A Husband’s Rejection of Christ’s Headship is Symptomatic of Whores, Exemplified by Women, an Alignment Scorned Contemptuously Study 9

[Study Aired April 4, 2026]

… she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow (Rev 18:7)

Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness (Pro 30:20)

This study examines the biblical definition of a whore or harlot, which is mainly seen as a term related only to women and traditionally associated with using sex for money, morally identified as fornication and adultery. God’s wisdom in introducing harlotry directly signifies sex spiritually representing other doctrines, indicting churches full of equally whoring males. It was the principal proclivity of Old Israel in the wilderness, inherently rejecting her Lord’s word, and without the holy spirit, that identified her incumbent nature. 

Jer 3:4  Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

Immediately recognize the ongoing nature of prior research on breast significations and how eroticized emotions, whether righteous or not, are most intensely experienced during our ‘youth,’ engraving these experiences indelibly upon us.

Jer 3:5  Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. 
Jer 3:6  The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. 
Jer 3:7  And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

Our eroticized emotions are so strong that, without Christ’s spiritual word, we are heavily driven to fulfill fleshly desires whenever possible, especially in secret, where stolen waters seem sweet. As emerging kings and priests of God, fleeing from Babylon, we observe the evil approaching and see our brothers and sisters engaging in harlotry without Christ’s spiritual guidance. We often turn a blind eye because we share the same father, Satan, without realizing it, much like the treacherous priests of Judah in Old Israel.

Jer 3:8  And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 
Jer 3:9  And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 
Jer 3:10  And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD. 
Jer 3:11  And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

One may ask why Israel would feel justified in backsliding. Whenever spiritual and political leaders, similar to one’s own parents, lack discipline from their guardians, it negatively influences their children, leading them to grow up according to their own misguided beliefs—unrighteously “training them up in the way they should[n’t] go”.

Jer 3:12  Go and proclaim these words toward the north [Judgment comes from 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.
Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: 

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women [You and I; Zionist Orthodox Christianity and other religiosities] shall take hold of one man [Christ], saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy [Another Jesus’] name [Sexual relations with many doctrines], to take away our reproach.

Eating her own bread and drinking her own water is a self-pleasuring act of being aroused by idolized doctrines.

As indicated very early in these studies, a definition of a whore or harlot is a wife who is “against” her husband, typifying God’s Elect being given to recognize that they, too, were whores while in Babylonian religiosity.

Idiomatically, whoredom or harlotry can also describe the misuse of anything for gain, incomprehensibly indicting Adam as the first ‘whore’, since he deliberately and symbolically sold his God-given order of authority to Eve, for an emblematic pot of sexual lentils, him (and all men) now in subservience to her.

Due to Adam and Eve’s curses, especially Adam’s self-emasculation in submission to his desire to serve Eve’s beauty, the term ‘whore’ now unfairly condemns women. Shockingly, it subtly and morally seemingly unjustly stigmatizes all upright, everyday Babylonian Christian wives who, in effect, demand exorbitant, emotionally driven romantic fees from their husbands before agreeing to intimacy. It is the pattern easily seen in the doctrines of emotionally driven happy-clappy Jesus loves you churches of the world, eagerly paying the offering plate as it’s passed around—the very spiritual act of harlotry and whoredom.

According to God’s design, whoredom or harlotry is a prominent theme in the Bible. It is contrasted first with the other ‘mystery’ Woman, who produces the Bride of Christ, the Lord’s Wife. Only she is granted the insight to see and comprehend her former state of whoredom and her mission, which has remained fundamentally “black” to the world’s perception for 6,000 years.

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

Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

The first time the term ‘whore’ is referenced is in Genesis 34:8, where the beautiful Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, went out to see her female companions in the land, and the Hivite Shechem lusted after her and lay with her. To his credit, he didn’t leave Dinah adrift as a defiled woman but sought to marry her. Classically, the self-righteous sons of Jacob demanded a severe restitution from the uncircumcised Shechem, treacherously in his death, leaving poor Dinah ceremonially unjustly morally bankrupt; characteristically, representing the Bride of Christ spiritually before being dragged to Christ.

Gen 34:31  And they [Jacob’s sons] said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?

The term ‘whore’ or ‘harlot’ was never recited until that narrative, and its noting indicated that prostitution was very well known in those days, and colloquially in contemporary times, the immutable truth, having started in Eden, is referred to as “the world’s oldest profession”.

Whoredom and harlotry have the same meaning. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, here is the modern definition of a whore or harlot. Interestingly, the tone of its interpretation downplays God’s judgment.

Plural whores

1. 1. Somewhat old-fashioned, disparaging + offensive: a person who engages in sex acts and especially sexual intercourse in exchange for pay: sex worker.

• a. Disparaging + offensive: a woman who has multiple sexual partners: a sexually promiscuous woman.

1. Disparaging + offensive—used as a generalised term of abuse for a woman.

• A mercenary or unscrupulous person: a person who is willing to compromise their integrity or principles for personal gain or in pursuit of something.

Others regarded him as a hack—a literary whore. … It wasn’t just that he was no longer a literary writer. It was that he was a turncoat, sacrificing his art for the almighty dollar—an awful sin in New York intellectual circles.— Neal Gabler

1. A person who gets an unusual amount of pleasure from or has an unusual amount of interest in something: junkie

An attention whore.

Publicity whores

Intransitive verb

1. 1. Somewhat old-fashioned, disparaging + offensive: to have sexual intercourse with a sex worker

• To pursue something unworthy, debasing, unseemly, or false

—usually used with after whoring after profits… go a whoring after their gods …—

Exodus 34:15 (Authorised Version) Exo 34:15  Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

A sentence example: “On the other hand, the great depression has not sent them whoring after the planned economy.”

– Edgar Ansel Mowrer.

Those applicable definitions in conjunction with God’s definition of what constitutes a whore are first mentioned in Leviticus.

Lev 19:29  Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; [H2181] lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.

In that verse, note that women symptomatically represent whores for the distinct purpose of indicting “the land”, the nation represented by her.

Whore H2181 – 1. to commit fornication, be a harlot, play the harlot a. (Qal) 1. to be a harlot, act as a harlot, commit fornication 2. to commit adultery 3. to be a cult prostitute 4. to be unfaithful (to God) (fig.) 

Thus, harlotry, whoredom and fornication are intrinsically the same.

The act of physical fornication, saturating the dating scene today, deliberately experienced with personally perceived innocent sexual enticements, is, by nature, predatory. The fine line of (non-genitally) intentionally arousing another person outside of a spousal agreement, either singularly or by both parties, for narcissistic or monetary gain is an act of whoredom. A woman considering herself virtuous is unwittingly a whore when all the previously mentioned reasons for sexual ensnarement or for marriage are pursued without the foundation of Christ’s spiritual commands! Spiritually, it means to wittingly or unwittingly present God’s word falsely, again, singularly or for both narcissistic and/or monetary gain, and is what the world’s churches and christendom excel.

However, it must be acknowledged that male (or female) arousal is not always a result of fornication, most notably among men and particularly youth, involuntarily, with often tiresome inconvenience. In women, clandestinely, it is not as dramatic, infrequent and at least initially, in many women, mostly unnoticeable, yet in both minds, intentional psychological arousal assuredly is, and likely denotive of fornication. That is how the Lord made our impending procreative responses, which Babylon typically highlights lewdly. Rather, wouldn’t it be beautiful if both sexes, upon recognizing those intrinsic qualities indicative of all beasts, quietly within, gave glory to God for the wonderment He created in our sexuality.

Psa 139:14  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Psa 139:15  My substance was not hid from thee, [And now, the Bride] when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 
Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. 

Eurphorically, contrary to all men and women cursed in Eden, the Bride glorifies virtuously in a male’s involuntary physical ravishment, which typifies her Lord’s spiritual ravishments—If she didn’t, she is signified by Old Israel, symptomatically a whore.

Psa 139:17  How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

… and the “sum of them” is what we will elatedly study in the Song of Solomon.

Male arousal is largely visual, and young girls keenly observe for their cunning, unwittingly villainous gains, while the virtuous young woman thanks God and gracefully uses it for her righteous Abishag and Shulamite-like courtship for marriage. Women, upon learning from their hormone-driven youth, that male arousal, even from the most innocent, alluring feminine observation or, absurdly, non-feminine sensuality, can trigger his near-instant involuntary awakening, utterly ignorantly indicative of Christ’s unified and interactive joy in the purity of spirit for his Father, and he, for him. In the flesh, however, when there is no authentic interest in possible marriage, and either party observes or imagines another’s ravishment and deliberately advances that person’s elation indecently, either or both begin participating in the act of fornication since they are merely advancing the dead end fruitlessness of lust — just as Old Israel detested her Lord’s light bread, lusting gastronomically for the sensualities her neighbor’s god’s promised typified by Aholah and Aholibah’s overemphasized intrigue for male arousal.

Eze 23:19  Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. 
Eze 23:20  For she doted [to have inordinate affection or lust] upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

An ass is another name for a donkey, also called a jackass. If Ezekiel were referring to the asses’ flesh as being of muscular build, surely he would have juxtaposed it with horses, as did Job (Job 39:19-25). However, the two women were enamoured with the size of their paramour’s members since an ass’s body compared to a horse’s is much smaller, but his member is comparatively significantly longer, perhaps with the same girth as a horse’s. The men of Egypt’s alleged issue volume of horses is deliberate hyperbole; one can imagine them loudly exclaiming in wide-eyed, ravished gaiety since the member’s reflexive response validated the two girls’ beauty and resultant ease of male arousal. Typical of Babylon, particularly in 2025, Ahola and Aholibah’s girlish new interest and response to male sexuality starkly contrasts with a righteous young woman’s God-fearing interest, where her fresh, natural curiosity and joy glorifies God for the wondrous design of her male compatriot’s and her body’s intriguing design and responses, opposite to a whore’s; the Shulamite, we shall see, glories righteously—unwittingly signifying its spiritual connections. 

Php 3:17  Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. 
Php 3:18  (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 
Php 3:19  Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.) 
Php 3:20  For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Php 3:21  Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. 

Consequently, adultery, based on Christ’s spiritual definition, can take place without penetrative sex when there is a deliberate pursuit of non-genital, breast incitements or other caressings, either physically or mentally, insidiously moving closer to the act of adultery.

Mat 5:27  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 
Mat 5:28  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. 

Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 

Almost all ‘working women’ don’t engage their customers for personal pleasure; their natural or imagined enhanced beauty and elegance influence their ability to charge astronomical fees accordingly. So-called high-end business escorts with genuinely influential intelligence and beauty charge thousands of dollars daily — we hope to see, paradoxically and shockingly, denotative of the everyday ‘virtuous’ wife.

Amo 3:5  How can anyone a woman [church] catch a bird man [with another Jesus] without using a net? Does a trap spring shut unless something is caught? 

Of course, we are constantly aware that ensnaring women, in representing a church with a relatively equal number of men, also represents them as ensnarement of women in the aggregate.

Why does one’s daughter and not a wife first represent a ‘whore’? In answer to that, the wife was first someone’s daughter, and her God-designed, inherently ensnaring heart beneath her youthful breasts, flooded with eroticizing hormones, drove her emotions in lust to be imprinted with romantic love. Those glorious and newfound emotions she (and her male compatriots) discovered, particularly without scriptural belief, were too powerful to resist. As seen in the “Breasts” studies, she is like most young birds and animals born, who generally follow the first thing that moves, usually imprinted on their attentive mother. Accordingly, a young woman’s bruised teats and breasts from torrid incitements profoundly imprint her first sexual experience, cheating her and her otherwise future husband of the profound nature of being embossed on and in each other.

Based on the Scriptures, specifically the account of Dinah in Genesis 34, she was not viewed as a whore (harlot) by her family, but rather a rhetorical question spoken by her brothers, Simeon and Levi, as a victim of sexual violation whose forced degradation was treated as a severe dishonor to her family. So, too, and spiritually does belief in false doctrine for an Elect espoused to Christ disgrace Christ’s marriage bed.

From those verses, we see that Adam, as Shechem did with Dinah, found Eve irresistible. To satiate his newfound emotional lusts, he traded God’s word for them and was thus the first to spiritually embody whoredom. Consequently, Eve immediately followed through with her instigating lust, having been handed the trading of Adam’s headship to her to indulge her emotions. There we go—spiritual whoredom in Eden, substantiating that the origin of their always highly aroused sensitivities stems rudimentally and from Adam’s pudenda and Eve’s breasts, hedonistically fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind. The stage is set for humanity’s wholesale physical and spiritual whoredom—no more graphically portrayed and typified by Old Israel’s exhilarative preference to dance naked than to keep her Lord’s commandments—“well favoured” by her neighbours as are today’s young women parading the beaches with three ‘eyepatches’ needlessly covering the indicative remnants of her once glorious femininity—posing duck-lipped ‘selfies’ with the daughters of the land—a ‘gazingstock’. And, as always, representing our former ways spiritually, most humiliatingly.

Nah 3:4  Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot [good, pleasant, agreeable, favour, grace, charm ], the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. 
Nah 3:5  Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. 
Nah 3:6  And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.
Nah 3:7  And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee? 

A “well-favoured harlot” is one endowed with every nuanced element of feminine beauty, instantly arousing youthful lusts, all spiritually distinguished by the laity, who quickly nod in mesmerized agreement to the magical emotional ravishments of a different Jesus.

Pro 6:26  For the levy of the prostitute is [spiritual] poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

The embryonic Bride of Christ initially is very much a part of ‘The Great Whore’ of Babylon. She was her harlot daughter, born of that imposing, negatively ‘well-favoured’ Whore, with her skirts riding high while inelegantly astride the beast and the hearts of lustful men (Rev 17:7).

The Lord inspired Nahum to depict her skirts theatrically draping over her face to emphasize her collective nudity—the incipient Bride to reflect upon her self-same spiritual nudity. In contemporary society, although not ordinarily socially accepted unless under deranged circumstances, women’s so-called right to exercise autonomy over their bodies in a nearly nude state has become ridiculously prevalent. Consequently, many men, bar the libertine, desensitized to such expressions, tend to regard this type of woman as unsuitable for marriage.

In that women represent a church and mankind, they are thus the biblical sub-protagonists, and as Adam and Eve covertly and unwittingly, by God’s design, embody harlotry, so do all women (and men), whether single or married, who consider themselves virtuous, are utterly ignorant of their spiritual harlotry.

