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! 

Notice the placement of the word ‘then’. Being brought to our “wits’ end” alway precedes our repentance and “crying unto the Lord in [our] trouble”.  Only “then… He makes the storm calm” and only “then are [we] glad [and] praise the Lord for His goodness and His wonderful works to the children of men.”

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

Of course it is very “proper for all of us to pray for you.” It is our honor and blessing to do so. The very best “mental, physical and spiritual help” you will find is right here with the body of Christ:

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. 

When and if the Lord leads you to do so, we would love to have you with us on our daily zoom fellowship. Just click on the word ‘fellowship’ on the home page and go to the day you want to be with us. It is always at 7:00 P.M. ET.

A Mystery Hidden from the Ages and Generations: How Not to Be Bitter Against One’s Wife and How not to Make a Husband Bitter – Part 2

[Study Posted July 22, 2023]

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them” – Col 3:18-19. 

In the first study, we saw a pattern of the heavenly for choosing a wife,  typified by Jacob and Rachel. Issac’s cardinal rule was for Jacob to find a wife within his family, spiritually, the Body of Christ. Being unequally yoked “is, was and will be” utterly out of the equation!

Upon seeing Rachel come with her father’s sheep, Jacob’s very first act was to roll the stone from the mouth of the well to water his future wife’s children, the Bride of Christ’s flock of ten sons, most significantly, and likewise, the yet-to-be-conceived Joseph and Benjamin. Scripture doesn’t say at this point the no doubt minimal interactions between Jacob and Rachel. Yet, every male instantly recognises a girl’s “altogether” (Son 4:7) beauty upon their eyes meeting. Rachel’s glorious femininity must have caught Jacob’s breath since his first response upon kissing her was to lift up his voice and weep. 

Pro 18:22 Whoso findeth a [virtuous] wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD. 

The spiritually maturing female joints of the Bride will not feel picked upon by the Lord’s word focusing on her many physical failings to reflect their momentous spiritual connections since her composition is equally men. Only Christ finds a virtuous wife; all men in Babylon (as do women) unwittingly find a spiritually non-virtuous spouse typified by the cringy term, a “harlot” (Isa 1:21).

Spiritual connection is the stanchion that underpins a marriage

A potential husband offers spiritual connection to the girl of his single-eyed focus. If his spirit sparkles her fascination, her connecting response is her Shulamite-like elegant feminine arousals in him that will guarantee him weeping for joy. It is the pattern of the heavenly which Christ spiritually evokes in His Bride. His spirit and its understanding passionately arouse her eager submission and desire to artistically inflame him for his kisses which are better than the wine of the Old Covenant. It is the pattern for a husband’s and wife’s indelible connection and resulting bliss ~ reversing “a life more bitter than death” (Ecc 7:26).

Exo 25:40 And see that you make them [the Temple that we are!] after their pattern, which was shown you in the mountain.

2Ti 1:13 Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

A Queen Vashti-like seeker of self-glorification by not submitting, soundly positions her as an Esau-like “first”, and the stunning Rachel and Esther (two of several similar representations) represent the Bride of Christ, the “last” becoming the spiritual “first”. Queen Vashti’s ‘underpinning stanchion’ for her marriage was her rulership over her husband, a guarantee for its collapse ~ and it did!

Mal 2:10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? 
Mal 2:11 Judah [those dragged to the Lord] hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. 
Mal 2:12 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this [cut off the man not wholeheartedly seeking the Lord that first is depicted as wholehearted sexual intimacies], the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
Mal 2:13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.

That weeping and moaning is like Leah decrying that Jacob doesn’t love her. He had a semblance of a relationship with her, yet she is described as his ‘hated wife’ since she didn’t have the connecting spiritual pattern of the heavenly for him. Leah, as does Babylon, thought sexual intimacies were the primary source of a lasting marriage. Though bedroom intimacies significantly help, they do not denote deep personal and spiritual connection that soundly amplifies the ‘natural’.

Gen 29:31 And when Jehovah saw that Leah was hated, even He opened her womb. But Rachel was barren. 
Gen 29:32 And Leah conceived and bore a son. And she called his name Reuben, for she said, Surely Jehovah has looked upon my afflictions. Now therefore my husband will love me. [… but he didn’t!]

The foundational and underpinning fact to understanding anything in scripture, including the above verses, is the stark understanding that ‘first comes the natural’ pointing to its spiritual reality. (All of 1 Corinthian 15 – 1Co 15:46).

Even though we know that the flesh profits nothing, the Song of Solomon is central to discovering that literal (colloquially speaking) ‘holy grail’, the keys to the ultimate dream marriage are first physical and culminating distinctly spiritual; the epitome of all spiritual sensuality reflected in eternal life.

Most marriages are agonisingly aware of unresolved issues that disconnect the couple from being one flesh and one mind in everything. If spouses are one mind in almost everything, the bedroom intimacies take care of themselves. (Eph 4:1-6). Yet, enough people stumble into exceptionally good sexual relationships that encourage the masses to ‘gold feverishly’ search for the holy grail answers to living in eternal bliss with their spouse.

Following the honeymoon phases of the first couple of years of marriage, most wives, with buoyant busyness “whose heart[s’ unwitting inheritance] is snares and nets” and “her hands as bands” (Ecc 7:26) with deceitful kisses masterfully mollify any escalation of sexual tensions. 

A wife’s drip-fed sexual intimacies silently anger a husband, especially as he reads, “Be not bitter against them” as he struggles to spiritually forebear her in the unity of peace, knowing from experience that enthusiastic engagement for change is unlikely to occur. In smouldering anger, he quietly yields to his wife’s manipulations, after which non-related disagreements blow up, and she can’t understand his brooding grouchiness. He feels trapped and betrayed (“defrauded”). 

Ecc 7:25 I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness: 
Ecc 7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her [and the Bride of Christ is escaping from her].

1Co 7:5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency [Intrinsic need for sexual fulfilment, and particularly for the man representing Christ’s spiritual need for his Wife’s utter devotion to him].
1Co 7:6 But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. [Why?]

The Lord made within the vast majority of men, as did the Father in Christ, an intense desire to fulfill his longing for companionship epitomised through sexual (spiritual) contentment, much to the woman’s age-lasting exasperation by the unwitting meaning of her “curse”. Of course, remember that the woman represents a church filled with men equally cursed to be weary of their Lord’s longing to be fulfilled. 

That form of the “natural coming before the spiritual” directly parallels Christ’s longing to have his Shulamite-like wife’s equal spiritual passion for him.

King David considered his appetite for one woman similar to what his son, Solomon, later desperately desired; one wife whose heart isn’t snares and nets and her hands as bands. Ironically, at the Lord’s hand, Solomon’s birth resulted from his father’s despair that the seeming origin of his unrighteous and righteous lust emanated from his loins, just as a woman’s unrighteous and righteous lust stems from her breasts and heart, which escalates desire in her and her husband.

The Shulamite, and Oholibah, like all women, knows that her passion arises from a thousand other erotically sensory locations on her body, nowhere near her breasts or the home of coup de grâce’ seizures. 

Eze 23:21 And thou didst look back to the lewdness of thy youth, in the handling of thy teats by the Egyptians, for the breasts of thy youth.

The woman’s entire body, the Bride of Christ, is a spiritually erotic sensory organ akin to a stringed or keyboard instrument. When our Lord skillfully caresses some notes and plucks others from the treble to the bass, it culminates around the center of the instrument, her breasts. Our Lord brushes the lobe and fine hairs of our ear with his breath of apples (Son 7:8), whispered truths. His fiery eyes look into ours and melt our pruriently pounding hearts beneath our breasts ~ the endless spiritual eroticism is left up to the individual’s imagined vivid spiritual arousals. 

A woman’s breasts and heart are the epicenters where all sensual and spiritual roads lead, ensuing the lovesick waves emanating seismically from her orchard (H6508).

Son 4:12 A garden [H1588 – 1. garden, enclosure; enclosed garden 1. (fig. of a bride) From 1598 – 1. to defend, cover, surround] inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring [H1530 – 1. heap, spring, wave, billow] shut up, a fountain sealed. 
Son 4:13 Thy plants [H7973 – 1. weapon, missile, sprout] are an orchard [H6508 – 1. park, preserve, enclosed garden, forest] of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, 
Son 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: 
Son 4:15 A fountain [H4599 – 1. spring. From H5869 – eye] of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon [From H3835 – 1. to be white a. (Hiphil) 

to make white, become white, purify]

Why, then, does a wife a few short years after marriage drip-feed her Lord spiritual excitations when unjust Oholah and Oholibah have more whit to keep a man than the free woman? Our Lord made her that way; with the enormous beauty of her Husband’s strength, her job is to ‘reverse the curse’ (a lyrical chime worth resonating).

Luk 16:8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

Of course, Aholibah took her breasts’ representative power over men too far; she abused their righteous use to the extent that they were “bruised” (Eze 23:21) to the extent that they were figuratively plucked off her chest ~ such was the fervid attention of her endless suitors. 

Eze 23:34 Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

Oholibah represents “the children of this world [who] are in their generation wiser” than the budding Bride of Christ in biological marriages. A righteous husband and Christ would be delighted with a fraction of Aholibah’s torrid affections.

Pro 17:1 Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife. 

Psa 37:16 A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. 

Interestingly, when a man expresses heartfelt emotional surprise, he clasps his head or runs his hands down his face, whereas a woman clasps her neck or breasts. Men tend to have a greater single-minded (head/mental) focus, and women have an emphasis on heartfelt emotions, each beautifully complementing the other. 

Psa 38:7 For my loins [H3688 stupid; foolish] are filled with a loathsome disease [parched burning; to disgrace]: and there is no soundness [to be complete; be at an end] in my flesh. 

We could likewise state, “For my breasts (H7736  1. (Qal) to ruin, destroy, spoil, devastate) are filled with a loathsome disease (parched burning; to disgrace): and there is no soundness (to be complete; be at an end) in my flesh.” Of course, Aholah and Aholibah in Ezekiel 23:4, and hopefully not in us, will gravely vouch for that analogy with “bruised teats” and tears of humiliation in the Resurrection to Judgment. 

David, a man after God’s heart (Acts 13:22), and like all men subconsciously, precedes the spiritual in their burning to have one wife companion, not an interchangeable selection similar to one thousand of Solomon, his son’s ethnic beauties. David’s bitter irony is that his heart became snares and nets and his hands as bands with his lust for a woman (Bathsheba) whom he unwittingly thought would satisfy his Solomon-like quest for truth that a righteous sexual covenant would in the future portray. What wonderful truths came from David and Solomon’s unrighteous aches for “one woman” who would glorify them rather than herself; of course, Christ didn’t find her, so He made her for Himself since, and as Solomon knew, none existed.

Ecc 7:27 Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account [there wasn’t one in his one thousand wives who could fit the bill]:
Ecc 7:28 Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found [being Christ, whom fleshy husbands are to represent]; but a woman among all those have I not found.
Ecc 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man [Jesus] upright; but they [mankind] have sought out many inventions [devices; scheming].

So, what does a woman whose heart is snares, nets, and her hands as bands represent? Of course, she is Solomon’s thousand wives of Babylonian Christianity. She strikes unrighteous fear into her many suitors’ hearts labouring to attain eternal life in a delusionary ‘one’ resurrection. They are bound to a false Christ with an iron grip, enslaved to paying tithes and offerings, and only the Lord’s Elect escape her. Our Lord designed it all to work precisely like those above expressions to reflect Israel’s unequivocal enthusiastic marital agreement to follow Him entirely with her heart; for Him to feed her with kisses better than wine. How does that equate to a biological marriage? As with most marriages and Christ’s experience, it doesn’t take long for the curse from Eden to kick in, and the kisses turn to vinegar.

With the growing infrequency of sexual intimacies, a husband sharply feels a resentment “more bitter than death” for the thinly veiled Martha-like legitimacy for busyness (and where credit is due, often sincerely) dedicated to late nights to bed, endless housework, looking after children’s needs that only a mother can perform, and authentic tiredness. He’s bewildered and feels that he has been utterly ambushed and defrauded by his wife’s feigned heart that, in their courtship, seemed a mirror of Rachel and secretly hoped a little ‘righteous’ Aholibah; he distinctly now senses a vice-like capture and ensnared heart (Ecc 7:26) and a bitterness more than death.

Because those phenomenally bona fide female burdens don’t disappear, their legalised power is her trump card with no recourse for a husband. Any thoughts of her body not being her own are dismissed since that concept butts head to head with her commanding rulership. He, not wanting to look and feel even more like a sexual degenerate by broaching those subjects, submits to his wife’s rulership in quiet anger. And so, the grinding ‘bitterness’ loop is rarely resolved. 

Luk 10:38 And as they [Christ and the Apostles] went, it happened that He entered into a certain village. And a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house.
Luk 10:39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 
Luk 10:40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she came to Him and said, Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me. 
Luk 10:41 And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. 
Luk 10:42 But one thing is needful, and Mary [The Shulamite, the Bride] has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Mary’s beauty is amplified by her intense interest in Jesus’s message. Her passion is directly spiritual foreplay, typified by sexual seduction; both ravished parties don’t want to stop its escalation. Mary was given by God to grasp the Shulamite-like desire to be spiritually aroused by her Lord’s symbolic kisses. She was unconsciously building her house by the extended, deeply spiritual excitement. In the Body of Christ, nothing is more exhilarating. Lord willing, we utterly refuse another Jesus in adulterous doctrine “until He pleases” (Son 8:4) the fullness of his spirit in marriage.

When an electric connection between a young man and a woman is mutual, its magnetism is excruciatingly irresistible. It is the most stupendous sensory delight echoing Shulamite flirtations! Deliberately, the Shulamite (in the Song of Solomon) agonisingly draws out that thrilling spark in her poetic dream with her Lord. She and Mary spiritually experienced such with Christ; nothing would stop Mary’s intense interest in her Lord’s spiritual arousals. 

Any extended flood of non-sexual sensual arousals, as is Christ’s spiritual ravishings, are mostly unconsciously yet directly connected sexually in the flesh. Many people are oblivious to that mysterious biological phenomenon.

It takes immense Shulamite-like discipline to cunningly delay intimate stimulation that delightfully agonises anticipation in a husband (Son 8:4) ~ the Shulamite is a master builder of her house! 

Pro 14:1 Every wise woman builds her house, but a foolish one tears it down with her own hands. 

2Ti 1:6 Therefore I remind you to inflame anew the gift of God [holy spirit], which is in you by the putting on of my hands.

In the 1970s, as the late ribald male Australian comedian, John Barry Humphries, going by the pseudonym of Dame Edna , quipped in affected female tones, the hurtful biased truth spoken by most wives (at least internally) regarding husbands, “… all you men can think about is sex, sex, sex!” Of course, everyone in unison laughed at the distortion of reality that covertly reinforced women’s gleeful bias with furtive looks at their husbands, while men, with awkward grins, stoically looking straight ahead, felt mocked and beaten ~ all to both parties’ enduring ruin.

The comedian spoke powerful elements of truth for those with the foresight to spiritually understand the Shulamite’s masterful plan. She, being us, and from past experience, saw that her years of endless study and exhaustion were devoted to finding how to be a Leah. Our husband, Christ, as did Jacob, will likely (‘if it were possible’)  become bitter against us when we represent Leah.

Rachel and the Shulamite revelled in anticipatory, elegantly calculated foreplay that caused Jacob (symbolic of men sexually) and Christ to be single-eyed and focused on thinking, spirit, spirit, spirit! Time flies with such a sparkling-eyed and breezy girl who trusts in her Lord’s strength (Gen 29:20); no man can resist her! Christ couldn’t.

In the same era as the aforementioned bawdy Australian bard, some illuminary ‘professional’ resonated with billions of wives that men think of sex every seven seconds. Of course, that absurdity only strengthened women’s entrenched bias towards men’s seemingly endless libertine mindset. Men with that now equally entrenched inconceivable equation were tarred for decades as dissolute sweaty ghouls lecherously labouring insensitively ~ the notion did have great credence. So, regarding spouses’ hoped connectivity, as the adage says, “Never the twain shall meet”, and they universally don’t.

For the Body of Christ, it is immutable that two women, represented by Hagar and Sarah, the Lord’s rejected wife and His elected wife, dominate the scriptures. Old Israel is represented by Hagar, who is against her husband, the Lord of the Old Covenant. Submissive Sarah is the mother of us all spiritually [as Eve is physically – Gen 3:20], the heavenly Jerusalem above (Gen 17, Gal 4:21–31)

The vital element of understanding that wives are “against” their husbands is the foundational theme that drives husbands to be bitter against their wives:

The New English Translation has the more accurate account of Gen 3:16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you.”

