“A false witness shall not be unpunished” Part 3

(Pro 19:21-29)

[Study Aired October 2, 2025]

Pro 19:21  There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.
Pro 19:22  The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar.
Pro 19:23  The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.
Pro 19:24  A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.
Pro 19:25  Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge.
Pro 19:26  He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach.
Pro 19:27  Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.
Pro 19:28  An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.
Pro 19:29  Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.

Christ is the true witness within God’s elect who causes us to stand (Eph 6:10-18, Php 2:12-13), and only Christ can be Christ, and so if we have this unction, this anointing of God, then we are witnesses of these things (Rev 11:3, Luk 24:48) as His power gives us victory over our flesh by little and little (Deu 7:22), making it possible to die daily and see the Lord increase as we decrease (Joh 3:30).

There is no part of these verses (Eph 6:10-18) that do not confirm the fact that we must be actively about our Father’s business, fulfilling His will, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Heb 5:7, Eph 5:30, Joh 4:32, 1Jn 4:17, Heb 13:10), knowing that “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”, and it is God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom that will be obtained by our Father giving us the will to put on the whole armour of God so we can stand (Eph 6:11-18).

We’ve all been false witnesses as described in these verses in the book of John (1Jn 2:1-20), with words that confirm and remind us of what a false witness looks like in this world as well as a true witness, a disciple indeed of God (1Jn 2:1-29). These confirming verses declare God’s faithfulness toward the body of Christ, and they help set the stage for these last few proverbs that will look at in chapter 19.

1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:[false witness] but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever [true witness].
1Jn 2:18  Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; [false witness] whereby we know that it is the last time.
1Jn 2:19  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: [true witness] but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
1Jn 2:20  But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. [true witness]

[John contrasts the true witness of Christ within the elect with those who were false witnesses coming as angels of light but were yet in darkness (2Co 11:14), again more contrast of what is happening in the lives of the true witnesses and the false witnesses of this world, that must be burnt out of us (Php 3:13-21)]

1Jn 2:21  I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
1Jn 2:22  Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. (conversely we read Joh 17:3, Joh 14:20)
1Jn 2:23  Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father:(Joh 17:3) (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
1Jn 2:24  Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.(Joh 17:3)
1Jn 2:25  And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.(Joh 17:3)
1Jn 2:26  These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

Pro 19:21 There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.

God made mankind to have many devices^H4284 in his heart, devices that deceive us into thinking that we have free moral agency when the truth of the matter is “nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand” whether that is light or darkness, peace or evil, the Lord is working it all according to the counsel of His own will, all the devices, the laws, and the vices that flesh is subject unto (Isa 63:17, Isa 45:7, Eph 1:11, Rom 8:28, Eph 1:12, Rom 8:18-21, Jas 4:12).

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,

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

“devices” H4284 machăshâbâh  machăshebeth makh-ash-aw-baw’, makh-ash-eh’-beth
From H2803; a contrivance, that is, (concretely) a texture, machine, or (abstractly) intention, plan (whether bad, a plot; or good, advice): – cunning (work), curious work, device (-sed), imagination, invented, means, purpose, thought.

Pro 19:22 The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar.

God’s love that is shed abroad in our heart (Rom 5:5-8) far exceeds the “kindness” and even sacrificial spirit (Rom 5:7) that He has given mankind to be able to express in this life and so the contrast is drawn with the “poor man” who represents those who are of a poor and contrite spirit formed by God’s love being shed abroad in us (Rom 8:9, Heb 12:6), against those who cannot help but lie to themselves thinking they are responsible for their many wonderful works, their kindnesses to others (Mat 7:22). We unknowingly lie to ourselves until the man of perdition is destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming into our heavens (2Th 2:8), to then be able to give Him all glory for whatever kindness we express in this life, as we go forward in that process dying daily (1Co 15:31, Act 14:22).

We are to be kind and do good unto all men, especially unto the household of faith, and it is only the elect who can truly see that any goodness that is expressed in our lives is from the Father and not of our own, even as Christ told us of himself (Joh 5:30, Mar 10:18).

Mar 10:18  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

Pro 19:23  The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.

This is the whole duty of man, to fear God and work righteousness, “The fear of the LORD tendeth to life” (Isa 41:10 , Act 10:34-35, Ecc 12:13-14), so that we won’t “be visited with evil”. God’s desire has never changed toward His children, “that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ” (Eph 1:12).

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

The fear of the LORD is a gift from God that leads to a lifetime of abiding in the light of God’s word (1Jn 3:3) that satisfies our souls and keeps us from being visited with evil (3Jn 1:2, Joh 4:23-24, Jer 29:11).

1Jn 3:3  And every man that has this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

3Jn 1:2  Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. [If we must it’s because we will as His children (Php 2:13)]

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil [“he shall not be visited with evil”], to give you an expected end.

Pro 19:24  A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.
Pro 19:24 The slothful man buries his hand into the dinner-bowl, Yet he does not bring it back to his mouth.”[CLV]
Pro 19:24  The sluggard burieth his hand in the dish, And will not so much as bring it to his mouth again. [ASV]

The spiritually slothful man is the man of perdition who must be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming into our lives (2Th 2:3-12). We know that Judas is a type of the man of perdition (Mat 26:23) who is within all of mankind who are not able to see the dominion that sin has over us being blinded by the god of this world (2Co 4:4), especially regarding the spirit of self righteousness, that abounds at the end of the age (Mat 24:12), and can only be overcome through Christ alone.

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 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.

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Mat 24:12  And because iniquity (Eze 33:13, Pro 3:5-8) shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

Pro 19:25  Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge.

The scorner within me needs to be smitten so that the singleness that is in Christ can again be understood (2Co 11:3). It is God’s word that is reproving us and rebuking us with all longsuffering (2Ti 4:2, 1Co 9:27, and faithful are the wounds of a friend who reproves us, that friend being Christ in each of us our hope of glory (Col 1:27))

2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity^G572 [singleness] that is in Christ.

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

1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Pro 19:26  He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach.

The prodigal son wasted his father’s inheritance and he represents the elect who, at their appointed time, chase away his mother, meaning we all must lose our first love, and cause shame and bring reproach unto God as the prodigal son did, and then by the brightness of Christ’s coming into our lives when we are at our lowest point, we begin to see the true purpose of all our trials and suffering in this life and how it is all to the glory of God, who will have all men to be saved in time (1Jn 2:2, 1Ti 2:4, 1Co 15:22). This story perfectly illustrates the false witness that we all are at first, that must be destroyed by the humbling experiences that the Lord gives us, to then renew us into something glorious in His service and purpose for all of mankind (Luk 15:13, 18-21).

Luk 15:13  And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

Luk 15:18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
Luk 15:19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
Luk 15:20  And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Luk 15:21  And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

Pro 19:27  Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.

This proverb is another admonition unto the elect to “come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2Co 6:17). When we stop listening to the vain babbling of Babylon (2Pe 2:19), we are no longer going to err or be in bondage from those supposed words of knowledge, that by God’s grace we can now see through (Luk 8:10, Rom 11:25, Eph 4:14, Rom 11:32).

Luk 8:10  And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

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

Eph 4:14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Pro 19:28  An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.

When someone is an ungodly witness they will not be able to bring forth fruit meet unto repentance as we see in these verses (Mat 3:8, Mat 7:18, Joh 15:16).

Mat 3:8  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

Mat 7:18  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

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. [Eph 2:10]

What they do bring forth is a hunger and thirst, “the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity”, to keep the man of perdition on the throne of their hearts, thinking they are the masters of their own destinies, in matters of sin and not sinning, exposing that they are yet a false witness, whose iniquity which is self-righteousness (Eze 33:13, Eze 33:18, Eze 18:26) is in full display keeping the beast on the throne of their hearts and not Christ who rightly belongs there (Mat 7:22).

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? [strong delusion]
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Pro 19:29  Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.

God has devised a means to deal with his banished [all the world] (2Sa 14:14), just as He did with the elect at first, who are the first to trust in God to his glory (Eph 1:12) as we receive the necessary “stripes for the back of fools” which will cause blueness (Pro 20:30) that symbolizes the healing that God’s chastening grace brings (Tit 2:12-13) to those who are blessed in this life to believe and suffer for his name sake (Php 1:29,  Php 3:7-9, Mat 10:22).

2Sa 14:14  For we must needs die (Tit 2:12-13, Joh 12:24), and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him (Rom 11:32).

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

Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Rev 13:3-5 Part 2, Deadly Wound is Healed Forty and Two Months

[Study Aired January 12, 2025]

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?
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.

In this study we will seek to understand the spiritual significance of “forty and two months” which signifies the duration of the healing of our deadly wound and the rebellious actions of our beastly seven-headed beast.

We have established in our studies of the first two verses of this chapter that “the beast” is mankind:

Rev 13:18  This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s [G444: anthropos, mankind’s] number, and his number is 666.

Every man who has ever lived has had this mark, name and number of this beast from birth:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

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.

Lest we misunderstand the fact that this mark is on every man who has ever lived, the holy spirit has seen fit to qualify the meaning of the word ‘all’ with the phrase “both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond”. There has never been a person who was not in one of those categories. “All” of Anthropos, “all” of mankind is marked with this number ‘six’, signifying his incompleted status, because mankind was created on the sixth day along with all the other beasts of the field.

Notice how the Hebrew clarifies how wicked flesh is not the end product of the Creator:

Gen 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them.
Gen 1:28 And blessing them is the Elohim. And saying to them is the Elohim, “Be fruitful and increase and fill the earth, and subdue it. And sway over the fish of the sea, and over the flyer of the heavens, and over the beast, and over all the earth, and over all life moving on the land.
Gen 1:29 And saying is the Elohim, “Behold, I give to you all herbage seeding seed, which is on the surface of the entire earth, and every tree which has in it the fruit of a tree seeding seed. For you it is coming to be for food.
Gen 1:30 And for all land life, and for every flyer of the heavens, and for every moving animal on the land, which has in it a living soul, all green herbage is for food. And coming is it to be so.
Gen 1:31 And seeing is the Elohim all that He had made, and, behold, it is very good. And coming is it to be evening and coming to be morning, the sixth day.

The verbs ‘creating’ and ‘creates’ are both in the Hebrew Qal stem, signifying that these “earthen vessels… of clay” have not yet “entered into His rest” on the seventh day, the number which signifies completion. We are very plainly told that God’s work is completed only on the seventh day:

Gen 2:2  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Gen 2:3  And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

The fourth chapter of Hebrews tells us that we, too, are not complete until we have “entered into His rest [and] ceased from [our] own works”:

Heb 4:1  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Heb 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4  For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Heb 4:5  And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7  Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8  For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that [“believeth” vs 3] is entered [aorist tense] into his rest, he also hath ceased [aorist tense] from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11  Let us labour [aorist tense] therefore to enter [aorist tense] into that rest, lest any man fall [aorist tense] after the same example of unbelief.

In these verses we are admonished both to “fear lest we come short of His rest” (vs 1), and to “labor to enter into that rest” (vs 11).

The point being made in both Genesis 2:2 and here in Hebrews 4:1-11 is that the creation process is not completed on the sixth day. Only “he that believes hath entered into His rest… on the seventh day”.

Gen 2:2  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

All of mankind will in time be completed, but it is not given to the multitudes who believe on Christ in this age to “abide in His Word” and become “disciples indeed” (Joh 8:30-43, Mat 13:10-15).

Joh 8:30  As he spake these words, many believed on him.[received a deadly wound on “one of {their, our} heads”]
Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him [signifying the multitudes of Christians of today],If ye continue [G3306: ‘meno’, abide, vs 35] in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth [G3306: ‘meno’, abide, continue] not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth [G3306: ‘meno, ‘abide, continue (vs 31)]ever.
Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed [vs 39]; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father [You ‘Jews that believe on Me but do not abide in My Word “are of your father the devil”, vs 44].
Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children [vs 37], ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Joh 8:42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word [“It is not given to them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 13:10-15)].
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.

Jews and Christians who “believe on [Christ]” (Joh 8:30-31) have received a “deadly wound” to one of their “seven heads”, and they call themselves His disciples. When these very same Jews and Christians believe on Christ and yet want to kill Him, they are not “disciples indeed”, and do not abide in His Word. These are the multitudes of Jews and Christians who believe on Christ but their “deadly wound is healed.” It is only those who are given the gift of looking behind themselves (Rev 1:10-12) and seeing themselves as “chief of sinners” (1Ti 1:15), and who can confess to being spiritually blind and spiritually having inflicted the wounds of the cross upon their own savior, who have that “deadly wound” re-inflicted upon all seven of the heads of the beast within every one of us who are granted to abide in His Word in this present age.

When we first come to Christ as immature spiritual “carnal babes in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4), that is the spiritual significance of “one of his heads as if it were wounded to death.”

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes [G3516: nepios’, toddler] in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

What is “forty and two months”?

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?
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.

We have already seen that “forty and two months” is the same as “times, a time and half a time”, or “1260 days”. As Joseph told the Pharaoh, “The dream is one.”

Gen 41:17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:
Gen 41:18 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:
Gen 41:19 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness:
Gen 41:20 And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine:
Gen 41:21 And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they [were] still ill favoured, as at the beginning. So I awoke.
Gen 41:22 And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:
Gen 41:23 And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:
Gen 41:24 And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told [this] unto the magicians; but [there was] none that could declare [it] to me.
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 this dream which so troubled Pharaoh, seven cows and seven ears of corn both have the same significance. Both are used to signify seven years of plenty followed by seven years of severe drought. The Lord gave Joseph complete faith in his interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream. Joseph did not appear before Pharaoh in fear of his life. Joseph knew that the Lord had made him to know the meaning of the symbols in Pharaoh’s dream. Just two years earlier Joseph had interpreted the dreams of the Pharaoh’s butler and his baker, and his interpretation proved true within three days:

Gen 40:12  And Joseph said unto him [Pharaoh’s butler], This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days:
Gen 40:13  Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh’s cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.

Gen 40:16  When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head:
Gen 40:17  And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
Gen 40:18  And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
Gen 40:19  Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
Gen 40:20  And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
Gen 40:21  And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand:
Gen 40:22  But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Gen 40:23  Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.

Even the butler’s forgetting Joseph was a work of the Lord for Joseph’s good. It was through the interpreting of Pharaoh’s dream that the Lord made Pharaoh to know that Joseph was the savior of his nation and, in type, the savior of the world:

Gen 41:1  And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.

The same spiritual principles revealed in this story of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams apply to our understanding of the book of Revelation. The same principles Joseph was given to apply to Pharaoh’s dreams are at work throughout scripture and here in the book of Revelation. Whether it is a certain number of years, a certain number of months or a certain number of days, “the dream [or vision] is one [and] God is showing us “things which must shortly come to pass” (Rev 1:1), and “what He is about to do” in our lives (Gen 41:25).

Pharaoh’s butler forgot Joseph, and that was no doubt a trial of Joseph’s faith for two long years in that prison. But the Lord had a way of reminding the butler of what Joseph had done for him, and it was through the opportunity to interpret Pharaoh’s dream that Joseph was taken from prison and placed upon the throne of Egypt. It is in the process of Joseph’s interpreting Pharaoh’s dream that we are blessed to learn the principle of “the dream is one”:

Gen 41:17  And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:
Gen 41:18  And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:
Gen 41:19  And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness:
Gen 41:20  And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine:
Gen 41:21  And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favoured, as at the beginning. So I awoke.
Gen 41:22  And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:
Gen 41:23  And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:
Gen 41:24  And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me.
Gen 41:25  And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

The cows and the corn both “signified” the same thing, and “God hath shown Pharaoh what He is about to do” is exactly how the book of Revelation is introduced to us:

Rev 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
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 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand [For “what… God… is about to do” (Gen 41:25)].

When we are “given a mouth speaking great things and blaspheming” while we are signified as “the Gentiles” we “tread the court of the temple underfoot”, and we “continue [to do so for] forty and two months”. Likewise after we have blasphemed Christ and His temple forty and two months, if we are granted repentance, then we become those against whom the beast does his blaspheming, and as God’s two witnesses we “prophesy [against that blasphemous beast] a thousand two hundred and threescore days”.

Rev 11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. [The same period of time as “a thousand two hundred and sixty days” of the next verse]
Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and] threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. [The same period of time as “forty and two months”]

How do we blaspheme?

This verse tells us that our beast is “given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies”.

Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies…

If this beast is us, then it is we who are given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. But is that true of God’s elect? Do God’s elect really blaspheme?

One way to answer that question is to refer to the four verses we mention so often in these studies. If there is any truth to these four verses, then the answer to our question is yes, God’s elect are indeed blasphemers before they repent of doing so. Here are four verses which prove that God’s elect are blasphemers of God, before they repent and are changed in heart, and begin the process of dying daily and having Christ increase as their old man is destroyed daily by decreasing daily.

1)  Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

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

3) 1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

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

“All things come alike to all… there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked… Man shall… live… by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God… for all things are yours… the world, life, death, things present and things to come, all are yours.”

Are you and I beasts by nature? What say the scriptures?

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

Is it “written in this book” that this beast that we all are is “given… a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies”?  Of course that is exactly what is written here:

Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies…

There it all is. “All things are ours.” We are a beast with “mouth[s] that speak great things and blaspheme” our God. That should and does answer that question for all spiritually honest people. But do we have any scriptural examples of God’s very elect blaspheming? You be the judge. Here is what the scriptures reveal about this subject. It is generally agreed that the apostle Paul is the most prolific writer of the New Testament, and he is certainly one of God’s very elect, and this is what he has to say about his own past:

1Ti 1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
1Ti 1:13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did [it] ignorantly in unbelief.
1Ti 1:14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
1Ti 1:15 This [is] a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1Ti 1:16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

How did Paul blaspheme God? He persecuted God’s elect; he supervised the stoning of Stephen, and went on to do even more damage to the body of Christ by going outside of Israel to Damascus to persecute the body of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. There is not one word of 1Ti 1:12-16 which does not apply to you and to me if we are in Christ. Here is how Saul of Tarsus, who later became the apostle Paul, blasphemed. This is what is in your flesh and in my flesh. This is how we first feel about the truth of God’s Word:

Act 7:58 And cast him [Stephen, God’s elect] out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
Act 7:59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon [God], and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Act 7:60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Act 22:6 And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.
Act 22:7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

So by Christ’s own words we are “Jesus of Nazareth” who is “hated of all men”, and is persecuted by blasphemers. But if any of those four verses quoted above are true, then we must all be signified by Saul of Tarsus before we can become, “Jesus of Nazareth” and we must all be blasphemers before we can be those who glorify God for bringing us out of darkness into the light of His Truth, that “All things come alike to all; all things present and to come are ours, and it is we who keep the things written in this book”, including this 5th verse of Revelation 13.