Once, most married people saw their espousal as sanctified for life. Now, in 2026, and unwittingly because of Adam’s curse, men are avoiding marriage since they only see it as a battlefield where everything they work for to procure a wife and build a life leaves them as the outright losers domestically, financially and emotionally. As he experiences it, it is a place where his wife’s equally non-directional opportunities, frustrations, and righteous lusts chaotically implode. Since Eden, and because her curse now vastly amplifies her resentment that her husband is her head, she now feels unseen, unheard and unappreciated. She embodies the concern of all feminists’ resentment about losing their self-identity due to their husbands’ traditional Christian concept of headship and her subservience to him. To compensate, she becomes proud, outspoken, strong, independent, and self-reliant—the exact opposite of the Godly women in scripture, like Esther and the righteous patriarchal fathers’ wives. It’s a mask she semi-consciously spent years constructing to protect the prisoner inside. She yearns to break free, liberated by the strength and presence of an influential leader who knows where he is going in life. Unintentionally, a Christ’s Christ she has never envisioned would be so captivating due to the indecisive Christian men supposedly embodying Him.

In marriage, she is now at her most vulnerable, since her husband, having not listened to their Lord, and subject to both curses, injured in his privy and stones, doesn’t know how to repair the breach. Consequently, Eves of the world, feeling emotionally abandoned, seek to fill the void of what she is missing, often from the deeply etched memory of her youthful, heady first sexual encounters, for some Ahola and Aholiabah-like paramour who she knows is driven by his gender specific lusts she can subtly use to her advantage. Classically, the young Ecclesiastes 7:22-29 female’s nature returns to reaffirm that she is still lusted after, and she discreetly re-ensnares her target with ‘innocent’ ensnaring cheating to test the waters, often followed through in conventional adultery, representative of classic whoredom. 

The following verse compares older widows, who have not denied the faith and are to be cared for by their family, to younger widows. However, younger widows, from an animal beast’s perspective of mostly yearly oestrus, are realistically always ‘in season’ and inherently seek male companionship through their age-old methodologies. 1 Timothy 5:11 directly corresponds to Eve’s curse, indicting her being against her husband, typifying whoredom and directly pointing to mankind being “against” Christ. In Christianity, and particularly for the Elect of God, it is no more poignant than in marriage to depict how we treat our husband, Christ. We were the younger widow being divorced from Babylon, waxing wanton in our natural sexual impulses to beget children and be romantically nurtured—and we do begin our journey in marrying our Lord and Husband, Christ; first by stepping down from our costly throne of demanding to be the centre of attention and worship.

1Ti 5:11  But the younger widows refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton [sexual impulses physically, represented spiritually…] against Christ, they will marry;

Our former whore’s “costliness” bites our spiritual understanding when we were rich in her doctrinally arousing falsehoods, elevating herself above her husband, carnally demanding that for her to be aroused sexually, her husband must first make her ready. While that outwardly is partly true, that physical reality in marriage of “making herself ready”, pointing to its overarching spiritual authority, alluded to in these Introductory Studies, is henceforth a weighty influence on all carnal marriages expressively spiritually lived this very day and every day since the cross!

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 

Rev 18:15  The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, 
Rev 18:16  And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! 
Rev 18:17  For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, 
Rev 18:18  And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
Rev 18:19  And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

Costliness G5094 – 1. preciousness, costliness a. an abundance of costly things. From 

G5093 – 1. as of great price, precious 2. held in honour, esteemed, especially dear. From G5092 – 1. a valuing by which the price is fixed a. of the price itself b. of the price paid or received for a person or thing bought or sold. From G5099 –  1. to pay, to recompense 2. to pay penalty, suffer punishment.

Those meanings are classically indicative of the price of a whore where the everyday self-emasculated husband semiconsciously is paying his wife her costly ‘fixed price’ for his romantic ministrations veiled as ‘punishment’. Unconsciously and at heart, and depending upon the psychological makeup of the wife’s highly variable consciousness of her actions, it denotes her psychological pleasure from witnessing her husband’s sexual frustration, lust, or longing for something he cannot have, and is generally categorized as a form of sexual sadism or indirect/vicarious sadism. This issue is widespread on beaches, the catwalk, downtown, and throughout society, often perpetuated passively through Babylonian Christian marriage and distinctly characteristically whorish. 

That “one hour” she is made desolate, is an outstanding part of her internal ‘earthquake’ of understanding that she was the ‘precious and honourable’ god, prematurely sitting on her Husband’s throne, pretty much telling him how to arouse her. Even then, should she ever engage enthusiastically, since, and as will be seen in the soon studied section on “Romanticism”, she holds all men in a constant state of sexual tension, now centered on her unwitting ‘another Jesus’ husband, the overextended anticipation and sociopathic lust in seeing his unconsummated panting is by far more satisfying than giving the God of god’s the glory for her glorious young feminine lively ministrations to her husband.

That “costliness” keeps him, eternally focused on her, making himself ready for her, the opposite of “making herself ready” that in carnal marriages is likewise never satisfying! It all represents the customary Christian self-considered “good” housewife, genuinely, and Martha-like ministering outwardly to her husband and family, thinking that those physical ministrations, while inarguably incredibly gratefully received, are not the prime doctrine of physical arousal to be seen spiritually! Her arousal narrative learned in Eden is indeed a dreadful cost in the bedroom and consequently to their marriage, as it was with Old Israel to her Lord and Husband.

That is how the everyday church-going morally virtuous homemaking wife can be identified as a whore to substantiate this study’s heading, “A Husband’s Rejection of Christ’s Headship is Symptomatic of Whores, Impertinently Rejected”.

Primarily, it is because Adam is the first signified whore in that he is first to reject his emblematic Husband, Christ’s word to righteously lead his wife, Eve, and protect them both from rejecting their Lord’s word.

The reemphasis is that carnally in marriage, the relatively innocent homemaking Christian wife’s injured heart, signified by her breasts growing loathing of espousal dues for her husband’s foreplay overtures, now represented spiritually negatively, is directly characteristic of rejecting Christ’s word. Her nuanced loathing of her husband’s advancing intimacies is precisely what the literal harlot naturally experiences, having no connection with the dishonorable man’s breathless, a stranger’s submission to her. It precisely reflects a husband’s experiences with his ‘good’ wife’s similar responses. To the Orthodox Christian wife, a most obnoxious concept, egregiously rejected and alarmingly denotive of every man’s and husband’s submission to women and wives of them being “against” Christ.

Henceforth, and typified by Eve, whoredom began in Eden by a woman’s deception effortlessly titillating her husband’s lust for her, now, and for 6,000 years, as Zionist-Orthodox Christianity, in control of church headship, their male priests and elders, being injured in their privy members and stones. It all represents forced exile, where they prospered as harlots in Babylon.

Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Jer 29:4  This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles who were carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: 
Jer 29:5  “Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce. 
Jer 29:6  Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. 
Jer 29:7  Seek the [whorish] prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you, too, will prosper.” 

And, of course, we did prosper in Babylon as harlots, out of which comes the righteously prospering now virgin Bride of Christ, culminating in the Song of Solomon.

As in any carefully managed business, and because money is at stake, prostitutes possess a refined understanding of intimate sensuality, enabling them to accurately discern the desires of men in a venereal context; an irony that wives, always indicative of Old Israel, increasingly feign ignorance. She, the everyday Christian homemaking wife, is the “mother” in Hosea 4:5, resisting her husband’s ministrations, with her feet rarely in her house, out and about, receiving imagined love by being needed; willfully overworked by the local church and friends rather than making herself ready for her husband—the “priest” ironically injured in his privy and stones.

Hos 4:4  Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
Hos 4:5  Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

Because of Adam and Eve’s curses, they both fail each other and fall in the night because they are both emblematic whores.

Hos 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Hos 4:7  As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.

Most certainly, and because of Adam’s sin in Eden, rejecting God’s word in favor of every lustful detail for Eve, thus substantiating her beauty, affirming her superiority over Adam, their natural glory of nudity in and for each other, is turned into shame. Now, Adam must worship the now ‘strange woman’ Eve, ‘sitting as a queen’, waiting for her her husband to make himself ready and ironically seeing 7,000 years of sorrow (Rev 18:7) as an adulterous woman, the everyday homemaking wife wiping her mouth, satiated with that lying dogma of romanticism (Pro 30:20); indeed, a heavy price for all husbands and wives to pay the price of whoredom. Christ, the arch-nemesis of a carnal whore, too, bought us by the immensely costly price of dying for our whoredoms.

Pro 6:23  For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: 
Pro 6:24  To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
Pro 6:25  Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. 
Pro 6:26  For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. 
Pro 6:27  Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? 
Pro 6:28  Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? 
Pro 6:29  So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. 

1Co 6:17  But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. 
1Co 6:18  Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 
1Co 6:19  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
1Co 6:20  you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body [physically while still flesh, but most exceedingly spiritually] 

Next study, Lord willing, we will study some aspects of her, the regular church-going Christian male and female, anchoring her whoredoms since sensuality now is far more appealing than some esoteric spiritual inheritance. 

Rev 17:1-7 The Judgment of the Great Whore, Part 2

[Study Aired April 13, 2025]

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
Rev 17:7  And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

We closed our last study taking notice that the revelation of the great whore was given to John by ‘one of the seven angels which had the seven last plagues’:

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:

We cannot show anyone the judgment of the great whore until we ‘look behind ourselves’ (Rev 1:12) to see what Christ has worked in our own lives. Then we can be used by Him to show our brothers and fellow servants what is Lord is doing in our lives:

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Look at who it is who “have the testimony of Jesus”:

Rev 1:2  Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

Rev 1:9  I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

If you and I have been granted to be a part of the body of Christ, then it is we who have the testimony of Jesus.

We know that ‘the battle of the great day of God Almighty’ (Rev 16:14), the great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be (Mat 24:21), the great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon our earth (Rev 16:18), the dividing of that great city Babylon within us and the great hailstorm within us’ (Rev 16:21), are all the “great and marvelous” work of God which, through His work of fire and brimstone, wipes away all the lies of Babylon which until this time have held us in their bondage.

This is how the holy spirit describes this great whore to us:

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.

“In the spirit” signifies that everything John is seeing is of spiritual significance. In other words “the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” This is not a literal whore, and she is not seated on a literal beast. This “whore” signifies what the Lord’s people had become spiritually:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot [“whore” (Rev 17:1-3)]! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

The “whore” signifies the Lord’s own apostate people who have always committed fornication with the nations about them:

Eze 16:13  Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
Eze 16:14  And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

It was “In the spirit into the wilderness” that the Lord Himself fought with the beasts of His own flesh:

Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Mar 1:12  And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
Mar 1:13  And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

 “The Tempter did all in his power to persuade Christ to deny His own linage, His own calling and His own inheritance. To avoid having to give up all that is in this world and become the savior of us all, Christ was offered by the Tempter to become the physical ruler of all the nations of this world.

Mar 1:9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.
Mar 1:10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:
Mar 1:11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying [to Christ], Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Mar 1:12 And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
Mar 1:13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

This scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns signifies the exact same beast we came to know in our studies of Revelation 13:

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

The “beast” of Mark 1:13, where Jesus was in the wilderness tempted by the devil with wild beasts, the ‘beast’ of Revelation 13:1 who comes up out of the sea; the beast of Revelation 11:7 who arises out of the bottomless pit, and this ‘beast’ here in Revelation 17:1, supporting and being ridden by this “Great Whore”, are all the same ‘beast’ (G2342, ‘therion’, “A wild animal, a wild beast”). This is who we all are before being transformed of “the same lump” into a “new man… another vessel as it seemed good to the Potter to make it” (Jer 18:1-6). At that point we become another ‘beast’ (G2226, ‘zoon’, “a living thing that is an animal”). This is the word used to describe the animals which were offered as sacrifices to God as opposed to wild beasts.

The only added detail here in Revelation 17, besides being a ‘therion’, a wild beast, is the fact that we, like our father the devil and Satan, are “scarlet colored”… having seven heads and ten horns”:

Rev 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

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.

Like our spiritual father the devil, at this time, while in the darkness and deception of Babylon, we, too, are signified as a ‘wild beast’, a ‘therion’, with ‘seven heads and ten horns.’

In this sad state we are merely “the natural man” who has not been given eyes that see or ears that can hear the things of the spirit:

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.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Co 2:15  But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

At this ‘carnal babe in Christ’ state of our being, spiritual thoughts are “foolishness” to us:

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.

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

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:

Babylon seems so very innocuous. In fact she appears as a downright righteous woman who is decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. In chapter 18 we are told that she is full of “gold silver and precious stones.”

Rev 18:11  And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12  The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

‘Gold, silver, and precious stones’ are the very symbols used by the holy spirit to signify the materials with which we are to build upon the foundation of Christ and the apostles and prophets:

1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire [the fiery Word of God]; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

Babylon appeals to our flesh in every possible way. She is very generous and is filled with many wonderful works which immediately appeal to men. Babylon is first and foremost a harlot whose greatest joy is to please men, and not her true and ultimate husband, our Lord. She “has a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.” That ‘cup’ opposes everything found in the cup Christ gave to His apostles on the night of His apprehension by the Jews. The cup of Christ calls for us to be hated of all men (Mat 10:22), to deny our flesh, and to die daily to the desires of our flesh (1Co 15:31), to be “crucified with Him” (Gal 2:20), to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God (Rom 12:1), and to fill up in our bodies what is behind and lacking of His afflictions for His body’s sake, which is the church (Col 1:24).

The cup in the hand of this harlot teaches us that Christ did all of that for us and all we need is to reach out and accept His suffering in our stead. It is a damnable doctrine known as substitutionary atonement, and it comes right out of the throne of the beast in the bottomless pit.

It is designed to deceive and seduce us all at our appointed time. She is much too subtle for any man to resist by himself or by his own wisdom. It requires knowing the word of God, and trying the spirits of Babylon to see her as she is here described:

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.

The blood of Jesus and the blood of the saints are what causes the drunken stupor of the harlot we all are. These words are “written therein” and are kept by us all in our own time. We do not martyr Christians as the apostle Paul martyred Stephen. Our drunkenness on their blood is detected in the hatred we have for the doctrines of Christ, and our hatred for the example He has left us to follow.