Witless men and particularly husbands, innately deeply feel their God-given role of headship without understanding. Gelded, they withdraw from their equally cretinous wives (any controlling woman) demotion and in semi-confused stony-faced loathing for the humiliation. The Concordant Literal Version succinctly expresses his wife’s dishonour:

Deu 23:1 No one emasculated by the crushing of his testicles or having his penis cut off shall come into the assembly of Yahweh. (CLV)

Confused and angry with his emasculation, he unrighteously rules over his wife, and she responds with tears and a stubborn heart.

Gen 3:16 Unto the woman [our rebellious nature] he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [the word “to” is properly translated in Hebrew: ‘el’ – against. Hebrew: ‘el’ – against by implications of the intent of the verse] thy husband [Christ within us], and he [Christ] shall rule over thee. Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

YES! Here, Cain can be viewed as the Harlot church and Abel the Bride of Christ. Adam desired Eve even after she sinned since he realised he was just as liable as she was. So, too, do men desire women today, and Cain, the harlot church, is men’s desire, and SHE will and does rule over him! 

Gen 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against [Hebrew: ‘el’ the same word for “to”] Abel, his brother, and slew him. 

All men, led by Adam, abdicated their headship due largely to their sexual desire for the woman, which she quickly learned to use as a trump card of control. To many women’s secret lust and outward disdain, it is natural for the heterosexual woman to yearn for the mostly unattainable chiselled specimen of manhood to dominate her. Yet, she semi-consciously holds the discordant duplexity of wanting him to bow down and worship her, as seen by Queen Vashti’s conceit and humiliating retreat (Est 1:9 – 22).

Est 1:19 If the king is so inclined, let a royal edict go forth from him, and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media that cannot be repealed, that Vashti may not come into the presence of King Ahasuerus [akh-ash-vay-rosh], and let the king convey her royalty to another who is more deserving than she [Esther].  
Est 1:20 When the king’s rescript, that he must execute, is announced in all his kingdom, vast as it is, then all wives shall render esteem to their spouses from the greatest unto the smallest.

The Shulamite utterly reversed that strange dichotomy Solomon couldn’t understand from his experiences that all women have hearts of snares and nets and her hands like bands (Ecc 7:24-29). She unabashedly promoted elegant arousal with exquisite ravishings in herself and Him since she saw the pearl of great price in crystal clarity and sold all her self-will and rulership over Him to buy that field containing buried treasure (Mat 13:44-46). She struck gold in finding that nirvana to immutably crush her innate tardy arousals! No wonder Christ is a jealous God for his Bride when she unreservedly focuses her feminine spiritual ravishings on Him for their future mutually eternal loop of paradise.

1Co 11:8 For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. 
1Co 11:9 Nor was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man.

The Sun (husband) is not of the Moon, but the Moon (wife) revolves around the Sun indirectly in its revolutions around our revolving earth.

Nor was the Sun created for the Moon, but the Moon for the Sun, meaning that the Church was made for Christ, not Christ for the Church.

This means mankind was made for Christ, not Christ for mankind. Yet, unilaterally, the sisterhood of women (bar the Bride of Christ) led by the ship’s figurehead, Queen Vashti, innately know that 99.99% of men will submit to pretty much anything she says if the undertone of sexual denial glares silently! His weak protests don’t make a whit of difference since he is lumped in with his peers who loudly affirm the label of his degeneracy ~ he’s snookered, and she rules!

While the act seems relatively innocent, I always feel degraded that a young man ‘charmingly’ goes down on bended knee to ask his teary overjoyed girl to be his wife. That act powerfully represents her coming rulership over and emasculation of her husband, to which both are naive.

Spiritually, Christ never bowed to his fiancée; she enthusiastically bows both knees before him, and He irresistibly responds by devoting His colossal love to her; ironically, the very thing she craved! 

God made Adam symbolically upright even though the sin was initially attributed to Eve. Adam was complicit with Eve’s sin by submitting to her rulership, classically by him symbolically bending his knee to Eve! Solomon’s conclusion that all women “… have sought out many inventions” equally indicts Adam and all men in the sin of worshiping women, represented as spiritual harlotry with Babylon.

Solomon worshiped many women (1Ki 11:1-2… “love” is worship) and intimately knew their convoluted back-stabbing machinations as they jostled among themselves for distinction. He trusted in his God-given wisdom for understanding, and looked and looked and looked upon the “black” (clouded; hidden from understanding) Shulamite to understand that this stunning beauty broke all his God-given rules of wisdom since she was a startling outlier who was given to not have “a heart that snares, and nets and hands like bands.” Before his time, Solomon knew that God was true and every man a liar, and now, this Shulamite preposterously seemed equal with God! Solomon couldn’t accept that the mortal female Shulamite wasn’t the perfect deception. Solomon trusted implicitly in his God-given wisdom, particularly in Eccleiastes 7:24-29 (… hands like bands etc.); hence, he needed to stringently question a missed aspect of his wisdom for the irksomely overlooked pretence that the Shulamite just had to manifest. His exasperation caused him not to give up looking for her patent treachery, so he says…

Son 6:13 Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee [to stare down her presumed hidden lie; she must flinch from his intense introspection, seemed to be his intention]. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies. 

Solomon seems to conclude that she is utterly different from all other women. She is of his other 1,000 ethnic beauties, yet, she is different, and a (small) army bearing her likeness will undoubtedly come from her loins (Luke 12:32) to rule over all of her sisters of his court.

Gen 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee [Abraham] and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. [Exo 31:16; Deu 4:23; Deu 9:9]

The first “army” was Israel in the wilderness, represented by Solomon’s 1,000 wives, of which Solomon (unwittingly) represented as Jehovah. He concluded that the Shulamite must represent a new army, a second representation since she was outstandingly different from any woman he had ever known!

Son 1:5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. 
Son 1:6 Look not upon me, because I am black [effectively saying that no matter how much you look upon me, you will not (in this life) discover my spiritual representation] because the sun hath looked upon me: [Christ’s spirit was to look upon her with God’s brightness that blinded in blackness all understanding of her representation] my mother’s children [The mother of harlots from Sinai] were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. 

The next verse can be seen from Solomon’s and the Shulamite’s perspectives.

Son 1:7 [Solomon’s internal questioning] Tell me, You [Shulamite] whom my soul loves, where do you feed [your flocks, your teeth], where do you lie down at noon? [Solomon appears peeved that this Shulamite girl has more wisdom than he! Spiritually, she did and made him lie down at noon and rest from the blackness in his heavens which her brightness caused that he’d never fathom!] saying For why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of Your companions? [He’s saying, “With and by my infinite God-given wisdom, I’m pretty aggrieved by your flock’s unwillingness to share your hidden (spiritual) truth with my flock; you blacken my God-given wisdom!”]

Solomon is deeply troubled by his profound musings to understand the Shulamite and speaks in a soliloquy of the third person (as if she is speaking). He is annoyed that if he can’t fathom her, he will never get the answer from his 1,000 women whose hearts are like snares and nets and hands like bands. He’s asking, “Why should the Shulamite have wisdom and understanding that seems to supersede my immeasurable wisdom?” (She fed her ‘teeth’ on his (Christ’s wisdom) represented as her flock (teeth) better than his flocks (teeth). His disturbed mind seeks understanding by reversing his internal questioning; “…why should I [miss Shulamite] be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? (his teeth are her private, internal companions who will not divulge her secret, much to his immense irritation).

The same scriptures can be seen in reverse from the Shulamite’s submissive beauty. The dual meaning is based on her humility for having her flocks rest with his flocks at noon. She asks why she should be an Elect above 1,000 ethnic debutantes. Such is the humble nature of the most male-arousing woman in the history of creation! Her humility for her God-given and unspeakable beauty further amplifies her spiritual femininity. Christ made her immensely spiritually arousing for Himself as first seen naturally of men’s more prurient awakenings and much to the natural woman’s curse-driven disdain. (1Co 11:8-9 … For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man…). We could symbolically say Christ thinks of spirit incontinently (a play on men thinking “sex, sex, sex”; page 18) every seven seconds since he is spirit (1Co 7:5).

From our recent study of the Song of Solomon, it is patently clear that the Shulamite representing the Lord’s Bride ,utterly turns on its head the Queen Vashti’s dictum printed in invisible ink on her forehead, that all men will worship her; and they do!

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

Hos 14:9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

As we know spiritually, all men (and women) in the world lust after one or more of the tens of thousands of religious sects, of which Gentile Christianity is the most dissolute; they all represent Mystery Babylon the Great.

Agonisingly, at this point, everyone reading and understanding this study knows the key to a successful marriage is in the simplicity of the Shulamite’s first statement in the Song of Solomon.

Son 1:2 Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth; for Your love is better than wine. 

Not a soul in the history of mankind fully understands the physical, which points to the spirit of that verse’s intent! As ostentatious as it sounds, only the Bride of Christ has been given that key.

The Song of Solomon is the Shulamite in the third person, spoken by Solomon in poetic verse, unashamedly (in righteous lust), and spiritually expresses her determination to have her Lord arouse her for her highly anticipated reciprocal arousal of Him!

However, the Lord is not backward in coming forward to highlight His spiritual meaning of the physical. If a scripture seems to sully the purity of the marriage bed, it is the following verses speaking of old Israel’s prurient ways:

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. 

The spiritual Shulamite is equally as swift in traversing the Lord’s word in her arousals as she snuffs up the righteous spirit (wind) in her God-given immeasurable pleasure for the occasion He has given her. The Bride of Christ was found by Him (by design) in her blood in the field, and after growing up as the most beautiful woman to ever exist, He again, by design, “found”, married and impregnated her with His spirit. Even though she doesn’t officially marry Christ until He comes at the resurrection to life, she symbolically is already His wife in downpayment.

Just as Israel was married to Christ, the God of the Old (marriage) Covenant, His New Covenant Bride is now effectively married to her Lord by her agreement to the word, his marital covenant.

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

2Co 11:1 I would that you were bearing with me a little in foolishness; but indeed bear with me. 
2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused [betrothed] you to one Man, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

2Co 1:21 But He confirming us and anointing us with you in Christ is God. 
2Co 1:22 And He has sealed us and having given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

Rom 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee [Abraham] a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Males, particularly teenage and young men relatively new to sensual arousal, learn to subdue their frequent inopportune awakenings whose origin seems to have a mind of its own. Though secretly intrigued, the beautiful women have bright-eyed tender empathy for their male counterpart’s disquiet since they also have more concealed heartfelt involuntary expressions at inconvenient moments. Mutual understanding and respect for those awakenings are endearingly cute and covertly build reciprocal trust.

The Shulamite intentionally uses her ‘gifts’ most elegantly for her and her husband’s direct arousal (as expertly taught by her mother and elder woman’s sensual wisdom ~ and how I wish it was so today!). She implicitly knows that her arousal will rise exponentially by her Lord’s spiritually engulfing arousal, which physically overwhelms them, symbolising eternal spiritual joy ~ the pinnacle of sensual exhilaration in marriage.

Son 8:1 O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised. 
Son 8:2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate H7416 – c. as pomegranate shaped ornaments in the temple. H2426 – 1. To be exalted, be lifted up. H7699 = breasts; and derivative H7736 – 1. (Qal) to ruin, destroy, spoil, devastate.

Exo 38:17 And the sockets for the pillars were of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver; and the overlaying of their chapiters [H7218 = 1. head, top, summit, upper part, chief, total, sum, height, front, beginning of silver] and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver. 

1Ki 7:18 And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter [Two chapiters depicting our Lord’s rejected wife and Elected wife].

Beautiful and ornate pomegranates decorated the Temple’s pillars’ tops or “chapiters” and featured on the Priest’s robes and many other places to catch the eyes in open-mouthed wonder.

The Woman, the Temple of God, and her breasts are a thing of glory for His delight. Notice above that pomegranates directly depict breasts that portray her body erect like a palm tree with breasts at the top of her ‘chapiter’. Her stately erectness depicts her elegant righteous walk and single-eyed focus on her Lord, compassionately mindful of the world’s leering eyes yet not turning to validate their lust. 

Son 7:7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. 
Son 7:8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree [H8558 = 1. palm tree, date palm – Origin: from an unused root meaning to be erect], I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples; 

Indeed, the negative unrighteous and adulterous joy of a woman’s breasts (H7736 – 1. (Qal) to ruin, destroy, spoil, devastate) a man; when delighted righteously induce more spiritual truth… even if at the beginning of our journey it is the milk of the word.

The most potent education of Song of Solomon 8:1–2 is for the Bride of Christ! Every person in the Body of Christ has suffered from indolent spiritual female arousal, which is why the Shulamite’s God-inspired incredible wisdom is for her and not her husband! Every man and woman knows how easily males are sexually aroused. Teenage and young women (all women representing both the rejected and elected Church) are intrigued by that phenomenon, and in marriage, they soon get over it and treat it with contempt ~ so, too, did Israel for her Lord. We all need our Lord’s kisses which are better than (the old) wine, to arouse us to further spiritual stimulation. Everyone is intimately familiar with sexual stimulation that corresponds to inflaming the spirit of God. Its classic parallel is when studying God’s word, and you are on an exciting thread of truth, its escalating spiritual arousal incites extended research that continues to amplify excitement until gold is found.

The Shulamite is not despised since she hasn’t the machinations of a whore seeking a suitor. She is ‘spoken for’ by her fiancé’s commitment to marriage. The spiced wine is directly juxtaposed with her breasts, a “contrivance” (Ecc 7:29) in her dreaming she shrewdly knows will arousingly intoxicate her Lord to be righteously incontinent and “lifted up” (H7416) with desire. Conversely, in Solomon’s court of 1,000 wives, they all used their feminine wiles, most notably employing their breasts, vying “to be exalted” (see H7736 above) “to ruin” their husband’s escape from their ensnaring heart and hands like bands (Ecc 7:26-29). His incontinence makes him miss the mark of better judgment and is “taken by her” (verse 26).

The Shulamites and the Lord’s wine, His word, are one in reciprocal arousals. Depending upon her ethnicity’s skin tone, her pomegranate’s rose-coloured or darker-hued alertness highlights her virginity, which compared to the Great Whore’s in their exaltation, is bruised by her many lovers. Like all men’s haughty elevation, they are eventually brought low and destroyed in humiliation for their whoredoms.

Eze 23:1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 
Eze 23:2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: 
Eze 23:3 And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. 
Eze 23:4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters [the world, particularly Babylon]. Thus were their names; Samaria [in the north] is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah [in the south of Israel].

Jer 3:20 Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband [somewhat equal to Vashti’s scheming unplanned separation from her husband and her devastating exile], so you have dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says Jehovah.

Israel, the Lord’s first wife, is represented by Aholah and Aholibah, the totality of Israel, both north and south.

It is given only for the Bride of Christ to see the colorfully graphic imagery the Shulamite expresses through astonished Solomon, who can’t believe such a woman exists; yet, there she is, right in front of him. Whether the Shulamite actually did exist, was Abishag or a poetic soliloquy of his dreaming for such a woman, scripture doesn’t say. Nonetheless, the Lord deemed the Song of Solomon a foreplay grand finalé of His courtship ‘song’, the entire Bible.

What can we now take away physically from the spiritual applications to outstandingly improve our marriages physically and distinctly spiritually?

In growing anticipatory spiritual arousals, we delight in waiting for the next study.

Psa 62:5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. 

Son 2:17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

Gospels In Harmony, Part 139-Saved by Fire, John 21:1-14

[Study Aired May 16, 2023]

John 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.
John 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.
John 20:28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
John 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.

John 21:1 After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself.
John 21:2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
John 21:3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
John 21:4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
John 21:5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
John 21:6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
John 21:7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.
John 21:8 And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes.
John 21:9 As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.
John 21:10 Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.
John 21:11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.
John 21:12 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.
John 21:13 Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.
John 21:14 This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.

In our last few studies we have seen Christ appearing on the “eighth day” to the disciples, which represents a “new beginning” of their process of salvation. He broke bread, fish, and honey with them, representing the intaking of the word of God and His doctrines. As we intake the word of God, our understanding is opened. That is, if we have received the spirit.

Luke 24:41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
Luke 24:42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
Luke 24:43 And he took it, and did eat before them.
Luke 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luke 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

In today’s study, Christ once again will appear to the disciples. First, they set out to go “fishing”.

John 21:1 After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself.
John 21:2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
John 21:3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.

The disciples present are Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James, John (the sons of Zebedee, John also being that disciple whom Jesus loved), and two others not named for a total of seven disciples. Seven represents completion, especially judgment. The names according to Hitchcock’s definitions are the following.

