Ezekiel 34:17-31 The Shepherds of Israel – Part II

[Study Aired October 21, 2024]

INTRODUCTION

In today’s study, we shall continue the second part of Ezekiel chapter 34. The first part of this chapter dealt with the shepherds of Israel who were feeding themselves, instead of the flock of the Lord under their care. As a result, the Lord’s children are scattered, that is, they wander about like lost sheep without a shepherd.

Today’s study focuses on the Lord coming to us to separate us from the flock of cattle and to make us lie in green pastures as He leads us besides the still waters.

Psa 23:1  A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psa 23:2  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Psa 23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Psa 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psa 23:5  Thou preparest table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Psa 23:6  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

The Lord also assures us that He is the good shepherd after the order of David who will make a covenant of peace with us. The latter part of the study reveals what this covenant of peace entails.

The Lord will Judge Between Cattle and Cattle

Eze 34:17  And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. 

The flock of the Lord consists of the ninety-nine sheep which have no need of repentance and the one sheep which has gone astray that knows her situation and therefore becomes repentant. We, the Lord’s elect are the one-sheep that went astray. The ninety-nine sheep represent Babylon or the physical churches of this world signified by the Pharisees and scribes that need no repentance.

Luk 15:3  And he spake this parable unto them (Pharisees and scribes), saying,
Luk 15:4  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Luk 15:5  And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luk 15:6  And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
Luk 15:7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

The word “judge” by implication, means to vindicate or punish according to Strong’s Dictionary. Judging between cattle and cattle and between the rams and the he-goats in verse 1 therefore means justifying the righteous and condemning the wicked as indicated in the following verses:

Deu 25:1  If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

Deu 1:16  And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.

The Lord is the one who is vindicating us, His elect, even though we went astray at a certain stage of our walk with Him. This vindication is at the expense of our brothers and sisters in Babylon who think they are righteous and need no repentance.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Eze 34:18  Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? 

This verse is another way of saying that after we have received the gold and silver which signify the truth of His words, when we started walking with the Lord, we turn around and use His gold and silver to make images of men. The images of men means the false doctrines of man’s wisdom and tradition. In other words, the good pasture that we have eaten in verse 18 represents the truth of the Lord’s words and trampling our feet on the pastures means having human imprint on the truth of His words which means churning up false doctrines of man’s wisdom and tradition. That is what characterized our walk in the churches of this world.

Again, drinking from the deep water in verse 18 refers to taking in clean water which symbolizes the truth of the word of the Lord, and muddying the water with our feet means turning the truth of the Lord’s words into false doctrines of man’s wisdom and tradition. As a result, we have sacrificed the Lord’s sons and daughters or His elect to be devoured by the enemy. In the sight of the Lord, this is a grievous offence.

Eze 16:13  Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
Eze 16:14  And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
Eze 16:16  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
Eze 16:18  And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
Eze 16:19  My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 16:20  Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter?

Eze 34:19  And as for my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet. 
Eze 34:20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. 

As we have indicated, the trodden food and water with our feet refers to the false doctrines of man’s wisdom and tradition which was what we ate and drank during our sojourn in the churches of this world. As a result, we became food for the beasts of the field. That is to say that we became dominated by our flesh or our old man who is powered by the devil. Since we have been chosen by God before the foundation of this world, the Lord comes to us in the fulness of time to vindicate us through His judgement of our old man. This is what it means to judge between the fat cattle and the lean cattle, indicated in verse 20. The lean cattle refers to us, His elect and the fat cattle signifies our brothers and sisters in Babylon who seem to be spiritually rich or fat in this life but are spiritually lean.

Psa 37:20  But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.

This reminds me of Joseph’s dream where the lean-fleshed cattle ate up the fat-fleshed cattle. This signifies that as the lean-fleshed cattle of the Lord (the Lord’s elect), we shall dominate, that is rule over our brothers and sisters in Babylon who represent the fat-fleshed cattle, in the fulness of time.

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.

It is insightful to note that in Genesis 41:21, the lean-fleshed cattle were not looking different even after they had eaten up the fat-fleshed cattle. This is to let us know that even though we are called and chosen of the Lord (lean cattle), and therefore we are destined to rule over our brothers and sisters in Babylon (fat cattle), our current situation does not depict our rulership status as we still grapple with the evil experience (judgement) the Lord has given to us in this life.

Ecc 1:13  And I gave my heart to seek and to investigate by wisdom concerning all which is done under the heavens. It is an evil task God has given to the sons of men, to be afflicted by it.

Eze 34:21  Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; 
Eze 34:22 Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.

Verse 21 is telling us that the fat cattle push the skinny ones with their sides and shoulders. When we were in Babylon as the Lord’s elect, we were dominated by the fat sheep of Babylon as we were blown by every wind of doctrine propagated by these fat cattle in Babylon. It is instructive to note in verse 21 that the diseased are pushed about with the horns of the fat ones until they scattered abroad. The horns here symbolize the strength the Lord has given to the churches of this world to scatter us as diseased cattle by every wind of doctrine in Babylon.

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;

This strength that the Lord has given to the fat cattle of Babylon through their horns is to ensure that ‘hearing we shall hear and not understand and seeing we shall see and not perceive’. As a result, we become scattered or divided by doctrine. The various denominations and church systems of this world therefore attest to the fact that the flock of the Lord are scattered.

Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
Isa 6:11  Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
Isa 6:12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

In our time in Babylon, we were also scattered as the Lord’s elect until the Lord came to us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness to judge between cattle and cattle as indicated in verse 22. The Lord coming to us is to save us through His judgement and as a result, vindicates us from the other cattle of the Lord ‘who need no repentance’. We were therefore the fat cattle whom the Lord is sending leanness to us through His judgement.

Isa 10:16  Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

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

Eze 34:23  And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. 
Eze 34:24 And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it. 

Our deliverance from the physical churches of this world implies the coming of the Lord’s elect into the church of the firstborn or the assembly of the Lord where we are shepherded by our Lord Jesus Christ, symbolized here in verse 23 as the Lord’s servant David. It is the Lord who comes to us with His words as we are fed by His words through what every joint supplies.

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Heb 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

It is in the church of the firstborn or the elect that the Lord raises ministers of the gospel to perfect us as we come into the unity of the faith such that we no longer are tossed about by every wind of doctrine.

Eph 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Eph 4:12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
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.

The Lord Jesus Christ, symbolized in both verses 23 and 24 by David, is the good shepherd or the prince among us who ensures that we are well fed such that we lack nothing. It is our Lord who makes us to rest in Him, as He feeds us in the green pastures and causes us to drink the still waters.

Psa 23:1  A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psa 23:2  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Psa 23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Psa 23:4  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psa 23:5  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Psa 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

The Lord’s Covenant of Peace

Eze 34:25  And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. 

The Lord’s making with us the covenant of peace implies that what He has said, He will surely bring to completion.  This is the covenant of peace that the Lord has made with us, His elect:

Heb 6:16  For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Heb 6:17  Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
Heb 6:18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
Heb 6:20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

It is worth noting that this covenant of peace entails the Lord causing the evil beasts to cease out of our land. In other words, the Lord shall destroy our old man or flesh such that we shall not be dominated by it. This is a process which takes a lifetime and it is accomplished through the judgement of our old man which causes us to learn righteousness.

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
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.

Psa 119:67  Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

Psa 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

Our walk in this world is like walking through the wilderness. Here in verse 25, the Lord’s covenant of peace is assuring us that we shall dwell safely in the wilderness such that we shall be able to sleep in the woods and not worry about any beast devouring us. Being able to dwell safely in this life means trusting in the Lord with all our hearts and not leaning on our own understanding. That is what makes the Lord our refuge and fortress. We can see that all of this is the work of the Lord. Being able to sleep in the woods means resting in the Lord which implies having the confidence that what He has started in us, He shall bring to completion.

Psa 91:1  He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Psa 91:2  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Psa 91:3  Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
Psa 91:4  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Psa 91:5  Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Psa 91:6  Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
Psa 91:7  A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
Psa 91:8  Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
Psa 91:9  Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
Psa 91:10  There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
Psa 91:11  For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
Psa 91:12  They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Psa 91:13  Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Psa 91:14  Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
Psa 91:15  He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
Psa 91:16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

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

Eze 34:26 And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. 

Here in this verse, the Lord is assuring us of being a blessing. What does it mean to be a blessing? In the Bible, the first time that the Lord said that someone will be a blessing was the case of Abraham when the Lord visited him to tell him to leave his country and kindred and go to the land of Canaan.

Gen 12:1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

Later, the Lord appeared to Abraham to assure him of his descendants inheriting the land by making a covenant with him. This implies that being a blessing entails being a possessor of the land of promise. Abraham being a blessing therefore means that it was through his walk of faith that ensured that the people of Israel were able to possess the land of Canaan.

Gen 28:3  And God Almighty bless thee (Jacob), and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
Gen 28:4  And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.

As we are aware, the land signifies our bodies which we must possess to qualify us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord. The Lord telling us that we shall become a blessing therefore implies that it is as we overcome the flesh and take possession of our bodies that we shall be a blessing to the whole world. Our walk of faith to overcome the flesh and possess our bodies will pave the way for all humanity to be blessed as they also overcome the old man.

In verse 26, we are also told that the places round about the Lord’s hill shall also become a blessing.  The Lord’s hill refers to the assembly of the Lord’s elect which is a blessing to us as we receive from what every joint supplies.

The showers coming down in its season means that we shall receive the truth of the word of the Lord at the appropriate time of the Lord which is the acceptable year of the Lord for our lives.

Isa 61:1  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
Isa 61:2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

Eze 34:27  And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. 

We were those who served themselves of the people of the Lord during our time in the physical churches of this world. It is when we have broken the bands of the yoke of Babylon that we can experience the yielding of the fruit of the tree of the field as well as the increase of the earth. The tree of the field is man’s life as shown in the following verse:

Deu 20:19  When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man’s life) to employ them in the siege:

The tree of the field yielding her fruit therefore means that we shall produce fruit in our due season. That means that we shall produce the fruit of the spirit in our lives at the appointed time of the Lord. The earth refers to us, the Lord’s people. The earth yielding her increase therefore means that we shall bear the fruit of the spirit. Bearing fruit is through the Lord’s judgement of our old man or flesh. It is through this judgement experience that we shall come to know the Lord. This judgement of the Lord takes place in our lives after we leave Babylon.

Eze 34:28  And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. 

When we are privileged to be judged in this life, we no longer become prey to the heathen and the beast of the land. The heathen and the beast of the land are the same and refer to our old man or our flesh. The judgement of the Lord destroys the influence of the flesh or the old man in our lives as we learn righteousness and therefore we are no longer afraid of the flesh. That is when we shall dwell safely in the secret place of the most high as we abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Psa 91:1  He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Psa 91:2  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

Eze 34:29  And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. 
Eze 34:30  Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD. 
Eze 34:31  And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD. 

Here in verse 29, the Lord is saying that He will give us a place that is known for its good crops so that we will no longer experience hunger in the land and bear the shame of the heathen. Bearing the shame of the heathen means living according to the standards of this world. Spiritually, what the Lord is telling us is that He will not only open our eyes and ears to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but also give us the power to live according to His words. That is what will make us not bear the shame of the heathen. Verse 29 is therefore the same as Revelation 9:13-14 where we are given to hear the voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God as we are loosed from the great river Euphrates (false doctrines).