1Jn 3:15   Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

Mat 26:26  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
Mat 26:27  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
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.

Christ tells us that His blood is “My blood of the New Testament.” The New Covenant is the Words of Christ. If we hate Christ’s Words, then we hate the words which tell us of the example He has set for us to follow, and if we hate those words, we hate those who bring us His Words. As a matter of fact, we are told that when we reject those who come to us with the words of Christ, we are rejecting Christ himself (Luk 10:16):

Mat 10:14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
Mat 10:15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

Mat 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Mat 10:40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

Luk 10:16  He that heareth you heareth me; and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me; and he that rejecteth me rejecteth him that sent me.(ASV)

Joh 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

Joh 13:20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

“And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” When we are given to follow Christ, we are given to follow Him wherever He goes:

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Those who seek to know God and His Son with their “whole heart”, always ask, “What did Jesus do” in each and every situation encountered in any situation. The flesh asks, “What is permissible?” while the spirit is whole hearted in its service and inquires “What is commendable, what did Jesus do?”

Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Ask yourself what did Christ say and where Christ go in every move of your life. When we are given to see His steps, then we should “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes.” If the Lord gives us the strength to do that, then we will never be ashamed, and His blood will cover the blood of His saints which is on our own hands.

Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation [‘This generation’ reading these words (Mat 24:15)].

Next week, Lord willing, we will review the origins and the fate of the beast within us when we look into the spiritual meaning of these words:

Rev 17:7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Rev 17:9 And here [is] the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
Rev 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, [and] the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
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.

The Book of Habakkuk – Chapters 3:1-19

[Aired March 29, 2025]

Like many of the Lord’s prophets from the past, Habakkuk and Solomon frustratingly recognised that a more excellent ministry, one capable of keeping their Lord’s commands, must replace their currently burdensome covenant. In the meantime, they see only dimly through a foggy glass, often concluding their prophecies in the steadfast hope of the immeasurable joy some Godly power could facilitate faithfulness, a type that only the Elect experience much later. Habakkuk expresses that conclusive hope in verse 19 by glorifying God for the unshakable hope he has within (Hab 3:17-19), and to us, the Father, through Christ our hope of glory, the Chief Singer on us, HIS stringed instruments. It is Christ who strums us to His tune, and not Him to the whore’s. Mysteriously, however, His Bride learns His song as He ravishes her ‘strings’ and she now is singing euphorically! (Rev 14:3)

Heb 8:6  But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 
Heb 8:7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 
Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 

Hab 3:19  The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. 

Isa 44:23  Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel. 
Isa 44:24  Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; 
Isa 44:25  That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; 
Isa 44:26  That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof: 

Rev 14:1  And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. 
Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. 
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. 

Fittingly, Habakkuk’s prayer “upon Shigionoth” (shig-gaw-yone – H7692) in Hab 3:1 means that it is a “song” and in the translation of its Hebrew meaning of number H7686, it classically depicts Israel’s and our preceding nature of ‘going astray, to err’ in our journey in being recreated as Christs (plural) singing His Song of Songs.

Significations:

Habakkuk’s Prayer

Hab 3:1  A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth [H7692; H7686 – song; to go astray, err]. 
Hab 3:2  O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. 

The nature of ‘fearing the Lord’ is twofold. The paradoxical first induces fear, and by our former Babylonian orthodoxy, despite not being privy to the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, most certainly stirs up a dreadful fear of an ever-burning hellfire and the paradoxically barbaric nature of a loving God. That image was in our minds semi-consciously and conflictingly held in dread while chanting ‘God is love’ and ‘Jesus loves me ’cause he died in my stead on the cross.’ The second is the Elect; upon learning the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, fear transforms into a glorious reverence and respect for our Lord’s mighty works, which He is accomplishing in them. This is to bring our twisted and fearful mindset, and subsequently the world, to judgment, the eager acknowledgement of our sins, wrath upon our old man, and the joy of repentance, “full of praise” for the Lord’s mercy.  

Luk 8:10  And he said, Unto you [His Elect alone] it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others [The world at this time since the cross] in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand [until their time appointed]. 

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. 

Those events mentioned earlier depicting our journey to becoming Christ are upheld in the next verse of Habakkuk 3, where the name Teman relates to one of Esau’s firstborn sons, emblematic of our original nature of despising our inheritance (Gen 25:32-34). In coming from Teman, God dualistically represents Christ’s Christs, ‘the younger’ fleeing, coming out of our elder brother, Esau (Gen 27:1-40).

Gen 36:15  These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, 

Hab 3:3  God came from Teman [in Edom], and the holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 

God, in coming from Teman, signifies Christ in us, coming from Esau and Midianites to the holy mount of the Lord, having symbolically hidden in “caverns” (Paran = place of caverns) from our murderous brothers and sisters in Babylonian Christianity (Jdg 6:2-3).

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

Consequently, the Lord’s Elect, not through anything they brought to the Lord’s table, received His praise and the promise of glory through Christ’s horn of strength alone and hidden in Him. Our trials of cruel mockings, scourgings, wandering in the deserts of Babylonian Christian teachings, afflictions, tormented with the pestilence of lies and confusion, hiding in emblematic caves preceded our fiery burning of His word upon our feet in our journey. We, the Lord’s Temple, are being measured by His plumbline being made worthy to destroy spiritually the nations inwardly and to the ‘earth’, mankind in the Lake of Fire — therein, the formerly blinding light of his brightness “hiding” the world from His truth, will be joyfully received. It is symbolised in Habakkuk 3:7 by Cushan’s (meaning ‘black’) associations with Benjamin (Psa 7:1) and our former darkened Midianite understanding of God’s word and afflictions from the Bond Woman’s ridicule rebounding on them in fear.

Hab 3:4  And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. 
Hab 3:5  Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. 
Hab 3:6  He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. 
Hab 3:7  I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 

Our journey from Eden amid the Euphrates River and its major tributaries represents God’s word being sullied by the Babylonian system, which emerged from Eden to this day. It’s a phenomenal flood of lies that never fills the sea and powerfully indicates the world’s belief in ideologies that suit the individual or national wealth and pleasures at the expense of their fellow man.

The genuinely venerable “scientific method” showcases the ultimate analysis of systematic observation, measurement, and experimentation. The formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses guide humanity’s brightest minds towards the best truth until future studies prove otherwise to be sanctioned. As such, the 200,000,000 locusts of Revelation 9:16 represent mankind’s foundation of endless lies, unable to judge righteously even by scientific methods to prove the veracity of their doctrines. With indifference to truth, hypocrisy is easily accepted by Babylon’s rivers of counsel, baptising the world — the sea of mankind. Having consistently failed the Lord in keeping His word, Israel incites the Lord’s rhetorical injunction in the next verse of Habakkuk. To the Elect’s keen eye, the answer is ‘no’. He is displeased with His priests, the embrionic Elect, today since judgment is upon them, and not the Rivers of Babylon never filling the sea of mankind whose judgment is in the Resurrection to Judgment.

Hab 3:8  Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? Was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation? 
Hab 3:9  Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. 

The bow being made naked represents God’s immutable word will never be broken by not flooding the world ever again with His physically understood word, but rather a flood of fire, the Lake of Fire of Christ’s spiritual baptism bringing the intense light of understanding upon all men ever to be conceived. In the meantime, Babylon cleaves to their food of lies spewing from their nakedness (Hab 2:15) even while gazing upon the nakedness of their brothers, “the mountains” buried in the sea of trembling mankind.

Gen 9:12  And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 
Gen 9:13  I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 
Gen 9:14  And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 
Gen 9:15  And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 
Gen 9:16  And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 

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 3:10  The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. 
Hab 3:11  The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear. 
Hab 3:12  Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. 

As a Christ would expect, the positive representation of ‘mountains’ is the Mount of the Kingdom of God, which is represented by His Christs, His Two Witnesses who tremble. As the flood of lies passes by, they hear their Lord’s thunderous truth invigorating their strength while their Lord withholds time for their brothers and sisters to be killed. It all gives them light as they march with Godly anger through their land, threshing their giants within.

Rev 11:1  And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 
Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles [Babylon, the world]: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. 
Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses [The remnant, the Elect], and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. 
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire [Christ’s word] proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 

Rev 6:9  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 
Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 
Rev 6:11  And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. 

It all begins with the Lord’s anointed, preceding the salvation of mankind in the Lake of Fire.

Hab 3:13  Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation [1. to be bare, be nude, uncover, leave destitute, discover, empty, raze, pour out] unto the neck. Selah [Selah means to lift, exalt; even a sarcastic trumpet grand finalè, ‘ta-taaah!’ – wouldn’t you know it, the Beast is back prouder than ever!]. 

God, in His indignation of our sins, marches through our land within, fulfilling His word that He will bring us into the fullness of His salvation (Eph 1:23). The head rules the rest of the body inseparable from that “foundation” made nude since the head is wounded by us having no ability to judge ourselves righteously, while our consciences’ excusing and accusing us with no ability to change—a venerable “two-fold child of hell” (Mat 23:15). Thus, our Lord sees our entire nudity below the neck — arms and legs making mischief, our stubborn hearts, bruised teats, stomachs not able to digest his strong meat rightly, our pudenda always wrongfully aroused, fornicating another Jesus, our dung littering where He walks in our camp, and feet consistently walking out of step with His; not just that, but we are proud (Selah) of our enthronement.

Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 
Isa 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 
Isa 1:6  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 

Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the Beast. 
Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the Beast: and they worshipped the Beast, saying, Who is like unto the Beast? who is able to make war with him? 

Everything is first experienced in the Great Whore, our ‘Old Man’, relying on her elevated power, illusory beauty and might, a signified ‘calf of Samaria’, who paradoxically transforms into a faithful city (Isa 1:21) who endures representations of the same afflictions as Christ did. She is the “annointed” whom the Lord is in the process of saving; for the moment, represented by Habakkuk’s powerful references to self-serving Old Israel, unconsciously in lockstep fornicating with the heathen Chaldeans, duplicitously fighting half-heartedly against them.

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world [The heathen; Babylon] is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 

It all substantiates our progression in becoming our Lord’s Christs. By being His spiritual Israel of God, we are, by His decree, infinitely more distinctly “anointed” by His anger against our Old Man, “the heathen”, wounded repeatedly until we no longer need His wounding for our spiritual nudity.

Hab 3:14  Thou didst strike through with his staves [Staff, branch, tribe, rod, shaft] the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. 

Hos 8:5  Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency? 
Hos 8:6  For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. 
Hos 8:7  For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. 

All of God’s wondrous works that had gone before them in astonishing miracles never changed their hearts, just as the opening of the Red Sea didn’t affect Israel, along with countless other anomalies that barely received a second glance; such as is Babylon today who is blind to the marvelous work the Lord is doing in His Elect, right under their noses, even in their very physical families. However, at the return of Christ outwardly, the subsequent verse hints at a violent loosening of people’s loins and more so spiritually beginning the Lake of Fire when the world will wish for the rocks to fall upon them hiding them from the face of Christ and His Christs in their ‘day of trouble’.

Hab 3:15  Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters. 
Hab 3:16  When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. 

What better rendition of understanding than from a fellow prophet, Joel is there, in spirit discerning spirit to represent these preceding verses.

Joe 2:1  Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; 
Joe 2:2  A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 
Joe 2:3  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 
Joe 2:4  The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. 
Joe 2:5  Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 
Joe 2:6  Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. 
Joe 2:7  They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 
Joe 2:8  Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. 
Joe 2:9  They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 
Joe 2:10  The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: 
Joe 2:11  And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? 

Habakkuk Rejoices in the Lord

Hab 3:17  Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: 

Those verses affirm the study’s introduction of Chapter 3, highlighting Solomon’s, Habakkuk’s, and all the prophets of old yearning for the inevitability of a different covenant to replace the current one, which was impossible to uphold to the perfect standard God commanded without attributing its Job-like perfection of works to the individual. Until that time when a better covenant should come, righteous figs, fruit of the vine, olive oil, wheat, barley and meat representing the best flesh can offer will continue to fall far short of glorifying the Lord — somekind of direct help from God had to come to empower man so that he could hope to keep the Lord’s commands. Accordingly, Habakkuk and Simeon could truly rejoice since their God-given faith emphatically believed that was the only way!

Isa 1:11  To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 
Isa 1:12  When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 
Isa 1:13  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 
Isa 1:14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 
Isa 1:15  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. 
Isa 1:16  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 
Isa 1:17  Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 
Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Isa 1:19  If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 
Isa 1:20  But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Luk 2:25  And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the holy ghost was upon him. 
Luk 2:26  And it was revealed unto him [… and felt by Solomon and all the prophets before Israel’s exile] by the holy ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
Luk 2:27  And he came by the spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, 
Luk 2:28  Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, 
Luk 2:29  Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: 
Luk 2:30  For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 
Luk 2:31  Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; 
Luk 2:32  A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel [The Israel of Christ]. 

Hab 3:18  Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 

Psa 114:1  When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; 
Psa 114:2  Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. 
Psa 114:3  The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. 
Psa 114:4  The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. 
Psa 114:5  What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? 
Psa 114:6  Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? 
Psa 114:7  Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; 
Psa 114:8  Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.

Hab 3:19  The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, [Hind’s hoofs, like their cousins lambs, skip like the hill  ] and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. 

Habakkuk, along with all the righteous prophets, men and women, having never been jewels in the joints of the Bride, will shed tears of joy for having been faithful servants of the Lord, walking upon the high calling of their time in laying the foundation for the Bride’s grand debut — awaiting her New Song only she and her Husband knows.

Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women [Harlot churches]; for they are virgins [Imbued with spiritual virginity for their faithfulness]. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits [A remnant; very few] unto God and to the Lamb.

The Book of Hosea – Part 10, Hosea 10:1-15

[Study Aired June 15, 2024]

This series in Hosea and its foundational theme of all the ‘Minor Prophets’, indeed the entire Bible, indelibly reminds us of our decreasing courtesan ways in this age.