Simon Peter = That hears; that obeys, A rock or stone
Thomas = A twin
Nathanael = The gift of God
James = That supplants, undermines; the heel
John = The grace or mercy of the Lord

Christ is working through His disciples, who are fishermen, to bring the gospel to the world. First however, they must have their minds changed to understand the things of the spirit. Our minds are changed by the preaching of the disciples. By Simon Peter we receive the ability to hear, obey, and build the foundation of Christ doctrines. We receive a witness, (twin), by Thomas believing Christ is risen. By Nathanael the gift of God is given. By James Satan is crushed by the heel. Through John we receive grace and mercy from the Lord. All these names have a deeper spiritual significance to the elect of God. The point of them being fishermen is not to tell they are trying to catch literal fish. Here is the point Christ is making.

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

Mark 1:17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

We must always remember the scriptures do not mean what they say, but what they mean spiritually. Christ speaks in parables giving us the meaning line upon line and a little here and a little there.

Matthew 13:34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:

Isaiah 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
Isaiah 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
Isaiah 28:11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
Isaiah 28:12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
Isaiah 28:13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

The disciples at this time are still on the “milk of the word” and cannot understand the things of the spirit.

They are going fishing in the sea of Tiberias. They went fishing at night and caught nothing. Tiberias, according to Hitchcock, means good vision, but they went fishing at night when vision is poor. The sea represents mankind.

Revelation 17:14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
Revelation 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

Now Christ appears in the morning.

John 21:4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
John 21:5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.

Notice “when the morning was come” Jesus appeared. It requires light for us to see Christ. They still did not recognize him at first. Christ gave them the command to cast their net on the “right side” of the ship, and they caught so many fish they were not able to draw it.

John 21:6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.

The right side represents where Christ is and what we are commanded to do.

Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Mark 16:17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Mark 16:18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. 
Mark 16:19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
Mark 16:20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

Continuing with our verses.

John 21:7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.

John recognized it was Christ once again appearing in another form. Peter was naked and covered himself, representing the understanding that we are sinful in nature, and our sins must be covered in order to approach Christ. Our sins are covered by love. Love is keeping his commandments.

Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.

Proverbs 17:9 He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

James 5:19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
James 5:20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

1Peter 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. 
1Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
1Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity (love) shall cover the multitude of sins.

1 John 5:1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
1 John 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

The other disciples come to shore to meet with Jesus.

John 21:8 And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes.
John 21:9 As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread.
John 21:10 Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.
John 21:11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.
John 21:12 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.
John 21:13 Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.
John 21:14 This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead.

Fire, 153 fish, and the third time are all symbolic of the judgment through grace and mercy and the destruction of the flesh of mankind those who eat with Christ must endure in order to be saved.

1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
1 Corinthians 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1 Corinthians 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.
1 Corinthians 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1 Corinthians 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

We must endure the fire in order to be saved. God loves us so much He takes us by the hand and leads us through the fire to teach each of us His love.

Psalms 94:12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;
Psalms 94:13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.
Psalms 94:14 For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
Psalms 94:15 But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.

Proverbs 3:9 Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
Proverbs 3:10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
Proverbs 3:11 My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
Proverbs 3:12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

Hebrews 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Hebrews 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Hebrews 12:10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Hebrews 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Revelation 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.

We are admonished to be more zealous!

Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

2Ki 19:20-37  Save us out of his hand that all may know that you are God alone – Part 2

[Study Aired March 9, 2023]

2Ki 19:20  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
2Ki 19:21  This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
2Ki 19:22  Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
2Ki 19:23  By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
2Ki 19:24  I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
2Ki 19:25  Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
2Ki 19:26  Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
2Ki 19:27  But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
2Ki 19:28  Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
2Ki 19:29  And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
2Ki 19:30  And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
2Ki 19:31  For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
2Ki 19:32  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
2Ki 19:33  By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
2Ki 19:34  For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
2Ki 19:35  And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
2Ki 19:36  So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
2Ki 19:37  And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

The last verse we looked at last week was (Ki 19:19) Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.

In this section of Kings (2Ki 19:20-37) we will learn how God answers this prayer of Hezekiah who typifies the elect who cry out to God day and night wanting to be avenged for the blood of the saints that has been spilt out over the years (Rev 6:10, Hab 2:3, Heb 10:37).

Heb 10:35  Cast not away therefore your confidence (Php 1:6), which hath great recompence of reward.
Heb 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
Heb 10:37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

Hezekiah’s prayer is symbolic of how we sign and cry for the abominations of this world and are heard because of our fear and reverence toward God (Heb 5:7) that he has caused in us through the fiery trials of this life that make it possible for us to be received of God (Eze 9:4, 1Pe 4:12, Heb 12:6).

2Ki 19:20  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
2Ki 19:21  This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

The “LORD God of Israel” hears our prayers and answers them “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Eph 3:20) when we are brought to that place of being abased as Hezekiah was (Mat 23:12, Jas 4:6, the prayer of untried faith does not receive anything from God Jas 1:5-8).

Eph 3:20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

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

Jas 1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Jas 1:6  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering [tried faith 1Pe 1:7]. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed [and he that is not driven by the flesh, less and less is like a sea of glass mingled with fire (Rev 4:6) ].
Jas 1:7  For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
Jas 1:8  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Hezekiah is a type of the church being called “The virgin the daughter of Zion” and is the way God sees the bride of Christ now through our Lord (2Co 11:2, Rev 19:7, Rev 3:4)

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Rev 3:4  Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.

Christ alone is able to “make thine enemies thy footstool” and make us worthy (Mat 22:44) by setting us free from sin (Joh 8:36) as our sins typified by Sennacherib’s are laughed to scorn, “laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee“. This life long process of becoming stedfastly confident and more than a conqueror through Christ is promised to God’s elect who in time become persuaded of God’s faithfulness and power, something that is achieved through a process of having our faith tried repeatedly through this life (Rom 8:38, Act 14:22).

Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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

We shake our heads in dismay at our former conversation in this world (Eph 2:2) as Hezekiah did for ever having tried to make some sort of deal with Sennacherib “the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee“. We thank God for the mercy that he has shown to us as a kind of first fruits who are being given the power to put off that former conversation little and by little as God gives us victory or growth in our heavens through Christ the vine, who God’s first fruits are hoping in and seeking (Rom 11:30-31, Jer 29:13, Mat 6:33).

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.

2Ki 19:22  Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.

Sennacherib’s reproach and blasphemy against the nation of  Judah was “even against the Holy One of Israel” and God is showing us that same principle that we find in (Act 9:4-5) that tells us that when we do it unto the least of these we do it unto Christ himself whether good or bad (Mat 25:40).

Act 9:4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

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

2Ki 19:23  By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his bordersH7093, and into the forest of his Carmel.
2Ki 19:24  I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

The words “With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains” of  Sennacherib is symbollic of how sin wants to rule over us because it is at the door of our hearts, but we will rule over it through Christ who is the mountain that we look to for deliverance from our enemies within and without (Gen 4:7, Psa 121:1).

What Satan wants to attack specifically in our lives is symbolized by this sentence “to the sides of (Lebanon – whiteness), and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his (Carmel – fruitful field)”. Satan’s goal is to always try to defile the temple of God and destroy the fruitful field of our life by corrupting it with lies (Mat 13:27-30). Cutting down “cedar trees” , and “choice fir trees” is referring to men who are as trees (Mar 8:24) that are cut down and sifted by the wicked one to become proselytes, twofold more the child of hell than yourselves (Mat 23:15). Entering into the “lodgings of his borders H7093” is referring to the extremities of the land and symbolizes for us how Satan like a roaring lion tries to cut us off in the area of our land [our bodies] where we are the weakest. We counter these attacks by humbling ourselves under His mighty hand, as we cast all our cares upon him, and look well to the flock to protect it against all such attacks, the strong bearing the weak (1Pe 5:6-9, Heb 13:17 CLV, Rom 15:1).

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

borders H7093 qêts kates  Contracted from H7112; an extremity; adverbially (with prepositional prefix) after: –  + after, (utmost) border, end, [in-] finite, X process.

Isaiah’s recounting of Sennacherib’s boastful claim in his flesh with these words “I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt” further demonstrating the mind of a man being controlled by the man of perdition on the throne of his heart, whose idols within that perverted heart have been answered by those things which he has accomplished in the earth “I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt“.

2Ki 19:25  Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
2Ki 19:26  Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.

Sennacherib is God’s sword who was given those victories in his flesh (Psa 17:13), and it is God who has ordained the things that have been determined from the foundation of the world according to the counsel of His will.

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

2Ki 19:24  I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

Isaiah goes on to declare what God wants Hezekiah to hear in regards to Sennacherib “Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it?” in regard to Sennacherib’s boastful claim that “I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places“. In other words we don’t have free moral agency and God is the one who has formed the light and the darkness, and the peace and the evil (Isa 45:7), and “Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up“. These were the conditions that God created to his glory and reminds us of through the prophet Isaiah’s message to Hezekiah.

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

2Ki 19:27  But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.

The Lord continues to drive this point home of His sovereignty to the proud and arrogant Sennacherib within “But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me“. These words spoken about Sennacherib cannot be heeded as he represents our old man of sin that must be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming (2Th 2:8). The verses in (Rev 2:12-13) are words for God’s people today that bare some similarity and also remind us that God is sovereign and knows our works and where our abode is and that we can through the mind of Christ, be granted to read hear and keep the sayings of this prophecy (Rev 1:3). The admonition found in (Rev 2:14) explains what it is that must be burnt out of our heavens and will be as the bride of Christ who God is going to make ready (Rev 19:7).

Rev 2:12  And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;
Rev 2:13  I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
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 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

2Ki 19:28  Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer 17:9), however it is known and not hidden from God as revealed with these words “to” Sennacherib, “Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears“. The way in which God will deal with that first corrupt nature that is within us is typified by what will happen to Sennacherib, described with these words “therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest“. Sennacherib is going to reap what he sows, and like Satan he will be bound “by the way which thou camest” (Rev 9:2, Rev 9:11, Rev 20:3) until the day of his judgement when his old nature will be destroyed in the lake of fire (Rev_20:10).

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

Rev 20:3  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.

Sennacherib’s death will come by his own sons, his own household that will prove to be a house divided as Satan is (2Ki 19:37). A hook and a bridle in these very sensitive areas of one’s face reveals that God is in complete control of the beast seen here as Sennacherib who He has caused to err by going up against Hezekiah, and the nation of Judah (Isa 63:17). Going “by the way which thou camest” is reflective of the unchanged pattern in the heart of Sennacherib, unlike the true prophets of God who do not go back the same way, symbolizing the growth and the increase that God gives to his people (1Ki 13:17).

1Ki 13:17  For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.

2Ki 19:29  And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
2Ki 19:30  And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
2Ki 19:31  For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.

These three verses are in contrast with the old man and the new man, the old man that must decrease through a process of judgement described in (2Ki 19:29) along with the new man typified by Judah who must increase (Joh 3:30-31) and “yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward” in.

Things that we eat that “grow of themselves” represent the way that seems right to us but lead to death (Pro 14:12). That is the time in our life when we don’t understand God’s sovereignty over all things, or know of it but lack the faith to trust in it (Joh 21:18, Mar 9:23-24).

Pro 14:12  There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Joh 21:18  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest:[Pro 14:12] but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. [Rom 15:1]

Mar 9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Mar 9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. [Rom 3:27]

The second year we eat that which “springeth of the same” witnessing to us that because we are accustomed to doing evil we will continue on in our deception without God changing us (Jer 13:23). The third year represents that part of the process of judgement in Sennacherib’s life where the word of God comes to him symbolized by vineyards. God’s judgements are in the earth of Sennacherib “and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof” (Isa 26:9) however he will only learn righteousness in the lake of fire, when the “fruits thereof” that he has digested become purified at that time (Joh 12:48, Mat 12:37).

Jer 13:23  Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

Mat 12:37  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

It is through the process of judgement that is described as “a sign unto thee” to Sennacherib that we can go unto perfection on the third day God permitting, and it is very few who are granted that deliverance in this life from the man of perdition on the throne of our hearts (2Th 2:8) a deliverance typified by this statement “And the remnant (Rom 11:5) that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward“. Sennacherib represents our old man who cannot inherit the kingdom of God and yet his experience of evil (Ecc 1:13) is necessary as is ours in order to bring us unto perfection Lord willing in the first resurrection.

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:

Ecc 1:13  And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.

Those few, the remnant “that escape” represent the bride of Christ who is made ready by the zeal of the Lord “ For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this” (Rev 19:7, Joh 2:17).

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him:(“the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this“) for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Joh 2:17  And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

2Ki 19:32 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
2Ki 19:33  By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
2Ki 19:34  For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

Two things are being expressed here, one that the gates of hell will not prevail against the body of Christ (Mat 16:18), those gates being represented by the king of Assyria who shoots arrows [false doctrines] that represents all the fiery darts of the devil that the faith of Christ within God’s elect will quench (Eph 6:16). He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1Jn 4:4) is what we are being told in symbolic language and “He shall not come into this city” means that sin will no longer dominate God’s elect (Rom 6:14, Tit 2:11-12) who will go unto perfection, learning that no weapon formed against God’s people will prevail because God tells his little flock “I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake (who typifies Christ)” (Isa 54:17, Luk 12:32). Like the previous mentioned point when someone goes “By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD” it represents that this person was not ordained to go unto perfection in this life, but rather to go back to the same path that leads to death (Heb 6:1-6).

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

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

2Ki 19:35  And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

185,000 people smote by the angel of the LORD is a symbollic number that explains how the day of the Lord 1 will bring about the new man 8 by way of grace through faith 5.

It is “early in the morning” that we discover life comes out of death, and that a seed must die in order for life to come forth (Joh 12:24). That life, for those who are granted it today, is the life of Christ which enables us to die daily and be dead to sin and alive in Him (Gal 2:20).

Mat 20:1  For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. [we are hired of Christ and Lord willing labour in the eleventh hour]

Mar 16:2  And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

Luk 21:38 And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.

Luk 24:1  Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.

Joh 8:2  And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

Act 5:21  And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

2Ki 19:36  So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
2Ki 19:37  And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that AdrammelechH152 and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

After this devastating defeat of Sennacherib’s army, you would think there would be some humility and brokenness of spirit in him, but because he represents our man of sin no such contriteness is found, and  “So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh“, continuing in his idolatrous ways of “worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god“. His two sons Adrammelech who was named after an Assyrian idol and Sharezer whose name means “prince of fire” “smote him with the sword” and “they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead“, telling us that sin persists, and that although Satan’s house is divided against itself it continues to flourish regardless of the severity of God’s correction (Rev 16:21). That is the pattern of waxing worse and worse that is unfolding in this present age and God is the one who softens or causes hearts to be hardened which is the overarching lesson of this study that teaches us of His sovereignty over light and darkness and over good and evil (Rom 11:22, Isa 45:7).

Rom 11:22  Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

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

In the end Hezekiah is delivered from Sennacherib and all of his forces, and all these things happened unto them for our sakes upon whom the end of the ages is come (1Co 10:11), that demonstrate the mercy that God shows to his elect first (Rom 11:31-32) in this life so that all of God’s creation can one day come to know this truth “Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee,(Heb 5:7) save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only“(2Ki 19:19).

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.

[Study Aired June 29, 2022]

The short answer is that nobody can generate enthusiasm for Christ’s truth without the Lord providing curiosity and longing.

There are always two key women in the scriptures – the Whore and the Bride of Christ.

Without understanding “The Keys to the Kingdom” and all in the “Essential Reading” segment on the IWWB website, we will remain firmly entrenched in Babylon.

Hopefully, this study will amplify a heightened desire through a detailed inspection of every word’s types, symbols and shadows as the Song of Solomon colourfully and secretly expresses, as does the entire Bible.

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

Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Most certainly, Babylonian Christianity (the Whore outwardly) likewise has an intense curiosity; it ebbs and flows inconsistently and is driven by ignorant unrealistic fear and rulership by their Nicolaitan slave-masters. In addition, they breathlessly share and sell spiritual intimacies within the 46,000 splinter, Christian, harlot denominations; as we once did and now daily diligently seek to eradicate remnants of harlotry.

There is no escaping the fact that interest in the word of God has a deliberate and direct correlation with our physical marriages and sexual relationships. It is akin to the Babylonian Christians feeling obligated to attend church and is the same as us possibly feeling dispassionate for spiritual intimacies and skipping studies with the apathy of a harlot for her client (for us, it can be the dull eyes of Leah, the elder daughter, whom Jacob unwittingly married by Laban’s deceit). Likewise, if our physical marriages are sexually lack-lustre, they risk being a symbol of harlotry where indifference for physical or spiritual intimacy apathetically rules.