Summary

Let’s review what we have seen as revealed in God’s Words here in Revelation 13:3-5.

We were reminded of these three things:

1) “Blessed is he that reads, hears, and keeps the things which are written” in these three verses as well as all the other “prophecies of this book” (Rev 1:3 and 22:7).
2) This chapter, the previous chapter, and the next two chapters, are all part of a long introduction to the revelation of what is the seventh trumpet, which is revealed in Revelation 16, as the pouring out of the seven last plagues upon all of our “ungodliness and unrighteousness” (Rom 1:18).
3) The last thing we need to remember is that it is the working of the Lord Himself to give the beast within us a deadly wound, and it is also the working of the Lord via evil spirits, to heal that deadly wound, and to cause us to “worship the beast”.

We have seen that the beast of this chapter is us as the first Adam, with seven symbolic heads and ten symbolic horns.

We have learned that this beast, according to Ecc 3:18, is all mankind who are “in Adam”, including you and me.

We have learned that we, as this beast, receive a deadly wound when we are first dragged to Christ by God’s own working. We also saw that, like ancient Israel, we received our deadly wound to our beast within by crying out to God for deliverance and being carried out of Egypt “on eagles’ wings. We have learned that Israel typifies us as we cry out to God to be delivered from the sins of this world (1Co 10:6 and 11).

We saw how this wound is inflicted, and what we saw was that it is inflicted and can only be inflicted by the words of fire out of the mouth of Christ and His Christ. What we learned is that these fiery words are also known in scripture as a sharp two-edged sword, and we saw that later in this same 13th chapter we are told that this wound was inflicted “by a sword”.

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.

We have seen that Christ taught that it is only via obedience to God that we become His children:

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;
Mat 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

We also saw that it is by doing the deeds of “our father the devil” that we worship the dragon and become his children.

Joh 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Joh 8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

We have seen that none of us can hear Christ’s Words when we first are given them in parables which signify the mysteries and secrets of the kingdom of God within us.

We have seen again the dual application of forty and two months, as the time we spend, first blaspheming God and treading down the court without the temple, before we become the Lord’s two witnesses who bear witness against our old man for this same “forty and two months” period of time.

Finally, we have seen that like the apostle Paul, you and I are one and all, first blasphemers of God’s elect and of His Words which are in the mouths of God’s elect, before we become His witnesses of these things. We “live by every word…”

Next week, Lord willing, we will see that the works of Saul of Tarsus against the body of Christ of his day, is a type of the treatment which we receive from the Christian world of today who “cannot hear Christ’s words”. We will learn what it means to blaspheme God, His name and His tabernacle. We will learn how it is scripturally possible to be overcome by the beast in war, worship the beast, not have our names written in the book of life, and still be able to say that we are God’s elect.

Here are next week’s verses:

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.
Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.

Conscience – A Witnessing Conscience, Part 11

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost (Rom 9:1 – Paul reflecting Christ’s dedication to his Elect)

[Study Aired January 13, 2024]

The first instance in scripture where the term “witness” is used is the treaty between Abimelech, the king of Gerar, and his chief captain, Phichol (Phon – pee-kole’) and Abraham regarding a dispute over a well of water for their competitive flocks. Abimelech had unwittingly also previously taken Sarah, Abraham’s wife, for his own, and subsequently, the Lord cursed all the women of Abimelech’s household barren. Upon Abraham praying for Abimelech’s women to be healed, Abimelech knew (by his conscience) that he was dealing with an unusually powerful man connected to God. Now, the dispute over a well’s mutual usage was solved by a contract sealed by Abraham and Abimelech, providing seven ewe lambs as a witness between Abimelech and Abraham. Abimelech’s conscience would have been greatly amplified to not breach the contract since he knew that he was dealing with a man of God. As such, a powerful “witnessing conscience” is made evident.

Gen 21:29  And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? 

The number seven always represents the completion of a process, especially judgment. If the contract between Abraham and Abimelech was broken by either party, that person’s conscience, as was Adam and Eve’s, would have soundly indicted him ~ unless, of course, he had a seared conscience from repeatedly voiding his conscience.

Gen 21:30  And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness [H5713] unto me, that I have digged this well. 
Gen 21:31  Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them. 
Gen 21:32  Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines. 
Gen 21:33  And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
Gen 21:34  And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines’ land many days. 

As with all other nuances of our conscience, a “witnessing conscience” in scripture, too, is hidden by inference and, for the most part, only spiritually observed.

What has Abraham’s and Abimelech’s “witness” got to do with either party’s conscience? Suppose the contract was to be broken by either partner. In that case, the Lord’s inherently-etched guilty conscience genetically inherent in all men that first plagued Adam and Eve immediately strikes the contractual hearts, identified as their conscience.

Witness H5713
– Transliteration: `edah
– Phonetic: ay-daw’
– Definition:
testimony, witness – always plural and always of laws as divine testimonies

Strong’s: Feminine of H5707 in its technical sense; testimony: – testimony witness. Compare H5712. [Witness and Testimony come from the same root meaning] ~ Testimony– Transliteration: `edah

– Phonetic: ay-daw’
– Definition:
congregation, gathering

We can see that Abraham’s and Abimelech’s testimonial settled a dispute with an agreed contract, a testament that soundly locked the two in sober agreement.

As we are well aware, the number two is “witness”, and the very first witnessing agreement was between the Father and Son on the creation and its aim for the creation of God (Rev 3:14, Joh 10:34). The Godhead didn’t need to draw up an agreement since sin was utterly foreign to their perfect unity of spirit and unthinkability of voiding a contract.

The Godhead’s decision to create man happened before the creation of physical light, contrasting something new called darkness, and was all done beforehand by the Son in perfect unity of agreement with the Father.

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 
Col 1:14  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 
Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 
Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

The Father and Son didn’t have a dichotomy of conscience since they eternally existed in the perfect state of unity in being God. The contrast of a pure conscience became starkly evident by Adam and Eve’s design to go against the Lord’s word to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Subsequently, sin entered the creation with the many nuances of an evil conscience and all witnessing against them long before the term “witness” was written in scripture.

Bearing false witness is a witness against the purveyor himself and is the breaking of the ninth commandment. The most notable third witness in any broken contract is God since we not only violate our neighbor but, most imminently, God, the holy spirit.

Exo 20:16  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 

Two of the most devastating results of one’s conscience witnessing against them were the account of Ananias’ and Sapphira’s lying conscience “witnessing against” the holy spirit and also King David’s attempt to hide his sin with Bathsheba as it does on any occasion we lie to God. In both of those events, beginning with Adam and Eve, we absurdly love the torture of prolonging darkness when we plainly know that swift acknowledgement of sin provides instant peace through forgiveness.

Joh 3:19  And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil. 
Joh 3:20  Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 
Joh 3:21  But whoever practices the truth [being instant in prayer when you see the evil approaching!] comes into the Light, so that it may be seen clearly that what he has done has been accomplished in God.”

For our immense understanding and hopeful escape from the torture of our consciences witnessing against us, Ananias and Sapphira weren’t blessed with the time to deliberate their consciences witnessing against them for repentance.

Act 5:1  Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.
Act 5:2  With his wife’s full knowledge, he kept back some of the proceeds for himself, but brought a portion and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Act 5:3  Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and withhold some of the proceeds from the land? [and thus evoking the inescapable devastation of a witnessing conscience].
Act 5:4  Did it not belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How could you conceive such a deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God!”
Act 5:5  On hearing these words, Ananias fell down and died [… just like that without the time to give an account and repent!]. And great fear came over all who heard what had happened.
Act 5:6  Then the young men stepped forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. 
Act 5:7  About three hours later his wife also came in, unaware of what had happened. 
Act 5:8  “Tell me,” said Peter, “is this the price you and your husband got for the land?” “Yes,” she answered, “that is the price.”
Act 5:9  “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Peter replied. “Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
Act 5:10  At that instant she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 
Act 5:11  And great fear came over the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Fear comes when our conscience witnesses against us when we, as the Bride, the Church, remember our tardiness in denying our Lord’s marital dues of not arousing Him. Sometimes, as a residue of Eve’s curse, we subconsciously fear His delight in the righteousness He induces in us, His Wife, as always our friend Queen Vashti, our chief whipping post against our consciences, classically depicts.

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

1Jn 4:18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love [because our conscience witnesses against us].

For our glorious benefit King David was oblivious to his near-death experience and devastatingly witnessing conscience that spiritually killed him.

2Sa 12:1  Then the LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he arrived, he said, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. 
2Sa 12:2  The rich man had a great number of sheep and cattle, [Spiritually you and I today and particularly before we came to Christ’s truth while we held His truth in error].
2Sa 12:3  but the poor man [Christ. Mat 5:3-12. 1Co 1:27, Psa 8:2, Isa 26:5-6] had nothing except one small ewe lamb [His Bride to be sacrificed with Christ for the world] that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms and was like a daughter to him [Reminisent of Jephthah’s (Phonetic: yif-tawkh. Jud 11:29-40) only child, his daughter dedicated as a virginal living sacrifice to the Lord, the Bride of Christ].
2Sa 12:4  Now a traveler [Job 1:7 “… from where have you come?” Satan our first father] came to the rich man [Us in our time], who refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for his guest.” [The blood of the Saints – Rev 16:4-6. Woman drunk with the blood of the Saints Rev 17:1-6]
2Sa 12:5  David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 
2Sa 12:6  Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.” 
2Sa 12:7  Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 
2Sa 12:8  I gave your master’s house to you and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that was not enough, I would have given you even more.
2Sa 12:9  Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites. 
2Sa 12:10  Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ 
2Sa 12:11  This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight. 
2Sa 12:12  You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.'” 
2Sa 12:13  Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.
2Sa 12:14  Nevertheless, because by this deed you have shown utter contempt for the word of the LORD, the son born to you [Symbolically, Christ] will surely die.”

It does not advance the kingdom of God within for the Bride of Christ to beat herself up in remembrance of forgiven past sins. Yet King David’s conscience, as from time to time is ours, remains a passive witness (having put our sins behind us) against us to remind us to see the evil approaching and to swiftly resist the Devil by asking Christ for His spiritual strength. We thus avoid having our consciences witness against us.

The Bride of Christ is first to be given to go before her sisters remaining in Babylon to take very seriously to sacrifice her entire Body to her Husband and not withhold her land as figuratively Ananias and his wife Sapphira did. 

The final and overarching event of a conscience that witnesses against a person is every man’s conscience since Adam in the Resurrection to Judgment. When the books of every man’s life are opened before Christ and His Christs, condemnation through judgment will immutably convict every man’s conscience as a witness against him when he undoubtedly accuses and excuses himself in anguished cries before his Lord, only to be cast into outer darkness. Of course, it is all prestaged to witness against the world so that all are found to be liars as were Ananias and Sapphira and us.

There are 69 matches of the term “witness against” in scripture, and now, armed with hopeful spiritual inspiration, I encourage you to look up that term in e-Sword. 

To conclude this study, the following is a reflection upon the most fearful and humiliating experience the would-be Elect of God could experience. Common to us all as Christ’s Wife, and particularly myself, is her lamentable condition of temporarily defaulting to being a Vashti and not coming to our Lord when He bids us a hundred times a day to reflect His righteous glory (Est 1:10-22). Should we get to the point that He ‘spews us out of His mouth’ for our sour, lying kisses (Pro 27:6), the spectre of the Lake of Fire flickers on our faces and burns our hearts in witness against us.

Heb 10:26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 
Heb 10:27  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 
Heb 10:28  He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 
Heb 10:29  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace?

Suppose that “sorer punishment” of being cast into the Lake of Fire sarcastically blesses us; then imagine all those witnesses, our former Babylonian friends, family and people we happen to chance upon in life where we failed to be an ambassador for Christ and them, now next to us in the Lake of Fire silently witnessing in their hearts against us.

Lam 2:13  What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee? 
Lam 2:14  Thy prophets [We, if we fail to delight in our Lord’s greater delight in us] have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. 
Lam 2:15  All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem [now beside the rest of humanity in the Lake of Fire], saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? 

[Zep 2:15  This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.]

Lam 2:16  All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it. 

Previously, I said that our brothers in the Lake of Fire are “silently witnessing in their hearts against us”, meaning that they will, with relatively equal anguish, know that they, too, are the lesser guilty, nonetheless, just as guilty. The entire world and our once brothers of the same spirit, the Christs will gaze upon us.

Lam 2:17  The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.
Lam 2:18  Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

Let us run forward in the strength of our Lord, our husband and Saviour of the Body and not give wry pride to our brothers in the Lake of Fire, any short-term glee over any failure of us to deny Christ and to climb upon the beautiful City we are and be a witness against us.

We were the “little sister” who is growing into the full-blown glory that Jephthah’s [Phonetic: yif-tawkh] virginal daughter depicted as the Bride of Christ, sacrificed today in harmony with Christ for the sins of the world.

Son 8:8  We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?
Son 8:9  If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar. 
Son 8:10  I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.

Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate [Bride of Christ will…] hath many more children than she [harlot churches] which hath an husband [unwittingly, Satan masquerading as another Jesus]. 

It is a wonderful thing to have our Lord witness against us today while it is yet light (Joh 12:35-40).

Mal 2:1-17  And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you (Going from a corrupt seed to a holy seed!)

[Study Aired December 28, 2023]

Mal 2:1  And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. 
Mal 2:2  If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
Mal 2:3  Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
Mal 2:4  And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
Mal 2:5  My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. 
Mal 2:6  The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. 
Mal 2:7  For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. 
Mal 2:8  But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts. 
Mal 2:9  Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law. 
Mal 2:10  Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? 
Mal 2:11  Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 
Mal 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts. 
Mal 2:13  And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. 
Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. 
Mal 2:15  And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 
Mal 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. 
Mal 2:17  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment? 

We spent two studies with chapter one of Malachi which points to a type and shadow event that represented the yet carnal mind of Christians who could not as yet whole-heartedly present their bodies a living^G2198 sacrifice acceptable to Him through Christ. The nation of Judah was going through the motions, but their devotion to God was lacking and being exposed by the wanting display of blind, lame, and torn animals that were being offered for sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2, Eph 1:6, Mal 3:10). 

In this second chapter of Malachi, the focus is more on the priests, as stated in the first verse “And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.” The commandment is for the priests who represent the ministers of Babylon today who are not able to lay the commandments of God to heart, and contribute to the contemptible way in which the people have brought their blind, lame and torn animal sacrifices to the altar (Isa 9:15-16). The elect are typified as coming out from these priests and people in the persons of Levi (Mat 20:16). God has ordained from the foundation of the world for a royal priesthood (1Pe 2:9-11) to “come out of her, my people” through judgment (1Pe 4:17, 1Jn 4:17, Heb 12:6), to be made kings and priests by His great power (Rev 1:6).

Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. 
Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.

1Pe 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 
1Pe 2:10  Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy [Rom 11:30-32].
1Pe 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 

Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen [Rev 5:10].

The remnant spoken of in this section of Malachi, “Yet had he the residue^H7605 of the spirit” (Mal 2:15), are the typical remnant of God (Rom 11:5) which represents those who have been granted to live by the faith of the son of God in this life that saves us (Gal 2:20, 1Jn 5:4). 

residue H7605 she‘âr  sheh-awr’  From H7604; a remainder: –  X other, remnant, residue, rest.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me [Php 2:12-13]: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God [1Jn 5:4], who loved me, and gave himself for me.

These words, “And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts” (Mal 2:4) are an old covenant type and shadow statement that is declaring that God has a remnant [Levi – the elect]  that He is going to use to save all Israel [all the world] in time. In this section of Malachi we are learning how the people cannot obey the commandments of God because God has not put in their hearts and minds his law as he typically was doing in the life of Levi who represents the elect of God in this case (Rom 11:26-27).

The priests continue to be admonished for leading the people astray and corrupting the covenant relationship with Levi in the following verses (Mal 2:8-11), especially regarding Judah who has “profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.” Those daughters represent “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” and her daughters that have deceived the whole world (Rev 17:5).

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

The remaining verses of Malachi (Mal 2:12-17) go on to explain the curse that the whole earth is under and reminds Judah, as a type of the Christian religious world today, how they have despised the covenant of Levi, which covenant represents our first love with Christ which over time is corrupted and dealt treacherously with and lost (Rev 2:4-5). 

Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5  Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

It is very few who see God’s modus operandi which is to give all of humanity a heart that is not able to lay to heart the commandments of God (Rom 3:10, Rom 7:14, Rom 10:4), even losing our first love. Then out of those masses ( the many called) a few come to have those commandments written on their hearts (Mat 22:14), who few in turn will witness against those who were not dragged out of Babylon in this age, all summed up with the words in these verses found in Malachi 2:4 and Romans 11:11-12.

Mal 2:4  And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

Rom 11:11  I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
Rom 11:12  Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?

Mal 2:1  And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. 
Mal 2:2  If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

This commandment is for the priests, so it is for the body of Christ as well as for the ministers of this world. Its effectiveness on the ears who are hearing the commandment is completely dependent on whether God gives us spiritual ears to hear or not hear the command (Luk 10:24, Mat 11:25, Mat 13:16).