When presenting a study teaching the word of God based on sound doctrine (2Ti 4:1-5), and the primary topic from Genesis to Revelations is principally about marriage and infidelity and the path to devoted faithfulness, our job is to examine the nuances of spiritual unfaithfulness carefully. To me, idiomatically speaking, its overwhelming dominance and sub-themes are ‘quite a meal’ of whoredoms, particularly from the minor prophets designed for us to choke upon its spiritual filth. Look what happened to Israel upon leaving Egypt and then growing weary of manna, which spiritually represents the milk of their Lord’s word that they found nauseating:

Num 11:4  And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh [for us, spiritual food/meat] to eat? 
Num 11:5  We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: 
Num 11:6  But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes. 
Num 11:7  And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium. 
Num 11:8  And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil [… from the manna, they did everything imaginable to rehash and make interesting by the works of their confectionery skills more agreeable “dainties” i.e, meat. Gen 49:20, Psa 141:4, Pro 23:3]. 

Pro 23:1  When thou sittest to eat with a ruler [for this cause, Christ serving up endless whoredoms to digest], consider diligently what is before thee:
Pro 23:2  And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. 
Pro 23:3  Be not desirous of [the Adversary’s] his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

Num 11:9  And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. 
Num 11:10  Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. 
Num 11:11  And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me?
Num 11:12  Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? 
Num 11:13  Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. 
Num 11:14  I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. 
Num 11:15  And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.
Num 11:16  And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.
Num 11:17  And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. 
Num 11:18  And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat [… and for us, lots of whoredoms until they run out of our Babylonish noses].
Num 11:19  Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; 
Num 11:20  But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it [whoredoms] be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt? 

Throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Covenant, we are warned about our immense tendency to give in to unrighteous lust, almost always to the point of excess, whereupon it becomes unrighteous. As imitators of Christ, it’s important for us to rest on His strength so we can easily cut off our unhealthy desire for sinful things before they become humiliatingly repulsive. 

Yet, we know that our stains of harlotry will not be remembered or mentioned in the increasing Kingdom of God within, which is already at work in Christ’s Christs on earth today.

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: 

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Isa 1:19  If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 
Isa 1:20  But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
2Co 4:9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 
2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 

In this age, we need to work at not resisting the Holy Spirit’s work within us so that we don’t need to be devoured too frequently by the fiery sword of His word. Should we be designed to resist Christ’s goodness and immerse ourselves in spiritual impurity, then all glory to God for giving us the most perplexing desire our sisters in Babylon would recoil, and that is to receive the Lord’s fiery chastisements for our whoredoms joyfully.

Jer 23:29  Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 

Isa 30:9  That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: 
Isa 30:10  Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: 
Isa 30:11  Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
Isa 30:12  Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: 
Isa 30:13  Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. 
Isa 30:14  And he shall break it as the breaking of the potter’s vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.

Let’s continue with Hosea’s “meal of whoredoms” to have Christ’s word hammer our self-righteousnesses to pieces without submitting to our former dull, harlot-like dispassion, to continue to acknowledge her elaborate harlot schemings spiritually within and figuratively tend our wounds with the pot shards of our sweat in remembrance of Job’s mirrored self-righteousness.

Job 2:6  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he [You and I are…] is in thine hand; but save his life. 
Job 2:7  So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job [the Body of Christ] with sore boils [and whoredoms] from the sole of his foot unto his crown. 
Job 2:8  And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down [dwelt] among the ashes [When we tend our sore trials, we generally have a lot of time musing them, hopefully not excusing ourselves or accusing others as Job and we are prone to do, but honestly for a righteous and speedy recovery while we dwell among the ashes reflecting upon our prideful lusts]. 
Job 2:9  Then said his wife [Old Jerusalem devoid of spiritual understanding] unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. 
Job 2:10  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips [… but for us, we have to be tuned spiritually to catch our sin!].

In tying in the introduction pertinent to our God-designed intrinsic whoredoms:

Psa 119:165  Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

Paraphrased for this study’s purpose:  ‘Great peace has the Elect of God ravished by His law, whereby formally being identified as a harlot does not in the least offend them.’ (Why? Subsequently, because of even more intense spiritual ravishing… Son 4:9  Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck). 

The Significations

Hos 10:1  Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. 

In reference to the theme of ‘eternal’ harlotry, no greater ‘emptiness’ is portrayed than a harlot’s understandably avoidance of pregnancy. She, as is Israel and formally us spiritually, is an empty vine with no spiritual fruit of our womb for our Husband’s glory. As Israel graphically sketches conversely, she increases the filth from her womb in doctrinal idols that speak smooth things to her (and our) ears.

Just as whoredoms are endlessly represented in scripture, so, too, are oft-repeated traditionally and falsely understood scriptures. Those 200,000,000 scriptural lies swell the belly of Old Jerusalem’s ‘high walls’ whereby the birthing of her ‘bastard’ children break forth suddenly in her day of reckoning.

Isa 30:8  Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: 
Isa 30:9  [We must think about almost every scripture pointing to us, as individuals spiritually!] That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: 
Isa 30:10  Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: 
Isa 30:11  Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
Isa 30:12  Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: 
Isa 30:13  Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.

The Canaanite worship of Baal and particularly Asherah, whom Israel eagerly lusted, are gods of fertility that are designed by God to depict Israel’s lewd sensualities vividly; and as always for us, spiritually.

Here are a couple of many negative and positive expressions of our former harlot ways for the creation of the Bride:

Son 8:10  I am a wall, and my breasts like towers [embedded in the walls of Jerusalem, Old and New]: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour. 

Rev 21:12  [Regarding the Heavenly Jerusalem] And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 

1Th 5:1  But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 
1Th 5:2  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord [God dragging you as he did with Saul, who became Paul] so cometh as a thief in the night.
1Th 5:3  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a [for this purpose, the harlot woman…] woman with child; and they shall not escape. 
1Th 5:4  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 
1Th 5:5  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

Following is an interesting and highly reasonable secular deduction if one wishes to look up using AI search for its origins regarding Israel’s carnal view of the Promised Land:

“When the Israelites entered Canaan, they found a land of farmers, not shepherds, as they had been in the wilderness. The land was fertile beyond anything the Hebrew nomads had ever seen. The Canaanites attributed this fertility to their god Baal, and that is where the Israelites problems began. Could the God who had led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness also provide fertile farms in the Promised Land? Or would the fertility god of Canaan have to be honored? Maybe, to be safe, they should worship both Yahweh and Baal.” [end] And they did!

Jer 10:1  Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: 
Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them [Positvely dismayed as the signs of phenomenal physical riches in the Promised Land soundly portraying Canaanite gods as powerful]. 
Jer 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. 
Jer 10:4  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 
Jer 10:5  They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
Jer 10:6  Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.

Hos 10:2  Their heart is divided [between worshiping gods of fertility and physical riches and Jehovah]; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images. 

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. 
Joh 6:64  But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. 

Of course, Israel is designed by God to be first to betray him for the equally God-given spiritual observance of our betrayal of Him.

Mar 14:48  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Are ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? 
Mar 14:49  I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.
Mar 14:50  And they all forsook him, and fled.

Hos 10:3  For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us? 

Historically, it is unwise yet easy to demonise old Israel by shaking our heads at her blindness to remembering their King’s (God’s) infinitely superior power over the Egyptians all the way to the Promised Land and beyond. Yet they still want a wretched physical king to highlight the pride of their power as plainly as the Cannanites have, just as the world today jostles for ruling superiority over her neighbors. 

In Hosea 10:3, Israel is still grizzling sullenly that they don’t have a king since Jehovah destroyed their (Israel’s false) gods and incredibly, and colloquially speaking, “What the heck can you do, Jehovah, more than what our eyes plainly see in the richness of Cannan by them following their gods!?”

Hos 10:4  They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. 

Any farmer looking eagerly for the glorious sight of hundreds of thousands of perfectly formed rows of emerging wheat is severely dispirited and angered when he recognises his arch-enemy weed arrogantly flourishing shoulder to shoulder with his crop. So, too, is Christ if we are fearfully ‘inclusive’ and ‘loving’ to the spiritual tares inevitable challenge to sound doctrine.

Hair is pictured just like the billions of new wheat growth shimmering golden green in the sunlight. Babylon within, formally sees it as loving and inclusive and oblivious to doctrinal lies that automatically deny Christ.

Mat 10:30  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 
Mat 10:31  Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. 
Mat 10:32  Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 10:33  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Hos 10:5  The inhabitants of Samaria [Directly synonymous of the Northern tribes of Israel] shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven [H205 – idols]: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. 

Classically, Israel always looks back to the physical riches lost. She mourns not having a physical king and wants to be ‘inclusive’ with the inhabitants of Cannan and love them rather than offend them. That is precisely what Babylonian Christianity is doing today in submitting to every whoredom of immorality the powerful Satan-led leaders of the World force enslavement. How? They have even lost the half-light of the Moon pictured as her churches full of blind priests and become equally blind as her modern-day Canaanite slave masters.

Samuel’s Warning Against Kings – and every detail for us, spiritually.

1Sa 8:10  And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.
1Sa 8:11  And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
1Sa 8:12  And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.

Just look at the multiple millions of men and women conscripted or deceitfully coerced by their governmental slave masters, sending them to ‘endless’ (34 since the Boer War 1899-1902) meat-grinding wars ~ and where is the peace?! Currently, in Ukraine, even 17-year-old girls are being drafted into the military. Absurdly, wars are never designed for peace; rather, more extensive economic slavery through taxes advances the ruling oligarchy’s iron grip ~ for us spiritually, it means ruling over the laity with the distorted meaning of scripture.

1Sa 8:13  And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 
1Sa 8:14  And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 
1Sa 8:15  And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 
1Sa 8:16  And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 
1Sa 8:17  He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 
1Sa 8:18  And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. 
1Sa 8:19  Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;

If we desire a ruler other than Christ, we always end up with the wrong leader! However, even when they govern unrighteously, we accept their authority, understanding that it is all for our spiritual growth, even in difficult circumstances. The result for them, they will see in the Lake of Fire, is that we submitted to their authority in dreadfully trying circumstances, as long as it didn’t conflict with Christ’s word, and now it is their time to fill up the afflictions of Christ as we did.

Heb 13:5  Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 
Heb 13:6  So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Heb 13:7  Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. 

1Co 7:21  Art thou called being a servant? [Effectively a slave] care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. 

Paradoxically, slavery to Christ IS freedom! There is no ‘freedom of speech’ or other so-called ‘freedoms’ of ‘diversity’ today in God’s kingdom, and that forced realisation in the one-thousand year reign of the rod of iron will no doubt smoulder discontent to be violently activated upon Satan’s short release.

1Co 7:22  For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. 
1Co 7:23  Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. 
1Co 7:24  Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God [… in freedom of unity of spirit never previously experienced]

Hos 10:6  It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. 

Israel being ashamed of his own counsel is exactly what our Lord does to us when we insist on having our pet ‘god’. He will make us vomit for our indulgences and be utterly humiliated if we fail to judge ourselves (1 Co 11:28-34).

Jer 25:26  And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. 
Jer 25:27  Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. 
Jer 25:28  And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink. 

1Co 11:28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 
1Co 11:29  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.

Hos 10:7  As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.

Foam forms mostly from impurities in the water that separate and float with kindred particles. So, too, are party-spirited heretics garnering support for their uncounselled ideologies cut off and wandering from the purity of the Body. They float and congregate like dross on the edges of the Body (figuratively water).

Jud 1:11  Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying [contradiction; rebellion] of Core [Korah = baldness. Spiritually, not covered by Christ’s word]. 
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.

Hos 10:8  The high places also of Aven [Vanity], the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

‘The mountains covering them’ is directly synonymous with the initially dreadful turmoil in the Lake of Fire, when everyone not in the First Resurrection will, for the first time, ironically want the Christs, the “mountains” and “rocks,” to fall and kill them. Of course, that will be the beginning of their spiritual death while they exist as embryonic spirits.

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

Hos 10:9  O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah [a hill, the embryonic ‘mountain of the Lord directly symbolising a place of war]: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them. 
Hos 10:10  It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows. 
Hos 10:11  And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods. 

For the Elect of God, His chastisement is learned to be a glorious occasion that to her sisters in Babylon is absurd since they believe that they are already saved simply by muttering the iconic ten-second sinner’s prayer. Her preachers directly mean the Priests of God who are more treacherous than Ephraim since they supposedly know their Lord’s truth, plough their spiritual land full of the seeds of tares, thorns and briars, yet, and in the future that is since the cross, Jacob, the Elect of God shall refine her land within; breaking her clods daily in a well-prepared field to produce a bountiful harvest of truth for her, alone.

Therefore, the “two furrows” are self-explained, being Ephraim in the north and Judah in the south. Ephraim, in today’s churches, loves to tread out the corn of her doctrines because she can feed herself with ear-tickling, smooth doctrines that are easy to digest.

Hos 10:12  Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. 
Hos 10:13  Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men. 
Hos 10:14  Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people [A great and clamorous noise of Babylonish confusion in Christianity, today], and all thy fortresses [40,000 + Christian denominations and 200,000,000 associated lies Rev 9:16] shall be spoiled, as Shalman [= fire worshipper. King of Assyria] spoiled Betharbel [puzzlingly for Babylon = ‘house of God’s ambush’] in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.

What a climactic ending! Our first father, Satan, and his wife, formally our “mother”, are destroyed along with her children first in the wilderness and ultimately in the Lake of Fire, and…

Hos 10:15  So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.

Therein lies our joy of chastisement spoken earlier; the Bride of Christ is elated to have “Bethel”, the house of God in unity with Christ, destroy her wickedness as He, the Sun/Son of righteousness, rises in the east of Her glorious morning for the new day of God’s eternal kingdom.

[Study Aired October 30, 2022]

Jer 51:49  As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.
Jer 51:50  Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
Jer 51:51  We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’S house.
Jer 51:52  Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
Jer 51:53  Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.
Jer 51:54  A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
Jer 51:55  Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:
Jer 51:56  Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite.
Jer 51:57  And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
Jer 51:58  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.
Jer 51:59  The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.
Jer 51:60  So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
Jer 51:61  And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;
Jer 51:62  Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
Jer 51:63  And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:
Jer 51:64  And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

This is the Lord’s perspective of those who die at Babylon:

Rev 18:24  And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

That is not a word-for-word quote, but it certainly accords with the first verse of our study:

Jer 51:49  As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

Both verses make it clear beyond any doubt that this is not speaking of a literal city at which “the slain of all the earth… fall”.

