Israel.

It is for that very purpose of punishing this world for its sins, that in the New Testament, Babylon is revealed to be the symbol of the religious systems of this world through whom the Lord is even now actually in the process of bringing about universal punishment upon all of Noah's descendants who have turned their backs upon Him and have instead followed their own hearts.

In the book of Revelation it is revealed to us that Babylon is now the religious systems of this world, which now fulfill Assyria and Babylon's function as the rod of the Lord's indignation:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Who is this harlot given to dominate? This is not guess work. We are told who she dominates.

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.

And this is reiterated at the end of this 17th chapter:

Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

The kings of the earth and the peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues of all men are under the destructive influence of this great whore. The "names of blasphemy" upon this woman are 'Christendom, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Atheism, etc. Christian ministers proudly take credit for the wars of the reformation. They brag that they were instrumental in the United States revolutionary war, the United States civil war, and for convincing the United States to enter both world wars. To this very day it is the ministers of this nation who are pushing wars upon us, and we, as a nation, willingly support their totally apostate actions. The same is true for the Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Atheist religions, which are constantly calling those in their charge to go to war against their fellow man. They are one and all "the rod of [the Lord's] indignation" upon those whom He has placed under their sensual, destructive power and influence.

It is because the Lord has kept this function of the world's religions hidden from the whole world that this world's religions are called "Mystery [Greek: 'secret'] Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth". This spiritual harlot has ruled the nations of this world as ruthlessly as any self-centered whore rules over the men who are enslaved to her sensuous ways. Physical Assyria and later physical Babylon were ruthless nations to whom the Lord Himself gave the charge of punishing His apostatized people and all known nations of that day, just as He has been using the religions of mankind since Christ's time on this earth in an earthen vessel. Thus, God says of the religious systems of this world:

Isa 10:5  O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

The religions of this world are 'the rod of the Lord's anger, and the staff in their hand is His indignation'. How true are those words within us when we are mercilessly used by this great harlot, who dominates our lives and requires that we observe all of her extremely sensual and very expensive traditions, and that we give of our lives and of our substance to her for so long before we come to know the liberty we have in Christ.

We will see in today's study that the words of Revelation, concerning the great harlot who makes the world drunk on the wine of her spiritual fornication and commits spiritual fornication with the kings of the earth, first appear right here in the book of Isaiah. Babylon's function as the rod of the Lord's indignation, and the destruction of Babylon, are revealed to us here in this prophecy of Isaiah. Spiritual Babylon, the rod of the Lord's indignation, is the Lord's instrument for punishing those who have turned their backs on Him, and it is her own words which will be used to punish and correct Babylon:

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

This chapter begins with another very revealing name for Babylon. She is called "the desert of the sea".

Isa 21:1  The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.

A 'burden' is a heavy message of great significance. It is heavy because it is so ominous, and it comes as whirlwinds which typify the Lord's wrath.

Here is how this word "whirlwinds" is used in the fifth chapter of this prophecy:

Isa 5:25  Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 5:26  And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
Isa 5:27  None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
Isa 5:28  Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

However, the significance of a whirlwind was established even earlier in the book of Proverbs:

Pro 1:25  But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
Pro 1:26  I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
Pro 1:27  When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

"The burden of the desert of the sea" is the burden of the destruction of Babylon.

Here is Strong's definition of the Hebrew word translated here as 'burden':

H4853
מַשָּׂא
maśśâ'
mas-saw'
From H5375; a burden; specifically tribute, or (abstractly) porterage; figuratively an utterance, chiefly a doom, especially singing; mental, desire: - burden, carry away, prophecy, X they set, song, tribute.

This message is "chiefly a doom" being uttered by the Lord Himself against those He has said are "the rod of [His] indignation". They have served Him well as such, but now the time has come for "the rod of [His] indignation" to be punished and to be destroyed from off the face of the earth.

Chapter 13 began with this same word concerning the judgment of Babylon:

Isa 13:1  The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

The universal spiritual application of the name 'Babylon' is demonstrated in this 13th chapter of Isaiah with these statements:

Isa 13:4  The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
Isa 13:5  They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Isa 13:6  Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Isa 13:7  Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
Isa 13:10  For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Isa 13:11  And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Isa 13:12  I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Isa 13:13  Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Isa 13:14  And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.
Isa 13:15  Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.
Isa 13:16  Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
Isa 13:17  Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

Isa 13:19  And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isa 13:20  It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

These verses here in Isaiah 13 make it obvious that "the burden of Babylon" is very closely related to "the day of the Lord... the day of His fierce anger."