Luk 10:24  For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Mat 11:25  At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

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

These verses reveal that God is not holding out any hope for the nation of Israel or Judah to give “glory unto my name”, but rather we are being told that God already knows the condition of the heart of mankind, just as He did Adam and Eve in the garden. So, this is what is written, “I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart“ (dying you shall die – Gen2:17)

Gen 2:17  but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you may not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, dying you shall die. [LITV]

Mal 2:3  Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

None of this is going to be averted. God has promised that the first seed of the woman is going to be corrupt (Gen 3:15) and that we are going to be carried away into Babylonian captivity by way of the traditions of men “and one shall take you away with it.“

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Mat 15:9  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Paul looked back and considered his captivity under the law for the lawless (1Ti 1:9-14) as part of the loss of all things he talked about, and as dung in comparison with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, or the law of Christ (Gal 6:2). Like dung, the law if used correctly (1Ti 1:8) is like fertilizer, the schoolmaster God used to bring about all the growth and zealous works that were accomplished through apostle Paul when the time came for those to become a reality (Php 3:8, Gal 4:1-2, Gal 3:23-24). 

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 
1Ti 1:10  For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; 
1Ti 1:11  According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. 

Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. [“under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father“]
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 

The nation of Judah was not using the law lawfully, and God is the one who worked all of those actions of the nation and administered the punishment for their disobedient hearts expressed in these words: “Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.” Once again we see God causing the nation to err and then correcting them. This was all according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), which was all written for our sakes (1Co 10:11) to learn how God works with our own hearts and minds as His workmanship that goes from being marred in the hand of the Potter to becoming something new and glorious “as seemed good to the potter to make it.” (Isa 63:17, Rom 9:19-21, Eph 2:10, Jer 18:4-6).

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 

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. 

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

Mal 2:4  And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts. 

God sends His commandments to us as He did to Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, knowing that we will not be able to keep those commandments. He also, at the appointed time, gives us the ability to keep that commandment and reveals those who can’t by heresies that are made manifest so we can discern who is approved in our midst through their disobedience (1Co 11:19). The world will understand in time that God’s covenant was with the elect who were predestined to fulfill God’s purpose in this life (Eph 1:11-12) which is what “ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi” means.

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. [2Co 1:9, 1Co 15:31]

Mal 2:5  My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. 
Mal 2:6  The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. 
Mal 2:7  For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. 

These next verses typify for us the covenant relationship God has with the elect today, and it all points to the life of Christ within us that gives us “life and peace” (Joh 6:63, Php 4:7) along with the proper fear wherewith we fear him and tremble at His words because we know that those words are “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom 1:16, Luk 12:5).

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.

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

God’s indwelling spirit within the body of Christ (Rom 8:9) makes it possible for all of these things listed in verse 6 to be a reality just as they were with Christ when He walked on this earth (1Jn 4:17).

1: The law of truth was in his mouth 
2: Iniquity was not found in his lips 
3: He walked with me in peace and equity 
4: Did turn many away from iniquity 

In order for these four points to become a reality, we are then told, “For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts” (verse 7), meaning all of this is being obtained through Christ who is our sufficiency in this life, to whom our heavenly Father is dragging us (2Co 3:5, Joh 6:44) making it possible for us to keep knowledge (Rev 1:3), as He blesses us with the hunger and thirst to “seek the law at his mouth” (Mat 5:6, Heb 11:6,  Col 1:29); and all of this telling us that the “messenger of the LORD of hosts” is blessed to come in His name (Psa 118:26) to perform these actions of righteousness through Him who is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, which is to give us the kingdom (Php 2:12-13, Luk 12:32). “Levi” here typifies those who are coming in the name of the Lord as His messengers with the true gospel of Jesus Christ that brings us to worship our Father in spirit and in truth (Joh4:24).

Heb 11:6  But without faith it is [1Jn 5:4] 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.

Psa 118:26  Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD. 
Psa 118:27  God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. 

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

Mal 2:8  But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.
Mal 2:9  Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

Corrupting “the covenant of Levi” by being “partial in the law” is what is in review here, and the lesson for the body of Christ is that when we depart “out of the way” we can cause others to “stumble at the law” (Heb 12:14-17).  The law in question is speaking about the old covenant laws which represent a type and shadow admonition for the elect of God today to not depart from the law of Christ “out of the way” and from the obedience to God’s commandments (1Jn 5:2-3).

Heb 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 
Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 
Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

Whatever we sow we are going to reap, knowing it is God who causes us to corrupt “the covenant of Levi.” This departing from the way by the nation of Judah typifies for us how we lose our first love and expresses how Babylon has caused “many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi.” The many who stumble at the law are the many called, and out of those many God calls a few to repent of our iniquities and sins and overcome through Christ (Rom 8:26-28). It is all of the Lord and demonstrates His sovereignty over the vessels of clay to make one unto honor and one unto dishonor as He determines and for His purposes (Rom 9:20-24).

Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 
Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 
Rom 9:24  Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Mal 2:10  Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? 
Mal 2:11  Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 
Mal 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts. 

“Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?”

Of course the answer to this rhetorical question is that we do have one father and that we do “deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers.” God has made us that way, marred in the hand of the Potter to be made something anew in His perfect time and order, each man in his own order (1Co 15:23-24). The marred clay is also referred to as the “same lump” and God purges, chastens and scourges His children in this age so that they can become a “new lump” that comes out of the old lump  (Rom 9:21, 1Co 5:7, 2Co 5:17, Heb 12:6).

Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 

1Co 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 

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

The whole world is deceived by Satan (2Co 4:4, Rev 12:9), and in that regard we also all start off with one father in the negative sense of a father (Joh 8:44), to whom we are unknowingly subject as the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2, Rom 6:16).

It is Judah who has dealt treacherously, where an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem that represent God’s people. That abomination spoken of typifies the abomination of desolation within the temple of God that we are (Mar 13:14, 1Co 3:13), which must be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming (2Th 2:2-4) if we are going to overcome the beast who wants to rule in that temple and sit on the throne of our heart that belongs to Christ himself. “Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.” The initial union we have with the false doctrines of Babylon is represented by “the daughter of a strange god” whom we have married, and whom God calls us out of if He is working with us in this age (Rev 18:4).

Mar 13:14  But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains: 

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. 

The way that, “The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts” [as a man who offers these things in the condition of one who “hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved and hath married the daughter of a strange god”]  is by having men trust in their own righteousness, which is what the wisdom of man produces through the master and the scholar, rather than trusting in God’s power that can only come from Him via the faith of Christ “the righteousness which is of God by faith” (1Co 2:5, Luk 18:9, Php 3:9).

1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 
1Co 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 

Luk 18:9  And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 

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

Mal 2:13  And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. 
Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. 

God is continually showing us who we are through these old covenant examples and how it is impossible to change the spots of the leopard unless the Lord intervenes and does so (Jer 13:23). Esau, who represents our flesh that must be put off, sought the Lord with bitter tears, “covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.” Esau’s heart was not changed, and God knew this about him just as He did with the nation of Judah, and reminded the nation, “yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant“, meaning this “wife” represents a covenant that you were not able to keep, and you were together with her in name only and not in spirit, typifying Christianity today (Isa 4:1).

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. 

The nation of Judah had the same question in mind as Esau when they were being tried by the Lord, “Yet ye say, Wherefore?”  God is showing us who we are (that we are beasts), and this evil experience is a witness God gives us through which we must go in order to be brought to our wits’ end and acknowledge that reality of our existence “Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.” It is only when we miraculously take heed to that witness that we ‘come out of her my people’, as the Lord drags us to Christ through His power (Joh 6:44, Joh 8:36)

Where we fall short is in the most important and treasured relationship we have in the earth, with the wife of our youth [that represents our covenant relationship with Christ], and the Lord uses that failed relationship to show us that we are incapable of being anything other than the basest of beasts, which we are without His mercy being shown to us that leads us to repentance (Rom 2:4), changing us from within. He knows the end result of our falling seven times in the wilderness will one day lead to all the world being reconciled to Him, and how blessed we are today then, to know that He calls us friend (Joh 15:14-15). We are His companion, we are “the wife of thy covenant” if Christ is our head and we are obeying His commandments.

Joh 15:14  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 
Joh 15:15  Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

Mal 2:15  And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 
Mal 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. 
Mal 2:17  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

God did make one lump (Rom 9:21), and out of that same lump He purposed from the foundation of the world to have a remnant, a kind of firstfruits to be saved first “Yet had he the residue of the spirit.” So the question is asked, “Why one lump?” The answer is “That he might seek a godly seed” that holy seed (Gal 3:16) being the means by which He would redeem all his banished in this life, all humanity (2Sa 14:14). 

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

What are we to do now as the body of Christ while we tarry and wait for our Lord’s return is answered with these words, “Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.” This wife of our youth represents our new covenant relationship we have as the wife of Christ, and we are being warned to judge ourselves, and keep under ourselves, as the body of Christ with these words, “For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, [our garment, our own righteousness excusing our bad behavior] saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously” (Heb 12:15, Eph 4:31, 1Pe 4:17-18). 

Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

If we don’t do this, we will be cut off (Rom 11:20-21), and yes, God hates “putting away.” However, if we are granted to “take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously“, then we will not have to be cut off. The last verse expresses the fruit of our losing our first love, which spirit wearies the Lord and must be repented of. It’s not someone else. It’s the beast I see in the mirror every morning who has the potential to do what is written here, “Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?“

This phrase “Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?” is an expression of that Laodicean spirit God hates and will spew out of His mouth, when we call light dark and dark light, leaning to our own understanding and thinking that we won’t reap what we sow. In doing so we forget that we are to seek his judgments against our hearts every day as we die daily (Psa 139:23-24, Rev 3:18, 1Co 11:31, Heb 12:15).

Psa 139:23  Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 
Psa 139:24  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire [1Pe 4:19], that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 

The Lord can keep us, but it will only be through His judgements that are upon us that we will continue to be able to hold fast to the crown of righteousness (Rev 3:18) that is being forged through Christ who is going to make the bride ready (Rev 19:7). This is the covenant relationship Christ has with His bride, and it will not fail (Rev 3:11-12, Mat 24:24, Mat 16:18).

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

Rev 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. 

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

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

Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, [Rom 8:36-39] they shall deceive the very elect.

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

Acts 26:1-32 Almost Thou Persuadest Me to Become a Christian

[Study Aired October 8, 2023]

Act 26:1  Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself:
Act 26:2  I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews:
Act 26:3  Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.
Act 26:4  My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews;
Act 26:5  Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
Act 26:6  And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:
Act 26:7  Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.
Act 26:8  Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?
Act 26:9  I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Act 26:10  Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
Act 26:11  And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.
Act 26:12  Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
Act 26:13  At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.
Act 26:14  And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Act 26:15  And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
Act 26:16  But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;
Act 26:17  Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,
Act 26:18  To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
Act 26:19  Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:
Act 26:20  But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.
Act 26:21  For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me.
Act 26:22  Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
Act 26:23  That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.
Act 26:24  And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.
Act 26:25  But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.
Act 26:26  For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.
Act 26:27  King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.
Act 26:28  Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
Act 26:29  And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.
Act 26:30  And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them:
Act 26:31  And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds.
Act 26:32  Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar.

In our last study, King Agrippa and Bernice had come down to Caesarea to congratulate Festus on his replacing Felix as governor of Judea. Agrippa is the son of Herod who killed James the brother of John. After a few days of visiting, Festus told King Agrippa about his prisoner, Paul, and how Paul was so hated by the Jewish rulers in Jerusalem.

Here is where we left off in our last study:

Act 25:22  Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. To morrow, said he, thou shalt hear him.
Act 25:23  And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus’ commandment Paul was brought forth.
Act 25:24  And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem, and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.
Act 25:25  But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself hath appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him.
Act 25:26  Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my lord. Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and specially before thee, O king Agrippa, that, after examination had, I might have somewhat to write.
Act 25:27  For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.

Paul has spent his entire life, since his conversion, preaching in the synagogues to both the Jews and the Gentiles. He was rejected by the Jews in every city. However, there was always a remnant who were given to  accept the gospel, and Paul was always ready to move on to the next city when he was forced to do so, just as the Lord had instructed:

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

Paul is now a Roman prisoner. He can no longer “flee… into another… city”. Now the holy spirit has arranged for him to witness to the political leaders of this age. In a relatively short period of time, he has been given the privilege of witnessing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Jewish Sanhedrin twice. He has witnessed to Felix and then to Felix and his wife Drucilla. Then he was able witness to Festus when the high priest and the elders of Jerusalem falsely accused him again. In this 26^th chapter, he is given the blessing of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and the story of how he was dragged to Christ with King Agrippa and Bernice, as well as all the leaders of the city of Caesarea.

Here is how the Lord set King Agrippa and Bernice up to hear Paul’s witness for Christ:

Act 25:13  And after certain days king Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus.
Act 25:14  And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul’s cause unto the king, saying, There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix:
Act 25:15  About whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him.
Act 25:16  To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.
Act 25:17  Therefore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat, and commanded the man to be brought forth.
Act 25:18  Against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed:
Act 25:19  But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
Act 25:20  And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters.
Act 25:21  But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar.
Act 25:22  Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. To morrow, said he, thou shalt hear him.
Act 25:23  And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus’ commandment Paul was brought forth.
Act 25:24  And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem, and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.
Act 25:25  But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself hath appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him.
Act 25:26  Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my lord. Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and specially before thee, O king Agrippa, that, after examination had, I might have somewhat to write.
Act 25:27  For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.

When Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, Festus brings Paul in and introduces him to King Agrippa and Bernice and all the principal men of Caesarea. Festus acknowledges that Paul has done nothing worthy of death, and he is hoping King Agrippa, being a Jew, can help him explain to Augustus Caesar why Paul is being sent to him. Paul is excited and happy to share the gospel with King Agrippa and Bernice in the presence of the governor of Judea, Festus, and all the principal men of Caesarea, the Roman capital of the province of Judea.

Act 26:1  Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself:
Act 26:2  I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews:
Act 26:3  Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.
Act 26:4  My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews;

Paul was born in Tarsus, the capital of the province of Cilicia, but he tells us here that “from [his] youth, which was… at Jerusalem.” This is what he told the multitude which was trying to kill him when he was first rescued by Lysias the chief captain in Jerusalem:

Act 22:3  I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.

Gamaliel is the highly respected Rabbi who counseled the Sanhedrin against doing any harm to the apostles who had just healed all the sick who came to them just before they were cast into prison by the high priest and the Sadducees, but were delivered by an angel that very night and were found teaching in the temple. Gamaliel was given to acknowledge that what the apostles were doing was an apparent work of God, and if it were not, it would come to nothing of itself. Paul tells us he was brought up at this rabbi’s feet, but as ‘Saul of Tarsus’ he witnessed the growth of the Christian church and hated being accused of killing the Son of God.

Act 5:29  Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
Act 5:30  The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
Act 5:31  Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
Act 5:32  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
Act 5:33  When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.

Stephen made the same accusations, and they stoned him under the supervision of Saul of Tarsus:

Act 7:51  Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Act 7:52  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
Act 7:53  Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Act 7:54  When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

Saul of Tarsus went on from the stoning of Stephen to become the most vicious opponent of Christ with the blessing of the chief priest and elders at Jerusalem. Then suddenly, literally “out of the blue” their most ardent soldier and opponent of Christianity is now with equal ardor proclaiming that this Jesus whom the apostles claimed was risen from the dead had indeed appeared to him while on the road to Damascus, a city outside of Israel. Saul was traveling to Damascus for the purpose of bringing anyone who believed in Jesus back to Jerusalem to be punished for their heresy. Christ had appeared as brighter than the sun and had blinded him for three days, after which he was commissioned to witness for Christ to both the Jews and the Gentiles.

This chapter of Acts is the account of how the Lord has privileged His apostle to witness to the leaders of the world about how Saul of Tarsus has been dragged to Israel’s Messiah and given a commission which he must fulfill to take the message of Jesus to both the Jews and the Gentiles. Just as the Lord has revealed Himself to each of us, the Lord has worked everything in a way that, as Paul tells King Agrippa, if the leaders of the church would be honest with themselves, they would have to admit their own culpability in the rejection of the Lord and His doctrines:

Act 26:5  Which [vs 4: “all the leading Jews” at Jerusalem] knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
Act 26:6  And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:
Act 26:7  Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.

Because there is a wide spread doctrine which teaches that the ten northern tribes of Israel were “lost” and ended up in western Europe and the United states, Canada and Australia, we need to take note that Paul says to King Agrippa… “our twelve tribes…” The book of James is also addressed to “the twelve tribes scattered abroad”.

Jas 1:1  James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

There is no denying the Jews were “scattered abroad”, but they certainly were not “lost”, and they certainly are not ethnic Europeans as that widely believed false doctrine affirms!

Act 26:8  Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?
Act 26:9  I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Act 26:10  Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
Act 26:11  And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

Paul just told us that he had imprisoned and had “many of the saints” imprisoned and killed in Jerusalem before he went to Damascus.

The Greek word translated as ‘strange’ in verse 11 is the word ‘exo.’  It means ‘out of.’ It is the root of our English word ‘exit’ and our English word ‘exodus’, the title of the second book of the Bible relating the events surrounding Israel coming ‘out of’ Egypt. What Paul is telling King Agrippa is that he was so zealous for the law of Moses, including the commandment to ‘hate thine enemies’, that he was going ‘out of’ Israel in pursuit of the Christians whom he considered to be heretics and thereby his enemies. Then suddenly he was stopped in his tracks just before he arrived at Damascus:

Act 26:12  Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
Act 26:13  At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.
Act 26:14  And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

For anyone who would say that what Paul tells us here contradicts what he told the people at the palace when he was taken captive, we need to remember that unless something is qualified, there is no contradiction.  Let’s look at the two times Paul gave his account of meeting Christ on the road to Damascus before speaking to the people here at the judgment hall in Caesarea.

Act 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

Act 22:6  And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.

As always, we must never be guilty of limiting the Word of God unless the scriptures themselves qualify or limit what is being said. Neither in Acts 9:3 nor in Acts 22:6 is it stated that this light from heaven shined ‘round about him only.’ There is also no such qualification in Acts 22:6 saying it was ‘round about me only.’ Therefore, when Paul includes “and them which journeyed with me”, the addition of that detail in no way contradicts the fact that the light did indeed shine about Paul also.