Mystery Babylon is signified by “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”, and the same universal accusation is made by our Lord of His unfaithful wife, ‘Jerusalem’:

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

Luk 13:33  Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
Luk 13:34  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

Many prophets have been stoned and killed outside physical Jerusalem, but “it cannot be that a prophet perish out of [spiritual apostate] Jerusalem”, also known as ‘Mystery Babylon the great’ where we are also told the saints are killed:

Rev 18:21  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

Rev 18:24  And in her [Babylon signifying apostate Jerusalem] was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

“It cannot be that a prophet die outside Jerusalem” (Luk 13:33) is not a contradiction of, “in [Babylon the great] was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” All who have the mind of Christ can see clearly that these are two types and shadows of the same rebellious man-made system of religious worship which has for centuries dominated all mankind. No one slain on earth is outside of the religions of this world, because even atheism and hedonism are religions of men which the Lord and His Christ are in the process of destroying within His elect, at this very moment. When the appointed time arrives, the Lord’s ‘Christ’, those “few elect”, will then be used by the Lord to destroy the religions of mankind outwardly.

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen [G1588: eklektos, elect].

That will be done in short order when “the kingdom of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ”:

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

Isaiah informs us of the fact that the Lord wrote Israel, His unfaithful wife, a bill of divorcement:

Isa 50:1  Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

Isaiah 50:1 is addressed to Jerusalem “which now is and is in the bondage with her children”:

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.

Just as Abraham sent away the ‘bondwoman’ wife who was the mother of “the son of the bondwoman”, Christ also put away Israel and gave her a “bill of divorcement” because she, too, was in the bondage of sin and self-righteous rebellion against Him.

Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
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.

Freedom from the bondage of sin is what characterizes the Mother of the son of the freewoman:

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

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.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

We are all at first the children of the bondwoman, but if we are granted to come out of her, then we begin to grow into the son of the freewoman, and that is who our next verse concerns:

Jer 51:50  Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

The ‘Jerusalem’ we want to “come into [our] mind” is “Jerusalem above, the mother of us all”. It is not physical “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”, as so many of the ministers of Mystery Babylon would have us believe. It is just such a false doctrine as that which lying doctrines have brought us all into the idol worship of all the false doctrines of Mystery Babylon the Great.

“Remember the Lord afar off” tells us that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners:

Rom 5:8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners [afar off], Christ died for us.

Nevertheless, the Lord is married to His elect, and He will drag them out from that unfaithful divorced wife, and He will judge that great harlot and all of her idols and all of her false lying doctrines:

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

Our next verses are another admonition to simply acknowledge our iniquity and self-righteousness (Eze 33:13):

Jer 51:51  We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers [false, lying doctrines] are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’S house.
Jer 51:52  Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

The battle between the ten horns on the beast and the great harlot, Mystery Babylon, has already begun within the Lord’s elect. The ten horns have the same significance as the ten toes of the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream because it is in the days of both the ten toes and the ten horns that the God of heaven will set up His kingdom, which will never be removed:

Dan 2:42  And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
Dan 2:43  And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
Dan 2:44  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Dan 2:45  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

Here is this very same message in its New Testament form. The clay in the feet and toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s image signifies the great harlot, the “earth, earth, earth” of Jeremiah 22:29. The iron which breaks her in pieces is the ten horns on the beast who “hate the whore”, here in Revelation 17. The stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands, which breaks in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, and becomes a kingdom that fills the earth, is the Lamb and His faithful anointed who shall overcome the ten horns on the beast:

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.

The significance of the horns being ‘ten’ is that they signify all carnal nations. Revelation 17:14 is just confirmation of these words from chapter 11:

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.

“His Christ” are the “called and chosen, and faithful [who] are with Him” when He appears to fight with and overcome the ten kings who dare challenge “our Lord and His Christ”.

Rev 17:13  These [ten horns on the beast] 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.

It is a foolhardy decision, but it is the same foolish carnal mind we all have. It is the same mind which Zedekiah displayed when ignoring Jeremiah’s admonition to submit himself and his kingdom to the judgment the Lord had sent via King Nebuchadnezzar. Submission to judgment is a very important part of receiving life in this present time:

Jer 21:9  He that abideth in this city [Mystery Babylon the great] shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.

Jer 38:2  Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city [Mystery Babylon the great] shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.

Jer 38:17  Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house:

We must submit to the Lord’s judgments and “acknowledge our iniquities” and be the first to die to our old man in this life if we are to be saved in this age and be given a part in that “blessed and holy” “first resurrection” (Rev 20:6).

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

To deny that we must fulfill the seven plagues of the seven angels is to “remain in this city” and “die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence” in the second death.

King Nebuchadnezzar signifies the ten horns of the beast of Revelation 17, who will hate the great harlot and will expose her naked hypocrisy and devour her and burn her with fire:

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.

King Nebuchadnezzar burned the unfaithful harlot, Jerusalem (Isa 1:21) with literal fire.

Jer 39:8  And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.

Jer 52:12  Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem,
Jer 52:13  And burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire:

The rebellious vengeful ten toes and ten horns of the secular flesh of mankind will make the hypocritical religious systems of this world spiritually desolate and naked by exposing their hypocrisy to the whole world, and they will use her flesh, signifying her own words, to make her desolate and naked. Just as Christ called His doctrines “my flesh”, so are the doctrines of Mystery Babylon “her flesh”:

Joh 6:54  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
Joh 6:55  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Joh 6:56  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
Joh 6:57  As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. [By My Words]

The ten toes and ten horns are the flesh of mankind who have before eaten and lived by the doctrines of this great religious whore, and now they begin to “eat her flesh, and burn her with ‘fire’”. It will be the fire of her own words, the words of Christ, which she has hypocritically quoted but refuses to obey:

Mat 23:1  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: [Signifying the great unfaithful harlot]
Mat 23:3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. [They appear as an angel of light, with “two horns like a lamb”, but they speak “as a dragon”].
Mat 23:4  For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Mat 23:5  But all their [good] works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
Mat 23:6  And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
Mat 23:7  And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

Mystery Babylon displays the same rebellious carnal mind by opposing those the Lord sends to spoil her of all her riches:

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

Jer 51:53  Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.

Even a hypocritical whore will fight to preserve her life, but she is at a great psychological disadvantage because her naked hypocrisy is being exposed to the whole world as she is being made desolate and naked, being eaten, and burned with the ‘fire’ of the heavy burdens she has laid upon the beast who has now turned on her:

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.

Jer 51:54  A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: [The religious world]

The beast that comes up out of the earth is nothing more than a man-made religious version of the beast that comes up out of the sea.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

The second beast feigns fidelity to righteousness, and in the case of historical Christianity, to the words of our Lord, but this second beast merely appears to be “a lamb with two horns” when the doctrines of this beast are in fact the doctrines of the great red dragon:

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

The ten horns on the beast are the strength of this first beast and they are far more powerful and destructive than the deceptive “two horns like a lamb” which characterize the second beast which comes up out of the earth.

The second beast which comes up out of the earth identifies very well with the first beast, much more than it identifies with the doctrines of Christ. This beast identifies with the false doctrines of man’s fabled free will, as well as the unforgiving false doctrine of eternal torment.

Rev 13:12  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

This second beast which comes up out of the earth signifies the great harlot of chapters 17-18. She eats her own meat and wears her own apparel and has no use for the meat or apparel of her true husband:

Rev 13:13  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Rev 13:14  And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rev 13:15  And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is the spiritual significance of this phrase “he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon”:

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.

Hypocrisy is characteristic of every harlot. Harlots do not see themselves as hypocrites. They take pride in their supposed honesty and deny their immorality and its destructive fruits:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the abominations of the world, also does many good works which she thinks will cancel out any shortcomings she may have:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Rev 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.

The religions of this world, which held us all in captivity to their doctrines, think their dominance will never end, but that’s only because they cannot even see how ‘fight for God and country’ contradicts the words of Christ who tells us to love our enemies:

Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
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;

The religions of this world cannot see that they did not choose to follow Christ, and they cannot choose to accept Christ unless He drags them to Himself:

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

Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Man-made religion cannot see, and will not agree with the Lord, that He Himself creates both the good and the evil that is in this world:

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

In commenting on this verse, the great ‘Christian’ scholar, John Gill, makes this statement:

“…nor did or does God make men wicked; he made man upright, and he has made himself wicked; and, being so, God may justly appoint him to damnation for his wickedness, in doing which he glorifies his justice.” (End Quote)

I pray we are all given to:

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

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

Carnal-minded Christians, who believe in the false doctrine of free will, do not believe that God is “working all things [including their will] after the counsel of His own will”.

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

It is blasphemous to an orthodox Christian to simply agree with these verses of scripture:

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

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

“The preparations of the heart” are the beginnings of having a thought. No one who is sold on the false doctrine of mankind having a fabled will, free from the influence of God’s “own will”, can accept either of those verses, and indeed they do not believe any of those words of scripture even as they call themselves by Christ’s name:

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

We could go on all day listing the doctrines of the scriptures which contradict the doctrines of man made religion claiming to be based on scripture. That is why “the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water” (Isa 4:1) has been taken away from the self-righteous religions of mankind, and that is why the Lord “will do judgment upon the graven images [falsehoods and errors – vs 17-18] of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her” (Verse 47).

Jer 51:55  Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:

Right now, this great harlot still has great influence and a “great voice” in this world, as she has always had. In modern times this great harlot even has satellites which enable her ‘voice’ to be even greater as she preaches and teaches her lies all around the world. These satellites are used by her harlot daughters giving her “the great voice” she has enjoyed for so long as the master of the beast which she has long dominated. However, the time of her threshing has come, and it is time to gather the tares together in bundles to be burned:

Jer 51:33  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.

Mat 13:30  Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Jer 51:56  Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite.

“Her mighty men” are all the eloquent and powerful orators and ministers who have such a strong hold on the beast. The hypocrisy of the leaders of this great harlot are expressed with these words:

Pro 30:20  Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth [her own food, and wears her own apparel], and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Rev 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.

That is just how drunk on her power this great whore is. This drunkenness precedes the judgment of this great harlot just as it did with Belshazzar the night he was judged:

Dan 5:1  Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
Dan 5:2  Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
Dan 5:3  Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.
Dan 5:4  They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
Dan 5:5  In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
Dan 5:6  Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

It is happening again as the Lord judges the great harlot both within and without:

Jer 51:57  And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. [Not come up in the first resurrection]
Jer 51:58  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.

This is the fire in which her people shall labor and be weary:

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.

Just as the Lord’s words are ‘fire’ in the mouths of His prophets (Jer 5:14), so the words of this harlot, words by which she does not live, will be fire in the mouths of the secular ‘ten toes and ten horns’ of the beast:

Mat 23:1  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
Mat 23:3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Mat 23:4  For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

Jer 51:59  The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.
Jer 51:60  So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
Jer 51:61  And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;
Jer 51:62  Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.

That is the future and the fate of the religions of this world. It seems as impossible at this moment as a flood in a world that had never seen rain, but it will come to pass. It seems as impossible as a nation of slaves spoiling their masters and then crossing the Red Sea on dry land, but it will come to pass, and the religions of this world will be attacked and spoiled by the very people they once influenced and controlled. That rebellion against the great whore by the ten horns on the beast will serve to prepare the hearts of mankind to be instructed and ruled over by the Lord’s elect for “a thousand years” (Rev 20:1-6).

Jer 51:63  And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:
Jer 51:64  And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

The destruction of all the idols of our hearts in this present time prefigures the outward destruction of the religions of this world. That destruction within each of us was a painful but very rewarding “experience of evil” which has and is humbling us in this present time.

The kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ will also be an experience of evil insomuch as the elect will rule this world with a rod of iron. That time under the guidance of the Lord’s elect will produce the most physically prosperous time of outward prosperity this earth has ever experienced. Yet we know that the Lord has predestined the nations to rebel against Him and His elect:

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

This is the occasion the Lord is seeking to destroy death via the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death.

Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

It all sounds so negative to our carnal minded flesh. Nevertheless, it all sounds so very loving, kind, and wonderful to the new man.

Jer 50:1-15 The Word the Lord Spake Against Babylon

[Study Aired September 18, 2022]

Jer 50:1  The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
Jer 50:2  Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
Jer 50:3  For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
Jer 50:4  In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.
Jer 50:5  They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
Jer 50:6  My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.
Jer 50:7  All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.
Jer 50:8  Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks.
Jer 50:9  For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.
Jer 50:10  And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD.
Jer 50:11  Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;
Jer 50:12  Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
Jer 50:13  Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.
Jer 50:14  Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.
Jer 50:15  Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.

After the Lord uses wicked men to judge and punish His people for their iniquity, He then judges those He used as His sword to punish His own first-fruit people. Babylon was the Lord’s instrument to punish His own self-righteous, iniquitous people, and our study today concerns the Lord’s judgment upon Babylon as the type of those He uses to judge and to punish us:

Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
Psa 17:14  From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

Jer 50:1  The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
Jer 50:2  Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

Just as Babylon came “out of the north” to deliver the Lord’s wrath upon His own people, the judgment of Babylon is also “out of the north:

Jer 50:3  For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.

Eze 9:1  He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
Eze 9:2  And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.
Eze 9:3  And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side;
Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, [The great harlot (Isa 1:21)] and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof [“The mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth” (Rev 17:5)].

Just as Jeremiah and Baruch were protected and allowed to stay in Judah, God will always protect those who have His ‘mark’ in their foreheads. It is “upon the forehead” because that mark is “the mind of Christ”:

1Co 2:16  “Who has known the mind of the Lord so that he can teach him?” However, we have the mind of Christ. (GWV)

Jer 50:4  In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.
Jer 50:5  They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

‘Zion’ typifies the throne of Christ. It is Christ and His kingdom to whom we look of our salvation:

Act 4:10  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Act 4:11  This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Act 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

The reuniting of physical Israel and Judah and their return to the Lord is qualified as taking place “when your sisters Sodom… and Samaria… return to their former estate, then you and your daughters will return to your former estate”:

Eze 16:55  When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

That is the qualified timing for the outward fulfillment of this prophecy:

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 [outward, physical] Israel, until the fulness of the [outward physical] Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26  And so all [outward] Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

The salvation of physical Israel as a whole, has not and, will not take place in “this present time” (Rom 8:18). The salvation of physical Israel will take place only “when Sodom and her daughters return to their former estate”. In plain language it will not occur until the white throne judgment. The phrase “return to their former estate” means they will ‘return to having a relationship with Christ’.