Traditionally, harlots have no intrigue and curiosity for authentic presence for spiritual unity with their customers. For her, time is of the essence; time is money or merely validation. Similarly, that detachment caused by ‘more important’ things can blight our delight in Christ.

The entire experience that the Body of Christ has been given is pure intimacy between the Bride and her fiancé, the Christ. She is already spiritually ravished by His word. Her God-given and increasing incontinence for His spiritual truths grows daily. Hence, He says, “I come quickly” since lovers waiting too long for physical marriage risk adultery by enthusiastically participating in the fullness of each other’s ardour. Likewise, Christ comes quickly to us since our intense spiritual intimacies quickly increase knowledge and understanding through spirit-discerning spirit. While dying daily, we are flushed with the glory and downpayment of His spirit of first love and the anticipation of marriage. Yet, we must wait patiently while the intensity of expectation increases seemingly to the breaking point.

Son 2:5 Sustain ye me with raisin-cakes, Refresh me with apples; For I am sick of love. (Darby)

Psa 62:5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

Our former and dissipating whore within was equally passionate for a different Jesus. What an earthquake to discover that we had been amorously following another Jesus for all of our lives! It is like being at school for a final exam. With no time to spare, you were proud of your answer, only to review the question, and you had it utterly back-to-front. What a miserable and devastating flood of inward wailing and howling emotions!

Mic 1:7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.
Mic 1:8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.

2Co 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. 

Mat 23:25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! [When we were whores and harlots] for you are cleansing the outside of the cup and the plate, yet inside they are brimming with rapacity and incontinence. [going over land and sea to make one proselyte a two-fold worse child of hell than themselves.] (CLV)

1Co 7:1 Now, concerning what you write to me: It is ideal for a man not to be touching a woman.”
1Co 7:2 Yet, because of prostitutions, let each man have a wife for himself and each woman have her own husband.” Spiritually speaking, we are to have ONE husband, the Christ and not the prostitutions with another Jesus.
1Co 7:3 Let the husband render to the wife her due, yet likewise the wife also to the husband.” [by the washing of the word of truth.]
1Co 7:4 The wife has not the jurisdiction of her own body, but the husband, yet likewise the husband also has not the jurisdiction of his own body, but the wife.”
1Co 7:5 Do not deprive one another, except sometime it should be by agreement for a period, that you should gave leisure for prayer, and you may be the same again, lest Satan may be trying you because of your incontinence.

Just as husbands and wives in a well-balanced marriage have curiosity and desire and specific incontinence for the mind and body of their mate, so, too, is the Body of Christ incontinent for His spiritual truth. Leisurely time through deep presence in the Word evokes profound ruminations that arouses a spouse to engage their mate.

Son 4:9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. 

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

Pro 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

I expect that everyone here knows what it is like to be “sick of [with/in] love”. To become sick with love for God’s word requires diligent study of different Bible versions and related dictionaries with cross-referencing of the many instances of scriptures where a particular word or phrase has an order of frequency of use for a meaning. To a Babylonian it sounds tedious, and it is unless the Lord has given us righteous lust for his word.

There are 35 internationally recognized descriptions of wine tasting. Within each class, the vintner looks intently into each classification in his attempt to express the subtle flavours that he more often overstates in the hope of sales. It is an act of being intently present for the more exquisite and delicate flavours. Those qualities are identified, sometimes in more flowery and inspirational terms than I express, as a hint of chocolate, mild pepper, oak, rose and so forth. Unless we were inspired by the vintner to seek those flavors, we would most likely miss them. By being utterly immersed emotionally in the art, we extract a peculiar delight in the subject.

Similarly, we, too, look intently into the word of God for its underlying flavors of all truths without adding to the word of God, or diminishing His word, just as Solomon immersed himself in the delight of his Bride. That is being “present” in a thing.

[For your interest to characterise fine wine, the following link is excellent: https://www.wine-tastings-guide.com/wine-descriptions.html]

Son 2:5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

For the sake of the exercise, following is a simple breakdown of that verse that most in the Body take for granted.

Son 2:5 Stay^{H5564 [H8761]} me with flagons^H809, comfort^{H7502 [H8761]} me with apples^H8598: for I am sick^{H2470 [H8802]} of love^H160.

Son 2:5 Stay^H5564 Original: סמך
– Transliteration: Camak
– Phonetic: saw-mak’
– Definition: 

1. to lean, lay, rest, support, put, uphold, lean upon 
2. (Qal) 
3. to lean or lay upon, rest upon, lean against 
4. to support, uphold, sustain 
5. (Niphal) to support or brace oneself 
6. (Piel) to sustain, refresh, revive

me with flagons^H809 Original: אשׁישׁה

– Transliteration: ‘ashiyshah
– Phonetic: ash-ee-shaw’
– Definition: 

1. raisin-cake, used in sacrificial feasts 
2. consistently translated in AV as flagon of wine 

– Origin: from H808
– TWOT entry: 185a
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine 

– Strong’s: Feminine of H808; something closely pressed together that is a cake of raisins or other comfits: – flagon. 

Total KJV Occurrences: 4 

• flagon, 2

 2Sa_6:19; 1Ch_16:3 

• flagons, 2

 Son_2:5; Hos_3:1 

comfortH7502 – Original: רפד
– Transliteration: Raphad
– Phonetic: raw-fad’
– Definition: 

1. to spread 
2. (Qal) to spread 
3. (Piel) to spread out, support 

– Origin: a primitive root
– TWOT entry: 2197
– Part(s) of speech: Verb 

– Strong’s: A primitive root; to spread (a bed); by implication to refresh: – comfort make [a bed] spread.

me with applesH8598 Original: תּפּוּח
– Transliteration: Tappuwach
– Phonetic: tap-poo’-akh
– Definition: 

1. apple, apple tree 
2. apple tree 
3. apples 

– Origin: from H5301
– TWOT entry: 1390c
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Masculine 

– Strong’s: From H5301; an apple (from its fragrance) that is the fruit or the tree (probably including others of the pome order as the quince the orange etc.): – apple (tree). See also H1054.

Continuing…

For brevity’s sake, I haven’t included the full KJV+TVM rendition for each word in Song of Solomon 2:5. Below is a more extensive example of “for I am sick”^H2470. However, a detailed study of words arouses “presence”. It is like studying the label of a presumed fine wine where the careful wording is designed to intrigue and promote lust for a sale. So is Solomon’s authentic love speech, but without a harlot’s flamboyant ‘sales’ pitch with lying eyes and dress.

for I am sick^H2470
– Original: חלה
– Transliteration: Chalah
– Phonetic: khaw-law’
– Definition: 

1. to be or become weak, be or become sick, be or become diseased, be or become grieved, be or become sorry 
2. (Qal) to be weak, be sick 
3. (Piel) 
4. to be or become weak, feel weak 
5. to become sick, become ill 
6. (CLBL) to entreat, pray, beg 
7. (Niphal) 
8. to make oneself sick 
9. to be made sick 
10. to be tired 
11. (Pual) to be made weak, become weak 
12. (Hithpael) to make oneself sick 
13. (Hiphil) 
14. to make sore 
15. to make sick 
16. to show signs of sickness, become sick 
17. to grieve 
18. (Hophal) 
19. to be made sick 
20. to be wounded 

– Origin: a primitive root [compare H2342, H2470, H2490]
– TWOT entry: 655
– Part(s) of speech: Verb 

– Strong’s: A primitive root (compare H2342 H2490); properly to be rubbed or worn; hence (figuratively) to be weak sick afflicted; or (causatively) to grieve make sick; also to stroke (in flattering) entreat: – beseech (be) diseased (put to) grief be grieved (be) grievous infirmity intreat lay to put to pain X pray make prayer be (fall make) sick sore be sorry make suit (X supplication) woman in travail be (become) weak be wounded. 

Total KJV Occurrences: 76 

• beseech, 1

 Mal_1:9 

• besought, 5

 Exo_32:11; 1Ki_13:6; 2Ki_13:4; 2Ch_33:12; Jer_26:19 

• carefully, 1

 Mic_1:12 

• diseased, 3

 1Ki_15:23; Eze_34:4; Eze_34:21 

• entreat, 3

 1Ki_13:6; Psa_45:12; Pro_19:6 

• entreated, 1

 Psa_119:58 

• grief, 2

 Isa_17:11; Isa_53:10 

• grieved, 2

 Isa_57:10; Amo_6:6 

• grievous, 4

 Jer_10:19; Jer_14:17; Jer_30:12; Nah_3:19 

• infirmity, 1

 Psa_77:10 

• laid, 1

 Deu_29:22 

• pain, 1

 Jer_12:13 

• pray, 3

 Zec_7:2; Zec_8:21; Zec_8:22 

• prayer, 1

 Dan_9:13 

• sick, 34

 Gen_48:1; 1Sa_19:14; 1Sa_30:13; 2Sa_13:2; 2Sa_13:5; 2Sa_13:6; 1Ki_14:1; 1Ki_14:5; 1Ki_17:17; 2Ki_1:2; 2Ki_8:7; 2Ki_8:29; 2Ki_13:14; 2Ki_20:1; 2Ki_20:12; 2Ch_22:6; 2Ch_32:24; Neh_2:2; Psa_35:13; Pro_13:12; Pro_23:35; Son_2:5; Son_5:8; Isa_33:24; Isa_38:1; Isa_38:9; Isa_39:1; Eze_34:4; Eze_34:16; Dan_8:27; Hos_7:5; Mic_6:13; Mal_1:8; Mal_1:13 

• sore, 2

 Ecc_5:13; Ecc_5:16 

• sorry, 1

 1Sa_22:8 

• suit, 1

 Job_11:19 

• supplication, 1

 1Sa_13:12 

• travail, 1

 Jer_4:31 

• weak, 4

 Jdg_16:7; Jdg_16:11; Jdg_16:17; Isa_14:10 

• wounded, 3

 1Ki_22:34; 2Ch_18:33; 2Ch_35:23

of love^H160. Original: אהבה
– Transliteration: ‘ahabah
– Phonetic: a-hab-aw
– Definition: 

1. love 
2. human love for human object 
3. of man toward man 
4. of man toward himself 
5. between man and woman 
6. sexual desire 
7. God’s love to his people 

– Origin: f of H158
– TWOT entry: 29c
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine 

– Strong’s: Feminine of H158 and meaning the same: – love. 

Total KJV Occurrences: 36

The Bride has a single-mindedness of eye for her fiancé since he has given her a new and virgin mind for him alone. She is, before creation, “spoken for” where the pattern of the younger ruling the elder is permanent. She is promised and declared in advance for Christ.

Son 8:7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. [despised; condemned]  
Son 8:8 We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? 

What the Lord does for the cute “little sister”, to the unwitting Babylonian Christian’s sullen displeasure, is that the entire Bible is written primarily for her, His future Bride. It is a love letter to her alone. She is the little sister typified by Rachel, Jacob’s fiancée, and compared to her elder sister Leah’s “weak eyes”, Rachel was vibrant, eager, anticipatory, but most of all, devotedly being present in communications and submission, the apple of Jacob’s eye. How do we know that? For our benefit, the Lord deliberately portrayed Rachel as His spiritual Bride, and we know that the Lord will suffer nothing less than a perfect representation.

 Son 4:7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. 

Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. [We know that she does have “spots”, but they are gone and made as white as snow when his righteousness is attributed to her, as she, with the simplicity of acknowledging her sins, they are made as white as snow.]

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. Every bride desires the perfect marriage, and vibrant marriage is built upon being equally yoked in the spirit of understanding the truth with vibrant communications in all things.
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.

Since we are here in our forums with each other in regular and intimate communication in Christ, it is the God-given primary key to increasing spiritual intrigue.

As did five of the sleepy and foolish virgins, we must challenge our fleshy proclivity to take our ease.

Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 

Amo 6:1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!

Israel came from the wilderness and the mountains of Samaria, where she committed many whoredoms with her neighbors and is a shadow of us coming out of the many harlot churches of the same people where we took our ease in the foolish belief that we are already saved without chastisement.

We all experience the weariness of the flesh and turn over on our spiritual bed of slothfulness. World time zones, health, sleeplessness and many other tribulations of the flesh contribute to genuine absence from our daily studies and private communications. Nonetheless, the Lord knows our heart, and so we should first judge ourselves within for any slothfulness.

Pro 26:14 As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. 
Pro 26:15 The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. 
Pro 26:16 The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. 

Jdg 18:9 And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are ye still? be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land. 

Pro 12:24 The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute. 

Tribute is forced labor. The entire world has been under tribute since Eden. Israel experienced the first forced labor in the wilderness under the law of Moses, where physical blessings and cursings ruled. The world will participate in a second tribute, in type, for their God-given slothfulness under the rod of iron in the One Thousand-Year reign where again, and without the Lord’s spirit, everyone will see their teachers and hear God’s laws but not be converted.

So, pray diligently for the habit of daily routine and probably rising early to feed your household within. Consistent study with a mindful presence in Christ is vital whatever your timeframe.

Pro 31:10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. [We know that Christ has found, and even made for Himself, such a woman.
Pro 31:11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil [Christ had already experienced a lack-lustre and indifferent woman, his first wife in the wilderness. He will not suffer to take her back in adultery as that would be dishonest spoil. So, too, we don’t go back to Babylonian doctrine].
Pro 31:12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life [Only because He first loved her by giving her increasing intimacy for him; she wanted him to wash her by his word].
Pro 31:13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands [She is spiritually clothed and diligent in study].
Pro 31:14 She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar [By searching the scriptural fare daily].
Pro 31:15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

To be sick with love, we need commonality in most likes and dislikes. We need a bright-eyed accord that makes us equally yoked in flesh and spirit with our lover.

At this point in the study, we have seen that:

• We first must be dragged to the truth since our Babylonian brothers and sisters likewise proclaim their passion for ‘the truth’ unwittingly for a different Jesus. We must be pre-signed for the right course and in the relevant lecture room.
• We must show up with disciplined, consistent and meditative study and do our homework. 

Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not [The hard-working farmer reaps in due season].

The Third and Vital Ingredient is to have a Vibrant Presence in Christ to be “Sick of Love.”

Jacob’s fiancée, Rachel, is a classic example of a young woman trembling in anticipatory excitement for her man and him for her. Before meeting him, she knew the truth of what kind of man would magnetically snap her attention. She was a delightful girl who loved the beauty of the outdoors in nature and solitude while tending her father Laban’s sheep. As did Jacob, Rachel knew that being equally yoked in all things with her lover created a brighter path to more profound understanding of each other and for us, Christ.

Presence in each other creates vibrancy and makes us “sick of love” ~ meaning sick with love. (Song of Solomon 2:5)

Essentially, by being dragged to Christ and studying His word, we are automatically given the path to first love that makes us sick with love for its intoxicating joy of oneness of mind and burning spiritual bodily union with Christ.

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. 
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

First comes the natural, and then proceeds the spiritual. Most newlyweds believe that they are equally yoked in mind and spirit, for that is what exhilarates their sensuality to more intense delight in the other. It is a beautiful thing that, without further reason, they immerse themselves wholeheartedly in a bodily union. The spiritual correlation is that immersion in Christ is first seen in the flesh with our physical love affairs.

We all crave the ‘happy hormones’ (Oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin) and remember the newness of their effects in our youth and long to return to those heady days and recapture the deep intimacy and presence of courtship and newly marrieds. Platonic friendships can have a far more focused presence on each other, especially Christ, since sexual intimacies don’t clutter the devotion for spirit of truth, and no doubt Paul experienced and was prompted to say that it is good not to touch a woman. However, if spouses can achieve presence in and for each other and Christ, it can be an exceedingly fruitful experience of spiritual discovery.

Ecc 4:9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their work. 
Ecc 4:10 And if one has a fall, the other will give him a hand; but unhappy is the man who is by himself, because he has no helper. 
Ecc 4:11 So again, if two are sleeping together they are warm, but how may one be warm by himself? 

What is not stated is that a single person can have a possibly equal or greater intensity of desire and presence alone with Christ since his ache to share his deep spiritual insights escalates in solitude with the Lord. Today, I lust for that presence! With emotions too deep to relate, I have experienced that deep intimacy with Christ, especially in my single days on my farm that can only be described as a shadow of sexual intimacy with a spouse transcended by spiritual intimacy in Christ. I like to think that is what Paul experienced.

Physical love ebbs and flows and can become static or face wintery growth. Ephesus within us, the first of the seven churches of Asia, is admonished right off the bat to regain its first love.