When there are words which do qualify what is said, words like ‘before… afterward… and only’ then we had better pay close attention to what the Lord has said. We were “called in Christ before the world began” (2Ti 1:9; Tit 1:2). All in Adam will be made alive, but Christ is first, and “afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1Co 15:23); God gave “His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Joh 3:16).

Act 26:15  And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
Act 26:16  But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;

“Those things in the which I will appear unto you” is another way of saying:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

Of course, “the things in which I will appear unto you” includes all the trials and persecutions which necessitated the Lord’s appearance to strengthen Paul to endure to the end. The Lord appeared to Paul when he was first taken captive and just after the chief captain had put Paul before the Sanhedrin, who again demanded his death:

Act 23:10  And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle.
Act 23:11  And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

This visit from the Lord took place the night before Paul’s sister’s son had overheard “above forty men” who had conspired to kill Paul and had taken an oath that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

The Lord appeared to Paul again when he was in an equally bleak and hopeless situation:

Act 27:20  And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.
Act 27:21  But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss.
Act 27:22  And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship.
Act 27:23  For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
Act 27:24  Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.

This second appearing simply confirmed the words of the first, and both came in a very timely manner when it appeared that “all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.”

Act 26:17  Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,
Act 26:18  To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
Act 26:19  Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:
Act 26:20  But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

Paul just told us that he preached the gospel “throughout all the coast of Judea” before he went to the Gentiles. That is apparently what he was doing for many years from his home base of Tarsus, before Barnabas went to Tarsus to recruit Paul to help with the growth in the church at Antioch in Syria.

All we are specifically told here in the book of Acts is that Paul was sent to Tarsus from Jerusalem when the Lord revealed to him that the Jews of Jerusalem would reject his words and were plotting to kill him.

Act 9:26  And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.
Act 9:27  But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
Act 9:28  And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.
Act 9:29  And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him.
Act 9:30  Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.

In the first chapter of Galatians Paul informs us the time he spent in Jerusalem was a mere “fifteen days” and that he met none of the apostles other than Peter and James the Lord’s brother.

Gal 1:18  Then after three years [at Damascus] I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
Gal 1:19  But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.

In Acts 22 Paul lets us know exactly what caused him to flee from Jerusalem when he first went there from Damascus:

Act 22:17  And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;
Act 22:18  And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.

So  it is only here in this 20^th verse that Paul tells us he did indeed preach the gospel “throughout all the coasts of Judaea, [“to the Jew first” (Rom 1:16, Rom 2:10)] then to the Gentiles” (Act 26:20).

Act 26:21  For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me.
Act 26:22  Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
Act 26:23  That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people [Jews], and to the Gentiles.
Act 26:24  And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.

Festus is a Roman, and as such was not impressed with Paul’s experience or his message which didn’t even mention Caesar or the Roman Empire. The doctrine of a resurrection from the dead and a man who had actually conquered death did not impress Festus. Now he is hearing the Truth for the first time, and it is overwhelming to him. Paul reassures him that he is sane and of a sound mind, and to prove it he puts the Jewish King Agrippa on the spot knowing that it was King Agrippa’s father who had also engaged in fighting against Christ just as Paul had when he was still known as Saul of Tarsus. Paul realizes that it was only the sovereign hand of God that kept him from being eaten of worms like King Agrippa’s father, King Herod. It was about 17 years after Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus that Paul and Barnabas had been sent to Jerusalem with a gift from the Gentiles in Antioch, when Agrippa’s father, King Herod had killed James, the brother of John, and had taken Peter also, intending to kill him after the Passover. Peter was miraculously delivered from a guard of “four quaternions of soldiers.” The holy spirit put the whole prison to sleep while an angel woke Peter out of “sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door kept the prison.” This all took place while Paul and Barnabas were right there in Jerusalem, which Paul tells us was 14 years after he had returned to Jerusalem from his conversion at Damascus where he had spent the first three years of his ministry preaching the gospel in the synagogues of Damascus immediately following his conversion. After witnessing the death of James and the deliverance of Peter, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch and were shortly sent out together to spread the gospel on Paul’s first missionary journey, during which his name was changed from Saul to Paul.

Paul knows that King Agrippa is very aware of the veracity of everything Paul is saying, and Paul’s answer to Festus is to appeal to King Agrippa’s integrity and the fact that the whole of Jerusalem was aware that Peter had miraculously been delivered out of his father’s Herod’s prison and then shortly afterwards had been “eat of worms” right here in Caesarea:

Act 12:18  Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers, what was become of Peter.
Act 12:19  And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and there abode.
Act 12:20  And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king’s chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king’s country.
Act 12:21  And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
Act 12:22  And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.
Act 12:23  And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

Act 26:25  But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.
Act 26:26  For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.

Indeed King Agrippa “knew of these things” and indeed everyone at Jerusalem had heard how Peter was miraculously delivered out of Herod’s prison. There was a lot of weight to Paul’s statement… “For this thing was not done in a corner”, and there was no way King Agrippa could deny it.

Act 26:27  King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.
Act 26:28  Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
Act 26:29  And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.
Act 26:30  And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them:
Act 26:31  And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds.
Act 26:32  Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar.

Everything that happened to Agrippa’s father, King Herod the fourth, happened at the Passover, and it was known to all the Jews in Jerusalem that King Herod had killed James the brother of John. Everyone also knew that King Herod had imprisoned Peter, and Peter had been delivered from King Herod’s prison with no one even accusing anyone of an insurrection or a jailbreak. It was all very humiliating for King Herod, and then shortly thereafter he was eaten by worms and died. King Agrippa could not deny anything Paul had said. The truth is its own defense.

Next week, we will follow Paul on his long and very trying journey to Rome. There will be many lessons for us along the way.

Acts 24:1-27 Felix Heard Paul Concerning the Faith In Christ

[Study Aired September 24, 2023]

Act 24:1  And after five days Ananias the high priest descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul.
Act 24:2  And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence,
Act 24:3  We accept it always, and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness.
Act 24:4  Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words.
Act 24:5  For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:
Act 24:6  Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law.
Act 24:7  But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands,
Act 24:8  Commanding his accusers to come unto thee: by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him.
Act 24:9  And the Jews also assented, saying that these things were so.
Act 24:10  Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself:
Act 24:11  Because that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship.
Act 24:12  And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city:
Act 24:13  Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.
Act 24:14  But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:
Act 24:15  And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.
Act 24:16  And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
Act 24:17  Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings.
Act 24:18  Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult.
Act 24:19  Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had ought against me.
Act 24:20  Or else let these same here say, if they have found any evil doing in me, while I stood before the council,
Act 24:21  Except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by you this day.
Act 24:22  And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.
Act 24:23  And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him.
Act 24:24  And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.
Act 24:25  And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.
Act 24:26  He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him.
Act 24:27  But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix’ room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.

In chapter 23 we saw that the chief captain, Claudius Lysias, had assembled the Sanhedrin and placed Paul before them to help the chief captain understand why the Jews so passionately despised Paul. If Paul has spoken the day before in Greek, Claudius Lysias might have noticed that it was Paul’s insistence that God had sent him to the Gentiles which had set the Jews into an uproar. However, Paul was speaking to the multitude in Hebrew, and the chief captain had no idea why the Jews were so upset with this man, Paul, who was a fellow Jew. The chief captain witnessed Paul being smacked in the mouth. Paul realized that this time he was between a rock and a hard place. He noticed that the Sanhedrin was split between Pharisees and Sadducees, and he cried out “in hope of the resurrection of the dead am I called in question this day.” Since the Sadducees do not believe in a resurrection, another uproar ensued, and Claudius Lysias, for the second time in as many days, had to rescue Paul from the hate-filled mob.

That same day Paul’s nephew heard a group of “above forty men” conspiring to kill Paul, and he went into the castle and told Paul what he had heard. Paul called a centurion to himself and instructed him to take his nephew to the chief captain because the young man had something to tell him. Claudius Lysias, the chief captain listened to what the young man had heard, and that very night he had Paul transferred to Caesarea with a letter to Felix the governor of Judea, under the guard of 470 men for 42 miles of a 68-mile trip. The last third of the journey Paul was still guarded by 70 horsemen and delivered safely to the governor, Felix, who told Paul that he would be kept in “Herod’s judgment hall” until his accusers came down from Jerusalem. That took place five days after Paul arrived in Caesarea.

A ‘bodyguard’ of four hundred and seventy men demonstrates the Lord’s ability to minister to our needs “abundantly above all that we ask or think”:

Eph 3:13  Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
Eph 3:14  For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph 3:15  Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
Eph 3:16  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
Eph 3:17  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Eph 3:18  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
Eph 3:19  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Eph 3:20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Eph 3:21  Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Paul would never have even thought of asking for a 470-man bodyguard against his enemies, but that is what the Lord gave him. He can and He does do the same for us as He sees fit to provide for our needs.

Act 24:1  And after five days Ananias the high priest descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul.

The highest principality of the church in the wilderness, along “with the elders”, all made the 68-mile trip down to Caesarea from Jerusalem in the hope of destroying the ‘seed of the woman’:

Act 24:2  And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence,
Act 24:3  We accept it always, and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness.
Act 24:4  Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words.
Act 24:5  For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:
Act 24:6  Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law.
Act 24:7  But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands,
Act 24:8  Commanding his accusers to come unto thee: by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him.
Act 24:9  And the Jews also assented, saying that these things were so.

The high priest and the elders all conspired to accuse Paul of sedition and of profaning the temple:

Psa 2:2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed,

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

Paul pointed out the obvious fact that there was no proof of anything he had been accused of. The lesson for us is that God’s elect are so hated by the established churches that even the church leaders think nothing of falsely accusing us of heresies, the very thing of which they themselves are guilty, and they will lie and bear false witness against us and our doctrine.

Christ gives us these instructions:

Mar 13:11  But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

Act 24:10  Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself:
Act 24:11  Because that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship.

Here are those twelve days. There is absolutely and manifestly no time anywhere in these twelve days for Paul to have been a “mover of sedition”, and he certainly would never have done anything while he was in Jerusalem that would have “profaned the temple.”

Day one:

Act 21:15  And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem.
Act 21:16  There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge.
Act 21:17  And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

Paul had brought a gift of alms from the Gentiles to the Jews (Act 24:17). The apostles and elders of the church knew that Paul was “walking orderly and keeping the law (Act 21:24) and the brethren received [him] gladly.”

Day two:

Act 21:18  And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.
Act 21:19  And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
Act 21:20  And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:
Act 21:21  And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.
Act 21:22  What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.
Act 21:23  Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;
Act 21:24  Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
Act 21:25  As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

That statement by James, referring to the letter to the Gentiles mentioned in Acts 15, was the fruit of the Jerusalem conference. That conference had produced an eleven to three consensus that the Jews had to keep the law of Moses, but the Gentiles had to “observe no such thing.” That consensus is later referred to as “the decrees of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem”, and that is what Paul was really “teach[ing] all of the Jews which were among the Gentiles”, and that is what the scriptures reveal in these verses:

Act 16:4  And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.
Act 16:5  And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.

Paul was a physical Jew, and he was living by and keeping “the decrees… that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.” He had no problem demonstrating that ‘he himself was walking orderly and keeping the law of Moses.’

Day three:

Act 21:26  Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.
Act 21:27  And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,
Act 21:28  Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.

We are not given the hour of the day when the chief captain rescued Paul from the Jews, but we do know that Paul became a Roman prisoner on this third day since he had gone up to Jerusalem to worship. At this point Paul had been in Jerusalem less than three days when he became a prisoner of Rome.

His accusers had conspired to lie against him, but it demonstrates how the religious leaders of this world will tell outright lies about the Lord’s elect. “Think it not strange” when this world tells lies about you (1Pe 4:12).

Day four:

Act 22:30  On the morrow, because he would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before them.

The high priest commanded the men next to Paul to slap him in the mouth as soon as he began to speak, and the holy spirit gave Paul the words he needed to deliver himself “out of the mouth of the lion” (2ti 4:17):

Act 23:6  But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.
Act 23:7  And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided.
Act 23:8  For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.
Act 23:9  And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees’ part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.
Act 23:10  And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle.

The Lord sends out armies in our defense when the need arises!

Day five:

Act 23:11  And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

It is in “the night” in our darkest hour, that the Lord comes and gives us correction, direction, hope and instructions:

Job 33:14  For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
Job 33:15  In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;
Job 33:16  Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,
Job 33:17  That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
Job 33:18  He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.

Paul himself was blind and in total darkness when he was given his instructions from the Lord:

Act 9:6  And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Act 9:7  And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
Act 9:8  And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
Act 9:9  And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

Joseph also received instructions through dreams he had at night when all his brothers “hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him.”

Gen 37:4  And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Gen 37:5  And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.

The same is true for Abraham (Gen 15:12-17), Pharaoh (Gen 41:1-40), Abimelech (Gen 20:33), Laban (Gen 31:24), and Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 2:1, Dan 4:5). In every case, the Lord gave each of these men corrective instruction, and He does the same with us.

In the New Testament, Joseph was instructed in a dream to take Christ and His mother, Mary, into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod (Mat 2:12). Peter refers to the prophecy of Joel 2 which tells us the Lord will speak to His elect in dreams (Joe 2:28, Act 2:17).

Christ told Paul he would go to Rome in the night of the fifth day. Let’s get back to what else occurred on the fifth day since Paul went up to Jerusalem to worship:

Act 23:12  And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.
Act 23:13  And they were more than forty which had made this conspiracy.

Act 23:16  And when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle, and told Paul.
Act 23:17  Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him, and said, Bring this young man unto the chief captain: for he hath a certain thing to tell him.
Act 23:18  So he took him, and brought him to the chief captain, and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto him, and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee, who hath something to say unto thee.
Act 23:19  Then the chief captain took him by the hand, and went with him aside privately, and asked him,  What is that thou hast to tell me?

“The night following” (Act 23:11) is the night after Paul’s appearance before the Sanhedrin. Remember, the Jews begin the day at sunset, so all the events related in Acts 23:11-19 took place on the fifth day since Paul had come to Jerusalem to worship. The promise to Paul that he would testify of Christ in Rome, and the conspiracy of “above forty men” to kill Paul, and Paul’s nephew overhearing the conspiracy were all on the fifth day.

The sixth day:

Act 23:23  And [the chief captain] called unto him two centurions, saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two hundred, at the third hour of the night;
Act 23:24  And provide them beasts, that they may set Paul on, and bring him safe unto Felix the governor.
Act 23:25  And he wrote a letter after this manner:
Act 23:26  Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix sendeth greeting.

Claudius Lysias made his plans to send Paul to Felix, the governor of Judea, on the fifth day, but those plans began to be executed “at the third hour of the night”, which means they began to be implemented on the sixth day because the Jewish day begins at sunset.

The two hundred soldiers, the seventy horsemen and the two hundred spearmen marched all night long, forty-two miles, on the sixth day and then left the seventy horsemen at Antipatris and returned to Jerusalem. From Antipatris the seventy horsemen took Paul the remaining 26 miles to Caesarea and delivered him to Felix. This all took place on the sixth day after Paul had first arrived in Jerusalem from Caesarea.

Act 23:31  Then the soldiers, as it was commanded them, took Paul, and brought him by night to Antipatris.
Act 23:32  On the morrow they left the horsemen to go with him, and returned to the castle:
Act 23:33  Who, when they came to Caesarea, and delivered the epistle to the governor, presented Paul also before him.
Act 23:34  And when the governor had read the letter, he asked of what province he was. And when he understood that he was of Cilicia;
Act 23:35  I will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers are also come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod’s judgment hall.

The Lord saw fit to use an incredible amount of taxpayer dollars, and an overwhelming show of force and manpower, to save Paul and deliver him safely to the governor, Felix, in Caesarea. Paul signifies all of God’s elect.

The seventh day through the eleventh day was spent in Herod’s Judgment Hall, waiting for Paul’s accusers to descend from Jerusalem to Caesarea.

Act 24:1  And after five days Ananias the high priest descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul.

Five days after Paul arrived in Caesarea, Ananias the high priest conspired with the elders, and they all arrived in Caesarea to accuse and tell lies against the apostle Paul once again falsely. It was the same lies that the Jews of Asia were spreading, accusing Paul of teaching the Jews which were among the Gentiles to forsake Moses. They also falsely accused him of bringing Gentiles into the temple at Jerusalem. All these false accusations were being made once again before Felix on the twelfth day since the apostle Paul had gone up to Jerusalem to worship as a practicing Jew who was “walking orderly and keeping the law” (Act 21:24).

That accounts for all twelve days until this second appearance before the high priest and the elders in Jerusalem where Paul once again defends himself. Knowing that Paul was a prisoner for over nine days of those twelve days makes it obvious that he had very little time to prepare a sedition against the Jews.

Act 24:12  And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city:
Act 24:13  Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.
Act 24:14  But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:
Act 24:15  And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.
Act 24:16  And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.

Paul had said the same thing just before he was slapped in the mouth when defending himself before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem:

Act 23:1  And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
Act 23:2  And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth.

That did not happen here in Caesarea while the Sanhedrin was under the watchful eyes of Felix the governor. Now Paul is at liberty to defend himself:

Act 24:17  Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings.
Act 24:18  Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult.
Act 24:19  Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had ought against me.
Act 24:20  Or else let these same here say, if they have found any evil doing in me, while I stood before the council,
Act 24:21  Except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by you this day.

“Except it be for this one voice…” What Paul is confessing is that he did indeed cry out before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem that he, as a Pharisee, believed in the resurrection of the dead, knowing the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection of the dead. It was indeed that statement which caused all the contention which occurred when he was testifying before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. That move was by the inspiration of the holy spirit:

Mar 13:11  But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

Luk 12:11  And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:
Luk 12:12  For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

Christ has already instructed us:

Mat 10:16  Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Whenever we obey those words, it is a work of the holy spirit and not of ourselves. The Lord had in mind just such a situation as Paul was in there before the council when He gave us that admonition as the very next verse demonstrates:

Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils [G4892: ‘sunedrion’, Sanhedrin] and they will scourge you in their synagogues;

Felix, being a Roman, was given to favor the apostle Paul who was also a Roman citizen. Paul’s defense of himself before Felix took place on the twelfth day after Paul went up to Jerusalem to worship. For nine of those days and part of his third day in Jerusalem Paul was a Roman prisoner in no position to carry out a sedition of any kind.