Nevertheless, the reunification of Israel with Judah has a present application in the 144,000 who are being judged in “this present time”, in this physical life. These 144,000 are called “the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb”, and they are counted as twelve thousand from each tribe of Israel:

Rev 7:1  And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
Rev 7:2  And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Rev 7:4  And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Who are these 12,000 from each tribe of Israel who are sealed in their foreheads as “the servants of our God”? The answer is that they are “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”:

Rev 14:1  And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3  And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.

Paul informs us that we are those “who first trusted in Christ”:

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

It is we who are “sealed” in our fore heads who weep for the abominations being done in the Lord’s adulterous city where our Lord was crucified:

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,

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.

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.

Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

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

“The firstfruits unto God” are not excluded from His judgments. The fact is that they are preeminent in His judgments as they are the first to endure His fiery judgments:

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.

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

That is where we are here in Jeremiah. ‘Judgment has first begun at the house of God’:

Jer 50:6  My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.

“Their shepherds have caused them to go astray… from mountain to hill”. Mount Zion is where the Lord will place His throne which He has “prepared for judgment”. He considers Mount Zion to be beautiful, and it is called “the city of the great king”:

Psa 9:7  But the LORD shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.

Psa 9:14  That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.

Psa 48:2  Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

The Lord’s throne and His temple are “in heaven”:

Psa 11:4  The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.

The Lord sits upon His throne:

Psa 47:8  God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.

His throne is being prepared “in the heavens” and will rule this world:

Psa 103:19  The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

The salvation of Israel comes out of Mount Zion:

Psa 53:6  Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

King David tells us the redeemed are Zion and that the Lord dwells within His redeemed:

Psa 74:2  Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

The Lord will not dwell in a filthy temple in a defiled heaven. The heavens must first be purified by and through His fiery judgments:

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

It is of this purifying judgment of the Lord that we read:

Jer 50:7  All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.
Jer 50:8  Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks.

This is where John’s words get their inspiration in:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Few people in today’s urbanized society can understand the admonition to “be as the he goats before the flock”. People who have had sheep and goats know that sheep, even the male rams will follow where a he-goat leads. The Lord admonishes His people “Be as the he goats before the flocks”. Be leaders who want to “feed my sheep” as Christ three times admonished Peter:

Joh 21:15  So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
Joh 21:16  He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Joh 21:17  He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

The Lord wants His people to be leaders who are willing to blaze the fiery trail of salvation. All His people who are given to remain faithful to the end in “this present time” will have been given the backbone to fear the Lord more than they fear being rejected by society, by their friends and even by their own families. The Lord’s people know that the religions of this world, and shepherds of those religions, are at this very moment leading the Lord’s people from His mountain to their own little hill, their own ‘kingdoms of this world’.

Jer 50:9  For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.
Jer 50:10  And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD.
Jer 50:11  Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;

The destroyers of the Lord’s people make merchandise of them and become rich and “fat” at their expense. There can be no doubt that the shepherds of the Lord’s people are the ministers of Babylon because we are told right here in this chapter on the judgment of Babylon that it is the shepherds of the Lord’s people who have led them into “mystery Babylon the Great”:

Jer 50:6  My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.

What this tells us is that Judah was in ‘Mystery Babylon’ before she was carried away by the armies of physical Babylon. This theme is carried over into the New Testament where Paul and John both lament what they knew was happening right before their eyes. This is what Paul told the elders of Ephesus just before he left Ephesus for Jerusalem where he was apprehended by the Jews:

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 number ‘three’ always signifies that the process of judgment is under way.

John lived to see the apostate ‘Diotrephes’ become so preeminent that he could cast out of the church those John sent to the church:

3Jn 1:9  I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
3Jn 1:10  Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

The church of our Lord and the churches which had been raised up by the apostles had become the great harlot before the apostles had all died.

Notice what Paul says about “all they in Asia”:

2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

“All they which are in Asia” are “the seven churches of Asia” to whom the book of Revelation is addressed:

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Jer 50:12  Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

The religions of this world, which have been like the head of gold on the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, will go from such prominence to being “the hindermost of the nations” and despised of all men.

Jer 50:13  Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

‘In the fullness of times’ Babylon within us and Babylon in all men will be destroyed “because of the wrath of the Lord”. It is the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God at that time in our lives as Revelation 14-16 explains:

Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, [“All men” (Rev 13:16)]
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

“All nations” (Rev 14:8) and “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” is all inclusive of all who are in Adam and Noah and have rebelled against the covenant with God which they are under. “Every man… each in his own order” will experience these “seven last plagues”, which will be used of the Lord to drag all men out of Babylon and unto Himself:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: ‘drag’] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

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

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

Rev 16:17  And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19  And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

The fall and destruction of the religions of this world will be the greatest ‘earthquake’ “since men were upon the earth”. You and I cannot imagine how the Lord will accomplish such a momentous event, but He will bring it to pass, and outward Babylon the Great, all the religions of this world, will be destroyed by the brightness of His coming, just as He destroyed ‘Babylon the Great’ within each of us:

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

“Brightness of His coming” means that Christs power and preeminence will be undeniable throughout the whole world.

Luk 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
Luk 17:25  But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.

It is in the Lord’s power to make His powerful presence known world-wide just that fast, “as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven”.

Because God made a covenant “with [Noah] and his seed after [him]” Babylon signifies all religions and all their greedy holy men who make merchandise of the Lord’s flock while teaching doctrines which are in rebellion against the words of Christ:

Gen 9:5  And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.
Gen 9:6  Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
Gen 9:7  And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
Gen 9:8  And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
Gen 9:9  And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; [All mankind]

God is in covenant with all men, and this rebellion against Him and His covenant is “Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the World” which afflicts “all nations” (Rev 14:8).

2Pe 2:1  But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2Pe 2:2  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
2Pe 2:3  And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

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.

If a man who claims to be speaking for Christ asks you for money for the message he is giving you, then you are dealing with a “grievous wolf [and] the voice of a stranger” (Act 20:29, Joh 10:5). This is what Christ tells us, and this is what those in whom He dwells will do:

Mat 10:7  And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Mat 10:8  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

The greedy whore system is now being judged within all who are in Christ and the judgment of that great whore will also have a climatic, end of the age fulfillment:

Jer 50:14  Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.

Isaiah had prophesied of the fall of Babylon long before Babylon became a prominent city:

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 47:1  Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

Isa 48:20  Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.

Jeremiah admonishes us to “bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows” (Jer 50:14). Arrows signify doctrines, and archers signify teachers. Those who destroy Babylon will use her own words to condemn and destroy her because she uses the Lord’s words but does not obey the Lord’s words:

Mat 23:1  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
Mat 23:3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

What “they say” is the very arrows (Jer 50:14) which the ten horns will use to ‘shoot at her for she hath sinned against the Lord’.

The Lord’s words are also called ‘fire’ in the mouths of His prophets:

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

The ten horns on the beast will also use the Lord’s words which the great harlot speaks hypocritically to “burn her with fire”:

Luk 19:22  And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

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.

The Lord instructs those who are sent to destroy Babylon to “bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD”. Those ‘arrows’ signify words, including the words of the Lord:

Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

Psa 18:13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
Psa 18:14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. [“The lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven” is the proclamation that: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ” (Rev 11:15)]

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded [his trumpet]; 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 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

The lightning, voices, thunderings, earthquakes, and great hail are one and all the words and voice of the Lord which will burn with fire the kingdom of the great whore:

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Zec 9:14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.

Psa 64:3  Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:

In 1 Samuel we read:

1Sa 31:3  And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers.

Here is the definition of the Hebrew word ‘yarah’, translated as ‘archers’ in this verse and as “shooter” in 2 Samuel 11:24:

H3384
יָרָא    יָרָה
yârâh    yârâ’
yaw-raw’, yaw-raw’

A primitive root; properly to flow as water (that is, to rain); transitively to lay or throw (especially an arrow, that is, to shoot); figuratively to point out (as if by aiming the finger), to teach: –  (+ archer, cast, direct, inform, instruct, lay, shew, shoot, teach (-er, -ing), through.

Total KJV occurrences: 83

‘Archer’ and ‘shooter’ are both proper translations of this word, but let’s take note of how this Hebrew word ‘yarah’ is by far most commonly translated:

H3384
ירא  /  ירה
yârâh  /  yârâ’
Total KJV Occurrences: 82
teach, 33
Exo_4:12, Exo_4:15, Exo_24:12, Exo_35:34, Lev_10:11, Lev_14:57, Deu_17:11, Deu_24:8, Deu_33:10, Jdg_13:8, 1Sa_12:23, 1Ki_8:36, 2Ki_17:27, Job_6:24, Job_8:10, Job_12:7-8 (2), Job_27:11, Job_34:32, Psa_25:8, Psa_25:12, Psa_27:11, Psa_32:8, Psa_45:4, Psa_86:11, Psa_119:33, Isa_2:3, Isa_28:9, Isa_28:26, Eze_44:23, Mic_3:11, Mic_4:2, Hab_2:19
shoot, 10
1Sa_20:20, 1Sa_20:36, 2Sa_11:20, 2Ki_13:17, 2Ki_19:32, 2Ch_26:15, Psa_11:2, Psa_64:4 (2), Psa_64:7
shot, 7
Exo_19:13, Num_21:30, 1Sa_20:36-37 (2), 2Sa_11:24, 2Ki_13:17, 2Ch_35:23
archers, 5
1Ch_10:3 (4), 2Ch_35:23
taught, 5 2Ki_17:28, 2Ch_6:27, Psa_119:102, Pro_4:4, Pro_4:11
cast, 4
Gen_31:51, Exo_15:4, Jos_18:6, Job_30:19
teachers, 3
Pro_5:13, Isa_30:20 (2)
teacheth, 3
Job_36:22, Pro_6:13, Isa_9:15
rain, 2
Hos_6:3, Hos_10:12
casteth, 1
Pro_26:18
direct, 1
Gen_46:28
inform, 1
Deu_17:10
instructed, 1
2Ki_12:2
laid, 1
Job_38:6
shooters, 1
2Sa_11:24
showed, 1
Exo_15:24-25 (2)
teacher, 1
Hab_2:18
teaching, 1
2Ch_15:3
watered, 1
Pro_11:25

‘Archers’ (five entries), ‘shooters’ (one entry), and almost all other entries carry the concept of teaching or instructing. That is what the Hebrew word ‘yarah’, translated as ‘archers’ only five times, actually signifies.

Jer 50:15  Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.

“Round about” means from every direction, as Israel shouted while circling Jericho. “She hath given her hand” means that “her foundations have fallen”. It means she realizes her end is imminent. This is how the book of Revelation reveals this great world-wide harlot system will be destroyed:

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 17:12  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 17:16  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.

The very next chapter tells us what happens during this symbolic “one hour with the beast”:

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 18:17  For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,

Rev 18:19  And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

Zechariah speaks of the Lord’s appearing in these words:

Zec 9:14  And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
Zec 9:15  The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.
Zec 9:16  And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.
Zec 9:17  For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.

Verse 14, speaking of “the Lord… going forth as lightning”, brings this verse of Luke 17 to mind again:

Luk 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.

Here is the New Testament ‘condensed version’ of Zechariah 9:14-17:

Rev 18:20  Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

What a blessing it is to endure the coming of Christ to destroy the beast who supports the harlot which are both within us! What joy it is to “shout against [the great harlot]” and to witness “the vengeance of the Lord… upon her” within each of us.

[Study Aired May 22, 2022]

Jer 39:1  In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
Jer 39:2  And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.
Jer 39:3  And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.
Jer 39:4  And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.
Jer 39:5  But the Chaldeans’ army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.
Jer 39:6  Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
Jer 39:7  Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.
Jer 39:8  And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.
Jer 39:9  Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained.
Jer 39:10  But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.
Jer 39:11  Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,
Jer 39:12  Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.
Jer 39:13  So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushasban, Rabsaris, and Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, and all the king of Babylon’s princes;
Jer 39:14  Even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.
Jer 39:15  Now the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying,
Jer 39:16  Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.
Jer 39:17  But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.
Jer 39:18  For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD.

The first two verses of this chapter tell us how long the siege of Jerusalem lasted:

Jer 39:1  In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
Jer 39:2  And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.

Jerusalem is the great whore in type in this story, and Isaiah makes that very clear in the very first chapter of his prophecy:

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

Isaiah even calls Jerusalem ‘Sodom’.

Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Isa 3:8  For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
Isa 3:9  The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

The reason Jerusalem is signified by a harlot is to let us know that the great whore of Revelation 17-18 is a “Mystery” to this world:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

The Greek word translated as ‘mystery’ is:

G3466
μυστήριον
mustērion
moos-tay’-ree-on

From a derivative of μύω muō (to shut the mouth); a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites): – mystery.

“Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots” is a ‘musterion’ because she is the Lord’s own apostate covenant people. What we all at first fail to realize is that God had a covenant with Noah and his seed long before He was in covenant with Abraham and his seed:

Gen 9:8  And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
Gen 9:9  And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

While the only stipulations of this covenant are:

1) Gen 9:3  Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

2) Gen 9:4(a)  But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

3) Gen 9:4(b) “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed”.

4) Gen 9:5  And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.

This is still a covenant with Noah and his seed (Gen 9:9), therefore all men are in covenant with God, and all religions of mankind are part of the whore and her daughters.

Jer 39:2  And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.

From the tenth month of the ninth year to the fourth month of the eleventh year means that the siege lasted 18 months, or a year and a half, and the famine in the city was severe:

Jer 52:5  So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
Jer 52:6  And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

The number ‘nine’ as we all know, signifies judgment:

Jer 39:3  And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.

In our King James version of the bible, there appears to be six princes here, two of whom have the same name. We will not go into the meaning of all these names. If we had the time to do so, it would be easy to make the case that there are just three princes with the first name being their name and the second name being their title. Here is a cut and paste from the Jamison-Fausset-Brown Commentary on the titles attached to each first name:

“Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo — proper names formed from those of the idols, Nergal and Nebo (2Ki 17:30, Isa 46:1).
Rab-saris — meaning “chief of the eunuchs.”
Rab-mag — chief of the magi; brought with the expedition in order that its issue might be foreknown through his astrological skill. Mag is a Persian word, meaning “great…powerful.” The magi were a sacerdotal [priest] caste among the Medes, and supported the Zoroastrian religion.”