Isa 13:6  Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 

Isa 13:13  Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

That is what happens when this verse is being fulfilled:

Isa 13:19  And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

It is because spiritual 'Babylon' is predestined to be overthrown and destroyed "as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah", that Babylon is addressed as "the desert of the sea".

A desert is dry and unproductive, devoid of any rain or of waters from any source. A desert has nothing to offer us to sustain us, so Babylon is called "the desert of the sea", because we, as mankind, are the 'sea', and Babylon is truly a spiritually dead dry desert which really has nothing to offer us but our own dried up destruction. But "the Israel of God", the Israel who 'comes out of Babylon', will one day be given to convert the "abundance of sea", and then there will no longer be "the desert of the sea":

Isa 60:1  Arise, shine; for thy ["the Israel of God" (Gal 6:15-16)] light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
Isa 60:2  For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
Isa 60:3  And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
Isa 60:4  Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
Isa 60:5  Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.

First Babylon must be destroyed from within us, and we must "come out of her" (Rev 18:4). That is a necessary event, but it is not as simple as merely saying so. Coming out of the spiritually dry, desert religions of this world is a painful experience indeed. It is nothing less than the death of our rebellious old man and the total destruction of his kingdom within us. It comes to us only through "much tribulation" and through "fiery trials":

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

Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

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.

That is the message of these words:

Isa 21:2  A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.

The sighing of God's elect ceases when they are delivered by their Lord from the treachery of Babylon:

Isa 35:10  And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

But world leaders are no different than you and me. They, too, are "the basest of men" (Dan 4:17). All of what is being said here of Babylon being conquered and destroyed by the Medes and the Persians, is simply what must take place within each of us as the Lord judges us and drags us to Himself. Outwardly all of this treachery between nations is simply our beast having his way on a national level. We are all just naturally treacherous and greedy. "The treacherous dealer deals treacherously" is demonstrated outwardly every time we have an election here in the United States. Whatever a politician promises in the primaries is the exact opposite of what he will do when he gets into office. It is also demonstrated in the way nations deal with each other. Any time one nation invades and conquers another, that conquest is always accomplished through treachery. It is accomplished through greed, lying, subterfuge and treachery. When one nation is conquered, plans are immediately laid to begin the conquest of the next neighbor nation, and it never ends:

Hab 2:5  Yea, moreover, wine is a treacherous dealer; the haughty man abideth not; he who enlargeth his desire as the nether-world, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all peoples.

This is each of us inwardly. Outwardly and in this world all spies and double agents are required to be treacherous. Their job description requires that they be willing to lie, cheat and to steal from the enemy of their country. So we see these same words of treacherous behavior being used to describe what happens within and without as the very sign of the coming of Christ to this earth to establish His kingdom. This is the same treachery we experience within us which God uses to bring all of us to our "wits' end" (Psa 107:27) and to drag us out of Babylon.

Every significant event in our lives, inwardly and outwardly, are preceded by the downfall of the preceding economy. This principle is expressed Biblically and spiritually with these words:

Pro 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

The fulfillment of this principle is also the outward sign of the coming of Christ to establish His dominion over the outward kingdoms of this world as we are told in:

Isa 24:1  Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Isa 24:2  And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
Isa 24:3  The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
Isa 24:4  The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
Isa 24:5  The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Isa 24:6  Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

These verses are not describing fire coming down from heaven and devouring the nations in the four quarters of the earth. Rather, these verses tell us that the Lord "turns... the earth... upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants thereof." These verses are describing the treachery of all the nations within us and without us in this age. Inwardly it is our treachery against our Lord, and outwardly it is the treachery of the nations against Him, which provides the Lord with the "occasion" He is seeking to destroy our old man and his dominion over us. The Lord always gives Himself an "occasion" which more than justifies His work to deliver us from our bondage to the great harlot, "Babylon the great", and from her "dominion over [us]":

Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

When that time finally does come for the flesh to lose its dominion over us, our old man will always cry out to be spared from his destruction. It is all brought about, within and without, through the treacherous nature of the beast that is mankind (Ecc 3:18). His pride will always precede his destruction, which destruction Isaiah 24 demonstrates:

Isa 24:16  From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
Isa 24:17  Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
Isa 24:18  And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
Isa 24:19  The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
Isa 24:20  The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
Isa 24:21  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
Isa 24:22  And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
Isa 24:23  Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

"The foundations of the earth do shake" because we discover that everything we have ever been taught by this self-centered whore is a lie. "The earth" in these verses symbolizes worldwide Babylon, the religions of mankind, who refuses to hear the Words of the Lord. It is "that great city wherein our Lord was crucified... Babylon the great" (Rev 11:8) to whom these words are addressed:

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

These words are addressed to the Lord's own apostate people:

Jer 22:1  Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

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

Babylon had brought great distress and sighs and groaning to many nations, and now their sighs are ceasing as Babylon is being destroyed. This is a reiteration of what we were told in:

Isa 14:3  And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy travail, and from thy trouble, and from the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve,
Isa 14:4  that thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say: How hath the oppressor ceased! the exactress of gold ceased!
Isa 14:5  The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers,
Isa 14:6  That smote the peoples in wrath with an incessant stroke, that ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.
Isa 14:7  The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet; they break forth into singing.
Isa 14:8  Yea, the cypresses rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon: 'Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.'

How sweet it is to "come out of her" and no longer bear all of her many demanding burdens. How liberating it is to come out from under either the law of Moses or the law of the Gentiles. Both are called in scripture "the elements of this world" (Gal 4:1-3 and 9-10), and both are slaves to "the traditions of men" (Col 2:8):

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.

Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

But we do not come out from under the law without paying the ultimate price, and that price is the death of our old man and the destruction of his entire rebellious kingdom. That is why Isaiah, as a type of you and of me, walked naked before Israel as a sign of what God was doing to Egypt and Ethiopia within us, and that is why we now read these words regarding the fall of Babylon and how that destruction also affects the kingdom of our old man:

We will leave off our study here for today and make this a two part study of these first ten verses of Isaiah. Next week we will do a short review of Isaiah 21:2 and continue our study on these ten verses concerning the fall of Babylon.

Next week we will look behind us and see the loss we have endured to be saved by the fiery words of God, and we will also look ahead at the work of being a watchman which lies yet ahead of us.

God’s handiwork is shown in the firmament as declared in Psa 19:1, which represents our minds or heavens which now have the ability to hear the voice of the true Shepherd and try the spirits whether or not they are of the Lord. Our heavens cannot “declare the glory of God” unless we are obediently going from glory to glory, and we know the only way that can happen is by having that hope of glory within us, “Jesus Christ” who enables us to be more than conquerors through him.

Psa 19:1  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Joh 10:27  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

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

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

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

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

This Psalm 97 speaks to the blindness that God has set in our own earth, and how that blindness is being remedied through ongoing judgment so we can receive light.

Psa 97:4  His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.

Heb 10:31  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

In order to receive God’s word in our hearts as a light or lamp that directs our path, we must endure through the fire or “His lightnings” (verse 4 of tonight’s study) that can both typify judgment in God’s word. That judgment precedes the peaceable fruit of righteousness that is born through the experience of being chastened, scourged or corrected of the Lord in whatever manner He sees fit for the growth of His workmanship.

Psa 119:105  NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Luk 9:54  And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? [old covenant judgment: the fire that comes from heaven destroys men’s lives, but God’s spirit brings abundant life through judgment (Joh 10:10)]
Luk 9:55  But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
Luk 9:56  For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. [Rev 3:19 be zealous about repentance, do it quickly Mat 5:25]

Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

Joh 15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word [Eph 5:25-26] which I have spoken unto you.
Joh 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

It is only after that judgment which comes about by our being convicted of sin through the goodness of God that leads us unto repentance so that our heavens can be cleansed “through the word”. Sin is made manifest through judgment, which sin is burned out of us so that we can hear his voice in our heavens which at first is imperceptible until the heat of judgment arrives. Verse four of Psalm 19 explains that the language of God goes forth through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world, but those words will only truly change us if we abide in them and why the next thought is “in them [in those words] hath he set a tabernacle for the sun” (Joh 15:7-8). The Sun must abide in that tabernacle in order for it to do that cleansing work of making the temple undefiled and a place where we can worship God in spirit and in truth.