Act 24:22  And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.
Act 24:23  And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him.

We know that Paul had the acquaintance of Philip, and no doubt other Christian brothers there in Caesarea, who would want to visit their brother in prison for the Lord and the gospel’s sake, being aware of the Lord’s words:

Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
Mat 25:38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Mat 25:39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Mat 25:42  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
Mat 25:43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Mat 25:44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
Mat 25:46  And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

The fiery trials we endure during this age (1Co 3:13-15, 1Pe 4:12) are not “prepared for the devil and his angels.” The lake of fire/second death at the white throne judgment is “prepared for the devil and his angels.”

Act 24:24  And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.
Act 24:25  And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

The Greek word translated as ‘reasoned” is G1256 (dialegomai) from which our English word ‘dialogue’ is derived. It suggests strongly there were some back-and-forth discussions between Paul and Felix and his Jewish wife, Drusilla. Notice that Paul did not preach that “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17) to an unconverted Roman nor his unconverted Jewish wife. However, he did witness against them that there was indeed “judgment to come”.

Act 24:26  He [Felix] hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him.

Felix was hoping Paul would give him a bribe. Instead of a bribe, Christ, through Paul, gave Felix a great witness.

We are given no indication that either Felix or his wife Drusilla were being dragged to the Lord, but they were certainly witnessed to by the Lord’s apostle, and at the appointed time Paul’s words will yet perform their fiery work of burning out all the false doctrines within Felix and Drusilla.

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.

Act 24:27  But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix’ room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.

Like all politicians and like all men, Felix was attempting to please everyone, including the Jews who wanted Paul dead.

Act 23:10  And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle.
Act 23:11  And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

As we pointed out, Jerusalem signifies the Lord’s chosen people to whom we witness and who are being judged in this present time (Gal 4:26). Rome signifies the rest of mankind who are not being judged in this life and to whom we will witness and be merciful judges at the great white throne judgment.

Audio Download

Acts 23:19-35  I Came With an Army and Rescued Him

[Study Aired September 17, 2023]

Act 23:19  Then the chief captain took him by the hand, and went with him aside privately, and asked him, What is that thou hast to tell me?
Act 23:20  And he said, The Jews have agreed to desire thee that thou wouldest bring down Paul to morrow into the council, as though they would enquire somewhat of him more perfectly.
Act 23:21  But do not thou yield unto them: for there lie in wait for him of them more than forty men, which have bound themselves with an oath, that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him: and now are they ready, looking for a promise from thee.
Act 23:22  So the chief captain then let the young man depart, and charged him, See thou tell no man that thou hast shewed these things to me.
Act 23:23  And he called unto him two centurions, saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two hundred, at the third hour of the night;
Act 23:24  And provide them beasts, that they may set Paul on, and bring him safe unto Felix the governor.
Act 23:25  And he wrote a letter after this manner:
Act 23:26  Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix sendeth greeting.
Act 23:27  This man was taken of the Jews, and should have been killed of them: then came I with an army, and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman.
Act 23:28  And when I would have known the cause wherefore they accused him, I brought him forth into their council:
Act 23:29  Whom I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds.
Act 23:30  And when it was told me how that the Jews laid wait for the man, I sent straightway to thee, and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee what they had against him. Farewell.
Act 23:31  Then the soldiers, as it was commanded them, took Paul, and brought him by night to Antipatris.
Act 23:32  On the morrow they left the horsemen to go with him, and returned to the castle:
Act 23:33  Who, when they came to Caesarea, and delivered the epistle to the governor, presented Paul also before him.
Act 23:34  And when the governor had read the letter, he asked of what province he was. And when he understood that he was of Cilicia;
Act 23:35  I will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers are also come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod’s judgment hall.

In our last study we read how Paul’s sister’s son heard “above forty men” who were conspiring to kill Paul the next day after he had given witness to the Jerusalem Sanhedrin. Here is what they said to “the chief priests and the elders:

Act 23:14  And they [the “above forty” conspirators] came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.
Act 23:15  Now therefore ye with the council signify to the chief captain that he bring [Paul] down unto you to morrow, as though ye would enquire something more perfectly concerning him: and we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him.
Act 23:16  And when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle, and told Paul.
Act 23:17  Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him, and said, Bring this young man unto the chief captain: for he hath a certain thing to tell him.
Act 23:18  So he took him, and brought him to the chief captain, and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto him, and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee, who hath something to say unto thee.

In this study we will witness just how important we are to our Lord and how He spares no expense to keep us safe as we serve Him. It was the Lord Himself who gave Paul’s nephew the opportunity to overhear this conspiracy of “over forty men” who wanted to murder his uncle Paul, and the Lord is the person who gave this young man the desire to help ‘uncle Paul’ and save his life from those murderers. It appears outwardly that the chief captain, Claudius Lysias, was also given a fondness for the apostle Paul, but the Truth once again is that it was Christ who considered the apostle Paul to be the apple of His eye. Any fondness or sympathy the chief captain may have had for Paul was also a work of the Lord who ‘rules in the kingdoms of men’ and who is ‘working all things after the counsel of His own will’:

Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

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:

Act 23:19  Then the chief captain took [Paul’s nephew] by the hand, and went with him aside privately, and asked him, What is that thou hast to tell me?
Act 23:20  And he said, The Jews have agreed to desire thee that thou wouldest bring down Paul to morrow into the council, as though they would enquire somewhat of him more perfectly.
Act 23:21  But do not thou yield unto them: for there lie in wait for him of them more than forty men, which have bound themselves with an oath, that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him: and now are they ready, looking for a promise from thee.
Act 23:22  So the chief captain then let the young man depart, and charged him, See thou tell no man that thou hast shewed these things to me.

Here now is a story which reveals how very much the Lord spares no expense in providing for the safety and protection of those whom He loves:

Act 23:23  And he called unto him two centurions, saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two hundred, at the third hour of the night;
Act 23:24  And provide them beasts, that they may set Paul on, and bring him safe unto Felix the governor.

“Bring him safe unto Felix the Governor” by 200 footmen, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen! That is a total of 470 men to deliver the apple of the Lord’s eye safely to Felix the governor. The Lord uses the ‘ten horns on the beast’, signifying the secular powers of this earth, to protect His people from the religious powers of Babylon who want to destroy anyone who tells the Truth about all their false doctrines. The scriptures reveal that any time the great harlot comes into a conflict with the secular powers of the state, in the end the harlot will always come out on the short end of the stick and will at the appointed time be destroyed by the secular powers of 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 [signifying the secular political leaders of this world].
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.

This story of a conspiracy by more than forty men, who signify the great harlot, to destroy and kill the Lord’s elect, but being saved from physical death is an example of the hatred the beast has towards the great harlot who rules over the kings of this world.

Act 23:25  And he wrote a letter after this manner:
Act 23:26  Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix sendeth greeting.
Act 23:27  This man was taken of the Jews, and should have been killed of them: then came I with an army, and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman.

While it is true that the chief captain, Claudius Lysias, was made aware of Paul’s Roman citizenship, it was only after he first rescued Paul that he was made aware of that fact. Claudias Lysias was given the commission to keep the peace in Jerusalem, and he welcomed the opportunity to exercise his power over the Jews, just as the “ten horns” welcome the opportunity to hate the whore and make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh 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.

Here is a link which demonstrates the Biblical and spiritual significance of the number ‘ten’:

Spiritual Significance of the Number Ten

Here are just a few of the verses in scripture which demonstrate that the word ‘horn’ or ‘horns’ signifies power and strength – 1Sa 2:10, 2Sa 22:3, Lam 2:3, Psa 18:2.

Claudius Lysias glosses over the fact that when he first rescued Paul, he had no idea Paul was a Roman citizen and was preparing to “examine him by scourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so against him” (Act 22:14). Claudius Lysias had no intention of incriminating himself in binding a Roman citizen before giving him a trial.

Act 23:28  And when I would have known the cause wherefore they accused him, I brought him forth into their council:
Act 23:29  Whom I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds.
Act 23:30  And when it was told me how that the Jews laid wait for the man, I sent straightway to thee, and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee what they had against him. Farewell.
Act 23:31  Then the soldiers, as it was commanded them, took Paul, and brought him by night to Antipatris.

Here is what John Gill tells us about the distance from Jerusalem to Antipatris:

“and brought him by night to Antipatris: they set out from Jerusalem at the third hour, or about nine o’clock at night, and travelled all night, and by break of day came to Antipatris; a city which lay in the road from Jerusalem to Caesarea… It was forty two miles from Jerusalem.” (End Quote)

Act 23:32  On the morrow they left the horsemen to go with him, and returned to the castle:

The two hundred soldiers and the two hundred spearmen, who were all on foot, went back to Jerusalem after bringing Paul two-thirds of the way to Caesarea. There was no longer any danger from the Jews in Jerusalem at that point. Nevertheless, the seventy horsemen still accompanied Paul to Caesarea to be delivered safely to the governor, Felix.

Act 23:33  Who, when they came to Caesarea, and delivered the epistle to the governor, presented Paul also before him.

The Lord provided 470 men to escort the apple of His eye for two-thirds of the journey to Caesarea, which is 42 miles from Jerusalem to Antipatris. According to Gill, here is what was involved in traveling all the way from Jerusalem to Caesarea, north west of Jerusalem on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea:

“the way from Jerusalem to Caesarea lay through Nicopolis, Lydda, Antipatris, and Betthar; from Jerusalem to Nicopolis, according to the old Jerusalem Itinerary, were twenty two miles; from thence to Lydda, ten miles; and from Lydda to Antipatris ten more (which make forty two miles, as before observed); and from Antipatris to Betthar ten miles, and from thence to Caesarea, sixteen more: so that when the apostle was at Antipatris, he had twenty six miles more to go to Caesarea; and hence it appears, that the length of the journey from Jerusalem to Caesarea was sixty-eight miles;” (End Quote)

Act 23:34  And when the governor had read the letter, he asked of what province he was. And when he understood that he was of Cilicia;
Act 23:35  I will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers are also come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod’s judgment hall.

As we will see in the next chapter of Acts, Paul had great liberty within ‘Herod’s judgment hall.’ The centurion who was guarding Paul was ordered to permit any of his acquaintances to minister to and come visit him:

Act 24:22  And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.
Act 24:23  And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him.

The Lord always provides protection for His elect. They may indeed be required to go into the dungeons of Egypt, go through the Red Sea, the fiery furnace, the lion’s den, and through the burden of carrying the cross of Christ, but He never has, and He never will forsake His elect:

Mat 28:20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

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.

There is one requirement for having this protection, and that requirement is to be willing to forfeit this life rather than to disobey the Lord. If we are given the grace to put obedience to the words of Christ above saving our physical life, then the Lord will protect us in this age and give us spiritual life in the age to come. Christ Himself gives us this promise:

Mat 19:27  Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
Mat 19:28  And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:29  And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Mat 19:30  But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

Peter wanted to know what kind of deal he was making with Christ by ‘forsaking all to follow Him.’ Here is Mark’s account of Christ’s response to Peter’s question:

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

Christ was very clear about just how dedicated we must be in His service:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

God is not mocked by half-hearted worship. If our worship is “with [our] whole heart” His provision and protection is abundant, as this story of Paul’s protection against the church of his day demonstrates. If we are ‘wholehearted’, then that is a work He is doing in us, but that work is accomplished only through many admonitions, tribulations and chastening. The Lord’s protection and blessing always has this one caveat:

Deu 11:13  And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
Deu 11:14  That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

Deu 15:5  Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.
Deu 15:6  For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

Deu 28:1  And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
Deu 28:2  And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

2Ch 6:38 If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name:

Psa 119:2  Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.

Paul’s service to the Lord was “with the whole heart”, and the Lord made even his enemies to be at peace with him:

Pro 16:7  When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Paul had spent “many days” at the home of Philip in Caesarea just before going up to Jerusalem:

Act 21:8  And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him.

Act 21:10  And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.

“Certain disciples of Caesarea” went up to Jerusalem with Paul:

Act 21:16  There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge.
Act 21:17  And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

Without a doubt there were many members of the church at Caesarea who ministered to Paul’s needs, and comforted and encouraged him while he was “kept in Herod’s judgment hall” for over two years.

Act 24:23  And he [Felix the governor] commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him.
Act 24:27  But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix’ room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.

The Lord has given Paul a two-year rest from the traveling and preaching, and from the accompanying persecutions, beatings and “much tribulation” he had constantly endured from the beginning of his ministry at Damascus. The Lord gave Paul favor in the eyes of every Roman ruler under whose custody he was placed by the Lord. The chief captain, Claudius Lysias, the governor of Judea; Felix, who will be replaced by Festus; and even King Agrippa and his wife, Bernice, are all made to treat Paul very well. Not only does Paul get to continue to meet with his friends and acquaintances, but he also is given the privilege and the opportunity to witness to his Roman custodians.

Shortly after he was apprehended by the Jews who ‘went about to kill him’, Paul had been told by the Lord that he would witness for Christ in Rome also, just as he had done in Jerusalem:

Act 23:11  And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

That promise was no doubt of great comfort to Paul as he waited to see how the Lord would make that happen. In chapter 24 we will see Paul defend himself once again before Ananias the high priest with the elders who travel all the way down to Caesarea to once again falsely accuse Paul of the same blatant lie saying Paul was guilty of “profaning the temple”. This time it will be before Felix, the Roman governor of Judea.

We are witnessing the Lord “coming with an army and rescuing [us]”, His ambassadors to this earth. It is all intended to give each of us hope of His faithful loving guidance and protection over our own lives as ‘sheep among wolves’ in this dark world.

Luk 21:11  And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Luk 21:12  But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.
Luk 21:13  And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
Luk 21:14  Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
Luk 21:15  For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

When we acknowledge our transgressions and serve the Lord humbly with our whole heart, the Lord is well pleased with us, and He will protect us and prepare a table for us in the presence of our enemies (Psa 23:5), as Paul’s experience demonstrates for us.

The Book of Joshua – Part 18, Chapters 21-22

The children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God. – Jos 22:34

Study Aired July 1, 2023

The division of the Promised Land and the formation of its cities are in the final stages, and for brevity’s sake, any seemingly routine items the Lord hasn’t sparked with His spirit to expose will be excluded.

Cities and Pasturelands Allotted to Levi

Jos 21:1 Then came near the heads of the fathers of the Levites unto Eleazar [el-aw-zawr’ = God has helped. 1. the high priest son of Aaron 2. Abinadab’s son who cared for the ark 3. the priest who rebuilt and dedicated the restored walls of Jerusalem in time of Ezra] the priest, and unto Joshua the son of Nun, and unto the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel; 
Jos 21:2 And they spake unto them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, The LORD commanded by the hand of Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the suburbs [Common, common land, open land] thereof for our cattle.
Jos 21:3 And the children of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their inheritance, at the commandment of the LORD, these cities and their suburbs. 
Jos 21:4 And the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites: and the children of Aaron the priest, which were of the Levites, had by lot out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of Simeon, and out of the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen cities.

The number thirteen denotes rebellion which always attracts the Lord’s wrath. We are well versed in Israel’s rebellion, which mirrors our natural inclination to challenge our Lord’s word with strange fire or, like children, rebelliously dig in our heels to His commands.

Exo 32:11  And Moses prayed to Jehovah his God, and said, Jehovah, why does Your wrath become hot against Your people whom You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 

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.

Our Lord’s wrath against our old Adam is a vital element pointing the Israel of God toward Christ. We are by “nature the children of wrath, even as is the entire world.“

Eleazar represents Christ, our high priest, who speaks to His endtime Elect, “the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the sons of Israel.” They, being a priestly tribe, have more extensive dwelling places that parallel Christ’s wife’s soon-coming inheritance of the entire composition of humanity, her children. “Suburbs” are open and extensive lands depicting the world’s vastness.

Joh 14:2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 
Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

Notice in verse 3 that “the children of Israel gave unto the Levites out of their inheritance.” The world, particularly Babylonian Christianity, represents Esau and the Kohathites, the rejected wife of God who serves the younger Jacob, Christ’s Elected wife. That fact is affirmed in the next verse.

Jos 21:5 And the rest of the children of Kohath had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, and out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh, ten cities. 

The ten tribes of Jacob by Rachel’s handmaids represent Babylonian Christianity. Ephraim and Manasseh, the Elect of God’s nearest kin, have hugely rich lands to the north of Israel. They, and we in our time, glory in the deluded richness of being Jews who are not spiritual Jews and lead the Christian world quite willingly astray, particularly by their misunderstanding that “salvation is of the Jews”. By our Lord’s chastising grace, he has anointed our eyes with His spirit to discern spiritual intelligence.

Rev 3:17 Because you say, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 
Rev 3:18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold purified by fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be clothed, and so that the shame of your nakedness does not appear. And anoint your eyes with eye salve, so that you may see.

Jos 21:6 And the children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities [rebellion].
Jos 21:7 The children of Merari [bitter] by their families had out of the tribe of Reuben [to see; look at; inspect], and out of the tribe of Gad [troop; invade; attack], and out of the tribe of Zebulun [exalted], twelve cities [Christ and his Body; foundations].

Once again, and by the maturing Saint’s growing knowledge, experience and endurance through trials, he pieces together the meanings of those names of peoples and places for his spiritual-educational prosperity.

Jos 21:8 And the children of Israel gave by lot unto the Levites these cities with their suburbs, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses. 
Jos 21:9 And they gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are here mentioned by name, 
Jos 21:10 Which the children of Aaron, being of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi, had: for theirs was the first lot. 
Jos 21:11 And they gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak [meaning 4. H704 – 1. the father of Anak and the greatest of the giants (Anakim)], which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it. 