Jer 39:4  And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.
Jer 39:5  But the Chaldeans’ army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.
Jer 39:6  Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.

As Jeremiah had prophesied, Zedekiah did indeed see the face of Nebuchadnezzar:

Jer 32:4  And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes;

These are the words the Lord gave to Jeremiah, and Jeremiah remained faithful to these very unpopular and unpatriotic words. With His life at stake, Jeremiah repeated the words of the Lord to wicked King Zedekiah, just before the breach of the city by the armies of Babylon. This is from last week’s study:

Jer 38:13  So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

As severe as the circumstances were, Jeremiah remained faithful to what the Lord had told him would be the fate of the king of the kingdom of apostate Judah, the Old Testament type of the great whore (Isa 1:21):

Jer 38:14  Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.
Jer 38:15  Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me?

This all happened, and it is all written down to let us know that the kingdom of our own old wicked ‘king… the man of sin’ within us, is doomed to destruction and was “made to be taken and destroyed”:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [Greek: ‘tupos’, types of us]: 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.

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

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

Evil men like wicked King Nebuchadnezzar are the Lord’s sword which He uses to punish His own wayward elect:

Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

The Lord even uses our own wicked old king as His sword to correct us.

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.

The ten horns on the beast of Revelation 17 symbolize our flesh when it becomes aware of how the whore has deceived and abused the beast. It is our own carnal mind which will hate the great whore and will be used by the Lord to destroy that harlot system by “eating her flesh and burn[ing] her with fire” just as Nebuchadnezzar did in a literal sense, to Jerusalem:

Jer 39:7  Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.
Jer 39:8  And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.

While all of this has a primary inward application, Jeremiah would have been disobedient to the Lord to have only applied these words to Himself and failed to warn the great whore in whose kingdom He lived his physical life. Jeremiah had already been through the inward fire of the Lord’s Word and was now required by the Lord to proclaim an outward judgment upon the great whore of Isaiah 1:21 quoted above. The Lord first deceives us and burns out our own old man before He uses us to warn others. Jeremiah is a type of each of us:

Jer 20:7  O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
Jer 20:8  For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
Jer 20:9  Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
Jer 20:10  For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
Jer 20:11  But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
Jer 20:12  But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.

This story of how the Lord delivered Jeremiah is written to encourage each of us to be faithful to the Words of the Lord even as ‘all our familiars watch for our halting’, hoping to see us cave into the pressures of the persecutions and tribulations which we must endure to the end:

Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

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

Our physical brothers and our physical “familiars”, our friends and the society in which we live, will hate us and persecute us if we follow in the footsteps of Christ and do the things He commands us to do and abide in His words:

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

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him [types of today’s Christians], If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth [Christ], and the truth [Christ] shall make you free.

Jeremiah typifies those who know Christ and who depend on Him for their salvation even if they are threatened with physical death. It is only if we are willing to forfeit this life that the Lord will give us life:

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36  And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Mat 10:40  He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

Jeremiah had sunk down in the mire of the pit and was taken from the pit to witness the Lord’s judgment upon his enemies and all those who had persecuted him. So, it is with all of us who are given to remain faithful to the end:

Jer 39:9  Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained.
Jer 39:10  But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

Leaving the poor of the land and giving them vineyards and fields is an entirely physical event in the history of this unfaithful nation with whom the Lord was in a covenant. Nevertheless, this event typifies these spiritual words from the mouth of our Lord:

Mat 5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The “poor in spirit” know they have what they have only as a gift from God and not of themselves. Those who take credit for their works are the opposite of being “poor in spirit”. Jeremiah knew that his life was spared by the Lord Himself and not because of anything he had done of himself. Jeremiah knew that Nebuchadnezzar’s heart was in the hands of the Lord:

Pro 21:1  The king’s heart [Your heart and my heart] is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

The Lord had made Nebuchadnezzar aware of the prophecies of Jeremiah, and the Lord gave Jeremiah favor in the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar:

Jer 39:11  Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,
Jer 39:12  Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.
Jer 39:13  So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushasban, Rabsaris, and Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, and all the king of Babylon’s princes;
Jer 39:14  Even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.

This is an incredible honor being bestowed upon the Lord’s faithful elect. This event typifies the fulfillment of these inspired words:

Pro 16:7  When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Pro 16:8  Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.

There had been many days through the years of Jeremiah’s prophecies in which he had very “little with righteousness”. He has ‘very little’ while in the pit and in the prison, but he remained faithful to the Words of the Lord, and now the Lord was making “even his enemies to be at peace with him”.

The holy spirit concludes this chapter of Jeremiah by taking us back to Jeremiah’s time in the pit and in prison to remind us that when we receive the Lord’s elect, we are receiving the Lord Himself:

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

The Lord does not forget us when we remain faithful to Him and to His body of elect believers. He is “a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”:

Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

This is what the Lord had Jeremiah to prophesy concerning Ebedmelech the Ethiopian who had been used by the Lord to save Jeremiah’s life from death in the pit:

Jer 39:15  Now the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying,
Jer 39:16  Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.
Jer 39:17  But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.
Jer 39:18  For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD.

As we just read in Hebrews 11:6, He that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

There are many examples throughout the Bible of how the Lord preserves His faithful through the trials He places upon them. Beginning with Abel, who was slain by his older brother, Enoch, who was taken away so he would not die, and then continuing on generation after generation, the Lord reveals how He delivered His faithful from those who would hurt them. But He first must give us the gift of “faith that He is” and that He will reward us for our fidelity to Him and to His promise of life. This promise of life is not necessarily in this present time, but life eonian in the ages to come.

I will conclude this study with a few verses on just how important it is that we have faith in the promises of God:

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Heb 11:2  For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Heb 11:4  By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
Heb 11:5  By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
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.
Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
Heb 11:9  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
Heb 11:10  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Heb 11:11  Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Heb 11:12  Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Heb 11:14  For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
Heb 11:15  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
Heb 11:16  But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
Heb 11:17  By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
Heb 11:18  Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:
Heb 11:19  Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
Heb 11:20. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
Heb 11:21  By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.
Heb 11:22  By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.
Heb 11:23  By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.
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.
Heb 11:27  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: 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.
Heb 11:29  By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.
Heb 11:30  By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.
Heb 11:31  By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
Heb 11:32  And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:
Heb 11:33  Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
Heb 11:34  Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Heb 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
Heb 11:36  And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
Heb 11:38  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
Heb 11:40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

It is only if we are given the ability to believe the Lord’s Words that we will be the overcomers and the recipients of all the promises made exclusively to the overcomers of Revelation 2 and 3:

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

Let us all pray that the Lord, through His gift of faith, will give each of us “respect unto the recompense of the reward” and not treat our birthright with the lack of respect that Esau treated his birthright.

[Study Aired October 24, 2021]

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:
Jer 22:3  Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
Jer 22:4  For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
Jer 22:5  But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
Jer 22:6  For thus saith the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
Jer 22:7  And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
Jer 22:8  And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?
Jer 22:9  Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
Jer 22:10  Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
Jer 22:11  For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
Jer 22:12  But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
Jer 22:13  Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
Jer 22:14  That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
Jer 22:15  Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
Jer 22:16  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

These first two verses reveal to whom the Lord is addressing these words:

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:

Keep in mind who and what the Lord, through the pen of Isaiah, means by the words “the king of Judah and thy people who enter in by these gates [of Jerusalem].” Jeremiah and Isaiah are sent by the Lord to the exact same people. Here is who and what the Lord means by the words, “the king of Judah and thy people who enter in by these gates.”

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.

Isaiah was also sent to “Judah and Jerusalem” and to kings “Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah”, and this is who the Lord says the king of Judah and his people are:

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

It is the Lord Himself who equates His own people as a murdering harlot. It is the Lord Himself who considers those who claim His name and reject His doctrine to be “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth”:

Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

It was the “great whore” of Revelation 17-18 who “murdered” our Lord. This “great whore”, this “harlot” is revealed to be those who think of themselves as the Lord’s own chosen people. This “harlot” is any and all men who claim to know God but refuse to be obedient to Him.

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

That “sinful nation” includes each of us, while we are first a part of this great whore before we are dragged out of her:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: ‘helkuō’, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

It is the Lord’s own people who have rebelled against Him and His ways. Jeremiah is also inspired to reveal that the Lord considers those who claim his name and hate his doctrine as “the harlot”:

Jer 3:6  The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

Jer 3:8  And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

Israel and Judah are not two different people. ‘Israel’ is just the early part of our apostasy, and ‘Judah’ signifies the latter part of our apostasy, leading to our being dragged out of Babylon and beginning to be judged in this present age. Far from avoiding the fiery judgments of God, His elect are simply the first to experience them:

Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

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

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

Our “fiery trials” are the Lord’s judgments which He is at this very moment pouring out on His own house because “He first loved us” and therefore we are the first to be judged and chastened.

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

1Jn 4:19  We love him, because he first loved us.

Those who comprise “the house of God” are all first in “Babylon… the mother of harlots” before they are dragged out of that great whore to “begin” the purging work of grace and judgment in their lives.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

When Peter speaks of “Judgment… first… beginning… at the house of God” he is referring to the pouring out of the seven last plagues of His wrath upon ‘the throne of the beast’ within each of us in “this present time”:

Rev 16:10  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat [G2362: ‘thronos’, throne] of the beast;  and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11  And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

This is the fruit of the rebellious house of the carnal mind in each of the Lord’s elect. This is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the end this fruit produces death regardless of how much knowledge of good is in it. The Lord’s standards are so much higher than simply coming to know about good and evil. The knowledge of Christ is not dead knowledge. The knowledge of Christ is life and liberty:

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

The great harlot is spiritually murdering all her adherents. So, the Lord tells us the benefits of coming out of the house of this murderous harlot:

Jer 22:3  Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

Why is the Lord telling us to “Execute… judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place?” He is telling us to do these things because we do not just naturally execute judgment… or deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor. He is telling us that we just naturally do what is wrong and are just naturally violent to strangers, the fatherless and the widow, and we are just natural murderers in the eyes of a God whose standard of what constitutes murder is:

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

We all self-righteously deny that we are guilty of any of those sins. I tell myself that I have never once done violence to any stranger, fatherless or widow, and I certainly have never murdered anyone. However, by the Lord’s standards I am lying to myself and to God, but He sees right through that lie and, if I am His, He cannot deny Himself. What that means is that He must pour out the seven plagues of the seven angels upon the kingdom of my old man so I can enter His temple, become His bride (2Co 11:1: Rev 21:9) and become a part of the family of God (Eph 3:15):

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

2Ti 2:11  It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
2Ti 2:13  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

If we are “dead with Him” then we will believe Him. It is our flesh and our old man in that flesh who is capable of not believing Him. But Christ has overcome my flesh and will not “deny Himself” because He knows those who are His:

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.

If we “are His” then He has us bound to the altar with cords, and we are being sacrificed daily in His service, not of our will or our works but because “we are His workmanship”:

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

No sacrifice binds itself to the horns of the altar. That would be “His workmanship”, the work of His chastening grace and not of our own works:

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

It requires a miracle of God to blind us to the Truth of those words, and we have all been blinded to those words in our own time.

Therefore, when we do the “good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them”, we are simply fulfilling our next verse:

Jer 22:4  For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

In words which are not intended to be understood by “the natural man”, the scriptures teach that the Lord spiritually has two wives. The first one is a harlot, and the last one is “a chaste virgin”. The scriptures are very clear on this matter, but the Lord has blinded the eyes and stopped the ears of our “first man Adam… until the time… appointed of the Father”:

Psa 105:19  Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.

It is the fiery words of God (Jer 5:14) which try us all, and those fiery words teach us that we are all spiritual infants, “carnal babes in Christ”, before we begin to be judged and mature into spiritual adulthood:

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child [G3516: ‘nepios’, an infant], differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children [G3516: ‘nepios’, infants], were in bondage under the elements [G4747: ‘stoichion’, elements, principles] of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son [G5207: ‘uihos’ adult Son], made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons [G5206: ‘uihothesia’, an adult son].
Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons [G5207: ‘uihos’, spiritual adults], God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son [G5207: ‘uihos’, adult] into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Gal 4:7  Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son [‘uihos’]; and if a son [‘uihos’], then an heir of God through Christ.

Only the spiritual adults can receive this same message in these words concerning Christ’s two wives. Here in this same fourth chapter, this process of passing from being spiritual infants to the beginning of spiritual adulthood is repeated in another form with these words:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid [spiritual infant, ‘nepios’], the other by a freewoman [spiritual adult, ‘uihos’].
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh [naturally]; but he of the freewoman was by promise [super-naturally].
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 

This is where the mind of the natural man “cannot receive the things of the spirit because they are foolishness unto him” (1Co 2:14). The only people at Mount Sinai were the physical descendants of Sarah, the physical ‘freewoman’. Yet the holy spirit equates the physical descendants of Sarah at Mount Sinai with the descendants of Hagar, the physical bondwoman:

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.

The Lord has blinded the entire orthodox Christian world to the Truth of these words of Galatians 4:

Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all [“all” who are in Christ].
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.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise [super natural birth].
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

We are all spiritual infants before we can become and grow into spiritual adulthood. It is in this ‘nepios’ infantile stage that we are simply incapable of seeing with our spiritual eyes and hearing with our spiritual ears these words:

Jer 22:5  But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
Jer 22:6  For thus saith the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
Jer 22:7  And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

“This house” is the ‘house’ and ‘kingdom’ of our old man.  In this chapter of Jeremiah, King Josiah typifies both the father of his evil sons and the father of our new man, just as Christ Himself is “the beginning… first man Adam… and the end… the last Adam”. Christ was “made of a woman, made under the law (Gal 4:4), and made sin (2Co 5:21). It was through His death to His physical flesh that He became the savior of all men of all time and the ‘Everlasting Father’ of our new man.

King Josiah was the best king Judah ever had, and yet, as a type of us (1Co 10:6), Judah is still judged and must suffer with “the whole creation… in this present time”:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Therefore, Lord’s elect are part of “this city” who must endure the humiliation of having denied their own Lord and Savior:

Jer 22:8  And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?
Jer 22:9  Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

It serves no good purpose to fail to acknowledge that each of us have denied our Lord and have been party to His crucifixion and death.