Rev 2:1 Unto the angel [the Body of Christ] of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 
Rev 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: 
Rev 2:3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. 
Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Hopefully, new people in the Body of Christ are still in that state of first love when Spring is in the air. They intensely focus on every word of God for more profound spiritual meanings as the happy hormones brighten their spiritual eyes.

The fruit from our flush of first love steadily matures over many months and possibly years. Maturing members of Christ’s Body sometimes long for the heady days of ravenously devouring the word of God. Similar to youthful lust, they lust for a revitalised spirit righteously.

Ecc 7:10 Say not, Why were the days which have gone by better than these? Such a question comes not from wisdom. 

That first love is often based on the new and pure milk of the word, and it is not wise to say that the old days are better than the present. As I experienced on the farm with my profound delight in the Lord, people think the old days were better because they brightly recall the effects of the happy hormones and try to retrieve them rather than focus on the foundational truths of mature fruit which the happy hormones incite. I wanted the wine of my spiritual hit. That emotional buoyancy is as much as so-called charismatic church folk want to know with their understanding. They amplify their drunkenness by babbling in tongues and all sorts of mindless ravings for the emotional hit it evokes, and agitate deluded marvelling from peers.

There is nothing wrong with breathtaking truthful joy. As the saying goes, “Let’s have our cake and eat it too!” By eating the meat of His word, we attain a more mature buoyancy springing from detailed study. Focused study on types, symbols and shadows and the Greek and Hebrew meanings of words, bursts exponentially upwards in our minds for more exciting exploration. To the non-dragged mind, that is as boring as it sounds, but it is hidden manna to us. Almost every word in scripture has a spiritual meaning, and if we don’t seek its often multiple meanings, we will remain a mindless unconverted Babylonian.

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

How do we recapture our first love? 

Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

To stir up love and good works of being one with Christ in everything, we need to review the physical that precedes the spiritual briefly. The classic example is a husband and wife’s love-making desires for each other. Of course, we don’t have to go into the intimate details to know what actions escalate all the happy hormones for righteous incontinence. Nevertheless, Solomon’s examples in the scriptures below have inspired playwrights and poets for centuries where one’s imagination is titillated. At the Lord’s hand for the discerning Saints, our minds are seasoned with self-mastery while reading such accounts; of which single Saints are increasingly adept.

It is understood that there are endless avenues of meaning in poetry. For this purpose, we have a glimpse of stirring up passion in each other, a shadow of the spiritual for Christ, our fiancé, who is pretty amorous yet restrained in verse 6. His nearness to marriage and his courting chastity is an act of “good works” and symbolizes our ardour for intense delight in what is to come in marriage.

Solomon, the Rose of Sharon, represents Christ, and the Body of Christ is the Lily of the valley among the harlot thorns.

Our deliberate restraint of haste in love-making is for the Lily’s (Christ’s) good pleasure, where the Rose and the Lily’s presence in every minute detail of each other is paramount to becoming “sick of love”. So, too, is our study for every word in scripture, our focus, that is, our presence which ravishes our hearts for Christ! Being “present” is precisely that ~ deliberate and absorbing focus on the details as with our delight in fine wine. The result is the physical and spiritual flow of happy hormones that cause us to crave more as should happen both physically and spiritually with equally yoked spouses.

Son 2:1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. 
Son 2:2 As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. 
Son 2:3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 
Son 2:4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. 
Son 2:5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. 
Son 2:6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me [That to me looks like highly restrained ardour, yet it can be taken both ways; for the unmarried and the married].
Son 2:7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please [Christ pleases Himself whom He chooses as members of His Bride whether they are called at the third hour or the eleventh hour].

The Bride Adores Her Beloved

Son 2:8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. 
Son 2:9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. 
Son 2:10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 
Son 2:11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 
Son 2:12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 
Son 2:13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. 
Son 2:14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. 
Son 2:15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. 
Son 2:16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. 
Son 2:17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

We know all too well our aches and pains through trials and sufferings as we are chastised and die daily to our sins as walk, rest, sleep, and we resume the race against ourselves to win the prize of our high calling. Our spiritual ardour ebbs and flows in fits and starts. That is the habit of weak flesh subject to idols of the heart. The flush of first love matures into a more intense purity in Christ, and is especially experienced at the wedding supper of the Lamb where our spiritual winter is banished forever.

Amo 3:13 Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, 
Amo 3:14 That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. 
Amo 3:15 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD. 

Isa 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Amen.

Isa 37:29-38 I Will Put my Hook in Your Nose and my Bridle in Your Lips - Discussion

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Isa 37:29-38- I Will Put My Hook in Your Nose and My Bridle in Your Lips

Isa 37:29  Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
Isa 37:30  And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.
Isa 37:31  And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:
Isa 37:32  For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
Isa 37:33  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.
Isa 37:34  By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
Isa 37:35  For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
Isa 37:36  Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
Isa 37:37  So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
Isa 37:38  And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

If we apply the principle of these verses...:

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.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

...We will see that this story, and every story in the scriptures, centers around these two men, "The first man Adam, [and] the last Adam". These same two men are referred to elsewhere in Paul's epistles as "the new man [and] the old man".

Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

If we apply the principle revealed to us in these verses to this account of what the Lord is doing with King Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and King Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, then we will see King Hezekiah and his people, after being judged, as an Old Testament type of "the last Adam... the new man... the Lord and His Christ... hated of all men".

Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

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

If we apply this principle to Sennacherib, we will also see him and his people as "the first man Adam... our old man, [crying], Away with Him, crucify Him... we have no king but [Sennacharib] Caesar".

Both of these man, as we just read, are doing nothing more or less than: "whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done" (Act 4:28).

We were even told earlier in this prophecy that the King of Assyria has been appointed by the Lord to be "the rod of [His] anger, and... indignation":

Isa 10:5  O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6  I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Like Pharaoh before him, the king of Assyria was used by the Lord to demonstrate that the Lord's will is always being done. "Even wicked [men] for the day of evil" are fulfilling "what [the Lord's] hand determined before to be done" (Act 4:28).

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

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

Assyria typifies the oppression which the churches of Babylon exercise upon us while we are carried away captive into that harlot system. Hezekiah, as a type of us who are coming out of that system, is threatened with the wrath of that system. First, we are in that self-righteous, carnal-minded and rebellious system, and then, if we are blessed of the Lord, we are corrected by our own wickedness in this age, and we become those who are being brought out of that system of rebellion against the Lord. Not realizing the Lord's sovereignty over even the evil of this life, we rage against those who are rejecting our influence as an unfaithful harlot, over the kings of this world within us, and at that point we are giving the Lord the occasion He is seeking for the destruction of that harlot system within us.

So we read:

Isa 37:29  Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears, therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.

"Because thy rage against me, and your tumult, is come up into my ears" is what we do simply because the Lord hardens our hearts against His words as He did to Pharaoh many years earlier:

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.

Having a heart 'hardened' by the Lord is the same as being told, "Therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest."

So much for the Babylonian false doctrine of "free moral agency", which is so appealing to our inward 'beast' which demands our worship.

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

"I [will] put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou came" is also another way of telling us:

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

We rebel against the Lord with our carnal mind, and "by the way which we" rebel, we will also learn not to continue in our rebellion. 'Our own wickedness will correct  us and our backslidings will reprove us.'

It was the remembering of what they had done to Joseph which tormented his brothers:

Gen 42:17  And [Joseph] put them all together into ward three days.
Gen 42:18  And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God:
Gen 42:19  If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses:
Gen 42:20  But bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so.
Gen 42:21  And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
Gen 42:22  And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
Gen 42:23  And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.

As his called-out ones we, too, are corrected by our own wickedness, and we are reproved by our own backsliding. However, we are being judged in this present age, at "this present time", so we can be in Joseph's shoes typically, and not in the shoes of his ten brothers in type.

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. [As Joseph was manifested to his brothers]

"The sufferings of this present time" is our judgment which is even now 'beginning at the house of God".

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

If we are so blessed of the Lord to be part of "the house of God" from which 'the time is come for judgment to first begin' then we are told:

Isa 37:30  And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.
Isa 37:31  And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:
Isa 37:32  For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.

"That which grows of itself" the first year, that which springs of the same, the second year, and what we reap of what we sow the third year, are one and all accomplished by this one means, and by this means only: "...the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this".

The fact that it takes place over three years signifies the process which is taking place within us. Our salvation in this age is known only to the Lord. We must never ever assume that we have attained or "apprehended that for which we are apprehended".

Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

In this same epistle we are told to 'work out our own salvation and to tremble before the word of God' as if our salvation depended upon our own works, while at the same time acknowledging that in the final analysis The Truth is: "it is the Lord that works in [us] both to will and to do of His good pleasure... the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this".

It was the apostle Paul who was inspired to reveal this Truth to us:

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

If we given to want to work out our own salvation, the the fact of that matter is: "it is God which works in [us]" to do so. And if we are granted to actually do so, "it is God which works in [us] both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

If we are given the faith to believe in the Lord's sovereignty to the degree that we do not depend upon ourselves or our efforts, that is a great gift from the Lord, and He will deliver us from all the fear and from the the threats of men and false brothers sent against us from the adversary:

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

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

2Pe 2:1  But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

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.

Rev 16:13  And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

If  we are granted the faith to know Truth when we hear it, then we need not fear what men can do to us. The spiritual Truth is... "They that be with us are more than they that be with [our enemies]".

This is what the Lord revealed to Elisha and his servant Benghazi just a few years before the reign of King Hezekiah:

2Ki 6:8  Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.
2Ki 6:9  And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down.
2Ki 6:10  And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice.
2Ki 6:11  Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?
2Ki 6:12  And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.
2Ki 6:13  And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.
2Ki 6:14  Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.
2Ki 6:15  And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?
2Ki 6:16  And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
2Ki 6:17  And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
2Ki 6:18  And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

This great mercy was shown to wicked King Jehoram, the son of wicked King Ahab, king of Israel. How much more would the Lord hear and answer the king who typifies His obedient elect. It is good for us to notice how merciful the Lord was to Ahab and to Ahab's son Jehoram. It brings us to understand His mercies in dealing with us and even His mercies in dealing with our adversaries at times.

Hezekiah has shown the Lord the blasphemy of Sennacherib, and has repented of depending on his own strength and on the non-existent mercies of the king of Assyria. Hezekiah as a type of us has been brought to his wits' end and has come to the Lord and to the Lord's prophet, and the Lord, in essence, tells us to simply stand and see the Lord's salvation.

Hezekiah typifies this remnant:

Isa 37:32  For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.

The holy spirit applies this word 'remnant' to the Lord's elect of "this present time" (Rom 8:18).

Rom 9:27  Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

Rom 11:5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

Hezekiah didn't even have to ask for the Lord to smite his enemies with blindness, as did Elisha. The Lord Himself simply destroyed them all:

Isa 37:33  Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.
Isa 37:34  By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD.
Isa 37:35  For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
Isa 37:36  Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

One hundred and eighty five thousand slain in one night without Hezekiah or his armies having to lift a finger is a mighty number. All they had to do was to be quiet, stand and see the salvation of their God, as the Lord told Israel when He destroyed the armies of Egypt in the Red Sea:

Exo 14:10  And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.
Exo 14:11  And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12  Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.
Exo 14:13  And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
Exo 14:14  The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

"Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians", is the same spirit that led Hezekiah and his father Ahaz to give the Lord's gold and silver to the king of Assyria. It is the same spirit which tells us "Who can make war with the beast", just give up and submit to him.

There is no end to the speculation on the part of scholars as to how the Lord went about slaying 185,000 soldiers in one night, but it is best simply to believe what we are told, "...the angel of the Lord... smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty five thousand... they were all dead corpses".

There were, no doubt, far more slain than 185,000 when Egypt suffered the death of the firstborn in every single family.

Exo 12:29  And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
Exo 12:30  And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

The destruction of the firstborn and the armies of Egypt may be the greatest number of people ever sacrificed for the Lord's symbolic elect, but the death of 185,000 Assyrians is also a very great deliverance. Apparently there were just enough survivors to take word back testifying to the power of the God of Israel to deliver His people by any means He wishes to employ:

Isa 37:37  So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

The Lord is very thorough in all He does though, and just as He destroyed Pharaoh with His armies, He also destroys "Sennacherib, king of Assyria".

Isa 37:38  And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

Hezekiah was delivered from Sennacherib's threats when he went into the temple and spread Sennacherib's threats before his Lord. Sennacherib was slain while "he was worshipping in the house of [his god]", and the Lord used his own sons, his own flesh, to destroy Sennacherib.

This is the message for us today:

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

This "woman" is the great harlot "which reigns over the kings of the earth" as any unfaithful wife does over those she seduces. She is "one flesh" with her carnal lovers, just as Sennacherib is one flesh with his sons who turned on him and destroyed him.

1Co 6:15  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
1Co 6:16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

In the scriptures we must realize that 'sons' and 'wives' are often the same. We are Christ's spiritual sons:

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.

We in turn are called 'a chaste virgin... espoused unto one husband... to Christ':

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

The fact that it was his own sons who "smote him with the sword" means it was his own flesh which turned on him and killed him. This is the message for us in verse 38:

Jer 2:17  Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?
Jer 2:18  And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?
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.

Or as the holy spirit inspired the apostle Paul to instruct us:

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

The wonderful truth is that there is a great recompense of reward for trusting in the Lord and not in ourselves or anyone or anything in this world.

Rth 2:12  The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

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.

Our next study will demonstrate how the Lord can and does extend our life as He sees fit and as it fits into "the counsel of His own will" (Eph 1:11).

Isa 38:1  In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
Isa 38:2  Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,
Isa 38:3  And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
Isa 38:4  Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
Isa 38:5  Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
Isa 38:6  And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
Isa 38:7  And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
Isa 38:8  Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.
Isa 38:9  The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:
Isa 38:10  I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
Isa 38:11  I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

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Awesome Hands - part 133 Discussion

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Awesome Hands, Part 133 - The Zeal of Phinehas

[Study Aired May 13, 2018]

Zeal is something we all want. Whether it is for work, family or service to the Lord, most of us desire to be zealous in and for the things to which we’ve decided to dedicate our precious time.

Oftentimes, it is hard to determine what to dedicate ourselves to, but no matter what decision we make, it is ALL determined to happen the way it happens, by the will of the Lord.

In our study today, we are going to examine some examples of zeal, and how we, too, can truly be zealous for the Lord.

Zeal stays wrath

Our previous study focused on looking at various decisions and situations we are faced with and either blessing or cursing those things in our hearts as we deal with them. For this study, we are going to see what it means to fully be dedicated to God while He is working all things after the counsel of His own will.

The verses for consideration for this “Awesome Hands, Part 133” study are found in Numbers 25.

Numbers 25:1  And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
Numbers 25:2  And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
Numbers 25:3  And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.
Numbers 25:4  And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.
Numbers 25:5  And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor.
Numbers 25:6  And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Numbers 25:7  And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;
Numbers 25:8  And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
Numbers 25:9  And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.

At first glance, these verses can seem quite gruesome and violent. In truth, they are both of those things because of the seriousness of the situation in which we find the Israelites.
By today’s civilized standards, these acts are brutal. However, by the standards set in the Old Testament, these were expected behaviors as it pertained to obeying the Lord and disobeying Him alike.

In Numbers 25, the Israelites are not too far along in their journeys from Egypt from seeing various miracles by the Lord. They have long been established as the people of God. They have been given victory over various battles. The Lord has been with them and has clearly claimed them as His people.

So, they now represent the Lord in everything they do. When they do something that is not what God would have Him being represented as, He is going to correct those actions like a good parent does with their children.

When we take on the name of Christian today, this is the same for us. We are “like Christ”. So, we need to evaluate what that means. The clearest way to make sure we are being “like Christ” is to follow the biblical example of that, but I will warn you now that when we do this, the world of mankind WITHIN and WITHOUT us will HATE US.

Hate seems like such a strong word, but it is definitively HATE. Make no mistake about it.

Luke 21:17  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
Luke 21:18  But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
Luke 21:19  In your patience possess ye your souls.

Mark puts it like this:

Mark 13:12  Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.
Mark 13:13  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Mark 13:14  But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:

One Gospel tells us that not one hair of your head shall perish, and in our patience we possess our souls, while, the other tells us that betrayal of FAMILY will happen, and we will see the abomination of the desolation standing where “it” ought not to stand. Both of these portrayals surround the concept of being hated of all men, so they are happening at the same time.

Our physical families are being talked about in Mark as well as those who are shown to not be approved within the spiritual family of God.

What are we to take away from that when considering the “zeal of the Lord”? How is it that I am connecting these things? How is being hated of all men for the name of the Lord connected with the zeal of the Lord?