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

Psa 19:6  His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

Psa 19:2  Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
Psa 19:3  There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
Psa 19:4  Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

Psa 19:6  His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
Psa 19:7  The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

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

Joh 15:7  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Joh 15:8  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Joh 2:15  And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;

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

God is spirit (Joh 4:24) who dwells in “the light which no man can approach unto” (1Ti 6:16), and God is likened unto fire (Deu 4:24), and so with those three things in mind, and knowing that God is working with us toward a good end (Jer 29:11), we must conclude that His goal for His people who are in these weak vessels (temples) of clay is to get us to a point where we can stand (Eph 6:13) and be comfortable in the fire (Isa 43:2, Dan 3:25), even as we live in a world which despises that purifying way God does things and would rather hold unto the merciless doctrines of eternal hell, which manifests to us how clearly the flesh just naturally opposes the spirit [we are all sons of thunder at first] (Pro 1:7, Pro 8:13, Gal 5:17).

The reward is so great for those who are blessed to endure through the painful process of judgment which we liken to the lake of fire, and God does give us each other to encourage one another to hold onto those words which judge us and consider those words more precious than the gold of Ophir and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb as they keep us from being presumptuous and work within us an entreatable spirit of children who are praying that the meditation of our hearts may always be acceptable before our Lord. We are blessed to know that God is providing through the body of Christ so we won’t grow weary of His correction which witnesses of His love toward us and we will drink the cup and endure unto the end as a healthy washed in the word body of Christ if we are His.

Psa 19:10  More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Psa 19:11  Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
Psa 19:12  Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Psa 19:13  Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
Psa 19:14  Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

Gal 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

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.

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

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

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

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

When we look at Psalm 19 and remember that this Psalm is speaking about the bridegroom coursing across the heavens of our minds during this day of the Lord in which we are now (Psa 19:5-6) and then think of that journey as the words of judgment we will see being talked about throughout this Psalm 94, we should be encouraged to understand that God has given us a strong and unstoppable Saviour who is converting His people and making His bride ready (Rev 19:7) through this judgment which we are enduring together as one body (1Pe 4:17, 1Co 12:12)

Psa 97:1 The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.
Psa 97:2  Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.
Psa 97:3  A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. 
Psa 97:4  His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. 
Psa 97:5  The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
Psa 97:6  The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. 
Psa 97:7  Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods. 
Psa 97:8 Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O LORD. 
Psa 97:9  For thou, LORD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. 
Psa 97:10  Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. 
Psa 97:11  Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. 
Psa 97:12  Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

Psa 97:7  Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.
Psa 97:8  Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O LORD.

When we are blinded by the LORD, we “serve graven images” and even boast ourselves of those idols within our heart, which God allows to be there to cause us to go astray. These idols are no match for God and were put there in our land to show us what we are and what we would naturally do except the LORD gives us (more and more) the ability to be “Zion” who hears and is glad to be called “the daughters of Judah”, even learning to rejoice in those judgments of the LORD because we know that it is by the tearing down of those idols through judgment that we can have a joyful and right relationship with our Father and Christ and his body.

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.

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

Psa 97:9  For thou, LORD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. 

This verse reminds us of God’s dominion over the powers and principalities, the light and the darkness, and how He masterfully and perfectly uses them to fashion the new creation that we are becoming through Jesus Christ. The gods that our LORD is above are the gods within our own flesh/earth that need to be destroyed every time they try to exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.

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

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
2Co 10:6  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Psa 97:10  Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth^H8104 the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. 
Psa 97:11  Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. 
Psa 97:12  Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

In these last 3 verses (Psa 97:10-12) we, God’s elect who “love the LORD” and “hate evil”, are blessed to be brought to this place where the iniquity of this world both within and without is not causing His love to wax cold within us, but rather we understand now that it is all about His judgment that leads us down the narrow path that brings us to say “Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness”. Because of the spirit that God has given us, we are preserved in our souls [through judgment] while the world around us is being reserved unto the day of judgment.

Pro 8:13  The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

Pro 2:8  He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preservethH8104 the way of his saints.