Jos 21:12 But the fields of the city, and the villages thereof, gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession. 

Of significance is Caleb, who is similar to Joshua and represents the Lord’s Elect, and inherits the fields of the cities and villages just as the Lord’s Wife inherits her children, the world of humanity. The children of Aaron, who again represents the priestly Elect, have a refuge for their desperate and mentally tortured brothers and sisters in the Lake of Fire.

Jos 21:13 Thus they gave to the children of Aaron [= light bringer 1. brother of Moses], a Levite and the first high priest the priest Hebron with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Libnah with her suburbs,

Elder and study presenter Ato Barnes has extensively rendered the Gershonites,  Kohathites, Levites and the families of Merari (mer-aw-ree’) and other tribe’s exploits and the meanings of their names in his series studies in the book of Numbers. Attached is a link regarding the Gershonites:  https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/numbers-421-49-the-duties-of-the-levites-part-3/

Jos 21:14 And Jattir with her suburbs, and Eshtemoa with her suburbs, 
Jos 21:15 And Holon with her suburbs, and Debir with her suburbs, 
Jos 21:16 And Ain with her suburbs, and Juttah with her suburbs, and Bethshemesh with her suburbs; nine cities out of those two tribes. 
Jos 21:17 And out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with her suburbs, Geba with her suburbs,
Jos 21:18 Anathoth with her suburbs, and Almon with her suburbs; four cities. 
Jos 21:19 All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their suburbs. 
Jos 21:20 And the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites which remained of the children of Kohath, even they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim. 
Jos 21:21  For they gave them Shechem with her suburbs in mount Ephraim, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Gezer with her suburbs, 
Jos 21:22 And Kibzaim with her suburbs, and Bethhoron with her suburbs; four cities. 
Jos 21:23 And out of the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with her suburbs, Gibbethon with her suburbs,
Jos 21:24 Aijalon with her suburbs, Gathrimmon with her suburbs; four cities. 
Jos 21:25 And out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Tanach with her suburbs, and Gathrimmon with her suburbs; two cities. 
Jos 21:26 All the cities were ten with their suburbs for the families of the children of Kohath that remained. 
Jos 21:27 And unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the other half tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Beeshterah with her suburbs; two cities. 
Jos 21:28 And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishon with her suburbs, Dabareh with her suburbs, 
Jos 21:29 Jarmuth with her suburbs, Engannim with her suburbs; four cities. 
Jos 21:30 And out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with her suburbs, Abdon with her suburbs, 
Jos 21:31 Helkath with her suburbs, and Rehob with her suburbs; four cities. 
Jos 21:32 And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Hammothdor with her suburbs, and Kartan with her suburbs; three cities. 
Jos 21:33 All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their suburbs. 
Jos 21:34 And unto the families of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites, out of the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with her suburbs, and Kartah with her suburbs, 
Jos 21:35 Dimnah with her suburbs, Nahalal with her suburbs; four cities. 
Jos 21:36 And out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with her suburbs, and Jahazah with her suburbs, 
Jos 21:37 Kedemoth with her suburbs, and Mephaath with her suburbs; four cities. 
Jos 21:38  And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Mahanaim with her suburbs, 
Jos 21:39 Heshbon with her suburbs, Jazer with her suburbs; four cities in all. 
Jos 21:40 So all the cities for the children of Merari by their families, which were remaining of the families of the Levites, were by their lot twelve cities. 
Jos 21:41 All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty and eight cities with their suburbs. 
Jos 21:42 These cities were every one with their suburbs round about them: thus were all these cities. 
Jos 21:43 And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. 
Jos 21:44  round about [round about – on account of; string; harp], according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. 
Jos 21:45 There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass. 

How beautiful! For the Elect’s sake, those experiences of the Israelites taking possession of their land is another stringed musical case of “all things are yours.” I feel a bit emotional for our Lord’s goodness when His purpose is to give His ravishing Bride “rest” from her labours when one of the keystones of her understanding is to “only acknowledge your iniquity” ~ how simple is that requirement?! (Jer 3:13) … and yet, I, being a ‘chief of sinners’, am somewhat perplexed by performing sins of yesteryear. Yet, I am certain that in the Lord’s good timing, ‘not a man of my enemies will stand before me as He delivers them all into His hand for my rest’ (abridged).

Pro 23:17 Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. 
Pro 23:18 For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

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

The Eastern Tribes Return Home

Jos 22:1 Then Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, 
Jos 22:2 And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you: 
Jos 22:3 Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the LORD your God. 
Jos 22:4 And now the LORD your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side Jordan. 
Jos 22:5 But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. 
Jos 22:6 So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away: and they went unto their tents. 

For the Elect, ‘wow!’  What wonderful impending rest, yet, and for the Israelites, for the Bride’s sake, we know that their coming historical and torturous trials will be for our benefit if we serve Him with all our heart and soul.

Mat 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment. 
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. 

Jos 22:7 Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given possession in Bashan: but unto the other half thereof gave Joshua among their brethren on this side Jordan westward. And when Joshua sent them away also unto their tents, then he blessed them, 

Jos 22:8  And he spake unto them, saying, Return with much riches unto your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren. 
Jos 22:9  And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go unto the country of Gilead, to the land of their possession, whereof they were possessed, according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses. 

The Eastern Tribes’ Altar of Witness

Jos 22:10 And when they came unto the borders of Jordan, that are in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by Jordan, a great altar to see to. 
Jos 22:11 And the children of Israel heard say, Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar over against the land of Canaan, in the borders of Jordan, at the passage of the children of Israel. 
Jos 22:12 And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them. 
Jos 22:13 And the children of Israel sent unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas [pee-nekh-aws’- = mouth of brass] the son of Eleazar the priest, 
Jos 22:14 And with him ten princes, of each chief house a prince throughout all the tribes of Israel; and each one was an head of the house of their fathers among the thousands of Israel. 
Jos 22:15 And they came unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, unto the land of Gilead, and they spake with them, saying, 
Jos 22:16 Thus saith the whole congregation of the LORD, What trespass is this that ye have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the LORD, in that ye have builded you an altar, that ye might rebel this day against the LORD? 
Jos 22:17 Is the iniquity of Peor [= cleft; 1. to open wide, gape] too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day, although there was a plague in the congregation of the LORD, 
Jos 22:18 But that ye must turn away this day from following the LORD? and it will be, seeing ye rebel to day against the LORD, that to morrow he will be wroth with the whole congregation of Israel. 
Jos 22:19 Notwithstanding, if the land of your possession be unclean [making the whole land unclean], then pass ye over unto the land of the possession of the LORD, wherein the LORD’S tabernacle dwelleth, and take possession among us: but rebel not against the LORD, nor rebel against us, in building you an altar beside the altar of the LORD our God. 
Jos 22:20 Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity. 
Jos 22:21 Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered, and said unto the heads of the thousands of Israel, 
Jos 22:22 The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, he knoweth, and Israel he shall know; if it be in rebellion, or if in transgression against the LORD, (save us not this day,) 
Jos 22:23 That we have built us an altar to turn from following the LORD, or if to offer thereon burnt offering or meat offering, or if to offer peace offerings thereon, let the LORD himself require it; 
Jos 22:24 And if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying, In time to come your children might speak unto our children, saying, What have ye to do with the LORD God of Israel? 

The children of Israel west of the Jordan remain a little edgy in remembrance of the very first instance of them entering the Promised Land and with Achan’s sin. Now, near the conclusion of taking possession of the land, that rawness of rebelling against their Lord has positive effects. The Lord’s wrath is the last thing they need as they settle into their new life.

1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Our old man turns to the idols of our hearts, and in doing so, we become guilty of the sins of witchcraft and idolatry. At that time, we are comfortable with our bondage to the traditions of men. We like paying tithes on our gross income and dearly love keeping days, months, times and years, for just two examples. [Abridged quote, Mike].

The sin of rebellion, if not swiftly dealt with as the Lord often lets us be slothful for our excruciating benefit, will rebound on our children’s children. That seemingly vindictive plot will later be recognised as immensely beneficial for everyone’s chastised learning.

Exo 34:5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 
Exo 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 
Exo 34:7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 
Exo 34:8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 
Exo 34:9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. 

Stiff-neckedness is an early condition of the Lord’s Elect that must be burned out. It’s a good thing when our brothers are watchful over us through a ‘multitude of counsels’ ensuring fidelity, as do the western tribes for their eastern kin.

Jos 22:25 For the LORD hath made Jordan a border between us and you, ye children of Reuben and children of Gad; ye have no part in the LORD: so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the LORD. 

Notice in Joshua 22:14 that the greater portion of Israel, led by the ‘brass-like harshness of Phinehas [pee-nekh-aws’- = mouth of brass] the son of Eleazar, the priest, confronts the north-eastern tribe’s perceived rebellion: ~ And with him ten princes, of each chief house a prince throughout all the tribes of Israel; and each one was an head of the house of their fathers among the thousands of Israel.

These ten western tribes depict greater Israel, our brothers and sisters who, much later with us, go into Babylon. Egypt, Assyria, and every other evil nation are collectively represented as Babylon, but for now, Israel is stepping out with righteous intent to follow all the Lord’s commands in challenging the north-western tribe’s seeming dubious intentions. In type, the perceived division portrays our Babylonian Christian brothers’ and sisters’ gulf between them and the Lord’s Elect. The altar that is Christ certainly will be a future demarcation ‘witness between us and them’.

Jos 22:26 Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice: 
Jos 22:27 But that it may be a witness between us, and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD. 
Jos 22:28 Therefore said we, that it shall be, when they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say again, Behold the pattern of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between us and you.
Jos 22:29 God forbid that we should rebel against the LORD, and turn this day from following the LORD, to build an altar for burnt offerings, for meat offerings, or for sacrifices, beside the altar of the LORD our God that is before his tabernacle. 
Jos 22:30 And when Phinehas [pee-nekh-aws’] the priest, and the princes of the congregation and heads of the thousands of Israel which were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spake, it pleased them. 
Jos 22:31 And Phinehas  [pee-nekh-aws’] the son of Eleazar the priest said unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the children of Manasseh, This day we perceive that the LORD is among us, because ye have not committed this trespass against the LORD: now ye have delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the LORD. 
Jos 22:32 And Phinehas [pee-nekh-aws’] the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes, returned from the children of Reuben, and from the children of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, unto the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word again. 
Jos 22:33 And the thing pleased the children of Israel; and the children of Israel blessed God, and did not intend to go up against them in battle, to destroy the land wherein the children of Reuben and Gad dwelt. 
Jos 22:34 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God. 

No greater gulf exists than between the Lord’s rejected wife and His Elected Bride. His Elect is coming out of Babylon and has almost finished her exit, leaving behind the woman from Mt. Sinai revelling in her God-given strong delusions. The Reubenite’s and Gadite’s stone edifice is a profound witness between those women and ‘the’ Christ.

For the Elect’s sake, our most honoured brothers and sisters of old Israel were oblivious to their coming descent into lukewarmness and witnessed by the Reubenite’s and Gadite’s stone marker and one of the significant ‘beginnings of the creation of God.’

Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

Even though the Seven Churches of Asia during the Apostle’s time represent every stage of the creation of God, probably Laodicea’s lukewarmness is the broad representation of Israel’s soon weariness for her Lord’s light bread.

Not by my design, however, next week will be a relatively short conclusion to this series in Joshua, and probably representative of our Lord’s short work in His Body.

Rom 9:28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. 

Zec 1:1-21  “For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness”

[Study Aired June 1, 2023]

Zec 1:1  In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 
Zec 1:2  The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers. 
Zec 1:3  Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. 
Zec 1:4  Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD. 
Zec 1:5  Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? 
Zec 1:6  But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. 
Zec 1:7  Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 
Zec 1:8  I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white. 
Zec 1:9  Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be. 
Zec 1:10  And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.
Zec 1:11  And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. 
Zec 1:12  Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? 
Zec 1:13  And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words. 
Zec 1:14  So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. 
Zec 1:15  And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. 
Zec 1:16  Therefore thus saith the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. 
Zec 1:17  Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. 
Zec 1:18  Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. 
Zec 1:19  And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. 
Zec 1:20  And the LORD shewed me four carpenters. 
Zec 1:21  Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it. 

Zechariah’s^H2148 name means “Jah has remembered” and he is the son of Berechiah^H1296 whose name means “blessing of Jah” who is the son of Iddo^H5714 whose name means “timely“.

Historically, the remnant of Judah that was taken into captivity, as we just read about in the last few chapters of 2 Kings, are now come out of this place that typifies spiritual bondage for us in the churches of this world (2Co 6:17), to learn of God’s faithfulness toward His little remnant, the elect of God whom He has remembered [Zechariah’s^H2148] and who are blessed to come to know Him [Berechiah^H1296] in this age, at a perfectly appointed time [Iddo^H5714] (Gal 4:2  Joh 6:44, Mat 22:14). 

A look at where this book was written in the chronology of the scriptures: Chronology of the Prophets in the Old Testament – Bible History (bible-history.com)

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, 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.

When we read of such conditional statements as this in the book of Zechariah, “Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zec 1:3), we are also reminded as God’s weak of the world, unnatural branch (Rom 11:24), that those conditions can only be met within us through Christ, not by might or power but by God’s holy spirit, in other words (Zec 4:6). That is the message the elect are given to see in His word and be admonished from Genesis to Revelation, being blessed to know that there is a dragging that is occurring in our lives (Joh 6:44), as we are judged in this age, believing that all things are for our sakes and there is one event unto all men, which event is that judgment which has begun at the house of God (Ecc 9:1-3, 1Pe 4:17). 

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

With these principles in mind, we can read the book of Zechariah which points to many Messianic prophecies and learn how they apply to Christ and His Christ (1Jn 4:17). The end of the book of Zechariah reveals a time that typifies when God’s elect will have gone on to perfection in the first resurrection to become the vessels of honor whom He will use to bring salvation to the rest of the world. 

Zec 14:20  In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Zec 14:21  Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.

In order to get to this place of being God’s kings and priests typified by those bowls before the altar, there must be a lifetime of much tribulation and carrying of our own cross as we die daily, so we can enter into the temple of God permanently, in a moment and in a twinkling of an eye at the last trump (Rev 15:8, 1Co 15:52). The bowls symbolize where the wrath of God is stored up and poured out upon all unrighteousness of men (Rom 1:18) and the book of Zechariah reveals the inspired order in which all mankind’s heavens will be judged, each man in his own order (1Co 15:23-24).

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.

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven [Heb 9:23] against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 

Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. 

1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

Zec 1:1  In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 
Zec 1:2  The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.

These first verses set the stage for us with both the names and numbers involved to tell us where this prophetic book of Zechariah is going to be pointing. It is in “the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah” because the new man, represented by the “eighth month“, can only begin to be formed in us by our hearing the true witness of Jesus Christ “in the second year of Darius” when the word of the Lord came “unto Zechariah.” Darius is a Persian king who represents our fleshly minds against which we will to be witnessed [“in the second year“], where we are told that the LORD has been sore displeased.

In the prophetic timeline of the “great image” revealed to Daniel and spoken to king Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2:31-35, there is a progression of the judgment of our old man or “image of the beast” (Rev 13:15) represented by the nation of Persia whose king was Darius who comes after king Nebuchadnezzar.

There is an inward application of this statute that applies to those who are being judged in this age (1Pe 4:17), and there is a dispensational application of this “great image” and an historical application, which is the natural revealing of these nations and places and their relationships one to another that precedes the spiritual meaning (1Co 15:46). God blesses His children to come to see and understand how these nations and beasts, to which we are likened, apply to their lives today (1Co 10:11, Rom 1:20). 

‘The dream is one’ principle is in play (Gen 41:25) where we learn of the four beasts in the seventh chapter of Daniel, the first “like a lion” representing Babylon, out of which we come, and then Persia the bear being the second beast (Dan 7:4-5). Then the last two beasts are described showing us the whole [4] representation of our beastly nature which must be judged.

Zechariah is the servant of the Lord who comes to declare what God thinks of this marred-in-the-hand-of-the-Potter beast (Jer 18:4) and declares “The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.”

All these beasts represent specific nations in history with their rulers who have been given their power from Satan to rule and reign, as he is the god of this world (2Co 4:4), that God ordained to rule over the nations exactly in the manner which He purposed from the foundation of the world according to the counsel of His own will for our sakes, revealing what is in every man who needs to be judged (Rev 13:2, Eph 1:11, 2Co 4:15).

Dan 2:31  Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 
Dan 2:32  This image’s head was of fine gold [Babylon], his breast and his arms of silver [Persia], his belly and his thighs of brass [Greece], 
Dan 2:33  His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay [Rome]. 
Dan 2:34  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 
Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away [2Th 2:8], that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. [The stone (representing Christ and His Christ) fills the whole earth because of the judgment that has taken place]

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

Zec 1:3  Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. 
Zec 1:4  Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD. 
Zec 1:5  Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? 
Zec 1:6  But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. 

The message of our heavenly Father never changes because God does not change (Mal 3:6), and that message is, “Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts” telling those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear (Mat 13:16) that we need to know we are in a spiritual battle requiring our whole-hearted devotion to Him as we seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness (Mat 6:33). If that desire is not there, which is of God, He will not turn to us. However, if Christ is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, then we will turn to Him and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, glorifying God in this dispensation of grace (Php 2:12-14, Jas 4:7, Col 1:27-29, 2Co 6:2, Joh 1:17).

Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 
Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
Jas 4:9  Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.

Col 1:29  Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

2Co 6:2  (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) 

Joh 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Our “fathers” of old who did not hearken to the Lord “unto whom the former prophets have cried” represent our carnal hearts that rejected the message of God at first, and it is only by the death of that old man we become the spiritual fatherless and the widow of James 1:27 who now, by the grace and faith of Christ (Eph 2:8), can take heed to the warnings being given from Christ through the church so that we “Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings.” Without God’s goodness and longsuffering spirit working in our lives (Rom 2:4) we also would “not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.”