“But there shall not an hair of your head perish” doesn’t seem to jive very well with “and shall cause them to be put to death.” These concepts seem at odds with each other, yet they are reflecting what will happen in our lives as Christians.

The zeal that Phinehas showed was one of jealousy for the Lord. The Lord had just judged the Israelites for joining themselves with Baalpeor, and here strolls in an Israelite that takes a Midianite women into his tent before the eyes of Moses and the whole congregation as that same congregation is weeping before the door of the tabernacle.

This is the ultimate contempt for what the Lord has declared. The Lord has just beheaded a bunch of people, and this man and woman just go about their business as disrespectfully as possible.

So, Phinehas acts, and the Lord responds.

Num 25:10  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 25:11  Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.
Num 25:12  Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:
Num 25:13  And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

What, then, is being zealous that Phinehas and his seed after him receive everlasting peace? I am not sure about anyone else, but I’d like to have some of this peace of which Phinehas and his seed partake.

H7065
qânâ'
kaw-naw'
A primitive root; to be (causatively make) zealous, that is, (in a bad sense) jealous or envious: -  (be) envy (-ious), be (move to, provoke to) jealous (-y), X very, (be) zeal (-ous).
Total KJV occurrences: 34

H7065
qânâ'
Total KJV Occurrences: 31
jealous, 10
Num_5:14 (3), Num_5:30, 1Ki_19:10, 1Ki_19:14, Eze_39:25, Joe_2:18, Zec_1:14, Zec_8:2 (2)
envied, 5
Gen_26:14, Gen_30:1, Gen_37:11, Psa_106:16, Eze_31:9
jealousy, 5
Deu_32:16, Deu_32:21 (2), 1Ki_14:22, Psa_78:58
envious, 4
Psa_37:1, Psa_73:3, Pro_24:1, Pro_24:19
envy, 3
Pro_3:31, Pro_23:17, Isa_11:13
zealous, 2
Num_25:11, Num_25:13
enviest, 1
Num_11:29
zeal, 1
2Sa_21:2

This is one of those times the Strong’s definition has gotten things a bit twisted. This Hebrew word H7065 is translated 15 times as jealous or jealousy while zeal and zealous are only used 3 times. Two of those times are here in Numbers 25.

It is clear this word is rooted in jealousy. Looking closer, we see in Numbers 25:11 how I can conclude this.

Num 25:11  Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was H7065 zealous for my H7068 sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my H7068 jealousy.

H7068
qin'âh
kin-aw'
From H7065; jealousy or envy: - envy (-ied), jealousy, X sake, zeal.
Total KJV occurrences: 43

H7068
qin'âh
Total KJV Occurrences: 43
jealousy, 24
Num_5:14-15 (3), Num_5:18, Num_5:25, Num_5:30, Num_25:11, Deu_29:20, Psa_79:5, Pro_6:34, Son_8:6, Isa_42:13, Eze_8:3, Eze_8:5, Eze_16:38, Eze_16:42, Eze_23:25, Eze_36:5-6 (2), Eze_38:19, Zep_1:18, Zep_3:8, Zec_1:14, Zec_8:2
zeal, 9
2Ki_10:16, 2Ki_19:31, Psa_69:9, Psa_119:139, Isa_9:7, Isa_37:32, Isa_59:17, Isa_63:15, Eze_5:13
envy, 7
Job_5:2, Pro_14:30, Pro_27:4, Ecc_9:6, Isa_11:13, Eze_35:11 (2)
envied, 1
Ecc_4:4
jealousies, 1
Num_5:29
sake, 1
Num_25:11

It clear that this word is equivalent to jealousy. Being zealous for the Lord is being jealous for the Lord over which the things the Lord is jealous.

The root of H7068 is H7065 which is mostly translated as jealous. So, H7068 is jealousy while H7065 is to be jealous.

One is a noun, and one is a verb. We know this to be true because Numbers 25:11 shows us this Truth.

Instead of using the word “sake”, which is the only time H7068 was translated as such, let’s use jealousy to see how the verse changes.

Num 25:11  Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was H7065 zealous for my H7068 jealousy among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my H7068 jealousy.

I am not sure why the translators decided to use “sake” here, but jealousy makes perfect sense since it is the same word used later in the same verse.

Phinehas was jealous for the jealousy of the Lord. He wanted what the Lord wanted and commanded.

We are also exposed to this act in Psalms:

Psa 106:24  Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word:
Psa 106:25  But murmured in their tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD.
Psa 106:26  Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness:
Psa 106:27  To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.
Psa 106:28  They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
Psa 106:29  Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.
Psa 106:30  Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed.
Psa 106:31  And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore.

You can pretty much reverse all of these behaviors to know you are doing what the Lord would have you do in good accordance to His will.

“They despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word, they murmured in their hearts, hearkened not to His voice, the joined themselves to another God Baalpeor and provoked God to anger with their inventions” are all things we need to do the opposite of.

We are told about this same zeal of the Lord in the New Testament.

Rom 9:31  But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Rom 9:32  Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
Rom 9:33  As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Rom 10:1  Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
Rom 10:2  For I bear them record that they have a zeal^G2205 of God, but NOT ACCORDING TO KNOWLEDGE.
Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

2Co 7:10  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
2Co 7:11  For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal^G2205, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
2Co 7:12  Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.

2Co 9:1  For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:
2Co 9:2  For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal^G2205 hath provoked very many.

You say, “That is well and good, brother Steven, but what does that mean based on what you are saying in this study? Is this the same zeal spoken of in the old testament verses we read?"

G2205
zēlos
dzay'-los
From G2204; properly heat, that is, (figuratively) zeal (in a favorable sense, ardor; in an unfavorable one, jealousy, as of a husband [figuratively of God], or an enemy, malice): - emulation, envy (-ing), fervent mind, indignation, jealousy, zeal.
Total KJV occurrences: 17

G2205
zēlos
Total KJV Occurrences: 17
zeal, 6
Joh_2:17, Rom_10:2, 2Co_7:11, 2Co_9:2, Phi_3:6, Col_4:13
envying, 4
Rom_13:13 (2), 1Co_3:3, Jam_3:14, Jam_3:16
indignation, 2
Act_5:16-17 (2), Heb_10:27
emulations, 1
Gal_5:20
envy, 1
Act_13:45
envyings, 1
2Co_12:20
fervent, 1
2Co_7:7
jealousy, 1
2Co_11:2

G2204
zeō
dzeh'-o
A primary verb; to be hot (boil, of liquids; or glow, of solids), that is, (figuratively) be fervid (earnest): - be fervent.
Total KJV occurrences: 2

The root of zeal in the New Testament is FERVENT.

G2204
zeō
Total KJV Occurrences: 2
fervent, 2
Act_18:25, Rom_12:11

Act 18:24  And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.
Act 18:25  This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.
Act 18:26  And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.
Act 18:27  And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace:
Act 18:28  For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.

The other example we have is:

Rom 12:10  Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
Rom 12:11  Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

Isn’t this what Phinehas was when he acted upon the Israelite man and woman who acted the way they did in front of all the congregation? Phinehas was fervent in his action for the Lord.

For most people, we look on the act of killing two people while they lay with each other as barbaric, but the Lord counted it as zeal and righteousness for Phinehas. It was the context of the situation that justifies the actions of Phinehas.

The context of our actions matters. Phinehas was not acting the way he did for his own glory. We know this because the context of his actions and the reward for which the Lord awarded him and his seed after him.

In fact, we must be very careful in acting on our OWN GLORY with jealousy and calling it zeal or Godly jealousy.

Here are same examples of the negative application of thinking we have the zeal of God when in fact we can be sinning the whole time.

Act 13:45  But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy^G2205, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

2Co 12:19  Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.
2Co 12:20  For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings^G2205, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:

Rom 13:13  Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying^G2205.

Php 3:4  Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6  Concerning zeal^G2205, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

We should desire to be fervent or HOT for the Lord. When we are HOT for the Lord, we are seeking his righteousness THROUGH FAITH and fervent PRAYER. Do what you do with purpose!

Rev 3:13  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
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.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Being cold or HOT is all about our mindset on whatever it is we have in our minds.

Being cold, the Lord can still make us HOT. He can still work with us. Being lukewarm is trying to ride the fence of “what is permissible with the Lord” versus what we know, via knowledge of the Word, what we should be doing.

Being hot is where it is at when being zealous with the Lord. We must have the DESIRE to serve the Lord, and then PRAY WITH FAITH that the Lord with give us this zeal to serve Him. IF you are not at this point, be zealous and repent. Turn the opposite way from which you are heading now, and the Lord WILL help you serve Him completely.

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 47 Discussion

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Isa 10:5-11 O Assyrian, The Rod of Mine Anger

Isa 10:5-11 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6  I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
Isa 10:7  Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
Isa 10:8  For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?
Isa 10:9  Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
Isa 10:10  As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
Isa 10:11  Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

Outwardly 'Assyria' is what we today call Iraq. Iraq is home to what used to be universally accepted as "the cradle of civilization". It is the home of the tower of Babel, the ancient city of Nineveh, the capital of the kingdom of Assyria, and 'Assyria' is also the land of Babylon, the symbol of all the false religions which dominate mankind.

The ruins of Nineveh have been excavated just outside the present city of Mosul in northern Iraq. The city of Babylon has been excavated near the present city of Hillah in central Iraq. There are just 317 miles (510 kilometers) between the two cities. Both were used by God to punish His own unfaithful, hypocritical, rebellious people.

This is how the name Babylon is used in both the Old and the New Testaments:

Jer 25:9  Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

Here is how the name 'Babylon' is applied in the New Testament;

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

Just as God used Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and all of His prophets, to show Israel how He was about to punish them for their unfaithfulness and hypocrisy, so in the New Testament He uses "one of the seven angels which had the seven vials", His modern day prophets (Rev 19:10 and 22:8), to reveal to us the fullness of His wrath against our own unfaithful and hypocritical ways.

Babylon and Assyria are one and the same, so we are told:

Isa 10:5-11 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

Assyria symbolizes our own lives while we are under the influence of the twisted false doctrines of Assyria, which is but an earlier form of Babylon. Being the exact same ethnic people, these two cities both symbolize the same thing in scripture.  They symbolize our lives while we live under God's wrath (Jer 51:7) in 'that great city wherein our Lord was crucified'. Assyria and Babylon both symbolize where we are spiritually while "the wrath of God abides on [us]".

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.

While being dominated by Assyria we live lives which are in total darkness because "the wrath of God abides on [us]. Isaiah has already told us the Lord has taken His Truth from us:

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

If indeed the Lord has, at this time, removed from us "the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water", then what that means is there is not one single doctrine of Babylon and Assyria which has not be tainted with the heresies of that carnal-minded kingdom.

Isaiah has already informed us:

Isa 9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

In that darkened state we are totally unaware of what the Lord has done to us, so we still want to claim His name. What we do not want is to do what He tells us to do. This is how Isaiah portrays our life under the Lord's wrath, where we live while we are under Assyria's dominance in our life:

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

Being carried away as a captive into Assyria and Babylon does not change our hearts or minds. We must "come out of her" before that change will come:

Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

The Lord Himself places us into this sad position for the very purpose of giving Himself the occasion and the opportunity He is seeking to pour out His wrath upon "the seat [Greek: thronos - throne] of the beast" within us:

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

Assyria, which is the same as Babylon, is pictured here in Revelation 17 as a harlot "woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus". Those are the words the holy spirit has chosen to describe the effects of the false doctrines of this great harlot upon the lives of all "the kings of the earth... and the inhabitants of the earth". All men, including each of us in our own time, "have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication". That 'wine' is the "old wine", the law of Moses, which is called "a carnal commandment", and our old man finds that 'old wine', the doctrines of the Old Testament, the law of Moses, to be far more appealing than the "new wine... the law of Christ".

Luk 5:37  And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.
Luk 5:38  But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.
Luk 5:39  No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

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

One lesson we must learn in these studies is that the law of Moses is the same as the law of the Gentiles, both of which are "carnal commandment[s]... for the lawless and disobedient..." Those are the laws of Assyria and Babylon.

Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law [of Moses], do by nature the things contained in the law [of Moses], these, having not the law [of Moses], are a law [of Moses] unto themselves:
Rom 2:15  Which shew the work of the law [of Moses] written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;

Here in the book of Hebrews, the law of Moses is even called "a carnal commandment":

Heb 7:14  For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
Heb 7:15  And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,
Heb 7:16  Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

Being 'a carnal commandment" for a carnal nation, the law of Moses was never designed for a righteous man, but it was designed, like the laws of the Gentiles, for the lawless and disobedient:

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law [of Moses] 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;

Our greatest enemy is the proud, rebellious, hypocritical old man within us all who uses the carnal commandments of the law of Moses to justify nullifying the law of Christ. We simply are not given, by nature, to see ourselves as the hypocrites the Lord has made us to be and hardened our hearts to become:

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.

But in the darkness that is the kingdom of the beast within us, we cannot see ourselves as the hypocrites we are. To the contrary it is natural for us to think that we would never have disobeyed God's commandment against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There are those who want to "punch Adam in the nose" for being so foolish and rebellious, not knowing that expressing such a sentiment is itself in rebellion against the law of Christ. We all read the story of Cain and Abel, and we just naturally wonder how Cain could possibly have committed such a heinous act against his own "righteous [brother] Abel" (Mat 23:35). We read of Noah's drunkenness, of Abraham's denying his own wife, of Jacob cheating his brother out of his blessing, of the nation of Israel rebelling against God ten times in the wilderness, of King David's adultery and the subsequent murder to hide his adultery, and we think that we ourselves would never have eaten of the forbidden fruit, or killed our own brother or any of those heinous sins of which we read because we think we are better than that.

The lesson in every case, of course, is that those men and those sins are types of us, and those very sins will even be required of us:

Mat 23:35  That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Mat 23:36  Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

The scriptures are the Word of God which does "not pass away" and which is always addressed to "this generation":

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Which generation will not pass away until all these things be fulfilled? We are not left to guess. That generation is the generation of "whoso readeth" in every generation since Christ.

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

That being the case, we must come to see that we are the generation of whom all the blood of all the prophets who have been slain from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Christ Himself and the blood of "His Christ" will be required.

Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
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;
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

If we are granted to see the truth of Luke 11:49-51, then when we read of how the Lord brought His people up out of Egypt, we can recognize that the 'Egypt' out of which He is bringing us is the Egypt of our own taskmaster. Our own ruthless old man, who dominated us, was our enemy used by God to drive us to our wits' end until we are forced to cry out to Him to send us a Savior:

Exo 3:7  And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt [in sin], and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

There has never been a "taskmaster" so ruthless and demanding as our own brutish pride and  our own sinful nature. 'Egypt' typifies the rebellious, carnal-minded flesh, the "taskmaster" into which we, and all men, are just naturally born as slaves to our own proud, selfish, carnal desires. However God has mercy on us and hears our cries to be delivered from the power of our flesh, and then, after a short time of great gratitude, it is we, who again, just naturally become a nation who is very self-righteous, and yet at the same time we are very rebellious and sinful, and we must be punished by our own God who brought us up out of Egypt. Now He uses another king, the king of Assyria, as His instrument of punishment upon us:

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

Then at our own appointed time, our flesh wants to return to Egypt, but the Lord has determined that action will not be permitted. Instead, after we come up out of Egypt and after we spend our preordained time in a land flowing with milk and honey, we are predestined to begin to take our many blessings for granted and to lose our first love (Rev 2:4) and come to the point that we must be punished for our sins by being ruled over by the king of Babylon, who is in the land of Assyria.

We are told that this is the predestined order of events in:

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.
Hos 11:3  I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.
Hos 11:4  I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.
Hos 11:5  He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.
Hos 11:6  And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.
Hos 11:7  And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

Why do we marvel that Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, that Noah got drunk at the first opportunity, that Abraham twice denied his wife, or that Israel rebelled against their own deliverer and wanted to return to Egypt after being miraculously delivered out of that oppression and bondage?

Num 14:4  And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

The reason we read all those stories and marvel at the lack of faith of those who have come before us is that we hypocritically think that we are above such foolishness and such spiritual immaturity. It is while we are still steeped in all the lies of Babylon, where we do not yet have a clue that what we think is light is, in reality, deep spiritual darkness. At that point we actually abhor the True 'Light'.

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.

At that point in our "experience of evil" (Ecc 1:13, CLV) we believe that the darkness of lies and false doctrines are the light of God's Words, and so again we are told:

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Joh 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Joh 3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Our deeds reflect our doctrine. If we love our enemies, then we have no problem coming to the 'light', because "the Light" tells us to do so. If we are hypocrites, we will not "come to the light, lest [our] deeds should be reproved".