Pro 16:17  The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth^H8104 his soul.

We can “rejoice in the Lord” or be the earth that rejoices today, as it says in the first verse of our study, because of His righteousness working within us:

Psa 97:1  The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.

Psa 97:12 “Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.”

We also must be careful not to be conceited and always each esteem others better than ourselves (Php 2:3) because God has given us our spiritual lot in life. Romans 11 is essentially telling us boasting is excluded for God’s people who are blessed to be among the first fruits who are connected to the root, “Jesus Christ”, through faith.

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

Rom 3:27  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

Our preservation comes at the destruction of the wicked man of sin within us, and that needs to be dealt with in this age. That is what it takes to receive this heritage in the LORD that we are so blessed to be striving for together.

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

God will sow the light for us through the body of Christ, the church, which is given to manifest that knowledge in due season, and we are called to be watchmen for one another during these perilous times that we are living in.

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

Mat 24:45  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?

Eze 3:17  Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

Gladness can be in our hearts when we know that we are not alone in our struggles (Heb 13:5) and that the body of Christ is there to pray for us and bear each other’s burden as we fulfill the law of Christ through our LORD through whom we can endure all things.

“Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness” and again I say….

“Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness” a holiness that does not change and is maturing within us so that we will not change in the spirit but be like our LORD and having done all stand (Mal 3:6, 1Jn 4:17, Eph 6:13).

Psa 89:46 How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
Psa 89:47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
Psa 89:48 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
Psa 89:49 Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?
Psa 89:50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
Psa 89:51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
Psa 89:52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

As we mentioned in Part 1 of this study a few weeks ago, this is one of the longer Psalms, so we took advantage of some of the natural breaks within the verses as we pieced together the hope that God intends us to receive via His Word.

“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound” can only be those of the age who have been blessed to be given the desire to read and hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein: “for the time is at hand”. The time is at hand for God’s people to be inspired, to be reproved and corrected, for instruction in righteousness, and all these other events that are at hand in the body of Christ right now!

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Joh 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

Psa 119:159 Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness (Joh 6:63).

This is why we are blessed today to read and hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein: because we are being ‘quickened’ or ‘saved’ by our LORD’S words according to His lovingkindness by grace through faith (1Co 15:45, Eph 2:8-9) which we’ve been granted to have in those eternal words.

Psa 119:160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
Psa 119:161 Shin. Princes have persecuted me without a cause; But my heart standeth in awe of thy words. (ASV)

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?

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

Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Heb 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Luk 12:4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

God’s eternal reward for the saints, which is His good pleasure to give them, awaits them because they’ve come to acknowledge, by the grace and faith of God, that they cannot see without Christ, and they know they have been given the faith to forsake Egypt (the flesh and all that is in the world) through the endurance that God has granted us through Christ and his body which makes it possible for us to not be afraid of those who “kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do” of (Luk 12:4).

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Another way we can look at how the world kills the body of Christ rather than just the obvious outward physical martyrdom that has occurred throughout the ages, is how the words of Christ, which are read, heard and kept in His body, have been attacked both within us and without as the Lord purifies those words via the many means which He uses, like the “wrath of the king” which we learn to not fear as we are spiritually healed and strengthened of our Lord to be able to drink the cup of His wrath. It is through our communion of suffering “Through faith he kept the passover” of Heb 11:28 that Satan is prevented from touching the first born, first fruits of Christ who Satan has always desired to destroy. It is through the righteous anger of Christ who is angry and sins not that the other king who we do fear, gives us dominion over our heavens so we don’t fear what man can do to our flesh (Rom 13:4, Mat 10:28, Luk 12:5).

Heb 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king (1Jn 4:18): for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
Heb 11:28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
Mat 20:23 He saith unto them, My cup indeed ye shall drink: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left hand, is not mine to give; but it is for them for whom it hath been prepared of my Father.

1Co 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? [Through faith he kept the passover.]

Rev 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

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. [Satan has always desired to destroy the elect (Mat 24:24, Php 3:18).]