Jer 22:10  Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

This is just one more verse which confirms The Truth that the day we begin to die to our old man is much better than the day we were born into our old man:

Ecc 7:1  A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.

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

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

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

The remainder of this chapter is addressed to the sons of Josiah, Shallum and Jehoiakim, who typify our old man. Our Lord Himself had to accept the fact that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”, and even He endured the pain of His heavenly Father’s rejection of His corruptible flesh.

This is an experience which is common to all men:

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?

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Mar 15:34  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

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

Josiah’s sons typify how our own corruptible old man is indeed unworthy of being accepted by our Lord:

Jer 22:11  For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He [Shallum] shall not return thither any more:
Jer 22:12  But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
Jer 22:13  Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
Jer 22:14  That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

These verses are a perfect description of what we do when we fleece the Lord’s flock or participate in being fleeced. The one is as evil as the other, because the one supports the other. A house built by unrighteousness is a house built upon false, lying doctrines which are taught to the Lord’s flock by men who are “corrupting [and are] peddling the Word of God”:

Here is that message in the King James Version of the scriptures:

2Co 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

Look at what Strong’s, Brown, Driver, and Briggs, and Thayer reveal is the meaning of the Greek word translated as ‘corrupt’ in the KJV:

G2585
καπηλεύω
kapēleuō
kap-ale-yoo’-o
From κάπηλος kapēlos (a huckster); to retail, that is, (by implication) to adulterate (figuratively): – corrupt.

– Transliteration: Kapeleuo
– Phonetic: kap-ale-yoo’-o
– Definition:

1. to be a retailer, to peddle
2. to make money by selling anything
3. to get sordid gain by dealing in anything, to do a thing for base gain
4. to trade in the word of God
5. to try to get base gain by teaching divine truth
6. to corrupt, to adulterate
7. peddlers were in the habit of adulterating their commodities for the sake of gain

– Origin: from kapelos (a huckster)

The CLV does a better job of giving us the sense of this word:

2Co 2:17 For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking.

Christ instructs all who follow Him and tremble at His words:

Mat 10:7  And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Mat 10:8  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

It is a dead giveaway that there is no “stay of bread [nor any] stay of water” if so much as a penny is requested by those who claim to be preaching the kingdom of heaven. There is obviously little regard for these words of Christ and absolutely no one is “trembling at [His] Words” (Isa 66:2).

The holy spirit poses this question in contrast to the example of Josiah typifying Christ:

Jer 22:15  Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
Jer 22:16  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

It is natural for us to be choked out of the kingdom of God by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. As Christ grows within us, more and more, day by day, we begin to think outwardly of the physical and spiritual needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we are blessed to be given to minister to those needs as the Lord provides.

“Was not this to know me? Saith the Lord” is another way of saying ‘Is not this life eternal?’

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

That is our study for today, and here is the rest of this chapter for our next study which will demonstrate that “while we were yet in our sins” Christ died for us. Thus, the words “O earth, earth, earth, hear the words of the Lord”:

Jer 22:17  But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
Jer 22:18  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
Jer 22:19  He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Jer 22:20  Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
Jer 22:21  I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.
Jer 22:22  The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.
Jer 22:23  O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
Jer 22:24  As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;
Jer 22:25  And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jer 22:26  And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
Jer 22:27  But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.
Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Jer 22:30  Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

[Study Aired October 20, 2020]

[Notations within brackets [ ] are from Mark]

Mat 19:1-15 And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there [Mark 10:1 and taught them.] The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, [Mark 10:3 What did Moses Command you?] Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses [Mark 10:5 wrote this precept] because of the hardness of your hearts [and] suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. [Mar 10:10-11 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them,] And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

In our last study we saw the wife that will not be put away is the elect of God, the true church. Revelation 21 and 22 describe why:

Rev 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. 

Rev 21:22-27 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

The wife is given to eat of the tree of life freely first and the rest of mankind will eat of the tree through Christ and his bride.

Rev 20:5-6 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

In this study we will search out who is the wife that can be put away. A woman in scripture represents a church. Whether they represent the true church, or the false church is determined by what type of woman they are. There are two types of women mentioned in the scriptures. The virtuous woman and the harlot or strange woman.

Pro 12:4 A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.

Pro 31:10-31 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar. She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms. She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. 

“Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all” is telling us that the “churches of the world” are not good enough even though they “have done virtuously”. We must become aware of these women that are actually “strange women”.

1Ki 11:1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. 

Pro 22:14  The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

We are warned that we will look upon “strange women”. In other words, we are first married to a harlot, and we must put her away.

Pro 23:33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

Here is why this strange woman is so appealing to us at first.

Pro 5:3  For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

Pro 7:4-5 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

In the beginning of our journey, we prefer the smooth sayings and flattering words. This is a tough life, and our flesh needs to hear something that shows us we are in control of our lives. Our old man prefers the doctrines of this “strange woman”, and we become this woman, the false bride of Christ, by living out her ways.

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

Rom 16:17-18 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

The Pharisees asked Christ the following question, and he answered them according to the law, the idol of their heart.

Mat 19:7-8 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

Psa 95:8-11 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Rom 12:9-14 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. 

Matthew 19:9 adds something that Mark leaves out in this story.

Mar 10:10-11 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, 

Mat 19:9 except it be for fornication, committeth adultery against her.

Mar 10:12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

Christ expands His answer He gave the Pharisees when talking with His disciples. This is still going on today. He defines the only reason why a wife can be divorced, and the Pharisees of today still think His answer has to do with the flesh. His disciples, not understanding the things of the spirit at the time of this story, eventually come to understand that Christ’s words are spirit and have a spiritual meaning. Paul gives us the meaning of the Christ’s words above.

1Co 6:12-20 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1Co 7:1-2 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. 

Spiritual fornication is following after the doctrines of the churches of the world; another man’s wife. 

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.

Joh 8:41-47 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 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. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

We must “put away” these false doctrines because they are causing us to commit “fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles.” How do we prevent ourselves from committing fornication, or in other words, what does Christ do in us to prevent us from coming fornication?

Pro 2:1-22 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

That concludes Part 2 of this study. Next study we will look at what and who the different types of eunuchs are.

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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.

Introduction

It is important that we remember that this revelation is the unveiling of Jesus Christ within each of us. That revelation necessitates that we look behind ourselves and see how this revelation has taken place upon us as the ‘earth’ which we are as “vessels of clay” (Jer 22:29), and within us as it transforms the heavens of our hearts and minds (Heb 9:23-24).

Isa 1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

Christ in not addressing inanimate stars and planets. He is speaking to His heavens and His earth within us. “The heavens themselves” of Heb 9:23-24. He was speaking to the sad and wicked spiritual state of the seven churches within “He that hath an ear” (Rev 2:7, 11 and all seven churches).

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;

We must constantly remind ourselves that these seven churches are each of us, who are told seven times to “hear what the spirit says to the churches.”

Rev 2:29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

With this perspective, let’s get into our study, where we will find that this beast and the waters on which this harlot sits are both one and the same, and they are both the symbols of the sad state of “the seven churches of Asia” within each of us.

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.

This ten horned beast with seven heads is the mature revelation of “the first Adam” within us and is first revealed to us as the fourth beast of Daniel seven.

Dan 7:7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

“The ten horns… receive power… with the beast”. They receive power with the beast because they are part of this beast. When we pay close attention to the wording of scripture and we add together the information we are given, it becomes so clear that there are many symbols for the same thing in scripture. The story of Joseph reveals to us this principle.

Gen 41:25 And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

In reality Pharaoh had two separate dreams. One concerned cows, and the second dream concerned ears of corn. But both symbolized the same thing. Both were symbols of the famine that was to bring all the world to the feet of Joseph, as a type of the Christ. That principle of “the dream is one” is carried throughout the scriptures, and it is again in play here in the symbolism of this scarlet colored beast with ten horns and ridden by a harlot.
Last week we saw that the angel revealed to John the mystery of the woman and the beast that carried her, and we saw that “the dream is one” and the woman is simply a symbol of our apostate, whorish, religious experience as the beast we are (Ecc 3:18). The beast and the woman who rides on the beast are one.
In like manner these ten horns are not separate from this beast, they too, are part and parcel of this beast and are merely the symbols of his power. They are ten in number because the number ten, symbolizes the perfection of the flesh of our first Adamic nature which worships this fleshly beast.

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

Are God’s elect an exception to this “law of sin in their members”? Absolutely not! We all worship ourselves by nature.

Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Rev 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

The beast is given to “overcome… the saints”. These “kindreds, and tongues, and nations” of this verse of Rev 13:7 over which this beast is given power are the same “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” upon which we are told this great harlot sits, here in Rev 17.

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.

But wait just one minute. Were we not just told that this harlot was sitting on a scarlet colored beast? Yes, indeed. That is exactly what we were told. Once again “the dream is one”, and these waters are this beast on which this great harlot sits.

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.

So what is this woman sitting upon, and who is this woman who sits upon this beast; Or is it waters she is sitting on???
These “kindreds, tongues, and nations” of Rev 13:7, and the “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” or Rev 17:15, are all to be found within one beast, which is destined to become God’s elect with, “ears to hear” (Rev 2:7), and are being ruled over by the harlot we all are at our appointed time, and the inward nations and principalities will all be destroyed by “the brightness of [ our Lord at] His coming.

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin [ this beast with the names of blasphemy upon him] be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let [ withhold], until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Once again, the only way any of this will ever make any sense at all is to remember that John is “in the spirit” (Rev 1:10), and “in the spirit… the dream is one” (Gen 41:25). These horns are an integral part of this beast, just as are the horns of any beast. So long as they are upon the beast, they are the beast. But they are the symbol of his power just as any great bull, whether a cow or a moose is empowered by having his horns.

Amo 6:13 Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?

Take away a bull’s horns, and a female cow with horns will become his superior. It is in the strength of these “ten horns”, that the strength of our flesh is made manifest, and it is in the strength of these ten horns that we must all “make war with the Lamb”.

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.

In Rev 13 we were told “the beast makes war with the saints and overcomes them”, but here in Rev 17, we are told that the Lamb and those who are with Him” overcome the ten horns of our beast. How is that possible? Are these contradictory statements? Or are both possible simply because God’s word “is, was, and will be”, and therefore is always True?

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.

“My words will not pass away”. What does that mean, and how is it possible for the saints to be overcome by the beast in Rev 13, while the beast is overcome by the Lamb and those who are with Him in Rev 17?
Let’s use a common, every day event to demonstrate how the beast can overcome the saints, and later be overcome by the saints.
If I were to tell you that I was going to go to the town of Buford, Georgia, just 12 miles south of my home, today, and then someone told you that they had seen me in Gainesville, Georgia, a larger town about 12 miles north of my house, that same day, would that make me a liar? How utterly absurd! Of course not. I could very easily have been in Buford that morning, and have been spotted in Gainesville later that afternoon, and both would have been true. So it is with the beast conquering all men. “All men, small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” are first conquered and overcome by the beast, before they can then be overcome by the Lamb. Another way of saying this is “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” in “the first Adam”, before they will all be made alive in Christ, “the last Adam”.

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him [ the first Adam, the beast] to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations [ the waters on which the harlot sits, our flesh]

So we are told what is the interpretation of these “kindred tongues and nations” on which the harlot sits.

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.

Again, “the dream is one”, and the symbols of this vision are one. These waters are the “people, and multitude, and nations, and tongues of the “two hundred thousand, thousand” false doctrines which ascend up out of the bottomless pit within us to darken our Sun and our air, and keep us in the darkness which is our false Babylonian doctrines. These waters are this beast on which the woman sits, and over whom she rules with “the bondage of the elements of this world.” These waters and these peoples are all within us submitting to the teachings and doctrines of this great harlot until the appointed time when the beasts we are will rebel against the strength and influence of this harlot. Whenever this woman within us comes into conflict with this beast within us, the brute beast we are will always win that battle, and will hate the hypocrisy of the harlot we also are.

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.

We are all ruled by this great apostate woman before we are granted to throw off her seductive ways and doctrines. But as “newborn babes” we are Christ’s disciples, but we “are yet carnal”, and we will all “hate the whore”, and we will want to “make her desolate and burn her with [ the] fire” of the words of our Lord. We do this as zealous “carnal… babes in Christ”, and in doing so we are “fulfilling the words of our God”, which have prophesied this harlot’s destruction.

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?
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.

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

We are the ‘earth’.

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

This woman is within us as the very “powers and principalities” and as “the rulers of darkness of this world” and as the “kings of the earth” of these verses.

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 [ Greek, the heavens].

These “principalities and powers” against which we wrestle are “the kings of the earth” over whom this woman rules.
Here again, “the dream is one” and “That great city” here in Rev 17: 18 is also “the city wherein our Lord was crucified” within each of us. “That great city… is the woman you saw”, with all of her falsehoods and false doctrines, and “that great city” the power of the work of this woman within us, which causes us all to be guilty of the blood of our own Savior.

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city [ the woman who rides upon our beast], which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations [ the “waters… and the beast” upon which the woman sits] shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

We as God’s own people, are in our own time “spiritually called Sodom and Egypt”. That is exactly what our Lord calls His own people in Isa 1.

Isa 1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

Still speaking to “My people”, our Lord continues His lament:

Isa 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of [ spiritual] Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of [ spiritual] Gomorrah.

Now he tells us who this “great whore” of Rev 17 is.

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

This is what we see as we “look behind us to see the voice that speaks to us” and shows us all this “great and marvelous… revelation of Jesus Christ” within us all. This is all each of us, as the murderers of those the Lord sent to us as Jesus Christ. It is we who He must be slain within. We dare not blame it on anyone else, or our part in the things written therein will be removed from the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Luk 13:33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
Rev 18:21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

Rev 18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

Again, “the dream is one”, and Babylon and Jerusalem are both the symbols of us as Christ’s own people who receive from Him many blessings but cannot hear His words or accept His doctrines.

Joh 8:30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.

The destruction of this great city within us is the loss of our lives, and it is in “that great city Babylon being thrown down” and destroyed within us that we are given life.

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

May our Lord grant that we are all given to “lose our lives for His sake that we may all find our lives”.
Next week, Lord willing, we will begin to see how our Lord is going about His work of destroying “that great city” within each of us, and bring His people out of great Babylon, with all of the evil spirits of false doctrines which occupy that great city.

Rev 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

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