Those prophets of old are dead, “Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?” However, the typical words of eternal life they pronounced live on (Joh 6:68), and we are to consider how patiently they bore that message for our sakes, some even to death to demonstrate how nothing can separate us from the love of God working within the lives of His people today (Rom 8:35, Rom 5:10), and how we must bear our cross today in order for the life of Christ to manifest within the body of Christ (Jas 5:10, 2Co 4:10).

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

Jas 5:10  Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. 

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.

Lessons will be learned for ‘our fathers of old’ who ‘came out of captivity’ typifying what God has started in the elect’s life. They tell us that although something is being learned, this does not mean there is a change of heart: “But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us” (Zec 1:6).

The nations coming to see that God is a just God who judges us so that we reap what we sow, is only typical of the real deliverance from sin that can only come through Jesus Christ (Joh 8:36). Knowing that “according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us” does not bring about a changed heart, just as the rod of iron the saints rule with throughout the symbolic thousand-year period will not change anyone’s heart. However, people will learn that what they sow they will reap, and God’s judgments will be executed on the earth (Ecc 8:11, Isa 26:9).

Ecc 8:11  Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Zec 1:7  Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

The word of the LORD comes to “Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet” on the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month Sebat^H7627, in the second year of Darius. These numbers and names once again set the stage for us regarding what the Lord wants us to know is unfolding at this point in the story. 

We already know that this is about judgment upon the nation of Judah, who typifies the body of Christ, and have looked at these names “Zechariah’s^H2148 (Jah has remembered), Berechiah^H1296 whose name means “blessing of Jah“, Iddo^H5714 whose name means “timely” which remind us God has an appointed time to judge all matters.

The time that the word of the Lord comes to Zechariah is a witness to that point. The goal of having a proper foundation in Christ is witnessed by the number 24, which is 2×12=24, and the 11th month reminds us where we are before we can come to obtain a sure foundation founded upon Christ. That foundation is accomplished by “Sebat”^H7627 in the second year of Darius, which witnesses to the reality that it takes a rod of iron to bring about that transition from 11 to 12 (Act 14:22).

H7627 shebâṭ  Sebat = “a rod”
1) 11th month in the post-exilic Jewish calendar corresponding to Jan or Feb

Zec 1:8  I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white. 
Zec 1:9  Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be. 
Zec 1:10  And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.

Christ is the one who rides the red horse into our lives as we see through a glass darkly in the night (1Co 13:12) “I saw by night.

Excerpt from “Horse” (iswasandwillbe.com): “Christ is the red horse rider. Christ tells us plainly that it is He who has come to take peace away from the earth. It is Christ who rides the red horse through our lives.

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. [What does the ‘red horse’ rider carry with him?]

Rev 6:4  And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.** [end quote]

He is the one who causes us to stand, only made possible because He is in the midst of the myrtle trees, which trees represent men (Mar 8:24), specifically the body of Christ in these verses (Neh 8:15, Isa 41:19, Isa 55:13) who know their marred condition, represented by “red horses [Adam; that is without peace], speckled [marred/sin], and white [leprous in the negative sense]” that will be brought into subjection to the rider, Jesus Christ (2Co 10:5).

The horses being “behind him” assures us that we will be more than conquerors through Christ. By His power we will be able to put behind us all our childish and sinful ways, gaining dominion over them through Christ, going onto perfection on the third day (1Co 13:11, Rom 6:14, Luk 13:32).

1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 

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

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

Christ stands among the myrtle trees as the means by which we can bear fruit through the vine (Joh 15:5), which is only possible with God’s spirit being within us (Rev 22:1-2, Gen 3:8, Rev 2:7, Rom 8:9). When Christ is in our midst, we have the power to be witnesses in this world (Rev 11:3) in which we live and are coming out of at the same time (1Co 5:9-10, 2Co 6:17).

We are sent, each one of us in that sense, as apostles^G652 (which word means “sent”), “These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth“, as Christ was sent of His Father (Joh 20:21, 1Jn 4:17) to witness God’s righteousness to this world, the exact opposite of what Satan has been sent to do (Job 1:7, Job 2:2, Gen 3:9). God’s absolute power over the light and darkness, and the peace and evil (Amo 3:6) that He has created, is being demonstrated by both the elect being sent into this world as well as Satan (Job 2:6-7), each fulfilling God’s purpose as He works all things according to the counsel of His own will (Isa 45:7, Eph 1:11).

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

2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Those trees are “in the bottom” revealing that God calls and works with the weak of the world, those who are in the bottom, “the foolish things of the world to confound the wise” (1Co 1:26-27). What is behind the rider represents what God is giving us the power to overcome in our lives through Christ. As mentioned above, the speckled horse and the white horse represent the spotted flesh that cannot inherit the kingdom of God [speckled horse (Jud 1:23)] and leprous condition of our flesh [negative use of white] that also cannot inherit the kingdom. Through Christ we are more than conquerors who can put off that flesh and inherit eternal life (Rom 8:35-37).

Jud 1:23  And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

It takes the angel of the Lord, the messengers of God, who represent the church, the body of Christ (Col 1:24) to understand the interpretation of this vision of the horses, “Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me (Eph 3:10), I will shew thee what these be.“

The man (1Ti 2:5) who stood among the myrtle trees typifies Christ who is our mediator who is able to give us dominion over these powerful beasts that represent our carnal beastly minds (Ecc 3:18) against which we can only make war through Christ (Php 2:12-13, Rev 13:4).

1Ti 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

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?

Zec 1:11  And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.
Zec 1:12  Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? 

As we walk “to and for through the earth” we see that “all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest“, and we bring this report to our Lord as we sigh and cry for the abominations of the world which has found its rest in fleshly pursuits (1Co 15:32, Mat 10:39, Eze 9:4) and not in Christ who is the one with whom God’s elect labor to enter into a relationship, so that we can have true Godly rest in Him (Heb 4:11).

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

The angel of the Lord, who represents the elect, then says, “Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?” That question of the angel is the same one that is posed by the angel in Revelation 6:9-11 which reads, “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: 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? 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.” 

God’s elect know that the world must be judged and understand that judgment begins at the house of God, which judgment is described for us as God’s “indignation these threescore and ten years”. Seventy years of judgment tells us that God’s judgment must be complete upon the body of Christ in order for us to enter into the temple of God in the fullness of that relationship at the first resurrection or last trump (Rev 8:6, Rev 15:8). Because God sees the body of Christ as one body, with one spirit, this statement, “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” tells us that God knows those who are His, and that we need to possess our souls patiently as God brings the entire body of Christ to a place of maturity where we are made ready for the wedding supper. All those who have physically died in Christ are represented by those symbolic voices crying these words from the grave, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” even as we groan within ourselves the same prayer to our Father (Rom 8:22-24).

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. 
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

Zec 1:13  And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.
Zec 1:14  So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. 
Zec 1:15  And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. 

The world is helping “forward the affliction” that is coming upon it as God has ordained evil men to wax worse and worse at the end of the age (2Ti 3:13). Without God opening our heavens, we cannot understand that He is the one who is working every aspect of the evil within the city (Isa 45:7, Amo 3:6). God comforts those whom He is dragging to Himself in this age with true prophecy which is 1 Corinthians 14:3. That prophecy is the words God manifests in the church via His messengers, “the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.” While God is speaking these comforting words to the body of Christ, we are not to neglect the command of God to, “Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.“

God is jealous over the bride of Christ with a great jealousy, and yet the afflictions, persecutions, tribulation and suffering we must endure are needful for the body of Christ to mature and be made ready in the Lord so that no man takes our crown (Rev 3:11). God is using all of the creation in the way that He has ordained to move His plan forward, and He tells us, “I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction” which makes our fleshly minds go to the verses in Romans 9:18-22 which ask the question, “Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?” Why is He “sore displeased” if He’s the one who created the conditions. “Why is He setting us up for failure?” our carnal hearts cry.

Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 
Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

Zec 1:16  Therefore thus saith the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. 
Zec 1:17  Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem. 

These two verses can be summarized with what is written in Isaiah 9:6-8. Christ is the “line” that “shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.” That line represents the judgments in our lives that are symbolized by the plummet line in the hand of Zerubbabel, who is a type of Christ [God’s Word] who measures or judges us today against that word (Zec 4:10). The bride being made ready for Christ is possible by the “mercies” of God who sends Christ into our lives, returning to “Jerusalem” above (Gal 4:26), so that His “house“, which we are, can be built (1Co 3:16). 

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isa 9:7  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. 
Isa 9:8  The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. 

Zec 4:10  For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

The “My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad” is speaking of how the word of God will be prospered in the earth during the thousand-year reign (Hab 2:14, Isa 26:9) of the saints, even as it is increasing in the body of Christ today (2Pe 3:18). The difference between learning of God’s judgments and actually being changed by those judgments is only finalized in the great white throne judgment for the rest of the world. There is knowledge being disseminated throughout the thousand-year reign, but it is not a period or dispensation of grace, seeing the spirit of God is still not within humanity to bring about that inward change of heart (Rom 8:9).

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

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 

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

Zec 1:18  Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.
Zec 1:19  And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. 
Zec 1:20  And the LORD shewed me four carpenters. 
Zec 1:21  Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it. 

The four horns represent the whole resurrected body of Christ, and we only see that body when we look to our head, Jesus Christ, who guides and directs the body, and so we have that first thought being introduced, “Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns” (Psa 121:1-2).

Psa 121:1  A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
Psa 121:2  My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

God’s elect are represented in this section of His word as “four horns” which symbolize the complete power God will use to judge the world with a rod of iron during the thousand-year reign. The number ‘thousand’ correlates with “Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem“, three places connected to the people of God; in this case the whole world being judged [10x10x10=1000]. 

The judgment which comes from God’s word being in the earth will not return void and will be skillfully placed [carpenters] throughout the earth so that the witness of His truth will be complete (Isa 55:11). The function of those horns is to scatter the “scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” Three places are mentioned as this scattering represents the destroying of Babylon’s false religions through a process of judgment [3] that will unfold with a rod of iron, which we know represents God’s unchanging word. 

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

The “four carpenters” of verse 20 are the same as the “four horns” of verse 18, and it is the angel of God, the messengers, that make up the body of Christ who are commissioned to be “the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah [representing God’s elect in this instance] to scatter it.“

The goal of God’s elect as those carpenters is “come to fray^H2729 them, to cast out^{H3034 (H853)} the horns of the Gentiles” – meaning we are taking away the power of the world that has been against Christ and His Christ “which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it” (Joh 19:11).

Joh 19:11  Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

“No man did lift up his head” (vs 21) because false religions won’t be allowed on the earth, but neither will the world have the ability to, “Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns” of verse 18. which is first given to God’s elect to do.

H2729 Fray chârad
BDB Definition:
1) to tremble, quake, move about, be afraid, be startled, be terrified
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to tremble, quake (of a mountain)
1a2) to tremble (of people)
1a3) to be anxiously careful
1a4) to go or come trembling (with preposition)
1b) (Hiphil)
1b1) to cause to tremble
1b2) to drive in terror, rout (an army)

H3034 to cast out yâdâh
BDB Definition:
1) to throw, shoot, cast
1a) (Qal) to shoot (arrows)
1b) (Piel) to cast, cast down, throw down
1c) (Hiphil)
1c1) to give thanks,, laud, praise
1c2) to confess, confess (the name of God)
1d) (Hithpael)
1d1) to confess (sin)
1d2) to give thanks

A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root; used only as denominative from H3027

H3027  yâd
BDB Definition:
1) hand
1a) hand (of man)
1b) strength, power (figuratively)
1c) side (of land), part, portion (metaphorically) (figuratively)
1d) (various special, technical senses)
1d1) sign, monument
1d2) part, fractional part, share
1d3) time, repetition
1d4) axle-trees, axle
1d5) stays, support (for laver)
1d6) tenons (in tabernacle)
1d7) a phallus, a hand (meaning unsure)
1d8) wrists

The hope-filled imagery of “four carpenters” tells us that God is building something with the church being in the earth as the resurrected body of Christ (Col 1:24). However, it is in stages, and these prophetic words of Zechariah in this first chapter we’ve examined point to that beginning stage for humanity as their power to worship false Gods is taken away, and they learn of God’s righteousness through His judgments in the earth (Isa 26:9), eventually having that faith tried in the lake of fire in the second resurrection where all of humanity will have their minds purified through the great white throne judgment as opposed to the rod of iron judgment throughout the reign of the saints that does not change the heart of mankind without God’s spirit within (Rom 8:9).

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

The Book of Joshua – Part 9, Joshua 8:1-35

“For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what anyone sees, why does he also hope for it? But if we hope for that which we do not see, then we wait for it with patience” – Rom 8:24-25

[Study Aired April 22, 2023]

In Joshua 1, Israel heartily agreed to do all that the Lord said to do and was spoken by Moses and Joshua. The miracles of the Jordan being held back and Jericho’s astonishing fall and capture emboldened Israel’s heart as all-powerful. Yet, it took only one man’s sin (Achan’s) to severely flatten the entire nation’s pride. Mercifully, the Lord had only 36 of Israel’s valiant men of war die for Achan’s crime of lusting and stealing the “accursed thing”. 6×6=36, a double (2 six’s) witness for the number 6 representing all mankind, who dramatically ascend to become the idol as depicted in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2.

Mat 24:15 Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand).
Mat 24:16 Then let those in Judea flee into the mountains [to Christ and his Christ’s].
Mat 24:17 Let him on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house;
Mat 24:18 nor let him in the field turn back to take his clothes.

Achan’s sin is part of the Abomination of Desolation, the “accursed thing” sitting in his tent, the inner parts of his personal earthy temple. He precisely turned to bring into his house the accursed Babylonian cloak. Suppose that Joshua hadn’t dealt swiftly with the accursed thing; it would likely have emboldened Achan at some point to stroll through the Camp of Israel sporting his attire; the people no doubt would have likewise relaxed the word of God, and the leaven would have spread throughout all of Israel.

Ecc 8:10 And I have also seen the wicked buried and going away; and such as had acted rightly went from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city. This also is vanity.

Sometimes, to our dismay, wicked people seem to luxuriate in the wealth of their sins forever and eventually die of old age without reproof and get buried with fanfare. We, too, get buried spiritually and “forgotten in the city” since spiritual righteousness isn’t counted in Babylon as virtuous.

Ecc 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil.

If Achan’s sin wasn’t speedily disciplined, the tortuous path of the harlot Israel would have been outrageously prominent at the beginning of their chronicles rather than at their end.

Ecc 8:12 Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and prolong his days, yet I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, because they fear before him;

What a blessing that understanding is! 

Achan is us after Christ’s death! We do exactly as Achan did with prolonged days in our sins. The difference is that Israel performed in the flesh; we spiritually “little by little” cast out the giants and children of our land since we are given to fear the Lord. Achan wasn’t afforded that mercy of repentance. If we think the Lord delays His coming (within) on a certain sin, we, too, can suffer a swift spiritual stoning.

Ecc 8:13 but it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days as a shadow, because he feareth not before God.

The Lord nipped Achan’s sin in its infancy to graphically etch in Israel’s heart not to partake of trifling sins and to utterly trust in the Lord for their needs and to fight their battles. In the fall of Ai, Israel is given easy wins over her enemies to build her faith in God. Knowing the end at the beginning, we know that successive wins over sin embolden pride and joyful internal celebrations that, in turn, often lead to slothfulness and spiritual fornication and whoredoms.

Luk 21:20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem [you and I] compassed with armies [false doctrines – like Achan’s], then know that the desolation [of our old man] thereof is nigh.

The Fall of Ai

Jos 8:1 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Do not fear, nor be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.
Jos 8:2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take for a prize for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it. 
Jos 8:3 So Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, mighty warriors, and sent them away by night. 
Jos 8:4 And he commanded them, saying, Behold, you will be an ambush against the city, behind the city. You shall not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 
Jos 8:5 And I, and all the people with me, shall go toward the city. And it shall be, when they come out against us, as at the first, we will flee before them,
Jos 8:6 (for they will come out after us) until we have drawn them out of the city. For they will say, They flee before us, even as at the first. And we will flee before them.
Jos 8:7 Then you shall rise up from the ambush, and seize on the city; for Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand. 
Jos 8:8 And it shall be, when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, according to the command of Jehovah you shall do. See, I have commanded you. 
Jos 8:9 And Joshua sent them out. And they went to lie in ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai. But Joshua stayed that night among the people.
Jos 8:10 And Joshua rose up early in the morning and called up the people. And they went up, he and the elders of Israel, in the sight of the people of Ai. 
Jos 8:11 And all the people of war with him went up and drew near. And they came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai. And a valley was between them and Ai.
Jos 8:12 And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
Jos 8:13 And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city, and its rear ambush on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley. 
Jos 8:14 And it happened, when the king of Ai saw, they hurried and rose up early. And the men of the city went out to do battle against Israel, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the plain. But he did not know that there were some lying in ambush against him behind the city. 
Jos 8:15 And Joshua and all Israel acted as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
Jos 8:16 And all the people in Ai were called together to run after them. And they ran after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. 
Jos 8:17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, who did not go after Israel. And they left the city open, and ran after Israel. 
Jos 8:18 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear in his hand toward the city. 
Jos 8:19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand. And they entered into the city, and took it, and hurried and set the city on fire. 
Jos 8:20 And the men of Ai looked behind them and saw. And, behold, the smoke of the city went up into the sky, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. 
Jos 8:21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned again and killed the men of Ai.
Jos 8:22  And the others came out of the city against them. So they were in the middle of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And they struck them so that they let none of them remain or escape. 
Jos 8:23 And they took the king of Ai, and brought him alive to Joshua. 
Jos 8:24 And it happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all those who lived in Ai, in the field and in the wilderness where they chased them, and when they had all fallen on the edge of the sword until they were gone, all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. 
Jos 8:25 And all who fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, all the men of Ai. 
Jos 8:26 For Joshua did not draw his hand back, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the people of Ai. 
Jos 8:27 Only, Israel took the cattle and the spoil of that city for a prize for themselves, according to the Word of Jehovah which He commanded Joshua. 
Jos 8:28 And Joshua burned Ai, and made it a heap forever, a ruin to this day. 
Jos 8:29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his body down from the tree and throw it down at the entrance to the gate of the city, and raise on it a great heap of stones, to this day.