This final part of this five-part study concludes with the subtitle “for the time is at hand” which, when we look at the cry for deliverance of which we know flesh is always in need, clearly “for the time is at hand” is a very apropos response to our fleshly weakness that must be constantly put off. It is always in our cry for deliverance that we are to be reminded “for the time is at hand”, and as we are strengthened, we are also reminded of our Lord’s faithfulness to never leave or forsake us in our time of need. Even when the world within and all the world without mocks Christ on the cross, that was all that we could do, and because our Lord did not retaliate, teaching us that through Him we can do the same thing (Mat 5:44, Mat 5:39), our confidence remains in the promises that tell us there truly is nothing that can separate us from God when He is our helper.

Psa 46:1 To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Psa 46:2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Psa 46:3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

Deu 31:6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, [nothing] shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Psa 89:46 How long, LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?

Whenever we see the words “How long, LORD?” the answer is always the same! The answer is ‘just long enough’. Imagine if it weren’t long enough, if God did not allow the world to be brought to the brink of destruction as we’re promised will happen (Mat 24:22). This pattern of intervention is the same over and over throughout God’s word and is there to give us hope, and through the storms and trials that bring us to our wits’ end, comes the perfection that God has always intended, the safe haven, the making straight that which is crooked, the new creation that is made beautiful in time and through time.

Ecc 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Ecc 3:10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
Ecc 3:11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

That’s it – “no man can find out the work that God maketh” just like we’re not to let any man teach us, any carnal man (1Jn 2:27). But what does God say to those who are gaining dominion over that world of sin in their heart (1Jn 2:16) that blinds us to his purpose?

1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

The time is at hand for Christ’s body today to experience His wrath that burns like fire and to know that it is these fiery trials that God is using to save us through judgment and to bring clarity to our heavens so that we can know the deep things of God. This is the only way we can be established as the body of Christ (1Pe 4:12, 17).

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

Psa 89:47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?

We beseech God to remember how short our time is “for the time is at hand” and that we don’t use this vain life to save it, but rather to lose it for each other. That is why we pray “teach me to number my days and apply my heart to wisdom”.

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

Psa 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

The wisest thing we can do is to show, out of a meek and quiet spirit, works that demonstrate that we are thinking of others first. This is the increase that we are praying for in the body of Christ that only God can grant (1Co 3:6, 1Th 3:12-13).

1Pe 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

1Th 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
1Th 4:12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

1Pe 3:16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

1Ti 1:18 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
1Ti 1:19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Psa 89:48 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.

Carrying on with our theme about time, “for the time is at hand”, the psalmist asks “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death?” which question can be answered several ways, but in every instance we will see that it is only the Lord who can deliver our souls from the grave, whether we live or die.

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Rom 14:8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

Therefore our blessing and benefit is that we live and die unto the Lord even as we die daily and consider ourselves dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 14:8, Joh 11:25, 1Co 15:31, Rom 6:11).

Psa 116:8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
Psa 116:9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

Psa 6:4 Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
Psa 6:5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

Heb 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Psa 22:20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

When we are alive in Christ, there will be thanks on our lips for the healing and the light which He gives our otherwise blind and deaf bodies, which can only bury the other blind and deaf bodies around us. There is no remembrance of God when we are the walking as the walking dead.

Luk 9:58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
Luk 9:59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Luk 9:60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

We will all see death in the sense that we die daily, and most of humanity will die with relatively very few physically alive and resurrected when Christ returns. The point therefore is not to look at the physical question of life and death but to understand how God wants us to look at physical life and death in the spiritual realm.

When we find ourselves doing this, it gives us great reason to pause [Selah], because we start to realize, as we focus in on these questions, just how fleeting this shadow of the valley of death is in which we exist for now, and more importantly how faithful our Father is to provide for us a means to be redeemed as His banished kind of first fruits.

Psa 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psa 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Psa 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life[in Christ]: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

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

1Pe 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

Psa 89:49 Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?

To answer the question “where are thy former lovingkindnesses”, we can easily go to Psa 25:1-12 and read it verbatim to give us an excellent answer that ties into the reason that we must show our works out of a meek and quiet spirit that we talked about earlier (1Pe 3:4).

Psa 25:1 A Psalm of David. Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.
Psa 25:2 O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.
Psa 25:3 Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
Psa 25:4 Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.
Psa 25:5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
Psa 25:6 Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.
Psa 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.
Psa 25:8 Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
Psa 25:9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
Psa 25:10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

1Pe 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

God has sworn unto David ‘in thy truth’ of this lovingkindness which was a type and shadow of His love for the church, for the little flock whose good pleasure it is for Him to give the kingdom (Luk 12:32).