Rev 9:13  And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
Rev 9:14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

It is as we are loosed from the river Euphrates that we come to see who the Lord is. That is when our understand is deepened to appreciate that we are indeed the spiritual house of Israel, that is, the Lord’s elect, and also the sheep of His pasture!!

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Jer 28:1-7  When the Word of the Prophet Shall Come to Pass, Then Shall the Prophet be Known

[Study Aired January 9, 2022]

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:3  Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
Jer 28:4  And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:5  Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
Jer 28:6  Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD’S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.
Jer 28:7  Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
Jer 28:8  The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
Jer 28:9  The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.
Jer 28:10  Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and brake it.
Jer 28:11  And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
Jer 28:12  Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 28:13  Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.
Jer 28:14  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
Jer 28:15  Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
Jer 28:16  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.
Jer 28:17  So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

The events of our last study took place “in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah.” In that study Jeremiah the prophet had made a wooden yoke and placed it upon his own neck and had messengers with yokes go from the court of King Zedekiah to all the pagan nations surrounding Israel and the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The message they were to take to the pagan kings surrounding Judah was the same as the message Jeremiah was giving to King Jehoiakim and the people of Judah, many years earlier in the days of King Jehoiakim. That message was that they would one and all be given by the Lord into the hand of the king of Babylon. No one would escape. “All nations” and “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” will serve the king of Babylon.

Spiritually the book of Revelation takes the historical fulfillment of Jeremiah’s words of warning as a prophecy that “all nations” will be placed under the spiritual harlot, ‘Babylon the great’, and the beast she rides upon:

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

In scripture women symbolize churches and religions, and Pagan Babylon is referred to in the feminine gender riding on a beast:

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication [false doctrines], and the kings of the earth have committed fornication [false doctrines] with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies [false doctrines].

In chapter 26 Jeremiah almost lost his life for telling King Jehoiakim and the people of Judah and Jerusalem that the Lord would make Jerusalem and Judah “like Shiloh” and ‘take away the glory’ of Judah and Jerusalem if they refused to repent of their trespasses and their self-righteous iniquity against the Lord and all His commandments.

Chapter 27 begins with:

Jer 27:1  In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 27:2  Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,
Jer 27:3  And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;
Jer 27:4  And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;
Jer 27:5  I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
Jer 27:6  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

In verse 12 of this same 27^th chapter, Jeremiah delivers the same message to the king of Judah:

Jer 27:12  I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Jer 27:13  Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
Jer 27:14  Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:15  For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.
Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:17  Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?

Jeremiah’s message did not change from one king to the next. It began in the reign of Josiah, the most righteous king Judah ever had, and it ended in the reign of Zedekiah, Josiah’s brother, who was Judah’s last king before being carried away into Babylonian captivity.

During Jeremiah’s entire prophetic career, the Lord had firmly established him as one of His bona-fide and divinely approved prophets by having him foretell the fate of all King Josiah’s sons, who ascended the throne after him, beginning with Shallum, the immediate successor of his father, King Josiah. Shallum was deposed by Pharaohnecho who replaced him with his brother, Eliakim, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Then the Pharaoh took Shallum, also called ‘Jehoahaz’, to Egypt where he remained until the time of his death.

2Ki 23:34  And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz [Shallum] away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.

Before any of this happened, here is what the Lord had Jeremiah to prophesy concerning the fate of King Shallum, an Old Testament type of our rebellious, self-righteous ’old man’:

Jer 22:11  For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
Jer 22:12  But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.

This prophecy concerning King Shallum is one of many which confirm this verse in the New Testament:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood [our self-righteous, rebellious old man] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Pharaoh replaced Shallum (Jehoahaz) with Shallum’s brother, Eliakim, whose name he changed to Jehoiakim, and to further establish Jeremiah’s credentials as a true prophet of God, this is what the Lord told Jeremiah concerning the fate of Jehoiakim, a type of another stage of our old man:

Jer 22:18  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
Jer 22:19  He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

This is what happened to Jehoiakim:

2Ch 36:5  Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.
2Ch 36:6  Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.
2Ch 36:7  Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.
2Ch 36:8  Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

Babylon is certainly “beyond the gates of Jerusalem”. The fact that we are told he “slept with his fathers” does not mean he was brought back to Jerusalem to be buried as some have contended:

2Ki 24:6  So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

We all “sleep with our fathers” when we die, regardless of where we are located or where we are buried.

2Ch 26:23  So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.

“The field of burial” was not in Jerusalem proper, yet we are told “[Uzziah] slept with his fathers”. The same was true of King Ahaz, the father of King Hezekiah:

2Ch 28:27  And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.

It was King Jehoiakim who had the prophet Urijah slain for saying the same thing Jeremiah said concerning the judgment of Judah and Jerusalem:

Jer 26:20  And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:
Jer 26:21  And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt;
Jer 26:22  And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt.
Jer 26:23  And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.
Jer 26:24  Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

Jehoiakim reaped what he had sown. He died as Jeremiah had prophesied and was given “the burial of an ass”, and Jeremiah was further established as the Lord’s prophet who never once prophesied anything which did not come to pass.

Jeremiah’s unbroken track record continues with his prophecy of the fate of Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin, who briefly succeeded his father to the throne:

Jer 22:24  As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah [another name for Jehoiachin] the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;
Jer 22:25  And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jer 22:26  And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
Jer 22:27  But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.
Jer 22:28  Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Jer 22:30  Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Exactly as the Lord had revealed to Jeremiah, so it happened to Jehoiachin, also called ‘Jeconiah’ and ‘Coniah’:

2Ki 24:15  And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
2Ki 24:16  And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.
2Ki 24:17  And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father’s brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

No son of Jehoiachin ever “sat upon the throne of David”. Instead, King Nebuchadnezzar placed Jehoiachin’s great uncle, the brother of King Josiah, who was Jehoiachin’s grandfather, upon the throne of David, and Zedekiah was the last king of the nation of Judah.

With all these fulfilled prophecies one might think that King Zedekiah would be afraid to cross Jeremiah who had proven to be a true prophet of God. Nevertheless, as we will see in this 28^th chapter, such is not the case. Zedekiah is far more concerned with what the people think than with what God has to say.

Jeremiah had been commissioned by God to warn the people, the priests and the king against listening to any prophet who denied that the Lord was in the process of punishing His people for their trespasses against Him. He prophesied that the Lord’s own nation would serve the king of Babylon and that they should ignore any prophet who said otherwise:

Jer 27:7  And all nations shall serve him [Nebuchadnezzar], and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.
Jer 27:8  And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
Jer 27:9  Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:
Jer 27:10  For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

The spirit which was in the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day is the very same spirit which was in the false prophets of Christ’s day who said:

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?

This is the very same spirit which today shouts out, “I have never blasphemed the name of God, and He will never pour out the seven plagues of His wrath on me.” Our calling is the calling of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s calling typified the calling the Father had given Christ to speak for Him and to warn His own people that if we do not fulfill the seven plagues of His wrath in our lives, then we will never enter the temple of God:

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

The Lord brings this message to ‘King Zedekiah’ within us, and we do not want to hear His words:

Jer 27:12  I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Jer 27:13  Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
Jer 27:14  Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:15  For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.
Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon:
Jer 27:17  Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?
Jer 27:18  But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.
Jer 27:19  For thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city,
Jer 27:20  Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;
Jer 27:21  Yea, thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;
Jer 27:22  They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

“I spake to Zedekiah, king of Judah according to all these words…” (Jer 27:12). This statement is a type of the witness the Lord has given each of us. Zedekiah is a type of our own self-righteous ‘king’ sitting on the throne of God within the ‘temple’ of our bodies. The reluctance of Zedekiah to believe the words of this thrice-proven prophet of God typifies our love of family, friends, and the society in which we live, more than our fear of and our love of an “invisible God” who communicates His “manifold wisdom” to mankind through other men:

Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

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

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11  According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

1Ti 1:17  Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be  honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

We cannot help rebelling against His ways and resenting the leaders He places over us because that is how the Lord has made all men. We are all made of the dust of the ground. We are all made “corruptible… flesh and blood” which just naturally wants to do what we are told not to do, and we all just naturally justify ourselves with “the stumbling block of our iniquity”:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

What exactly is this “stumbling block of [our] iniquity”? Obviously, it is our iniquity which is:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his [“own righteousness”] iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

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

Our story today “happened to [the people of Jeremiah’s day] and it is written for our admonition” (1Co 10:11). These events demonstrate just how weak we all are when we are faced with being alienated from our families, our friends and from the society around us:

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,

This is the only mention in scripture of “Azur the prophet”, so we know nothing more about him. “The same year” refers to the time immediately preceding, as laid out in the previous chapter:

Jer 27:12  I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

The events we are discussing in this chapter take place “the same year” in which Jeremiah had four times told the people, the priests and the king not to listen to, or be persuaded by, any false prophet who might attempt to convince them that they need not go into Babylonian captivity, and that those who happen to be there would very shortly be coming back home to Judah and Jerusalem.

Notice how explicitly the Lord admonishes His people against thinking they can avoid Babylonian captivity:

Jer 27:9  Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:

Jer 27:14  Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now  shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
Jer 27:17  Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?

This “Hananiah, the son of Azur the prophet” obviously had no appreciation for the proven credentials of the prophet Jeremiah. Hananiah had no prophecies which he had made concerning the fate of the sons of Josiah. Yes, he was “the son of [a] prophet” but he did not have the divinely appointed, irrefutable credentials of Jeremiah. What Hananiah did have was what we all have by nature. He had a carnal mind which was “enmity against God and was not subject to the law of God, neither indeed [could it] be”:

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

It is our naturally rebellious carnal mind, which hates the law of God and drives us to want to hear only “smooth things [and] deceits”:

Isa 30:8  Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
Isa 30:9  That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
Isa 30:10  Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
Isa 30:11  Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

Here are the “deceitful… smooth things” Hananiah prophesied in the Lord’s name in direct contradiction to the words of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah:

Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:3  Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
Jer 28:4  And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

This is what the Lord had really said:

Jer 27:16  Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

Hananiah had listened closely to Jeremiah’s words and had taken it upon himself to prophesy in the Lord’s name the exact opposite of what the Lord had told Jeremiah even concerning the timing of the return of the vessels of the Lord’s house.

Jeremiah had never once said or prophesied that the vessels of the Lord’s house would never be returned. What the Lord had warned against was that it would be any time soon:

Jer 28:5  Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
Jer 28:6  Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD’S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.

Jeremiah looked forward to the day when the Lord would judge Babylon and restore His people to their land… “the Lord perform your words which thou has prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the Lord’s house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon to this place”. Like all false prophets, Hananiah had painted himself into a corner. Two years would come and go, and then there would be no doubt that Hananiah was a false prophet who had prophesied lies. The Lord has hardened the hearts of all false prophets for a time. They all love the things of this world more than the invisible things of the spirit, and if God has so ordained it, they simply cannot find place for repentance, even when proven wrong:

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.

Jer 28:7  Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
Jer 28:8  The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
Jer 28:9  The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.

Like any true prophet of the Lord, Jeremiah is willing to wait to see which prophet is speaking for the Lord and which is speaking falsely. The Lord had told Elijah that He would demonstrate who was and who was not the true God, and based on the Lord’s words, Elijah spoke with great confidence:

1Ki 18:22  Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.
1Ki 18:23  Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under:
1Ki 18:24  And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.