Which brings us to our next verse in today's study:

Isa 10:6  I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

God has sent Assyria and Babylon against the people of His wrath with a charge to take the spoil, to take the prey and to tread them down like mire of the streets. There can be no better words to describe what the great harlot and her daughter harlots do to those upon whom she sits and rules. She uses us to her own benefit just as any harlot would. And how do we, in our blinded, darkened state, feel about being so used by our oppressor? This is what the scriptures reveal to be our state of mind while being so physically, mentally and spiritually abused:

Jer 5:30  A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
Jer 5:31  The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

Does this great harlot, Assyria and Babylon, see herself as the harlot who the Lord says she is? No, of course not. The Jews did not realize they were crucifying their own Savior. None of us, while we were attending and tithing to the churches of this world, thought we were part of the great harlot system which has "deceived the whole world" (Rev 12:9). We do not just naturally see ourselves as those who crucified Christ. Neither did literal Assyria realize the depth of their own brutality, and yet this is who we are:

Isa 10:7  Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

We have already seen that, while in Assyria, we are incapable of seeing ourselves as having to give an accounting for "the blood of all the prophets from Abel to Zacharias".

But we are Assyria, and as such we do not see ourselves as the brute beasts which we are. In that state of mind we certainly do not realize that we were made in such a state for the specific purpose of being "taken and destroyed".

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

Neither do we see ourselves symbolized by the great harlot, Babylon. Rather, this is what we say, and this is what we do at that point:

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

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Saul of Tarsus did not feel condemned for "breathing out slaughter against the church", and he felt no remorse for having supervised the stoning of Stephen. This is how he did feel:

Php 3:4  Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

It was Saul's zeal for the law of Moses which compelled him to persecute the church. His light was total darkness and spiritual blindness, and at that time he was glorying in his zeal. That is what we also do while we faithfully and zealously serve Assyria. It is our goal to break down any barriers against the expansion of our evangelistic Assyrian, Babylonian kingdom, which zeal is expressed in these words:

Isa 10:8  For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?
Isa 10:9  Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?

No city had withstood Assyria - not Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, Arpad, Samaria or Damascus. They had all succumbed to the zeal of the kings and princes of Assyria. It was in His zeal that Saul of Tarsus had supervised the stoning of Stephen, because the law of Moses required that we hate our enemies. There was no doubt that the doctrines of Christ were enmity against the law of Moses. Every time Christ had said "You have heard it said by them of old... but I say unto you..." those words of Christ, from Saul's law-oriented perspective, were the equivalent of an insurrection against the law of Moses, and were therefore worthy of the death of Christ and of all of His followers.

Act 7:57  Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him [Stephen] with one accord,
Act 7:58  And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
Act 7:59  And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

Saul of Tarsus' trip to Damascus was a terrible experience for Saul of Tarsus, but it was the best thing that ever happened to the apostle Paul. As we will come to see, after the Lord uses Assyria to punish His hypocritical people, He then uses the remnant of His people to punish Assyria and Babylon.

But until the Lord's wrath against our hypocrisy is filled up against us, Assyria and Babylon, typifying the great harlot, are given to spoil us. Assyria is the rod of His wrath against us, His own people, who, as slaves of Assyria and Babylon, are still saying within ourselves:

Isa 10:10  As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
Isa 10:11  Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

Physical Assyria and physical Babylon are the symbols of the spiritual kingdoms which have enslaved all "the kings of the earth", including, but not at all limited to, those who are the Lord's own chosen people.

Jer 25:9  Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

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

The Lord's chosen people are symbolized by Jerusalem and Samaria, the capitals respectively for the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. The fact that Israel is a divided nation is an indication of just how far from our God we are, who at one time claimed the name of Christ. While we will not again see the phrase, "His hand is stretched out still", we will continue to see that His hand is still stretched out against His own people who have completely forsaken Him

"All the families of the north, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon", all being "of the north", symbolize those who the Lord uses to judge His completely apostatized and godless people, because judgment comes out of "the north" (Eze 9:1-2).

Next week we will see how the Lord, after sending Assyria and Babylon to punish and to humble the pride of His own chosen people, will then give judgment into the hands of His saints, and through His chosen few He will judge the pride and the rebellious hearts of the kings of Assyria and Babylon.

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.
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.
Isa 10:15  Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

(Key verses: Genesis 49:5-7)

Jacob was in the process of dying, and within his final days in Egypt it was the time to tell his sons “which shall befall [them] in the last days”:

Gen 47:28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.

Gen 49:1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
Gen 49:2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.

The theme of the “last days” is applicable to the last chapters of the book of Genesis as it also brings a fitting conclusion to this book of beginnings. God indeed knows the end from the beginning as we also see so much of our own spiritual development within the book of Genesis and also what shall “befall [us] in the last days” (Isa 46:10). Although there is an outward application of the “last days”, this indeed applies inwardly for them whom God has given “eyes within” to see how the Lord’s house is established in this age in the lives of His elect, even within the beasts who are “in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne” of God (Isa 2:2; Luk 17:20-21; Rev 4:6-8):

Rev 4:6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
Rev 4:7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
Rev 4:8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

These sons of Jacob therefore are also spiritual types of God’s elected few on whom the “last days” or the end of this physical age has come:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [Greek: tupos = figures/a resemblance]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world [Greek: aiōn = age] are come.

In our last discussion we focused on the firstborn of Jacob, namely Reuben, and how Jacob’s words to Reuben are also relevant to us, if we can receive them. In this discussion we will focus on Simeon and Levi as Jacob addressed them together on his deathbed:

Gen 49:5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations [Hebrew: mekêrâh = weapons, sword, devices].
Gen 49:6 O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill [Hebrew: râtsôn = delight] they digged down [Hebrew: âqar = to pluck up to hamstring/to exterminate/root up] a wall [Hebrew: shôr = bullock/cattle]. (KJV)

Gen 49:6 Do not let me attend their secret meetings. Do not let me join their assembly. In their anger they murdered men. At their whim they crippled cattle. (GWT)

The first characteristic Jacob mentioned about these two sons, Simeon and Levi, was that they were “instruments of cruelty.” Both of them were indeed united in their deceitfulness with the men of Shechem after Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, raped Dinah, the daughter of Jacob:

Gen 34:13 And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister:
Gen 34:14 And they said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach unto us:
Gen 34:15 But in this will we consent unto you: If ye will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised;
Gen 34:16 Then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
Gen 34:17 But if ye will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone.
Gen 34:18 And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamor’s son.

At the time of this deceitful agreement to which all the men of Shechem then adhered, Jacob was unaware what Simeon and Levi had in mind, and he was shocked and horrified to hear afterward what these two sons did to the men of Shechem:

Gen 34:25 And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore [after the men of Shechem were circumcised], that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.
Gen 34:26 And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went out.
Gen 34:27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister.
Gen 34:28 They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field,
Gen 34:29 And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.

On his deathbed Jacob brought division between these two sons and a dispersing of their offspring:

Gen 49:7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

This also reminds one of the division and the scattering of the nations at the tower of Babel. “The thoughts of [man’s] heart [are] only evil continually”, and these thoughts were also in the hearts of Simeon and Levi (Gen 6:5; Gen 11:1-9). Although mankind is unified in its opposition to God’s Word and His commandments, the hearts of mankind harbour a divided kingdom which shall not stand:

Mat 12:25 And Jesus knew their [the Pharisees’] thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.

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,
Psa 2:3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
Psa 2:4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Psa 2:5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure [Hebrew: chârôn = anger].

In the actions of Simeon and Levi and the words of King David in Psalm 2, we also see the negative and positive applications of anger respectively. The natural heart always acts in haste with no mercy. David knew this all too well and rather chose the anger of the Lord, because there is mercy with God:

2Sa 24:14 And David said unto [the prophet] Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.

God’s anger is governed by His mercy as His grace chastens every son He receives bringing a cessation to the evil and vain things in our hearts (Heb 12:6; Tit 2:11-12). Contrarily the anger in the natural heart has no peaceful solution as it also prevents us to see that God’s hands are in all things which happen in His creation (Job 2:4-10):

Ecc 7:9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.

Pro 15:18 A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.

The fool in us cannot see that God is to be feared above all, and He will indeed bring true recompense for everything that was done in unrighteousness:

Heb 10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Godly recompense is driven by His jealousy, and through this zeal God brings us to the truth in Christ and keeps us committed to Him. God’s zeal is His passion for His spiritual house to keep it free from fleshly defilement (Exo 20:5; Exo 34:14; Psa 69:9; Joh 2:17; 2Co 7:11; 2Co 11:2). Ignoring the leadership of their own father, Simeon and Levi had a twisted zeal for doing “that which was right in [their] his own eyes” which was all about self-righteousness (Jdg 21:25; Isa 64:6). Few can see in themselves this deceitful self-righteousness and cruel spirit of Simeon and Levi in this age:

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Naturally this evil spirit in us has no trouble hating people and wishing the worst on our enemies. In our spiritual blindness we cannot see that nobody can move a finger if that is not ordained by God (Isa 45:7; Job 2:4-10):

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

Christ in us is the hope of glory, even as this glory will be evident in our words and actions, even in terms of our anger (Col 1:27):

Pro 16:32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

Eph 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

God’s spirit, through the words of Christ, will give us the ability to do today what was impossible to obey yesterday:

Mat 5:39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

This is what Jesus also taught Peter (and all of us), that His Word is spirit, and His Word in our hearts is much more powerful to determine and direct our actions and the things around us (Joh 6:63; 1Co 2:4-16):

Joh 18:10 Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.
Joh 18:11 Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?

The elect of God will not join the assembly of Simeon and Levi and cripple the cattle of others or resist the works of God. The elect of God will come out of that assembly as they know that the evil and the trials are from God to fulfill the scriptures in our own lives (Luk 24:25-27):

Mat 26:52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Mat 26:53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
Mat 26:54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

Let us look how all of these were foreshadowed in the life of Simeon.

Simeon

The name “Simeon” means “to hear”. He was the second son of Jacob from Leah after Reuben:

Gen 29:32 And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the LORD hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me.
Gen 29:33 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Because the LORD hath heard that I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also: and she called his name Simeon.

Although we know the scriptures declare that God “hears not sinners”, especially when they “ask amiss, that [they] may consume it upon [their] lusts”, God indeed hears everything (Psa 139:1-18; Joh 9:31; Jas 4:3). Even in our darkest times when we are the hated and rejected, our desperate cries from a “broken spirit…and a contrite heart” are not ignored by God, as Hagar and Ishmael testify (2Sa 14:14; Psa 51:17; Isa 57:14-18; Isa 66:2):

Gen 21:17 And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.

A few things are connected to this Simeon in the scriptures which proves that God indeed hears and sees everything, and righteous anger and vengeance belong to Him as He will indeed recompense (Heb 10:30). Before Joseph revealed himself to his brothers in Egypt, it was Simeon who was kept as a hostage in Egypt in exchange for Benjamin whom Joseph wanted to see in Egypt:

Gen 42:22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
Gen 42:23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
Gen 42:24 And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.

“Ye would not hear” Reuben’s plea not to sin against Joseph. In our natural Simeonite state we cannot hear the words of truth, and we are bound in the prisons of spiritual Egypt, the rebellious house of flesh:

Eze 12:2 Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.

Simeon became the founder of the tribe bearing his name, but even in his tribe this spirit of rebellion and self-righteousness was evident when a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites, named Zimri, took a Midianite woman into the camp of Israel in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation. This happened even when God was judging the Israelites for committing whoredom with the Moabite women and their worship of Baalpeor:

Num 25:1 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
Num 25:2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
Num 25:3 And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.
Num 25:4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.
Num 25:5 And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor.
Num 25:6 And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Num 25:7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;
Num 25:8 And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
Num 25:9 And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.
Num 25:10 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 25:11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.
Num 25:12 Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:
Num 25:13 And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
Num 25:14 Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites.

It is this rebellious and haughty Simeonite spirit in us which cannot submit to God’s leadership. This proud spirit has no shame to associate with false doctrines even when strongly advised not to. Thank God for the godly anger of the zealous spirit in Phinehas:

Rom 12:11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.

The numbers of this tribe of Simeon were always on the decline during their time in the wilderness – from fifty nine thousand and three hundred families when they left Egypt to twenty two thousand and two hundred families when they entered Canaan. (Num 1:23; Num 26:14). The result of this was that the Simeonites’ inheritance of land was within the inheritance of the children of the tribe of Judah and they also had to fight with the tribe of Judah to survive against the Canaanites. This was a physical fulfillment of the words of Jacob that Simeon will be scattered among Israel:

Jos 19:1 And the second lot came forth to Simeon, even for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families: and their inheritance was within the inheritance of the children of Judah.

Jdg 1:3 And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him.

God in His mercy also has a place for our Simeonites in His army, even as our rebellious natural anger and self-righteousness are replaced by His righteousness and anger. During the reign of King David, typifying the reign of Christ, “mighty men of valour for the war” were also from tribe of Simeon:

1Ch 12:25 Of the children of Simeon, mighty men of valour for the war, seven thousand and one hundred.

Even the apostle John saw this tribe in spiritual terms being part of the spiritual twelve tribes of the Israel of God (Gal 6:16):

Rev 7:7 Of the tribe of Simeon were [spiritually] sealed twelve thousand.

As his name indicates, spiritually the tribe of Simeon is also able to “hear” the voice of the true Shepherd who is the foundation of the truth, which the number twelve spiritually points out (Rev 21:12; Rev 21:14):

1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Levi

Let us see how Levi helps us to understand our spiritual growth in Christ. Levi was the third son of Jacob from Leah, and Levi means “joined” as she wanted Jacob to be in a closer loving relationship with her than with the beloved wife Rachel:

Gen 29:34 And she [Leah] conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.

The number three is spiritually connected to the process of completion, even the process to become the spiritual sons of God (Gen 40:18-19; Exo 23:14; Luk 13:32; Joh 2:19). Levi as the third son indeed typifies this process as his judgment also brought a deeper function for his offspring within the twelve tribes of Israel. Like Simeon, the tribe of Levi was indeed scattered among the Israelites. Although the whole nation of Israel was called to be separated from other nations, and in this sense a “holy nation” and a “kingdom of priests”, this function was later reserved solely for the tribe of Levi:

Exo 19:6 And ye [Israel] shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

When Israel entered Canaan as a nation, this tribe of Levi became distributed throughout the territories of the other tribes and had no inheritance within Israel (Deu 18:1; Jos 13:14). Rather, they received forty-eight towns in various sections of the land (Jos 13:33). This tribe was called to provide spiritual leadership in Israel, and among the most prominent leaders who came from this tribe were Moses, Aaron and Ezra. These are Moses’ instructions concerning the tribe of Levi before the Israelites entered Canaan:

Deu 33:8 And of Levi he said, Give your Thummim to Levi and let the Urim be with your loved one, whom you put to the test at Massah, with whom you were angry at the waters of Meribah;
Deu 33:9 Who said of his father, Who is he? and of his mother, I have not seen her; he kept himself separate from his brothers and had no knowledge of his children: for they have given ear to your word and kept your agreement.
Deu 33:10 They will be the teachers of your decisions to Jacob and of your law to Israel: the burning of perfumes before you will be their right, and the ordering of burned offerings on your altar.
Deu 33:11 Let your blessing, O Lord, be on his substance, may the work of his hands be pleasing to you: may those who take up arms against him and all who have hate for him, be wounded through the heart, never to be lifted up again.

However, not all Levites served inside the tabernacle or temple, except Aaron and his offspring (Lev 21; Lev 24:9; Num 27:21; 1Ki 8:6; 1Ch 6:49; Heb 9:7; Heb 13:10). The other Levites were to serve the tabernacle or temple in various outward functions, pointing to those referred to in the New Testament as the “called”, and from the “called” another smaller group is taken out by God to serve inside the true temple of God (Deu 17:8-13; Num 3:21-26; Rev 18:4):

Mat 22:14 For many are called [Greek: klētos], but few are chosen [Greek: eklektos: “ek” out of the “klētos”].

These are the only ones who can receive the spiritual meat at the altar of God as they lose their lives and the things which the “called” cling to:

Heb 13:10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

As Levi is the third son of Jacob, so this three-step process starts for all in the outside camp, typified by the whole of physical Israel, before we move into the court which is the domain of the “called” in spiritual Babylon. It is only when we are called out from this time under the governors and tutors in flesh that we can enter to serve and operate under a totally new spiritual law within the temple of God – also called the “third heaven” (Rom 8:1-2; 2Co 12:1-4; Eph 2:6; Gal 4:1-7; Rev 21:1-3):

Heb 7:11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
Heb 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

The elect of God are the holy priestly nation of God according to the priestly model or order of Melchisedec, typifying the heavenly Christ with no earthly heritage or attachments to flesh (1Co 1:29; 1Co 15:50; Gal 2:20):

1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
1Pe 2:10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

This tribe of Levi is indeed spiritually represented in the elected one hundred and forty four thousand:

Rev 7:7b …Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand.