Psa 89:50 Remember, Lord, the reproach^H2781 of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;

We are surrounded by the bulls of Bashan as Christ was both within and without (Psa 22:12, Luk 23:36), and so we are outnumbered, we are sore pressed on every side (2Co 4:8), but to what end? Of course it is to demonstrate that these reproaches which God allows to come upon his servant is for our growth as we are able to endure them through Christ (Php 4:13, Php 2:13).

Through Christ we bear in our bosom all the mighty people, all the world who is against us, because they cannot receive the words of life that we know are going to destroy our first man Adam little by little within, until we narrowly escape through Christ and go unto perfection on the third day.

Joh 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Mat 10:23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

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.

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

God remembers our reproaches^H2781 (Mat 10:29), and He is the one who is causing them and allowing us to be a hit target of the adversary from time to time to help us mature and learn to not lean unto our own understanding but only on Him, to eventually and over time quench all the fiery darts of the adversary.

Mat 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
Mat 10:30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

2Co 1:9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

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

H2781 cherpâh kher-paw
– Definition:
1. reproach, scorn
a. taunt, scorn (upon enemy)
b. reproach (resting upon condition of shame, disgrace)
c. a reproach (an object)
– Strong’s: From H2778; contumely disgrace the pudenda: – rebuke reproach (-fully) shame.
Total KJV Occurrences: 73
•rebuke, 2
Isa_25:8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
Jer_15:15 O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.

•reproach, 65
Gen_30:23; Gen_34:14; Jos_5:9; 1Sa_11:2; 1Sa_17:26; 1Sa_25:39; Neh_1:3; Neh_2:17; Neh_4:4; Neh_5:9; Job_19:5; Psa_15:3; Psa_22:6; Psa_31:11; Psa_39:8; Psa_44:13; Psa_69:7; Psa_69:10; Psa_69:19; Psa_69:20; Psa_71:13; Psa_78:66; Psa_79:4; Psa_79:12; Psa_89:41; Psa_89:50; Psa_109:25; Psa_119:22; Psa_119:39; Pro_6:33; Pro_18:3; Isa_4:1; Isa_30:5; Isa_51:7; Isa_54:4; Jer_6:10; Jer_20:8; Jer_23:40; Jer_24:9; Jer_29:18; Jer_31:19; Jer_42:18; Jer_44:8; Jer_44:12; Jer_49:13; Jer_51:51; Lam_3:30; Lam_3:61; Lam_5:1; Eze_5:14; Eze_5:15; Eze_16:57; Eze_21:28; Eze_22:4; Eze_36:15; Eze_36:30; Dan_9:16; Dan_11:18(2); Hos_12:14; Joe_2:17; Joe_2:19; Mic_6:16; Zep_2:8; Zep_3:18

•reproaches, 1
Psa_69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

•reproacheth, 1
Psa_74:22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.

•reproachfully, 1
Job_16:10

•shame, 3
2Sa_13:13; Isa_47:3; Dan_12:2

Psa 89:51 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.

There’s no denying it, even as we are the apple of God’s eye (Zec 2:8), we are also continually in spiritual battle against a roaring lion which God created to be the very good adversary that he is (Eph 6:12, 1Pe 5:8).

The enemy reproaches “the footsteps^H6119 of thine anointed” to remind us that it is our walk, our conversation, our way of life in the Lord that is constantly under attack, and it reminds us why we must be watchmen and shepherds to one another who look well to the flock as overseers.

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^H6119.

Eze 33:2 Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:
Eze 33:3 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
Eze 33:4 Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
Eze 33:5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Eze 33:6 But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

1Pe 5:2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

Psa 89:52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

We are so blessed to have eyes and ears that see and hear and know that the the time is at hand (Mat 13:16), and so we bless the Lord and will bless Him throughout that transition period when the saints shall rule all nations under Christ and be able to share in gathering in the later harvest as God’s kind of first fruit, saviours, who will have praise and thanksgiving on their lips and say “Amen, and Amen” “for the time is at hand”.