This happened many years before these false prophecies of Hananiah. Hananiah was the son of a prophet and fancied himself a prophet of the Lord. He had read about what the Lord had done to the prophets of Baal, and he also knew that Jeremiah had prophesied truthfully concerning all three of Josiah’s sons which had been on the throne after his death. Still, he presumptuously pits himself and his lies against a proven prophet of the Lord, just as we all do when we are at first introduced to the Truth of the Lord’s Words. Next, Hananiah presumptuously takes the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and destroys the symbol the Lord had given Jeremiah to show His people that they must serve the king of Babylon:

Jer 28:10  Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and brake it.
Jer 28:11  And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

It is abundantly clear that this false prophet, Hananiah, was very bitter toward the prophet Jeremiah, and it is equally clear that same bitter spirit had infected the priests and the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Here is what the Lord tells us about “a root of bitterness” springing up within us:

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.

‘Many enter in through the broad way that leads to destruction’. ‘Many are called but few are chosen’, and “many are defiled [by a] root of bitterness… springing up” when they simply do not like the Lord’s ways, His words and those through whom He sends us His words.

Jeremiah has already confessed that he was more than willing to wait and see which of these two prophets were of the Lord. Jeremiah knew that Hananiah’s presumptuous stunt would not change the Lord’s mind, and Jeremiah was willing to wait on the Lord to demonstrate who was and who was not a true prophet of the Lord. It is for our admonition that the Lord, just as He did through the prophet Elijah, does not wait two years to make known who is righteous and who is wicked… who serves God and who serves Him not:

Mal 3:16  Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

The Lord has “[His] jewels… made up” long before the first resurrection. He is ‘making up His jewels’ as He gives to us the ability to “discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not” in this “present time” (Rom 8:18). “Now are we the sons of God”, and like all the Lord’s true prophets, we know who we are because ‘[we] know His voice’:

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Joh 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Here is the verse which incites “a root of bitterness” in all those who are unwilling to believe these words:

1Jn 4:5  They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Who does John think he is? John knows who he is, and John knows how to discern the spirit of Truth and the spirit of error. John knows how to “try the spirits to see whether they are of God…”:

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
1Jn 4:2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

There is no article preceding the word ‘flesh’ in verse 2. The Greek simply reads ‘sarx’, ‘flesh’, and it includes the flesh Christ was in, but it also includes the fact that we are His flesh and His bones. The Greek word ‘sarx’ here includes our flesh in which He lives while we are yet in this present time.

Jeremiah, as a type of the Lord’s sheep, knew that Hananiah was speaking lies to the Lord’s people. However, until the Lord told him otherwise, he was willing to wait upon the Lord. When the Lord spoke to Jeremiah, he did not hesitate to speak the Truth because he had complete faith in the Lord’s words:

Jer 28:12  Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 28:13  Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.
Jer 28:14  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
Jer 28:15  Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
Jer 28:16  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.
Jer 28:17  So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

The day we deny the word of the Lord and ‘teach rebellion against the Lord’ and His doctrines by spouting out our own dreams and the doctrines of men, we are, at that moment, spiritually “cast… off from the face of the earth” and have spiritually “died the same year”.

May the Lord grant us all to fear to so much as “think above that which is written” but to ‘fear God and keep His commandments’:

Ecc 12:13  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecc 12:14  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

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

May the Lord grant us all the ability to “Try the spirits to see whether they be of God [and to] know the spirit of Truth and the spirit of error” and be able to discern ‘the voice of… the True Shepherd”.

That is our study for today, and these are our verses for our next study which will demonstrate that the Lord begins His works within His people long before they are dragged out of Babylon:

Jer 29:1  Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
Jer 29:2  (After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;)
Jer 29:3  By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,
Jer 29:4  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
Jer 29:5  Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
Jer 29:6  Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
Jer 29:7  And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Jer 29:8  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
Jer 29:9  For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.
Jer 29:10  For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jer 29:14  And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

Gospels In Harmony – By What Authority?

Mat 21:23-27, Mar 11:27-33, Luk 20:1-8

[Study Aired May 11, 2021]

Mar 11:27a And they come again to Jerusalem: Luk 20:1a And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, Mar 11:27b and as he was walking in the temple,  Luk 20:1b the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders,

Mar 11:28 And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?

Mar 11:29 And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

Mar 11:30 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me.

Mar 11:31 And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him?

Luk 20:6 But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: Mar 11:32b they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed.

Mar 11:33 And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.

In today’s study we will answer the questions by what authority Christ does what he does, who else has receives this authority, and once they receive this authority what will they do with it?

G1849
ἐξουσία
exousia
ex-oo-see’-ah

From G1832 (in the sense of ability); privilege, that is, (subjectively) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (objectively) mastery (concretely magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence: – authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength.

G1832
ἔξεστι
exesti
ex’-es-tee

Third person singular present indicative of a compound of G1537 and G1510; so also ἐξόν exon; neuter present participle of the same (with or without some form of G1510 expressed); impersonally it is right (through the figurative idea of being out in public): – be lawful, let, X may (-est).

G1537
ἐκ, ἐξ
ek  ex
ek, ex

A primary preposition denoting origin (the point whence motion or action proceeds), from, out (of place, time or cause; literally or figuratively; direct or remote): – after, among, X are, at betwixt (-yond), by (the means of), exceedingly, (+ abundantly above), for (-th), from (among, forth, up), + grudgingly, + heartily, X heavenly, X hereby, + very highly, in, . . . ly, (because, by reason) of, off (from), on, out among (from, of), over, since, X thenceforth, through, X unto, X vehemently, with (-out). Often used in composition, with the same general import; often of completion.

G1510
εἰμί
eimi
i-mee’

First person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist (used only when emphatic): – am, have been, X it is I, was. See also G1488, G1498, G1511, G1527, G2258, G2071, G2070, G2075, G2076, G2771, G2468, G5600. 

G1849
ἐξουσία
exousia

Total KJV Occurrences: 103

power, 61

Mat_9:6, Mat_9:8, Mat_10:1, Mat_28:18, Mar_2:10, Mar_3:15, Mar_6:7, Luk_4:6, Luk_4:32, Luk_5:24, Luk_10:19, Luk_12:5, Luk_22:53, Joh_1:12, Joh_10:18 (2), Joh_17:2, Joh_19:10-11 (3), Act_1:7, Act_5:4, Act_8:19, Act_26:18, Rom_9:21, Rom_13:1-3 (3), 1Co_7:37, 1Co_9:4-6 (3), 1Co_9:12 (2), 1Co_9:18, 1Co_11:10, 2Co_13:10, Eph_1:21, Eph_2:2, Col_1:13, Col_2:10, 2Th_3:9, Rev_2:25-26 (2), Rev_6:8, Rev_9:3 (2), Rev_9:10, Rev_9:19, Rev_11:6 (2), Rev_12:10, Rev_13:4-5 (2), Rev_13:7, Rev_13:12, Rev_14:18, Rev_16:9, Rev_17:12, Rev_18:1, Rev_20:6

authority, 28

Mat_7:29, Mat_8:9, Mat_21:23-24 (3), Mat_21:27, Mar_1:22, Mar_11:27-29 (4), Mar_13:33-34 (2), Luk_4:36, Luk_7:8, Luk_9:1, Luk_19:17, Luk_20:2 (2), Luk_20:8, Luk_20:20, Joh_5:27, Act_9:14, Act_26:10, Act_26:12, 1Co_15:24, 2Co_10:8, Rev_13:2

powers, 8

Luk_12:11, Rom_13:1 (2), Eph_3:10, Eph_6:12, Col_1:16, Col_2:15, Tit_3:1

right, 2

Heb_13:10, Rev_22:14

authorities, 1

1Pe_3:22

jurisdiction, 1

Luk_23:7

liberty, 1

1Co_8:9

strength, 1

Rev_17:13

Mat 7:28-29 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Mat 9:3-8 And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

Mat 11:25-30 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. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Mat 10:1-4 And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Mar 13:32-37 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

Mat 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 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.

Luk 10:17-20 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

Rev 2:25-27 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Christ’s power and authority is given to him by His Father. Christ then gives His apostles and disciples this power. Do you count yourselves as an apostle or disciple of Christ? If you do, what will you do with the power and authority give to you by Christ?

Rev 11:3-6 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

There is someone else given this power, and it will be used against the saints. The dragon has been given this power and gives it unto the beast.

Rev 13:3-18 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. 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? 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. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 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. 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. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 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. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. 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: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Rev 17:11-14 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. 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. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. 

The power given to the saints of Christ will overcome the power given to the dragon and his angels, and this is how it is accomplished.

Rev 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

In closing, here is what accomplished by the power given to the saints and what they will do.

Heb 13:1-19 Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. 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. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.

1Pe 3:8-22 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

[Study Aired January 9, 2021]

Jer 2:29 Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
Jer 2:31 O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?
Jer 2:32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
Jer 2:33 Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
Jer 2:34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
Jer 2:35 Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.
Jer 2:36 Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
Jer 2:37 Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.

It may seem contradictory, and indeed it is, to be ashamed of being caught in an adulterous relationship, and still be able to say ‘I am innocent… I have not sinned’. This is exactly what Paul meant when He admonished us:

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

‘The law of sin’ tells us that our self-righteousness, the most insidious of all sins, is in reality, righteousness. We have become so ‘righteous’ that we now tell the Lord, “I am my own lord, I will no more come unto you.” That is the same as saying to the Lord, “I, Lord, not You, will choose whether or not I will obey You.”

Jer 2:29 Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

‘Why do we contend with Christ? We have all transgressed against Him.’ He has chastened us for doing so, and we were so blinded by our adulterous ways that we weren’t even aware we were being chastened.

“In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction…” This statement is the Old Testament foundation for these words out of the mouth of John the Baptist:

Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Paul repeats this fact when he informs us:

Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

The whole world is reaping what it is sowing even as it refuses to acknowledge the God who is making us all to reap what we sow:

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Gal 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

We all “sow to [our] flesh” before we are granted to “sow to the spirit”. In that time of our walk, we are living under the Lord’s wrath, and we are not aware of it being so. We grow into adulthood under the Lord’s wrath, and it is few indeed who ever begin to come out from under the wrath of the Lord in this age:

Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Even the Lord’s ‘few… very elect’ begin life under the wrath of God and we do not realize it, which gives the Lord the occasion to exclaim:

Jer 2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

‘Receiving no correction’ and ‘devouring [the Lord’s] prophets, like a destroying lion’ are the same thing. This verse is another example of how the Old Testament writers say the same thing twice when making a point. Jeremiah 1:5 is but one of hundreds of examples:

Jer 1:5 [1^st] Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and [2^nd] before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

It is in failing to receive our own correction from the Lord that we devour the prophets He sends to admonish us.

Jeremiah was obviously a student of the book of Isaiah even though there were approximately 70 years between these two prophets. Just look at how Isaiah was inspired to tell us the exact same thing about ourselves:

Isa 42:22  But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. [Jer 2:30  In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction…]
Isa 42:23  Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
Isa 42:24  Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. [Jer 2:30 …your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.]

Isa 42:25  Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

The “they” of verse 24 is also the “we” of that same verse. It is a principle that we must personalize the third person pronouns if we are to gain anything from the prophecies of the scriptures. It is each of us upon whom “He hath poured… the fury of His anger. It is each of us whom He “has set… on fire [and] yet [we] knew not… it burned [us] yet [we] laid it not to heart”.