Joshua Renews the Covenant

Jos 8:30 Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel in Mount Ebal, 
Jos 8:31 as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man has lifted any iron. And they offered on it burnt offerings to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace offerings.
Jos 8:32 And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the sons of Israel.
Jos 8:33 And all Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark, and on that side, before the priests the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, the stranger as well as the homeborn among them, half of them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded before that they should bless all the people of Israel.
Jos 8:34 And afterward he read all the words of the Law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the Law. 
Jos 8:35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that walked among them. 

The Study:

Jos 8:1 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Do not fear, nor be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.

Particularly for a babe in Christ, it is easy to be dismayed, and even for a long-time Christian, the trials can appear severe. Yet, the Lord will only permit Satan’s hand to try us in accordance with one’s God-given faith. When we first experience the fiery trials, our turmoil can be extreme and sometimes boils up additional filth embedded in the earth of our ‘tent’.

Isa 57:20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. (Eph 4:14-16 “… tossed to and fro carried about by every wind of doctrine…”; Psa 107:23-31 “… They who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters…”)

However, the Lord’s people learn by experience to immutably trust Christ’s strength to afford an expectedly joyous end to their trials. In our spiritual infancy, the Lord gives us the triumph over our imagined most feared king, and we see that he is but Ai (H5857) – ‘a heap of ruins’ who never had any strength against us from the beginning. 

Eph 6:10 Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 
Eph 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world’s rulers, of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Jos 8:2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take for a prize for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it. 

No doubt Israel felt exasperated that they were permitted to keep the spoil and cattle this time, which seemed a cruel mockery to the now-dead Achan and his family had he just waited a few days.

Our lesson is to listen closely to what our Lord says, heed all His commands, and note the subtle spiritual differences. If He says something is “accursed”, then believe it. The “goodly Babylonish garment” is innocuous, as is unclean meat. Yet spiritually, it still represents our “accursed” self-righteous clothing. To wear it would give the appearance of evil and possibly offend our brother (1Th 5:24).

If we heed the trumpet blown within our city, that observation is the ambush we lay against our internal old man within.

Jos 8:3 So Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, mighty warriors, and sent them away by night. 
Jos 8:4 And he commanded them, saying, Behold, you will be an ambush against the city, behind the city. You shall not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 

Typically we know that the multiple of three by ten (or 100 or 1,000) is the Lord teaching Israel physically, and us spiritually, that routing our land of the enemy is a process for the long-standing completion of becoming one in our Lord.

As the saying goes, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. In kind, the ambushing of our enemies and not going very far from the evil city warns us to pay attention to the machinations of our spiritual enemies. These enemies of a deceitful heart in the darkness of our low spiritual points can conversely ambush us if we are not supported by the symbolic thirty-thousand multitude counselors in the Body of Christ (Jer 17:9; Gen 6:5; Mar 7:21-22). 

Jos 8:5 And I, and all the people with me, shall go toward the city. And it shall be, when they come out against us, as at the first, we will flee before them,
Jos 8:6 (for they will come out after us) until we have drawn them out of the city. For they will say, They flee before us, even as at the first. And we will flee before them. 
Jos 8:7 Then you shall rise up from the ambush, and seize on the city; for Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand. 

Even though scripture says that Jehovah said such and such to Joshua, in all likelihood Joshua, as did many men and women of old, audibly heard the Lord. Today, our Lord speaks to us through His word and our thoughts, teachers, and brethren, echoing discernments. He is teaching Israel and us to first search our temple within, kill the accursed thing, and then go to war with the whole armour of Christ.

The battle is the Lord’s, even though in the flesh, under the Law, men were required to brutally kill the enemy. Spiritually we know that the Lord says vengeance is His; turn the other cheek, and that method today is our ambush; meanwhile, we look weak and silly before our enemies as we seem to run away.

1Co 1:27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28 and God has chosen the base things of the world, and things which are despised, and things which are not, in order to bring to nothing things that are; 
1Co 1:29 so that no flesh should glory in His presence.
1Co 1:30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption; 
1Co 1:31 so that, according as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

Joshua is a type of Christ staying in our midst as we look to Christ for direction and to win our battles. Our enemies will pursue us, but we wait for the Lord’s fiery intervention in the long night and defeat our enemies at dawn.

Deu 32:35 Vengeance and retribution belong to Me. Their foot shall slide in time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come on them make haste. 
Deu 32:36 For Jehovah will bring His people justice; and He shall have compassion on His servants, for He sees that their power is gone, and only the imprisoned and abandoned remain.
Deu 32:37 And He shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted?
Deu 32:38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let it be your hiding place. 
Deu 32:39 See now that I, I am He, and there is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is no deliverer out of My hand.
Deu 32:40 For I lift up My hand to Heaven and say, I live forever! 
Deu 32:41 If I sharpen My glittering sword, and if My hand takes hold in judgment, I will give vengeance to My enemies and will reward those that hate Me. 
Deu 32:42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the hairy scalp of the enemy. 
Deu 32:43 Rejoice, O, nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His foes and will be merciful to His land, to His people. 
Deu 32:44 And Moses came [being said by Moses before his death at the border of the Promised Land] and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.

Rom 12:17 Repay no one evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
Rom 12:18 If it is possible, as far as is in you, being in peace with all men.
Rom 12:19 not avenging yourselves, beloved, but giving place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Rom 12:20 Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink. For in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head.
Rom 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Jos 8:8 And it shall be, when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, according to the command of Jehovah you shall do. See, I have commanded you.
Jos 8:9 And Joshua sent them out. And they went to lie in ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai. But Joshua stayed that night among the people.
Jos 8:10 And Joshua rose up early in the morning and called up the people. And they went up, he and the elders of Israel, in the sight of the people of Ai.
Jos 8:11 And all the people of war with him went up and drew near. And they came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai. And a valley was between them and Ai.
Jos 8:12 And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. 
Jos 8:13 And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city, and its rear ambush on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley. 
Jos 8:14 And it happened, when the king of Ai saw, they hurried and rose up early. And the men of the city went out to do battle against Israel, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the plain. But he did not know that there were some lying in ambush against him behind the city.

The mighty warriors of Ai took the bait and launched a full-scale attack on Israel to the west, not knowing that massive judgment comes from the north. To Ai’s troop’s shock and horror, while out on the plain pursuing a pitiful fleeing band of Israelites, the ‘light’ of realisation from the east dashed all hope of returning to the safety of the city’s walls; they were surrounded!

Psalms 75 seems to contradict that judgment comes from the north, and the light of Christ comes from the east. King David, who wrote Psalms, was an unwitting prophet of spiritual understanding, as was Solomon in the Song of Solomon. Both men unconsciously forecast that the physical represents the spiritual, and in the case of Psalms 75, Christ is the judge regardless of the perfect compass allegory.

Psa 75:1 To the Chief Musician. Do not destroy. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song. To You, O God, we have given thanks, to You we have given thanks; for Your name is near, Your wonderful works declared.
Psa 75:2 When I take the appointed time, I will judge uprightly. 
Psa 75:3 The earth and all its people are melting away; I hold up its pillars. Selah. 
Psa 75:4 I said to the proud, Do not boast; and to the wicked, Do not lift up the horn; 
Psa 75:5 do not lift up your horn on high; nor speak with a stiff neck. 
Psa 75:6 For lifting up comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 
Psa 75:7 But God is the judge; He puts down one and sets up another. 
Psa 75:8 For in the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed; and He pours out from it; but the dregs of it, all the wicked of the earth shall drain its dregs and drink. 
Psa 75:9 But I will declare forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
Psa 75:10 Also I will cut off all the horns of the wicked; but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

Conversely, when surrounded by our enemies and in dire straits, our trust in the Lord is precisely the same as when we, as Israel, were the aggressor against our enemies. In the same environment today as Christ’s Christs, we become the scorn of our Babylonian peers.

Of course, writing the Psalms as Solomon penned the Song of Solomon, David unwittingly prophesied spiritually. David below accurately speaks of Christ on the cross, and we fill up the same spiritual afflictions behind Christ’s flesh spiritually.

Psa 22:11 Be not far from Me; for trouble is near, for there is none to help. 
Psa 22:12 Many bulls have circled around Me; strong bulls Of Bashan have surrounded Me. 
Psa 22:13 They opened wide their mouths on Me, like a ripping and a roaring lion. 
Psa 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all My bones are spread apart; My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels. 
Psa 22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue clings to My jaws; 
Psa 22:16 and You have brought Me into the dust of death. For dogs have circled around Me; the band of spoilers have hemmed Me in, piercers of My hands and My feet. 
Psa 22:17 I can count all My bones; they look and stare at Me. 
Psa 22:18 They divide My garments among them and cast lots for My clothing.
Psa 22:19 But You, O Jehovah, be not far from Me; O My strength, hurry to help Me!
Psa 22:20 Deliver My soul from the sword, My only one from the dog’s hand.
Psa 22:21 Save Me from the lion’s mouth; from the wild oxen’s horns. You have answered Me. 

Heb 12:1 Therefore since we also are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 
Heb 12:2 looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right of the throne of God.

Jos 8:15 And Joshua and all Israel acted as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
Jos 8:16 And all the people in Ai were called together to run after them. And they ran after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. 
Jos 8:17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, who did not go after Israel. And they left the city open, and ran after Israel. 

Joshua and his armies in the above verses are a near-perfect replication of our daily fight against our spiritual enemies. Little do our Babylonian peers know that an ambush against our sins is set not by us but by Christ as we wait for His delivery while suffering derision. The leering world would like Christ’s Christs, with their coats of many colours, to fall in their sin and be like them. In the negative, the “silly women”:

Psa 35:19 Let not those who are my lying enemies rejoice over me, those who hate me without cause wink with the eye.
Psa 35:20 For they do not speak peace; but they think deceitful things against the quiet ones of the earth. 
Psa 35:21 And they widen their mouths against me; they say, Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen. 
Psa 35:22 You have seen, O Jehovah; do not keep silence; O Jehovah, do not be far from me. 
Psa 35:23 Stir up Yourself and awaken to my judgment, to my cause, my God and my Lord. 
Psa 35:24 Judge me, O Jehovah my God, according to Your righteousness; and do not let them rejoice over me. 

2Pe 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 
2Pe 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 

Pro 14:9 Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour.

Mat 20:18 Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 
Mat 20:19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

Hos 7:11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria [an “ambush”].
Hos 7:12 When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.

Pro 7:6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, 
Pro 7:7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, 
Pro 7:8 Passing through the street near her [a known harlot, or simply an overly sensual friend] corner; and he went the way to her house [it’s the semi-consciousness of an “ambush”].

Of course, you may read the entire account in Proverbs 7 about that young man, who is you and I, not alert enough to the “ambush” Satan has set by the Lord’s hands to see if we will obey His commands.

Not a man left in the heathen city of Ai who didn’t go out to fight Israel is synonymous with Christ and His Christs being scorned and attacked from all sides in Babylon, yet we know that nothing will prevail against God’s spirit. 

Psa 17:8  Keep me as the pupil, the daughter of the eye; hide me under the shadow of Your wings, 
Psa 17:9  from the face of the wicked who strip me. Those against my soul, My foes, encircle me. 
Psa 17:10 They are enclosed in their own fat; with their mouth they speak proudly, 
Psa 17:11 they have now hemmed in our steps, they have set their eyes to bow me to the earth, 
Psa 17:12 their likeness is like a lion that longs to tear, and like a young lion lurking in secret places. 
Psa 17:13 Arise, O Jehovah, disappoint him, bow him down; deliver my soul from the wicked by Your sword, 
Psa 17:14 from men by Your hand, O Jehovah, from men of the world whose portion is in this life, and whose belly You fill with Your treasure. They are satisfied with sons, and will leave their riches to their babes. 
Psa 17:15 As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with Your image. 

Jas 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Jos 8:18 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear in his hand toward the city. 

The term “stretch out”, a person’s hand, spear, or rod, is a distinct action repeated in scripture that denotes complete trust and faith in the Lord that He will do what He says based on the steadfast trust He has given us without assured evidence of the outcome.

Fledgling Israel’s entire experiences were for their growing faith in their Lord that He would follow through with His blessings if they did all He commanded.

Exo 3:20 And I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in the midst of it. And after that he will let you go.

Exo 8:16 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron: Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the land, so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. 

Being saved by hope is only achieved by the fearful experience of repeatedly being surrounded by our enemies, knowing that we do not have the “accursed thing” hidden in our hearts. We need to categorically know we have a clean conscience before the battle. It’s like leaving the house an hour ago and wondering if you turned the iron off. With that certainty, we confidently and patiently wait for the command of the Lord’s raised spear to charge at our enemy for an assured outcome.

Jos 8:19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand. And they entered into the city, and took it, and hurried and set the city on fire. 

Once again, our Lord is our ambush and our spear.

1Sa 17:47 And all this multitude shall know that Jehovah does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is Jehovah’s, and He will give you [our enemies] into our hands.

Jos 8:20 And the men of Ai looked behind them and saw. And, behold, the smoke of the city went up into the sky, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. 

Just as Lot’s wife turned to see the smoke of the cities of the plain go up, she was turned into a pillar of salt and “had no power to flee this way or that way” (Gen 19:26). However, we strain forward into the battle knowing that our Lord goes before us as we forget our forgiven past failings. 

Php 3:13 My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession [of eternal life], but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before [as if through hope I have already attained the resurrection to life],
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

Jos 8:21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned again and killed the men of Ai.
Jos 8:22  And the others came out of the city against them. So they were in the middle of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And they struck them so that they let none of them remain or escape.
Jos 8:23 And they took the king of Ai, and brought him alive to Joshua. 

Many years later, no doubt King Saul read the chronicles of Joshua’s audacious battle against Ai and, in all likelihood, carelessly employed the same battle rules with the Amalekites by keeping the valuable spoils, including King Agag. Joshua’s and Saul’s accounts of engaging the enemy are for our learning. Consistently throughout scripture, we are charged to precisely follow Christ’s word. If we are slothful in that service, we can expect an ambush.

1Jn 2:3 And by this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commandments. 
1Jn 2:4 He who says, I have known Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1Jn 2:5 But whoever keeps His Word, truly in this one the love of God is perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. 
1Jn 2:6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked. 

Jos 8:24 And it happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all those who lived in Ai, in the field and in the wilderness where they chased them, and when they had all fallen on the edge of the sword until they were gone, all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. 
Jos 8:25 And all who fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, all the men of Ai. 

Just as twelve thousand (number of foundation in darkness and light) enemies of Israel died, in a dual witness, it represents the entire world committed to death at the end of the one-thousand year rule of the rod of iron.

1Co 15:50 And I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive. 
1Co 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the first-fruit, and afterward they who are Christ’s at His coming; 

Jos 8:26 For Joshua did not draw his hand back, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the people of Ai. 
Jos 8:27 Only, Israel took the cattle and the spoil of that city for a prize for themselves, according to the Word of Jehovah which He commanded Joshua. 
Jos 8:28 And Joshua burned Ai, and made it a heap forever, a ruin to this day. 
Jos 8:29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his body down from the tree, throw it down at the entrance to the city gate, and raise on it a great heap of stones, to this day.

The king of Ai is us nailed to our cross as we daily fill up what is behind of Christ’s afflictions. We die and are buried under the great heap of stones that are our brothers and sisters in Christ heaped on Him, the foundational stone.

Deu 21:22 And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and if he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, 
Deu 21:23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree. But you shall surely bury him that day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God), so that your land may not be defiled, which Jehovah your God gives you for an inheritance.

The Elect of God is the first to spiritually die under Christ, our altar.

Rev 6:9 And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held. 
Rev 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, Until when, Master, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? 
Rev 6:11 And white robes were given to each one of them. And it was said to them that they should rest yet for a little time, until both their fellow servants and their brothers (those about to be killed as they were ) should have their number made complete

The king of Ai and the world are not cursed by staying hung on the tree overnight as a metaphor for being raised immortal in order of the resurrection to judgment for their dawning of righteousness. That process is depicted in “The Valley of Dry Bones” (Ezekiel 37). 

Joshua Renews the Covenant

Jos 8:30 Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel in Mount Ebal [Phon ‘ay-bawl’ meaning a stone or bare mountain], 
Jos 8:31 as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man has lifted any iron. And they offered on it burnt offerings to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace offerings.

We are Christ’s workmanship of “whole [lively] stones”. The world has created, by their spiritual craftsmanship with iron tools, another Jesus for themselves in their own likeness; unwittingly the man of perdition.

Jos 8:32 And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the sons of Israel.

This is the third copy of the ‘Stone Tablets’ for a witness and completion of judgment against Israel.

Jos 8:33 And all Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark, and on that side, before the priests the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, the stranger as well as the homeborn among them, half of them over against Mount Gerizim [H1630 – origin H1629 – to cut off; destroyed], and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded before that they should bless all the people of Israel. 
Jos 8:34 And afterward he read all the words of the Law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the Law. 

The division of Israel against the two mountains symbolises the coming division of Israel into two women, one from Mt Sinai and the other from the heavenly Jerusalem above. One is destroyed, the other (Christ) is a great (bare) stone mountain. The strangers in Israel’s midst represent the unclean of the world outside of the Camp who would come to represent everybody being acceptable to Christ and salvation as revealed to Peter (“get up and eat” [Acts 10:9-48]).

Jos 8:35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that walked among them.

The stark account of Achan’s sin is immensely positive because he represents Christ’s Christs (plural). They have learned to keep all the commandments of their Lord as they weep between the porch and the altar in dying daily, thus renewing the covenant spiritually and thus saving their brothers. 

Joe 2:12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 
Joe 2:13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 
Joe 2:14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? 
Joe 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: 
Joe 2:16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 
Joe 2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? 

Rom 8:22 And we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. 
Rom 8:23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our body. 
Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what anyone sees, why does he also hope for it? 
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that which we do not see, then we wait for it with patience.