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

Numbers in Scripture
Is It A Sin to Be Angry?
Is There A Time to Be Jealous?
The Zeal of Thine House Hath Eaten Me Up
Who Are The Levites? – Part 1
Who Are The Levites? – Part 2

Joh 2:13 And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
Joh 2:14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
Joh 2:15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;
Joh 2:16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.
Joh 2:17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

If Christ is our example, then “the zeal of [ God’s] house” should ‘eat us up’ also. The Greek word for ‘eaten’ here appears fifteen times in the New Testament. Of those fifteen times, twelve entries have been translated as ‘devour’ or ‘devoured’. So the zeal of God’s house had devoured Christ, and the zeal of God’s house ought to also be devouring each of us.

So what does it mean to be devoured by the zeal of God’s house? How would you and I be devoured or eaten up by the zeal of God’s house?Christ did this in the physical temple at Jerusalem. Yet not long after this event, in the fourth chapter of John, just two chapters later when Christ communes with ‘the woman at the well’ in Samaria, He tells her all of her own life’s history, just as if He had known her all her life. Then we learn a rather shocking truth, considering what we just read in chapter 2 of the gospel of John.

Joh 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Joh 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Joh 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

So the cleansing of the physical temple in Jerusalem was really nothing more than a type and a shadow of the cleansing of the true temple which Christ tells this Samaritan woman is “neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem” but is rather “in spirit”. If we are given any real ‘zeal for the house of God’, we will realize how blessed we are to know where that temple is. We know that it is “neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem.” So where is God’s new temple “in spirit”? Where are those whose are being ‘eaten up’ by the zeal of God’s house? Where is Christ’s new house? Where does Christ now dwell? Here is the answer to all of those questions:

Heb 9:19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
Heb 9:20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
Heb 9:21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

So that temple in Jerusalem, where Christ chased out the money changers, was merely “the pattern of things in the heavens” which “should be purified with… the blood of calves and goats”. Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are [mere] figures of the true; but [He has entered] into [the temple in] heaven itself…”

So where is this new Temple which is not in Samaria or Jerusalem? Where is this temple into which Christ has entered? It is now only by being in this new “house of God” that we can now say, “The zeal of thine house has eaten me up.” So, for our own edification, we need to ask and to know where that house is now to be found, and even more to the point, we need to examine ourselves and ask ourselves if we even have any zeal for that “house of God? Rest assured the zeal of God’s house is still eating up our Lord, as it really should, because it must also be consuming and devouring us whom our Lord equates with Himself.

Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Act 22:7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

So where did Christ go after His resurrection? We are plainly told that He has entered into “the heavenly things themselves”. So according to the sum of God’s word, what is the house of God? What do the scriptures tell us? If it is the zeal of this house that should consume and devour us all, then we need to know all we can about “the zeal of thine house”.

Eze 43:4 And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.
Eze 43:5 So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house.
Eze 43:6 And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me.
Eze 43:7 And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places.
Eze 43:8 In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts, and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger.
Eze 43:9 Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.
Eze 43:10 Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern.
Eze 43:11 And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.
Eze 43:12 This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.

“The law of the house” is “the zeal of thy house” which should, and which does, devour all who are granted to have Christ dwelling within.

“… shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.”

Many sermons have been preached concerning these verses in Ezekiel 43, connecting these verses to a coming temple to be built in Jerusalem, but for all who have been granted eyes that see and ears that hear the things of the spirit, here is the anti-type of these verses here in Ezekiel 43. Here is the temple which is “neither in [Samaria] nor yet in Jerusalem”. Here is the house whose zeal should be devouring us all.

1Co 3:9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
1Co 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Yes, God’s word is “that which is written” (1Co 4:6), but where are we told that word would dwell? From where do we receive that word?

Eze 43:6 And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me.

What does the Lord say from “out of the house”? What is the “law of the house” the Lord instructs Ezekiel to show to the house of Israel when He instructs Ezekiel to “show the house to the house…” Here is the New Testament anti-type of that verse:

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
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,

“By the church” means the same as “out of the house” where Christ dwells. Let’s read it again: ” … Let them measure the pattern… shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.” This is the house whose zeal should be consuming all of us, making us able to “rejoice in tribulations” because of “the zeal of thine house…”

Psa 69:7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.
Psa 69:8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.
Psa 69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

The zeal of God’s house causes the reproaches of Christ to fall upon those who are today His home and His house. Here is the New Testament anti-type of those who today are eaten up of the zeal of God’s house.

2Co 7:4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.
2Co 7:5 For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.
2Co 7:6 Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;
2Co 7:7 And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.

It is the zeal of the house of God which produces comfort when brothers come together to encourage brothers. It produces joy in tribulation. It produces an “earnest desire” for the welfare of our brothers and sisters; it produces mourning [“with those who are mourning”] and it produces a fervent mind toward others within this “house of God”. It does all of this within itself, because that ‘house of God’ is you and me, if indeed we are “in Christ.

1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
1Pe 2:6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

The ‘zeal of God’s house’ produces “a holy priesthood” which does not tolerate spiritual fornication as spiritual sacrifices, but is zealous to “offer up spiritual sacrifices [which are] acceptable to God…’ and which turns away God’s wrath and gives us a covenant of great peace and the promise of being “holy priests” of God. Here is the Old Testament type of 1Peter 2:5-6.

Num 25:6 And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Num 25:7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;
Num 25:8 And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
Num 25:9 And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.
Num 25:10 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 25:11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous [Hebrew: qana] for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy [qinah].
Num 25:12 Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:
Num 25:13 And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

The zeal, or ‘qana’, of Phinehas, and the jealousy, ‘qinah’, of God, worked together to stay the wrath of God upon Israel, as it does within us.

If Phinehas had been indifferent about the open flouting of Israel’s covenant with God, and if he had be half-hearted in his response to this incident, which so clearly demonstrated that Israel despised their marriage vows to God, he would have not been given the priesthood or the covenant of peace. Here is the anti-type of this story of the Israelite man and the Midianitish woman, in the New Testament:

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.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

When we look at how the Hebrew and the Greek words for this word, which is translated ‘zeal’ in both the Old and the New Testaments, are defined, we get a broader view of how God feels about this thing we call ‘zeal’. John 2:17 is quoted from Psalm 69:9, so we know that we have what the holy spirit considers to be the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew. So let’s just look at how both are defined and how they are used, and we will know what is the mind of the spirit concerning this word ‘zeal’.

We will look at the Hebrew word first. Here is the word and its Strong’s definition:

H7068
qin’a h
kin- aw’
From H7065; jealousy or envy: – envy (- ied), jealousy, X sake, zeal.

Now here are the various translations for this word in the order of how it is most frequently translated:

H7068
qin’a h
Total KJV Occurrences: 43
jealousy, 24
Num_5:14-15 (3), Num_5:18, Num_5:25, Num_5:30, Num_25:11, Deu_29:20, Psa_79:5, Pro_6:34, Son_8:6, Isa_42:13, Eze_8:3, Eze_8:5, Eze_16:38, Eze_16:42, Eze_23:25, Eze_36:5-6 (2), Eze_38:19, Zep_1:18, Zep_3:8, Zec_1:14, Zec_8:2
zeal, 9
2Ki_10:16, 2Ki_19:31, Psa_69:9, Psa_119:139, Isa_9:7, Isa_37:32, Isa_59:17, Isa_63:15, Eze_5:13
envy, 7
Job_5:2, Pro_14:30, Pro_27:4, Ecc_9:6, Isa_11:13, Eze_35:11 (2)
envied, 1
Ecc_4:4
jealousies, 1
Num_5:29
sake, 1
Num_25:11

When we look at the root H7065, from which this word is derived, it becomes even clearer that the Hebrew means’jealous’.

H7065
qa na’
kaw- naw’
A primitive root; to be (causatively make) zealous, that is, (in a bad sense) jealous or envious: – (be) envy (- ious), be (move to, provoke to) jealous (- y), X very, (be) zeal (- ous).

Here are the entries for this word in the order in which it is most commonly translated. Once again it is most often translated as ‘jealous’.

H7065
qa na’
Total KJV Occurrences: 31
jealous, 10
Num_5:14 (3), Num_5:30, 1Ki_19:10, 1Ki_19:14, Eze_39:25, Joe_2:18, Zec_1:14, Zec_8:2 (2)
envied, 5
Gen_26:14, Gen_30:1, Gen_37:11, Psa_106:16, Eze_31:9
jealousy, 5
Deu_32:16, Deu_32:21 (2), 1Ki_14:22, Psa_78:58
envious, 4
Psa_37:1, Psa_73:3, Pro_24:1, Pro_24:19
envy, 3
Pro_3:31, Pro_23:17, Isa_11:13
zealous, 2
Num_25:11, Num_25:13
enviest, 1
Num_11:29
zeal, 1
2Sa_21:2

So when we read that our “God is a jealous God”, we understand that He does not tolerate infidelity or half-hearted love, but is zealous for our affections, just as we ought to be for His. What is it God will not accept?

Jer 3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

Here, by contrast, is the only kind of love God will accept of any of us:

Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Psa 119:2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.

That is a godly jealousy. That is the zealous love of God, and whole- hearted love is the only kind of love He is interested in. That is the only kind of love we must be willing to show to our Lord and our Savior. In other words “Godly jealousy” is nothing less than “the zeal of Thy house”.

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

“I the Lord thy God am a jealous God” simply tells us that he is a God who is zealous for us, His house. Here is where this same word is used as the very name of God:

Exo 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

In conclusion, the Hebrew word translated ‘zeal’ in Psalm 69:9 comes from, and is most often translated as, ‘jealous’ and is related to God’s intense love for His people whom He calls His wife.

Isa 54:5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

Israel here is called the Lord’s bride, while in Hoseah 11, Israel is called God’s son:

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

So the Lord is fervently jealous and zealous for both His son and His wife, whose we are if we are “in Christ” and He is “in us”.

Now let’s examine the Greek word for ‘zeal’ which is found there in John 2. Here is that Greek word with its Strong’s definition:

G2205
ζηλος
ze los
dzay’- los
From G2204; properly heat, that is, (figuratively) “zeal” (in a favorable sense, ardor; in an unfavorable one, jealousy, as of a husband [ figuratively of God], or an enemy, malice): – emulation, envy (- ing), fervent mind, indignation, jealousy, zeal.

Here are the entries for this word in the order of how it is most frequently translated:

G2205
ζηλος
ze los
Total KJV Occurrences: 17
zeal, 6
Joh_2:17, Rom_10:2, 2Co_7:11, 2Co_9:2, Phi_3:6, Col_4:13
envying, 4
Rom_13:13 (2), 1Co_3:3, Jas_3:14, Jas_3:16
indignation, 2
Act_5:16-17 (2), Heb_10:27
emulations, 1
Gal_5:20
envy, 1
Act_13:45
envyings, 1
2Co_12:20
fervent, 1
2Co_7:7
jealousy, 1
2Co_11:2

Here now is the definition of the root for this word translated ‘zeal’ in John 2:9.

G2204
ζεω
zeo
dzeh’- o
A primary verb; to be hot (boil, of liquids; or glow, of solids), that is, (figuratively) be fervid (earnest): – be fervent.

Here are the only two entries for this word in the New Testament:

Act 18:24 And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.
Act 18:25 This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent [G2204: zeo] in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.
Rom 12:11 Not slothful in business; fervent [G2204: zeo] in spirit; serving the Lord;

So the Greek word has as its root the concept of being “hot” or fervent, and is most often translated as the word ‘zeal’, as it is translated in John 2:17.

Joh 2:17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

How “the zeal of thine house” applies to a many membered body

We are all to be zealous for the house of God. How does that zeal express itself in the completely different parts of that ‘house’, that priesthood, and that ‘body of Christ’? Let’s notice what we are told in this regard:

Rom 12:4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
Rom 12:5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
Rom 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
Rom 12:7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
Rom 12:8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
Rom 12:9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
Rom 12:10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
Rom 12:11 Not slothful in business; fervent [Greek: zeo, to be hot] in spirit; serving the Lord;
Rom 12:12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

He that prophesies is to do so “according to the portion of faith”. He is never seeking preeminence, and he does not ever “think above what is written” (1Co 4:6). Whether ministering or teaching, or exhorting others, we are admonished to be patient and wait for what God gives us to minister and to teach or to exhort.

If you are granted to give to others, then just give, without expecting anything in return and without trying to control those you are helping. Give “with simplicity”. If you are granted to rule, then do so diligently and seriously, and if you are granted to show mercy, then do so cheerfully.

None of these things are easy to do. If they were, we would not need to be reminded of them. None of these attributes come naturally. We are admonished never to be slothful in any of our business, but instead be “fervent in spirit”. So then let’s understand clearly that there is no contradiction at all between being patient for our prophesying, our ministering, teaching, or our exhorting, and the ability to be devoured by our zeal for the house of God. Patience is an essential part of our zeal for the house of God.

To Summarize we have seen that the zeal of God’s house devoured our Lord:

Joh 2:17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

These words are not recorded to simply let us know what Christ did that day in the temple in Jerusalem. That entire event took place just for the purpose of telling us that it is we who must be consumed with by that zeal of the house of God. It is we who are told that we must live by those words.

We have seen we are that house, if we are in Christ and He is in us. Therefore it is we who are the house whose zeal must consume the Christ within us.

We have seen that our zeal of God’s house will have us wanting desperately to know all there is to know about that house, and to keep all the things that are written therein so as never to add or take away from that house:

Eze 43:10 Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern.
Eze 43:11 And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.

Are we even interested in “the goings out and the comings in… and all the ordinances of the house of God? Are we zealous to “keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, to do them”?

Our zeal must be “according to knowledge” of the true doctrine of the true Christ. The doctrine of Christ is the form and ordinances thereof, and the doing of them. If we are not even aware of those ordinances and doctrines, then we will always be led into the self-righteousness of Babylon:

Rom 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
Rom 10:2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Rom 10:3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Zeal is never ever “lukewarm”. Zeal is always a hot, zealous, and “fervent spirit” toward Christ. Zeal is always seeking the comfort and consolation of the house in which Christ dwells:

2Co 7:7 And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent [Greek: zelos, zealous] mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.

How do you and I feel towards others who have the mind of Christ? Do we have a zealous fervent spirit toward our brothers and sisters in Christ?

The zeal of God’s house within us provokes the same zealous spirit in many others who are in Christ:

2Co 9:2 For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.

Are we provoking others to be zealous and of a “forward mind” toward their brothers and sisters in Christ? They are “Thy house” whose zeal should be consuming us all.

Zeal produces “godly jealousy” toward the Christ of Christ.

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous [Greek: zeloo, zealous, fervent] over you with godly jealousy [Greek: zelos, zeal]: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Are we careful to be faithful to our espoused husband and to those with whom He identifies Himself, or is it more important to us to please men?

Zeal produces repentance from dead works.

Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Has our zeal for God changed us from who we were as that “old man, the first Adam” to the point that “all things are become new” and we no longer know any man after the flesh, not even Christ? (2Co 5:16). Or are we still living in the age of this world, walking according to the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience (Eph 2:2)?

The zeal of God’s house gives us power in our lives which produces good works within that house. The zeal of God’s house gives us confidence and the authority to speak and exhort others to walk with, and in the footsteps of, Christ whose prayer was not for the world, but for those whom His Father had placed in His house.

Joh 17:9 I pray for them [those in His house]: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Tit 2:15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

Zeal stays and restrains the wrath of God within the Christ of Christ.

Num 25:11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous [Hebrew: qana] for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy [Hebrew: qinah].

The zeal of the house of God takes us from hating and persecuting Christ and His doctrine to hating the way of life we once lived, and the doctrines we once believed. It is “the zeal of Thine house” which brings us to want to ‘know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, making us conformable unto his death;’

Php 3:6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those [in the zeal of His house] I [have] counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

‘The zeal of thine house has eaten me up.’ Is that true for all of us? Let’s all follow this scriptural admonition, and let us all pray for the same zeal which is that mind of Christ:

2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you [because you are His house], except ye be reprobates?

“Jesus Christ is in you” because you are ‘lively stones in His spiritual house’. You and I have much to appreciate, and we all have every reason to be ‘devoured by the zeal of His house’.