Instead, even as the Lord is “pouring out upon [us] the fury of His anger” this is our response:

Jer 2:31  O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?

Why did we ever think that with our fabled ‘free will’ we could decide for our Lord whether we would obey Him? Yet that is what we all thought… ‘I am the captain of my fate!’ is the mantra of “the beast”. ‘It is I who chose to serve the Lord’, and we say that in the face of our Lord who tells us explicitly the exact opposite:

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

Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

Rom 9:15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

“The fear of the Lord” and hearing and obeying His “instructions” are the ornaments of being the bride of the Lamb.

Pro 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Pro 1:8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
Pro 1:9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

So, when we refuse to hear His instructions and we forsake His law, He asks us:

Jer 2:32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
Jer 2:33 Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.

These words are addressed to the “mother of harlots”, God’s own people, because we have been given His Words and have refused them. As we were instructed in an earlier study, we have thereby become worse than those to whom the Lord has not revealed Himself as yet.

Jer 2:20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.

It is not the Lord’s love we are seeking when He asks us, “Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love.” It is in the rejection of our own spiritual husband that we “trim our way to seek [the] love” of our adulterous Babylonian leaders and friends. It is in doing so that we “teach the wicked ones our ways”. It is in Babylon, in our adulterous hypocrisy, that we make the poor wandering souls who come to us seeking to know the Lord “two-fold more the child of Gehenna than [our]selves.”  We did not think that was what we were doing. Nevertheless, it is while we are “playing the harlot” that we say, “I have done no wickedness.”

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

Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

At this point in the Lord’s work with us, He has given us eyes that see but cannot perceive. He has given us ears that hear but cannot understand:

Isa 44:18 They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.

Joh 12:40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

Rom 11:8 (According as it is written [Isa 44:18], God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

That is why Isaiah tells us this about ourselves:

Isa 3:9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

Jeremiah’s admonition is the same as Isaiah’s. We are told that our hatred of the Lord is blatant:

Jer 2:34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
Jer 2:35 Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.

The Lord doesn’t need to do a “secret search” because He found them “upon all these” referring back to these previous verses we just read.

Jer 2:31 O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?
Jer 2:32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
Jer 2:33 Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.

The Lord will make us give an accounting for such presumptuous rebellion against our own Husband. ‘We will come no more to you… we are our own lords’ will be chastened and scourged out of us, and we will be punished in His wrath for our insubordination and presumptuousness:

Eze 9:9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
Eze 9:10 And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.

Eze 14:10 And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;

Ezekiel 14:10 does not have the word ‘punishment’ in the Hebrew, but it is certainly implied by telling us earlier, “…but I will recompense their way upon their head”, and then here in Jeremiah we are being told:

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

The Lord wants us to, “Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that [we] have forsaken the Lord, and that [His] fear is not in [us].”

Somehow our carnal mind justifies our infidelity, and we tell ourselves we “[are] innocent” and actually believe the Lord will not pour out His wrath upon us. Such is not the case simply, “Because [we] say, I have not sinned.” Our false doctrines of a ‘secret rapture… a place of safety, or substitutionary atonement’ will not change the Truth of these verses of scripture:

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

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

Every one of us, if we are the Lord’s “predestinated” ones (Rom 8:29-30; Eph 1:5, 11; Act 4:28, 1Co 2:27), have experienced how His Truth crushes the lies of our old man and all of his lovers. Notice that every time the word “predestinated” appears in scripture it is always used in reference to what the Lord is doing with His “firstfruits… the first to trust in Christ” and to be “glorified before all the rest of God’s creation:

Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

That is another study for another time, but ‘predestination’ always refers to the work of God within His firstfruits who are even now in the process of being glorified before all the rest of mankind.

Enduring the Lord’s wrath is the inward application of:

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

What a blessing it is to be judged in “this present time”:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

However, there is always an outward dispensational application to every word as this age comes to an end outwardly. It was this outward application of which Christ’s carnal disciples enquired when asking Him:

Mat 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming [G3952 parousia], and of the end of the world [G165 aion]?

We have been blessed to see the inward application of this chapter, but let us never forget that the words of this chapter also have an outward dispensational application to the time just before Christ’s physical ‘parousia’, at which time He will appear as a body which can be touched as Thomas was instructed:

Joh 20:24  But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
Joh 20:25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Joh 20:26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Joh 20:27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
Joh 20:28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Joh 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

The outward application of the prophecies of Matthew 24 are essential to understanding the order in which the Lord is judging this world. All the “evil and bitter things” (Jer 2:19) mentioned by the Lord in that prophecy are coming on this earth because the whole world has said, “We are lords, we will come no more to you” (Jer 2:31). Just be aware of the certainty of the Lord’s wrath as it begins crushing the powers of the nations of this world with the fear of deadly pestilences, “every man’s hand against his neighbor”:

Isa 3:5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

Isa 19:2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom [Egypt typifies this world and its religions (Rev 11:8)].

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

Jer 51:45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
Jer 51:46 And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
Jer 51:47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
Jer 51:48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD.
Jer 51:49 As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.
Jer 51:50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

“The blood of the souls of poor innocents” of Jeremiah 2:34 is the blood of the proselytes we move heaven and earth to make in Babylon, and then after we proselytize them, we make them two-fold more the child of Gehenna than ourselves:

Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

We have all vouched for the lies which helped us curry the favor of our lovers in Babylon, and while doing so we thought of ourselves as witnesses and missionaries for Christ.

We suffer the Lord’s wrath and are made to give an accounting of our rebellious ways “because you say, I have not sinned”. We suffer His wrath because we cannot yet acknowledge our adulterous ways. We cannot yet acknowledge and bitterly confess that we are anything but ‘innocent’. When the Lord begins to judge us, we do not yet “know the hole of the pit from whence we were digged”. Then, as we are made to see the rebellion we have shown toward our Lord, His anger subsides only to reappear as needed to keep our feet from slipping:

Isa 28:26  For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
Isa 28:27  For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
Isa 28:28  Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.

Psa 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

Psa 73:2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.

Psa 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now [that I have been afflicted] have I kept thy word.

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

Jer 2:22 For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.
Jer 2:23 How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

We cannot change ourselves, but when the Lord begins changing us, then we will know clearly why ‘Ishmael’ within us will “not be made heir with the son of the free woman”, and why Christ within us is in the process of judging Esau within us in this present time, as well as the rest of mankind in the great white throne judgment:

Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh [the old man within] persecuted him that was born after the Spirit [the new man within], even so it is now.
Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman [sin within our flesh] shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

“Cast out the bondwoman” does not mean that the son of the bondwoman will rule with Christ on earth. What it does mean is that she will not be “counted as the seed… of Abraham… in this present age”. This is what the scriptures teach concerning who is to be counted as the seed of Abraham in this present time:

Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Rom 9:8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

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

Hagar, the bondwoman, symbolizes “Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”, and the Lord plainly tells us “the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

Then the holy spirit defines ‘bondage’ in these terms:

Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

Gal 4:25  For this Agar [Hagar] is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, [the freewoman] which is the mother of us all.

“Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children” symbolizes all Christians who still think that they are the Lord’s chosen spiritual children while physical Israel is God’s chosen physical people who will rule this earth for a thousand years when Christ returns.

Under inspiration of the holy spirit, Paul equated ‘bondage’ as being “under the law”, and under the inspiration of the holy spirit, he called the law of Moses “bondage under the elements of the world… the  letter of the law… the law… for the lawless… a carnal commandment [which is being] done away” while being replaced by “the law of the spirit of life… the law of Jesus… a new commandment”:

Joh 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

1Jn2: 8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

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.
Gal 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Many times we are told that the “ministration of the law” of Moses is being replaced by “the law of Christ”:

1Co 13:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away [G2673 katargeo].

2Co 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away [G2673, katargeo]:

2Co 3:11 For if that which is done away [G2673 katargeo] was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

2Co 3:13  And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished [G2673 katargeo]:
2Co 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away [G2673 katargeo] in Christ.

Gal 6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil  the law of Christ.

The holy spirit informs us that our redemption is from being “under the law… the elements of the world”. The ministers of ‘historic Christianity’ are simply blinded to what the holy spirit is saying to us here. ‘Law’ is not done away, rather the bar of the law is being raised to a spiritual level which is impossible for the flesh of itself to attain.

Rom 3:31 Do we then make void [G2673 katargeo] the law [of Christ] through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law [of Christ].

2Co 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

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.

Heb 7:16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

The law of Moses is labeled by the holy spirit as “a carnal commandment”, a qualification which “the Gentiles having not the law” are able to fulfill by “being a law unto themselves”:

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

“The law of the spirit… the law of Christ… the law of faith… is as high above the [carnal commandments of law of Moses] as the heavens are higher than the earth”:

Isa 55:8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Rom 8:2  For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set me free from the law of sin and of death.
Rom 8:3  For the Law being powerless, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh,

“The law being powerless” is true for the simple reason that it was never intended to save us. The exact opposite is true. The law is not designed to make us love one another. “The law works wrath” because its only function is to make “sin appear exceeding sinful”:

Rom 4:15  Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

Rom 7:13  Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death [to my old man with]in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Gal 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Gal 3:12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

Christ has made it clear that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”, and that life comes only “through death”:

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.
Joh 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

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

Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

In spite of this obvious Truth that we must die to our old man, almost all the churches of Babylon, because of their false doctrine of man having been given a will which is free of his Creator, believe and teach that we, our old man as mere “vessels of clay” (Jer 18:4), are responsible for our salvation or our lack thereof, and we of our own supposed ‘free will’ must choose to keep the law and be good creatures.  Then, if we ‘of our own free will’ make the right choice, we will be right with our God.

That false teaching is the subject of our next verse:

Jer 2:36  Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. [both teach that your fate is in your own hands]

I did not catch this earlier in this study, but Jeremiah 2:33, which in the King James reads:

Jer 2:33 Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.

The Hebrew word for ‘wicked’, which is normally “rah“, is in this verse the feminine form ‘rahah’ and is therefore better translated as:

Jer 2:33  What? Do you trim your ways to seek love? For this reason you have even taught the evil women your ways.

The ACV, the ASV, Rotherham’s and several others catch that difference revealing that we are an integral part of Babylon and her daughters at this time in our experience.

“Why do you… change your way?” and “What? Do you trim your ways to seek love?” are the same question. The “love [we] seek” refers not to our love of our True Husband, but to our love for Egypt and Assyria, this world, our families and friends in this world and its religions, all of whom make us, the creature, gods in whose own hands our fate lies. This is because we believe that we have been given “free will”.  Every religion in this world agrees that we are “free moral agents” whose supposed ‘free will’ decisions will determine our ultimate fate. In other words, according to this lie, our salvation, or the loss of our salvation, is in the final analysis in our own hands. Thus we “gaddest… about so much to change [our] way… [we] trim our ways to seek [the] love” of ‘Egypt’, symbolizing this world, and ‘Assyria’, the symbol for the religions of this world.

This is where such blasphemous doctrines will take us:

Jer 2:37  Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.

“You shall go forth from Him…” Is this not exactly what we told the Lord we were going to do?

Jer 2:31  O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?

‘Yes, we will go forth from Him [thinking] we are our own lords, and we will come no more unto our Lord’… until we get into really deep trouble. Then, and only then, do we cry out to Him “with our hands upon our head” to deliver us from our own foolishness and sins.

As we were told earlier in this chapter:

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
Jer 2:20  For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.

Yes, we do go forth from Him, but we do so with “thine hands upon thine head”. ‘Thy hands upon thy head’ is an expression of shame and grief, as experienced by King David’s daughter, Tamar, when she was raped by her own half-brother, Amnon, a type of the ten horns which turn on Babylon and “eat her flesh and burn her with fire”:

2Sa 13:15 Then Amnon [after raping his own sister] hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone.
2Sa 13:16  And she said unto him, There is no cause: this evil in sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not hearken unto her.
2Sa 13:17 Then he called his servant that ministered unto him, and said, Put now this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her.

2Sa 13:19  And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying.

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.

Tamar had been used and abused by her own brother. Though she did not bring this grief and shame upon herself, her grief and shame reveal the grief and shame we bring upon ourselves when we treat our spiritual husband the same way Amnon treated his physical sister, Tamar. “…For the Lord has rejected [our] confidences, and [we] will not prosper in them.” We bring shame and grief upon ourselves making us put our ‘hands upon our heads’, and in time we are made to cry out to the Lord to deliver us from ‘making us to err from His ways and hardening our hearts from His fear.’

Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

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

The Lord has made every one of us “subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope.”

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

That is our study for this week, and here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 3:1  They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:2  Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
Jer 3:3  Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
Jer 3:4  Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?
Jer 3:5  Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.
Jer 3:6  The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
Jer 3:7  And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Jer 3:8  And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

Jer 2:20-28 See Your Way… Know What You Have Done

[Study Aired January 3, 2021]

Jer 2:20  For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.
Jer 2:21  Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
Jer 2:22  For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.
Jer 2:23  How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;
Jer 2:24  A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.
Jer 2:25  Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.
Jer 2:26  As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,
Jer 2:27  Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.
Jer 2:28  But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.

Our deliverance comes to us only after we have been carried away into Babylon.

Mic 4:10  Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

The Lord’s people all “come out of [Babylon]”:

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.

Now let us pay very close attention to what the Lord tells us about the plagues with which He judges Babylon the Great within each of us:

Rev 14:6  And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

The worship of the beast and the dragon, which is common to “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” (Rev 13:4 and 16), mentioned in Revelation 14:9, is the “drinking the wine of the wrath of her fornication” of verse 8.

Then in Revelation 15 we read:

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.

There it is! We are plainly told, “No man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” Revelation 15:8 is in the aorist tense, which accords with how Revelation 14 defines all the suffering which accompanies the fulfilling of the seven plagues:

Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus [“Keep the saying of the prophecy of this book” (Rev 1:3)].

Chapter 16 explains to us that those who fulfill the seven plagues of the seven angels must keep these verses:

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

If the fulfilling of the seven last plagues is the judgment of Babylon within us, why are we then told:

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 only reason anyone comes out of Babylon is because they have already been chastened and scourged by the “seven last plagues of the wrath of God”. No one can enter the temple of God in heaven until those plagues begin to be fulfilled in their lives:

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

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

So why are we told:

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.

There are two purposes being accomplished at the same time with this apparent contradiction. The same thing is true of all the apparent contradictions in scripture. The first purpose which is being accomplished is that all the seeming contradictions in scripture give our old man the occasion he is seeking to discredit the Word of God. The second purpose which is being accomplished within those who are given eyes that see and ears that hear is that we are suffering with the world, now “in this present time”. We are being judged in “this present time” so “that we should not be judged with the world” in the lake of fire at “the resurrection to judgment”:

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

Therefore, the reason we are told to ‘come out of her that we partake not of her plagues’ is the same as telling us that those on the sea of glass mingled with fire have not worshiped the beast or his image or the number of his name:

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

There is no man “small or great, rich or poor, free or bond” who has not worshiped the beast. The point being made in Revelation 20:4 is that those who will rule with Christ a thousand years are those who “overcame the beast, his image, his mark, and the number of his name”.

Rev 15:2  And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

That is also the message of this prophecy of Jeremiah. We have all very much indeed committed spiritual fornication against our spiritual husband, and we have forsaken Him and “played the harlot” with those who are no gods.

Jer 2:20  For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.

The Lord knows those who are His, and He will not lose one of us. The outward odds mean nothing to the Lord as the story of Korah and company demonstrates:

Num 16:1  Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
Num 16:2  And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:
Num 16:3  And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?
Num 16:4  And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face:
Num 16:5  And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him.
Num 16:6  This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company;
Num 16:7  And put fire therein, and put incense in them before the LORD to morrow: and it shall be that the man whom the LORD doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.

Joh 17:12  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Joh 18:9  That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.

2Ti 2:14  Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2Ti 2:16  But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
2Ti 2:17  And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 2:18  Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

If the statement, “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” applies to His rejected anointed, how much more must they also apply to His “very elect”.

Moses and Aaron were rejected by “all the congregation of the children of Israel”:

Num 16:41  But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the LORD.

It was not just Hymenaeus and Philetus who rejected Paul; it was “all they in Asia… the seven churches of Asia”:

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

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

Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Rev 2:14  But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
Rev 2:15  So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
Rev 2:16  Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Rev 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

Rev 3:1  And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

“All they in Asia” forsook Paul, and the revelation of Jesus Christ is addressed to these “seven churches of Asia”. Clearly the apostles had their own ‘Korah and company’ experience.

The New Testament apostasy was completed before the death of the apostles. The apostle John reveals that the apostates were already very powerful within the church:

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

All the Lord’s prophets have always been rejected of those who claim to be His people. Each of us have listened to Korah and Diotrephes in our own time. That is why in the past we put the words of the teachers and preachers of Babylon above the words of the Lord. The Lord had “caused us to err from His ways and hardened our hearts from His fear” just as He had done to Korah, Hymenaeus and Philetus and Diotrephes before us. The Lord Himself is the one who gave us eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear so He would have the occasion to say this of us:

Jer 2:21  Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
Jer 2:22  For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.

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

Despite what the Lord has done for us, we take His love for us for granted, and we really do develop this Laodicean spirit:

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: This is the same mind which the great whore has when she declares:

Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

The Lord is judging us in this present time. He judges us by making us judge ourselves. The life we now live in the flesh is Christ living within us and judging us. That is why Paul can say that ‘if we would judge ourselves in this present time, we will not be condemned with the world’ to the “resurrection of [the great white throne] judgment” (Rev 20:11):

Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. [Greek: ‘krisis’, judgment]

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

1Co 11:31  For if we [“Christ in us”] would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world [To the white throne judgment (Rev 20:11)].

We are not responsible for the Lord “making us to err from His ways”, but just as He did with Job,  He will have us give an account of what He has had us do in these vessels of clay. That is the very definition of being judged. Being judged is being made to know who we are and confessing what we have done.

So, the Lord asks us:

Jer 2:23  How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

It was painful and humiliating for Job to be brought face to face with the realization that he was so self-righteous that he had been reproving, contending with, and disannulling the judgment of his own Maker. It was painful having to confess that he had been condemning the Lord to make himself appear righteous:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Was all this someone other than Job? No! How absurd to even suggest such a thing. However, it was in type and shadow, a dying Job who was, in type and shadow, being transformed into a new Job as his old Job died day by day.

Peter tells us of all the benefits of suffering all the pains of dying daily and being judged in this age:

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

“Hath suffered” is in the aorist tense. Therefore, Peter is letting us know he is speaking of an ongoing process of being renewed daily in the mind of Christ and dying daily to the mind of our old man.

Peter continues speaking in the aorist tense:

1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live [aorist tense] the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
1Pe 4:3  For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

To whom are all these evils attributed? Was it someone else who “wrought the will of the Gentiles,…walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries? No, it was you and me in “the time past of our life” who committed all these evils; if not physically, then we did so spiritually because we need not be a physical murderer to be a spiritual murderer in the Lord’s eyes:

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

Peter is given to know that the Lord has devised means so the Lord’s creatures will not forever remain banished from Him, thus He informs us:

1Pe 4:5  Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
1Pe 4:6  For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

“Them that are dead” refers not just to those who lived before Christ. This phrase “are dead” refers to every one of us when we first come to Christ, as Paul makes clear in:

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
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.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

In this sense we are all “twice dead” and the entire kingdom our old man is being, in the aorist tense, “plucked up by the roots”, gathered into bundles to be burnt at the time of harvest:

Mat 13:24  Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
Mat 13:25  But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
Mat 13:26  But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
Mat 13:27  So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
Mat 13:28  He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
Mat 13:29  But he said, Nay; lest whil ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Mat 13:30  Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

When is “the time of the harvest”? This is what and when the Lord considers the harvest to be taking place:

Mat 13:40  As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

The word translated ‘world’ in this verse is the Greek word ‘aion’. So now all we must know is what and when does the Lord consider the ends of the aions (ages) to be upon us?

Here is the answer to that question:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

The word ‘world’ in this verse is also ‘aion’ and the words ‘are come’ are in the aorist tense, which always indicates an ongoing process. In this case it is the process of judgment which is even now begun upon the house of God (1Pe 4:17). Here is another verse which concerns these same ‘tares’ among us:

Jud 1:12  These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead [aorist tense], plucked up by the roots [aorist tense];

Inwardly our false doctrines are “spots in [our] feast of charity”. Outwardly these ‘spots’ become apostate brothers and sisters who simply are not given in this age to abide in the words of Christ:

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue [Greek: ‘meno’ abide, remain] in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

It is Christ Himself who tells us that we are even now in the time of the harvest:

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
Mat 13:39  The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world [Greek: ‘aion’, age]; and the reapers are the angels.
Mat 13:40  As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
Mat 13:41  The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
Mat 13:42  And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:43  Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Here is how Paul says “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of their Father”:

1Co 11:19  For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

Peter confirms Paul’s assertion that the ends of the ages are even now come upon us:

1Pe 4:7  But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
1Pe 4:8  And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
1Pe 4:9  Use hospitality one to another without grudging.
1Pe 4:10  As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
1Pe 4:11  If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

It is Peter, right here in this chapter, who is given to state so clearly that if we are the Lord’s elect, then we are being judged in this life for being made by the “Lord [to] err from His ways”:

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

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

It is through the humiliation of judgment that the Lord is in the process of “returning… the tribes of His inheritance”:

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

“The tribes of the children of Israel” are now explained clearly in scripture as those who “are the children of faith… the children of promise”:

Gal 3:7  Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

Gal 3:26  For ye [Gentile Galatians] are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

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

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

Before any of us can be “returned… the tribes of [our] inheritance” it is the Lord who has determined that we must first be “the old man” whom He has determined to destroy. It is by His design that He has devised means that His banished should be restored to Him:

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.

Why would the Lord want His banished to return to Him? The answer to that question is that while our old man must die, it is through the death of our old man that our new man is being created and birthed. He is no longer the old Mike Vinson, but he is still Mike Vinson. You can insert your name for mine if Christ has given you to understand how the beast within the old man can die and no longer be, and yet be the four beasts in the midst of and around the throne of God saying this of Christ and His ways:

Rev 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Rev 17:7  And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

You and I are this beast that was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. It is through our perdition that we become the four beasts around the throne of God, redeemed from all men to rule and reign with Christ.  Christ within us makes this happen:

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure [the face of Jesus Christ] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

The “wise woman [of] Tekoa” hinted of this great mystery when she succeeded in convincing King David to bring his murderous son, Absalom, back to Jerusalem (2Sa 14). Christ Himself added to the depth and extent of how He will restore His banished to Himself when He gave his first recorded teaching in His hometown of Nazareth:

Luk 4:24  And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Luk 4:25  But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Luk 4:26  But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
Luk 4:27  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

While we are still in Babylon and first hear of the Truth of the salvation of all sinners, this is also our own reaction:

Luk 4:28  And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
Luk 4:29  And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Luk 4:30  But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

The Lord alone can call “light out of [the] darkness” within each of us. Only He can destroy our old man and through that death bring forth a new man who is completed and is truly in His image. This is the mystery which has been hidden from every generation of men before the death and resurrection of Christ:

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

It is Christ who “through death” is causing us to repent of the sins of our old man, and through the daily death of our old man He is making us into a new man. We are not to think of the death of our old man as being the death of someone else. The Lord wants us to see ourselves as a “swift dromedary [and] a wild ass… in her occasion [breeding with] all who seek her”:

Jer 2:24  A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

In our rebellions and our trespasses the Lord calls us to be shod with shoes and to be relieved of the thirst we bring upon ourselves when we refuse His living waters:

Joh 4:14  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

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

The Lord wants us to see what our natural response is to His initial offers of relief from our trials:

Jer 2:25  Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

There it is! We literally come to see how hopeless our predicament is and yet, shameful as it is, we realize that there is nothing we can to change ourselves.

Jer 2:26  As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,

Our own shame is not enough to make us change our nature and our ways. It takes divine intervention, “through much tribulation (Act 14:22) [and] fiery trials” (1Pe 4:12) to drag us, kicking and screaming against the will of our flesh to be given a new will and a renewed desire to please our true Husband, our true Lord.

Jer 2:27  Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.

Inwardly, giving “a stock… and… a stone” credit for our being here is speaking of our false doctrines. Outwardly it is things like the ridiculous, unreasonable, unscientific, and stupid theory of evolution, which maintains that complexity and order came out of nothing which became something and then blew up and became this entire complex creation.

When the Lord does finally crush the rebellious will of our old man, then, and not until that fiery, stormy experience has begun to be fulfilled, will He begin to deliver us and bring us closer to Himself than we have ever before been, and only then will we begin to know the peace which only He can give:

Joh 14:27  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Oh, sweet peace! Nothing can compare to a mind which is at peace with God, but that peace comes only through “great tribulations”:

Psa 107:23  They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

When the Lord’s fiery trials and storms in our heavens bring us to “[our] wit’s end”, we will then begin to be given the strength to confess our own sins, forgive the sins of our brothers, and acknowledge that the god of our supposed ‘free will’ was and is powerless to deliver us from the dying predicament in which we are now able to see is the fate of our old man. We come to acknowledge “There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go… so [we are] ashamed”, What misery! At that point we are living in a world which is full of fear and total despair and torment. The Lord Himself is laughing at us and taunting us:

Jer 2:28  But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.

Pro 1:25  But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
Pro 1:26  I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

Those “gods… according to the number of your cities” in New Testament terms are “two hundred thousand thousand”. They are two hundred million false doctrines which are so many and so dense that they hide the light of The Sun:

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

Rev 9:16  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

“The dream is one” and “according to the number of thy cities are thy gods” is the same message as telling us we are doing battle with two hundred million false doctrines which are blotting out from us the light of the Sun.

Our ‘gods’ are our false doctrines which will not save us. The false doctrine of a triune God and a triune man with a will which is free from any influence from his Maker does not change these Biblical Truths:

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

1Co 15:16  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Co 15:17  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

A resurrection from death is required to save us from “perishing”. The dead are dead and will remain so until a resurrection takes place. It is the Lord Himself who has and is bringing us to the point that we can agree with King David:

Psa 91:2  I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Psa 91:3  Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
Psa 91:4  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Psa 91:5  Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Psa 91:6  Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

That is our study for today. In the resurrection we are still referred to as ‘four beasts’ in and around the throne of God, because the Lord wants us to ever remember from whence He has saved us.

Here are our verses for our next revelation of the pit of the hole from which we are digged:

Jer 2:29  Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 2:30  In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
Jer 2:31  O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?
Jer 2:32  Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
Jer 2:33  Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
Jer 2:34  Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
Jer 2:35  Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.
Jer 2:36  Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
Jer 2:37  Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 51 Discussion

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The Yoke Shall Be Destroyed Because o​f The Anointing (Christ)

Isa 10:27  And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
Isa 10:28  He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages:
Isa 10:29  They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.
Isa 10:30  Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.
Isa 10:31  Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
Isa 10:32  As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
Isa 10:33  Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.
Isa 10:34  And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

The Lord is informing His Israel how He is using Assyria and Babylon to punish His Israel for their sins. Then after He has used Assyria and Babylon to punish His people, then He will use His people to "take away from off [our] shoulder... and... neck... the yoke" of the lies, the false doctrines, and the bondage of Assyria and Babylon, which comes with those heresies.

He will do so, "because of... by reason of... [and] through the anointing". What is this 'anointing'?

This is the only 'anointing' which can and does deliver "from off [our] shoulder, and... from off [our] neck.. the yoke" which is the bondage of the lies of Assyria and Babylon".

Isa 61:1  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Being "bound... broken hearted... captives [in] prison" is indeed a great "yoke", upon the shoulders of those who are in bondage to all the lies of the kings of Assyria and Babylon.

However, that deliverance comes only through Christ and His Christ, as Christ made clear with these two statements:

Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Christ informs us that Isa 61:1 is a prophecy of Himself, but then He also tells us this of 'Himself':

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

Christ was anointed by His Father to break the yoke of Assyria and Babylon, and Christ has sent us to do the same, with the same 'anointing'.

Isa 10:12  Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

"The yoke" we bear is "the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of His high looks" which rule over our proud carnal minds for so long. We are literally slaves to our own pride and our desire to preserve that pride and fit in with all the traditions of men. Those who have been there and who have come out from that bondage, know best just what it means to have that yoke taken off their necks and shoulders, "because of the anointing", because of the Truth of the words of God which are the spirit and which are that 'anointing':

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; 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: 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.

The Greek word translate as 'unction' is:

G5545
χρίσμα
chrisma
khris'-mah
From G5548; an unguent or smearing, that is, (figuratively) the special endowment (“chrism”) of the Holy Spirit: - anointing, unction.
Total KJV occurrences: 3

It means "anointing", and it is so translated just five verses later:

G5545
χρίσμα
chrisma
Total KJV Occurrences: 3
anointing, 2
1Jo_2:27 (2)
unction, 1
1Jo_2:20

1Jn 2:26  These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
1Jn 2:27  But the anointing [G5545: chrisma] which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man ["them that seduce you"] teach you: but as the same anointing [G5545: chrisma] teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

It must be pointed out that "you need not that any man teach you", is not referring to the teachers God has "set in the church":

1Co 12:28  And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
1Co 12:29  Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?

All of our years spent in bondage to the kings of Assyria and Babylon are a work of our own Creator who is humbling us through "them that seduce [us]" and in delivering us out of that seduction, is qualifying us to be used as kings and priests in His service:

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

It is a great privilege to be given to know the very mind and plan of our own Creator. It is in His mercy and His honor toward us that we are told:

Isa 10:27  And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

It is "because of the anointing" upon Christ's Christ, His anointed, that the yoke of our enslavement to the doctrines of Assyria and Babylon "shall be destroyed". The destruction of "his burden" is in no way connected to anything we have done by our own might or power. That is the very spirit and doctrine being revealed and prepared for destruction in the kings of Assyria and Babylon.

This is what is NOT true either for the spirit of the king of Assyria or for the Lord's elect:

Isa 10:13  For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
Isa 10:14  And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

We do not choose of ourselves either to be proud and lifted up, or to be humbled and pliable in the Lord's hands. All that is done within any of us, both the good and the evil, are His works who is working all things after the counsel of His own will.

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

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

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

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 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Rom 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Why does Paul neglect to tell us that God has mercy on those who choose of their own free will to obey Him? He neglects to do so because he is being inspired of the holy spirit, and the holy spirit knows the doctrine of "free moral agency" is an outright lie which directly conflicts with the Truth of scripture which teaches instead that it is the Lord who makes us to err from His ways and hardens our hearts from His fear. The holy spirit knows and teaches that "it is not of him that wills... but of God that shows mercy... or hardens". That is why Paul neglects to tells us that lie!

"The purpose of God according to election" is what will stand, and it is not based upon what works we choose to perform, rather it is based upon "him that calls" us either to be His anointed, under His mercy, or to be in enmity to Him and to be given by our Lord Himself, a deceived and hardened heart" simply because 'He wills' to do so.

Eze 14:9  And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

On the other hand, if we are used of our Lord to remove the yoke of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, then that, too, will be only "because of the anointing" of His spirit, which He will give us to "set at liberty the captives" (Luk 4:18), then it will again be only by and through His anointing:

Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Since we must "live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God", being a hard-hearted, carnal-minded, deceived prophet is an essential part the "experience of evil", which is given to all men:

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

Not one person can circumvent that "experience of evil" the Lord has given to the sons of humanity. We must all first be "marred in the Potter's hand", before we can be 'His anointed... His Christ":

Psa 2:1  Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Psa 2:2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,

These words are quoted by the holy spirit as referring to Christ and His disciples, "His Christ", in the book of Acts:

Act 4:25  Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

Both "His anointed", and "His Christ", are correct because the Greek word 'Christos' means 'anointed':

Here is Strong's definition of the Greek word 'Christos', translated as 'Christ':

G5547
Χριστός
Christos
khris-tos'
From G5548; anointed, that is, the Messiah, an epithet of Jesus: - Christ.

Here is where this word appears in the New Testament:

G5547
Χριστός
Christos
Total KJV Occurrences: 569
christ, 553
Mat_1:1, Mat_1:16-18 (3), Mat_2:4, Mat_11:2, Mat_16:16, Mat_16:20, Mat_22:42, Mat_23:8, Mat_23:10, Mat_24:5, Mat_24:23, Mat_26:63, Mat_26:68, Mat_27:17, Mat_27:22, Mar_1:1, Mar_8:29, Mar_9:41, Mar_12:35, Mar_13:21, Mar_14:61, Mar_15:32, Luk_2:11, Luk_2:26, Luk_3:15, Luk_4:41 (2), Luk_9:20, Luk_20:41, Luk_22:67, Luk_23:2, Luk_23:35, Luk_23:39, Luk_24:26, Luk_24:46, Joh_1:17, Joh_1:20, Joh_1:25, Joh_1:41, Joh_3:28, Joh_4:25, Joh_4:29, Joh_4:42, Joh_6:69, Joh_7:26-27 (2), Joh_7:31, Joh_7:41-42 (3), Joh_9:22, Joh_10:24, Joh_11:27, Joh_12:34, Joh_17:3, Joh_20:31, Act_2:30-31 (2), Act_2:36, Act_2:38, Act_3:6, Act_3:18, Act_3:20, Act_4:10, Act_4:26, Act_5:42, Act_8:5, Act_8:12, Act_8:37, Act_9:20, Act_9:22, Act_9:34, Act_10:36, Act_11:17, Act_15:11, Act_15:26, Act_16:18, Act_16:31, Act_17:3 (2), Act_18:5, Act_18:28, Act_19:4, Act_20:21, Act_24:24, Act_26:23, Act_28:31, Rom_1:1, Rom_1:3, Rom_1:6-8 (3), Rom_2:16 (2), Rom_3:22, Rom_3:24, Rom_5:1, Rom_5:6, Rom_5:8, Rom_5:11, Rom_5:15, Rom_5:17, Rom_5:21, Rom_6:3-4 (2), Rom_6:8-9 (2), Rom_6:11, Rom_6:23, Rom_7:4, Rom_7:25, Rom_8:1-2 (2), Rom_8:9-11 (3), Rom_8:17, Rom_8:34-35 (2), Rom_8:39, Rom_9:1, Rom_9:3, Rom_9:5, Rom_10:4, Rom_10:6-7 (2), Rom_12:5, Rom_13:14, Rom_14:9-10 (2), Rom_14:15, Rom_14:18, Rom_15:3, Rom_15:5-8 (4), Rom_15:16-20 (5), Rom_15:29, Rom_16:3, Rom_16:5, Rom_16:7, Rom_16:9-10 (2), Rom_16:16, Rom_16:18, Rom_16:20, Rom_16:24-25 (2), Rom_16:27, 1 Cor 1 (17), 1Co_2:2, 1Co_2:16, 1Co_3:1, 1Co_3:11, 1Co_3:23, 1Co_4:1, 1Co_4:10, 1Co_4:15 (2), 1Co_4:17, 1Co_5:4 (2), 1Co_5:7, 1Co_6:15 (2), 1Co_8:6, 1Co_8:11-12 (2), 1Co_9:1, 1Co_9:12, 1Co_9:18, 1Co_9:21, 1Co_10:4, 1Co_10:9, 1Co_10:16 (2), 1Co_11:1, 1Co_11:3 (2), 1Co_12:12, 1Co_12:27, 1 Cor 15 (14), 1Co_16:24 (3), 2Co_1:1-3 (3), 2Co_1:5 (2), 2Co_1:19, 2Co_1:21, 2Co_2:10, 2Co_2:14-15 (2), 2Co_2:17, 2Co_3:3-4 (2), 2Co_3:14, 2Co_4:4-6 (3), 2Co_5:10, 2Co_5:14, 2Co_5:16-20 (5), 2Co_6:15, 2Co_8:9, 2Co_8:23, 2Co_9:13, 2Co_10:1, 2Co_10:5, 2Co_10:14, 2Co_11:2-3 (2), 2Co_11:10, 2Co_11:13, 2Co_11:23, 2Co_11:31, 2Co_12:2, 2Co_12:9, 2Co_12:19, 2Co_13:3, 2Co_13:5, 2Co_13:14, Gal_1:1, Gal_1:3, Gal_1:6-7 (2), Gal_1:10, Gal_1:12, Gal_1:22, Gal_2:4, Gal_2:16-17 (5), Gal_2:20-21 (3), Gal_3:1, Gal_3:13-14 (2), Gal_3:16-17 (2), Gal_3:22, Gal_3:24, Gal_3:26-28 (4), Gal_4:7, Gal_4:14, Gal_4:19, Gal_5:1-2 (2), Gal_5:4, Gal_5:6, Gal_6:2, Gal_6:12, Gal_6:14-15 (2), Gal_6:18, Eph_1:1-3 (5), Eph_1:5, Eph_1:10, Eph_1:12, Eph_1:17, Eph_1:20, Eph_2:5-7 (3), Eph_2:10, Eph_2:12-13 (3), Eph_2:20, Eph_3:1, Eph_3:4, Eph_3:6, Eph_3:8-9 (2), Eph_3:11, Eph_3:14, Eph_3:17, Eph_3:19, Eph_3:21, Eph_4:7, Eph_4:12-13 (2), Eph_4:15, Eph_4:20, Eph_5:2, Eph_5:5, Eph_5:14, Eph_5:20, Eph_5:23-25 (3), Eph_5:32, Eph_6:5-6 (2), Eph_6:23-24 (2)Phi_2:1, Phi_2:5, Phi_2:11, Phi_2:16, Phi_2:30, Phi_3:3, Phi_3:7-9 (4), Phi_3:12, Phi_3:14, Phi_3:18, Phi_3:20, Phi_4:7, Phi_4:13, Phi_4:19, Phi_4:21, Phi_4:23, Col_1:1-4 (5), Col_1:7, Col_1:24, Col_1:27-28 (2), Col_2:2, Col_2:5-6 (2), Col_2:8, Col_2:11, Col_2:17, Col_2:20, Col_3:1 (2), Col_3:3-4 (2), Col_3:11, Col_3:13, Col_3:16, Col_3:24, Col_4:3, Col_4:12, 1Th_1:1 (2), 1Th_1:3, 1Th_2:6, 1Th_2:14, 1Th_2:19, 1Th_3:2, 1Th_3:11, 1Th_3:13, 1Th_4:16, 1Th_5:9, 1Th_5:18, 1Th_5:23, 1Th_5:28, 2Th_1:1-2 (2), 2Th_1:8, 2Th_1:12 (2), 2Th_2:1-2 (2), 2Th_2:14, 2Th_2:16, 2Th_3:5-6 (2), 2Th_3:12, 2Th_3:18, 1Ti_1:1-2 (3), 1Ti_1:12, 1Ti_1:14-16 (3), 1Ti_2:5, 1Ti_2:7, 1Ti_3:13, 1Ti_4:6, 1Ti_5:11, 1Ti_5:21, 1Ti_6:3, 1Ti_6:13-14 (2), 2Ti_1:1-2 (3), 2Ti_1:9-10 (2), 2Ti_1:13, 2Ti_2:1, 2Ti_2:3, 2Ti_2:8, 2Ti_2:10, 2Ti_2:19, 2Ti_3:12, 2Ti_3:15, 2Ti_4:1, 2Ti_4:22, Tit_1:1, Tit_1:4, Tit_2:13, Tit_3:6, Phm_1:1, Phm_1:3, Phm_1:6, Phm_1:8-9 (2), Phm_1:23, Phm_1:25, Heb_3:1, Heb_3:6, Heb_3:14, Heb_5:5, Heb_6:1, Heb_9:11, Heb_9:14, Heb_9:24, Heb_9:28, Heb_10:10, Heb_11:26, Heb_13:8, Heb_13:21, Jam_2:1 (2), 1Pe_1:1-3 (4), 1Pe_1:7, 1Pe_1:11 (2), 1Pe_1:13, 1Pe_1:19, 1Pe_2:5, 1Pe_2:21, 1Pe_3:16, 1Pe_3:18, 1Pe_3:21, 1Pe_4:1, 1Pe_4:11, 1Pe_4:14, 1Pe_5:1, 1Pe_5:10, 1Pe_5:14, 2Pe_1:1 (2), 2Pe_1:8, 2Pe_1:11, 2Pe_1:14, 2Pe_1:16, 2Pe_2:20, 2Pe_3:18, 1Jo_1:3, 1Jo_1:7, 1Jo_2:1, 1Jo_3:22-23 (2), 1Jo_4:2-3 (2), 1Jo_5:1, 1Jo_5:6, 1Jo_5:20, 2Jo_1:3, 2Jo_1:7, 2Jo_1:9 (2), Jud_1:1 (2), Jud_1:4, Jud_1:17, Jud_1:21, Rev_1:1-2 (2), Rev_1:5, Rev_1:9 (2), Rev_11:15, Rev_12:10, Rev_12:17, Rev_20:4, Rev_20:6, Rev_22:21 christ’s, 16
Rom_15:30, 1Co_3:23, 1Co_4:10, 1Co_15:22-23 (2), 2Co_2:12, 2Co_5:20, 2Co_10:7 (3), 2Co_12:10, Gal_3:29, Gal_5:24, Eph_4:32, Phi_2:21, 1Pe_4:13

In the book of Acts the apostle Peter reveals this to us:

Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ. Then Paul tells us that Christ said this about who you and I are to Him and His Father:

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.

To that Paul adds this additional bit of knowledge:

2Co 1:21  Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;
2Co 1:22  Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

Here is verse 21 with the Strong's numbers:

2Co 1:21  Now^G1161 he which stablisheth^G950 us^G2248 with^G4862 you^G5213 in^G1519 Christ,^G5547 and^G2532 hath anointed^G5548 us,^G2248 is God;^G2316

G5547 is the Greek word 'christos, the anointed', and in this same verse we are told that we, too, have been 'chrio' by God.

Here is the definition of the Greek word here is translated as 'anointed':

G5548
χρίω
chriō
khree'-o.
Total KJV occurrences: 5
Probably akin to G5530 through the idea of contact; to smear or rub with oil, that is, (by implication) to consecrate to an office or religious service: - anoint

So Christ is God's anointed, His [G5547: 'christos', Act 2:36], who also "hath anointed [chrio^G5548, 1Co 1:21] us", and if we are anointed (chrio) by Christ then we have the anointing [G5545, chrisma, 1Jo 2:27] and we "shall know the Truth", and will not be seduced by the tempter.

The Greek word translated as 'stablisheth' in 2Co 1:21 appears 8 times in the New Testament, and of those 8 entries it is most often translated as 'confirm'.

Here are all the entries and how they are translated:

G950
βεβαιόω
bebaioō
Total KJV Occurrences: 8
confirm, 2
Rom_15:8, 1Co_1:8
confirmed, 2
1Co_1:6, Heb_2:3
confirming, 1
Mar_16:20
established, 1
Heb_13:9
stablished, 1
Col_2:7
stablisheth, 1
2Co_1:21

What Paul has been inspired to tell us is that it is God who has established and confirmed us together in the Christ. Then he tells us that we are "chrio... anointed" by God. That is why we are three times called the Christ of Christ, the Lord's Christ.

Here are those three times we are called "His Christ":

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

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

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

"Our God, and... His Christ, are accused by "the accuser... day and night". There is only one group who 'the accuser accuses day and night', and that is those who are "the Christ [of] our Lord".

But the accuser uses the spiritual kings of Assyria and Babylon to punish us for the fact that we all really do 'leave our first love' and have our candle removed, have the blood of all the prophets required of us, and have our names blotted out of His book', before the Lord sees fit to 'confirm and establish us to the end':

Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

 Exo 32:33  And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

But the Lord knows those who are His, and He keeps His very elect from being deceived:

Mat 24:22  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
Mat 24:23  Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
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, they shall deceive the very elect.

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

2Pe 2:9  The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

1Co 1:8  Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Before we are given over to Babylon, we are punished for our sins by the king of Assyria. The Lord actually gives us space of repentance by first breaking us to pieces:

Ezr 9:8  And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.

Luk 20:18  Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

Rev 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Rev 2:21  And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Rev 2:22  Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Rev 2:23  And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

Israel, Judah and Jerusalem all typify how Christ works with us. The king of Assyria carried away all the cities of the northern kingdom of Israel. He also took many of the cities of Judah, but he was not given to conquer Jerusalem, giving Judah "a little reviving in [their] bondage".

This is what the king of Assyria does to us as the Lord pleads with us to repent of our sins:

Isa 10:28  He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages:
Isa 10:29  They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.
Isa 10:30  Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.
Isa 10:31  Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
Isa 10:32  As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
Isa 10:33  Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.
Isa 10:34  And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

"The high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled" is a reference back to this verse:

Isa 10:8  For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?

The king of Assyria is far more powerful than we are of our own power. The loss of all these cities within us is the story of how the Lord demonstrates to us that we cannot do war with the beast within. It is our own sins which humble us and bring us to see our sad, helpless state, yet we are not yet humbled, and we are brought to our "wits' end" (Psa 107:27), as the apostle Paul explains:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [Psa 107:27]
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

But it takes many failures to bring us to this point, and in the meantime, the Lord demonstrates His mercy and gives us space for repentance by actually delivering us from the king of Assyria. This is what happened to the cities listed in Isaiah 10:28-32.

2Ki 18:13  Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.

The Lord's judgment is just now beginning. King Hezekiah cries out to be delivered, and he is delivered, but the kingdom is not yet at its wits' end, and it is only "given... a little reviving in [their] bondage" to the sins which still afflict the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem. Judah and Jerusalem are given "space for repentance", but they do not repent because they have not yet come to see their own helpless, and hopeless, condition, and they still think they are free from the will of their own God and Creator.

Nevertheless, just for our own admonition, and just to let us know what "a long time" means (Luk 20:9), the Lord takes mercy on Hezekiah, and He delivers them from the might of the king of Assyria:

2Ki 19:1  And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
2Ki 19:2  And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
2Ki 19:3  And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
2Ki 19:4  It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
2Ki 19:5  So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
2Ki 19:6  And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
2Ki 19:7  Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

So the Lord's judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem is postponed until a later date, and Judah and Jerusalem, as Laodicean types of you and me, will continue on as a lukewarm kingdom until they will, in time, be spewed from the mouth of their own God, to be judged in the fire of His doctrine and His words.

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;
Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 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.

The Lord was equally patient with King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel. Ahab killed Naboth and simply took Naboth's vineyard for an herb garden. When the Lord told Ahab that he would die for that treachery, Ahab fasted and repented, and the Lord showed mercy and spared Ahab's life:

1Ki 21:28  And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
1Ki 21:29  Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.

The entire book of Judges is a commentary on the longsuffering of God in working with His people. It is a commentary on how we are gradually brought to see the necessity of the utter destruction of the entire kingdom and economy of our own rebellious old man, so that through that death, the life of the new man is birthed:

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.

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

1Co 15:42  So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
1Co 15:43  It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

Next week, Lord willing, we will learn when the wolf really does "dwell with the lamb", in the kingdom of God, and when all the beasts of our land will be submissive unto us.

Here are the verses we hope to cover next Sunday:

Isa 11:1  And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
Isa 11:2  And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
Isa 11:3  And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
Isa 11:4  But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
Isa 11:5  And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
Isa 11:6  The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
Isa 11:7  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
Isa 11:8  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 41 Discussion

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Isa 9:1-4  They That Dwell In The Land of The Shadow of Death, Upon Them Hath The Light Shined.

Isa 9:1  Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
Isa 9:2  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Isa 9:3  Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
Isa 9:4  For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

Before we can continue this study of our judgment here at the beginning of Isaiah 9, we must repeat the last two verses of chapter 8 to remind us of the darkness which is "the dimness" we will be discussing here in the first verse of chapter nine.

Here are the  last two verses of chapter 8:

Isa 8:21  And they shall pass through it [the 'land' (vs 8) typifying our life here on earth - Jer 22:29], hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
Isa 8:22  And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

What we are being told is that at the appointed time for each of us, our hedged and peaceful life on this earth will begin to fall apart, because as God's elect our judgment must begin for us in this age (1Pe 4:17). The words "hardly bestead" are translated from the Hebrew word 'qashah', which means stiff-necked and stubborn. We are made to become the victims of a spiritual famine and a life of darkness and ignorance. Yet we stubbornly dig in our heels rather than accept the inevitable death of our old man and the total destruction of him and his entire kingdom.

As our judgment intensifies, the heat gets hotter and hotter, and the waves of the sea begin to become higher and higher. In time we are brought to our wits' end (Psa 107:25-27). At this point "every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us" is beginning to be purged from our lives, and it just does not seem natural or necessary to be that 'spotlessly' cleansed of our sins. The truth is that we see ourselves as pretty good compared to most people, and we see the Lord as being unrealistic and much too demanding of us. We know we have certain sins we need to eliminate from our lives, but we simply can't do it, and the starvation and mental anguish that comes with the spiritual darkness we are in at this time seems to be way beyond what we see as befitting our 'little sins' - the weight and sin that so easily besets us'.

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

At this point, when we are being punished for our sins, it seems that our "fiery trials" are just 'strangely' severe and simply more than we can bear.

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

The reason we are told not to think our fiery trials are strange is because that is exactly what we all just naturally do. And when we do that we look upward and curse our God. We look to the earth, and all we see is trouble and darkness. It is so dark, so foreboding, so fearful that we "gnaw our tongues for pain".

We closed our study last week with the New Testament version of Isa 8:21-22, which is:

Rev 16:8  And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
Rev 16:9  And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Rev 16:10  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11  And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

While in my own total darkness I wondered how it was possible to be 'scorched with fire' and also be in a 'kingdom that was full of darkness'. With the Lord's spiritual eyes, that apparent contradiction vanished, and it is now clear how the fiery trials our spiritual blindness brings upon us can scorch us with fire while we are in that blind and dark kingdom.

Of course it is all by Christ's design. King David explains to us what God is doing with our lives in this age, and he tells us we are born into a body which is designed to bring upon itself God's wrath and judgment.

Psa 90:3  Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
Psa 90:4  For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Psa 90:5  Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
Psa 90:6  In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
Psa 90:7  For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

God has given us an evil experience in this life, and He did so for the specific purpose of humbling us, and that is what He tells us right up front:

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Isaiah reiterates this truth in words which cannot be dismissed or denied by any intellectually honest mind:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
Isa 63:18  The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
Isa 63:19  We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.

"They are not called by your name" implies 'Why have you given dominion of your people over to those who are not yours, why have you placed such a burden upon me which I cannot bear?' In spiritual terms we are asking "Why have you made me this way?"

Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? [If He "made us to err from [His] ways", why on earth is He punishing us for what He made us do? And what is the answer to that inevitable natural question?]
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?

Isaiah had read Psalms and Ecclesiastes and was very familiar with these truths. He knew that our lives, and the destiny of his country, physical Israel, were all predestined to be lived out "after the counsel of His own will" (Eph 1:11).

Later in our studies we will come to this verse which Paul was quoting in Romans 9.

Isa 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

So I want to repeat those last two verses from chapter 8 and let Isaiah, the Lord's watchman for us, continue with his message from the previous chapter concerning the rebelliousness and stubbornness He has placed within us and what His methods are for dealing with the darkness of our rebellious stubborn minds:

Isa 8:21  And they shall pass through it [the 'land' (vs 8) typifying our life here on earth - Jer 22:29], hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
Isa 8:22  And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

Isa 9:1  Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
Isa 9:2  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

The spiritual message of Isa 9:1 is that the Truth of the gospel is not received by those who think they already have that truth. Here is that message from the mouth of our Savior.

Joh 9:35  Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
Joh 9:36  He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
Joh 9:37  And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
Joh 9:38  And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

The words, "when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations", refer back to what had happened to the northern kingdom of Israel when Pekah was king and had allied himself with King Rezin of Syria, against Ahaz king of Judah.

Here is what happened at that time:

2Ki 15:29  In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.

The destruction of the kingdom of our old man is not accomplished in one fell swoop. It takes place little by little as we are given to bear it. But as it takes place we dig in our heels, and the temperature rises and the height of the waves rises, until we are brought to our wits' end. King David knew all about how the Lord worked with His people, and he shared his experience with us:

Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

What we are  being told is that the best thing that ever happened to Job was the loss of all he owned, the loss of all his children and being stricken with boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head (Job 1 and Job 2). What we are being told throughout the scriptures is that the best thing that ever will happen to any of us will be to suffer loss in this age and to be "saved though as by fire" (1Co 3:13-15). What we are being told here in Isaiah and in Psalms 107 and 1Corinthians 3, is that the loss of all our wood, hay, and stubble, the kingdom of our old man, is the best thing that will ever happen to us.

Because this is all so contrary to what is taught in this world, I will take the time to list two more sections of scripture which give us the same message we are being given here in Isaiah 9. Those two sections of scripture are:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

...And these verses of Revelation 14:

Rev 14:6  And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. [The understanding of the need for our judgment is a major part of the good news of the gospel:]
Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, [All do, Rev 13:16]
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. [And what is the message of these three angels?]
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Right here we are given the three steps of our judgment, and we are told "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

We must all live the words of the third angel, or we have not received the gospel.

Here is this same message put in different words:

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

With all of that in mind, let's examine how these verses of Isaiah 9 are treated under the inspiration of the holy spirit in the New Testament:

Mat 4:12  Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;
Mat 4:13  And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:
Mat 4:14  That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,
Mat 4:15  The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
Mat 4:16  The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.
Mat 4:17  From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Here we have a very good example of how the writers of the New Testament demonstrate for us that all scripture is Christ-centric. That is why Christ Himself tells us we must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4 and Luk 4:4).

What we need to learn from these verses here in Isaiah 9 is that the Light does not come to those who consider themselves already to have light, rather it comes only "the people which sat in darkness... and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death". In other words, it comes only to those who have been bought low and have been brought to their wits' end.

Now let's consider what happens to those to whom this light comes:

Isa 9:3  Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

Here is how the New King James, and almost every other translation on the market, translates Isa 9:3:

Isa 9:3  You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; They rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

Considering that we are speaking of those to whom the Light, Christ Himself, has come, it follows that their joy is indeed increased. I know my own joy has increase exponentially. Christ calls those who see His light "the meek" of the earth, and says this about such people:

Mat 5:5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Isaiah Himself verifies this fact concerning those who "have seen great light" in:

Isa 29:19  The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

That is those who are the very subject under discussion according to the previous  verse:

Isa 9:2  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

While it is indisputable that the light of Christ increases outward persecution, it is also undeniable that it also increases inward joy and peace of mind:

Joh 14:27  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

That great peace comes with the light of Christ and is affirmed for us in the prophecy of Zecharias, the father of John the baptist, when the holy spirit inspired him to tell us this:

Luk 1:79  To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Albert Barnes' Commentary explains how the words "and not increased the joy" were introduced into the King James Version, while it was being translated:

"And not increased the joy" - The Masoretes here read in the margin לו  lô “to it,” instead of לא  lo' “not.” Eleven manuscripts, two of them ancient, have this reading. This reading is followed by the Chaldee Paraphrase, the Syriac, and the Arabic. The Septuagint seems also to have so understood it. So also it is in the margin, and so the connection demands; and it is unquestionably the correct reading. It would then read, ‘thou hast increased for it (the nation) the joy.’" [End Quote]

I have over 120 translations on my computer, and 90% of them agree with the Hebrew scholars quoted by Albert Barnes. Even Tyndale's translation, while retaining the word 'not', poses this verse as a question:

Isa 9:3  Shalt thou multiply the people, and not increase the joy also? They shall rejoice before thee even as men make merry in harvest, and as men that have gotten the victory, when they deal the spoil.

Either way would agree with the very next verse with which we will conclude our study for this week:

Isa 9:4  For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

"As in the days of Midian" makes it clear that the Lord does indeed increase the joy of all who come to His light:

Jdg 7:22  And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.

How can we not rejoice when we come to know the battle is the Lord's, and He does our fighting for us?

Next week, Lord willing, we will see more clearly why 'He has increased the joy of the meek' (Isa 29:19), as we discover that it is "the zeal of the Lord [which] will perform this", and as we are brought to understand that nothing depends upon us, even though all things will be accomplished through us (1Co 3:21-22), through Christ (Php 4:13):

Isa 9:5  For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
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.

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; 

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