Proverbs 26 “To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge”

Part 1 – Pro 26:1-2

[Study Aired February 12, 2026]

Pro 26:1  As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool.
Pro 26:2  As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

Our journey to coming to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, must be accompanied with an evil experience to humble us thereby, bringing us to see the wretchedness of flesh and the one event that is common to all men, that being God’s judgement, which begins at the house of God (Ecc 1:13, Ecc 9:2, 1Pe 4:17).

The truth will set us free if we’re blessed to continue in it stedfastly, enduring the judgement that is preparing us to rule under Christ. The following are just a few verses that explain how we are to approach this spiritual battle which we are continually in (Luk 18:1, Heb 3:14-15, Heb 6:18-19, 1Pe 5:7-9, Php 3:8, Php 1:29).

Luk 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

Heb 3:14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; (Heb 10:35, Heb 11:25-26)
Heb 3:15  While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

Heb 6:18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:(Col 1:27)
Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;[Christ our hope of glory who has entered into the veil (Heb 10:20, Eph 5:30), our flesh, as our hope of glory (Rom 8:9)]

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:

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

The general theme of these proverbs is admonishing us against the destructive power of foolishness, laziness, deceit, and strife, and teach of the discernment needed in how to respond to people whose words and actions spread harm. We can ask God to put a bridle on our lips (Psa 39:1) and with His strength people will marvel at our ability to not say anything (Mat 27:14), as we overcome the wicked one by simply agreeing with him quickly, “Agree with thine adversary quickly”, as his accusations continue to unfold “day and night” against the bride of Christ (Rev 12:10, 2Co 10:3-5, Mat 5:25).

Psa 39:1  To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

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.

2Co 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; [“for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night”]

Mat 5:25  Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Mat 5:26  Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Pro 26:1  As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool.

The basic comparison of snow in the summer and rain in the harvest, which are both untimely and counterproductive, is being used to juxtapose the idea that honour is not seemly for a fool.

Here are three examples in God’s word when honour was given where it was not merited, and the clear destructive nature of such decisions. All of these negative examples show us what naturally happens with the first man Adam within us when he is not judged, and thereby not learning obedience by the things we suffer in this life (Heb 5:8). It also explains why the basest of men end up ruling on this earth (Dan 4:17), another witness to God’s elect that he can take the weak and foolish of the world and make His strength perfect through them (2Co 12:9, 1Co 1:25-26, Rom 11:25, Rom 11:22, Rom 2:4).

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

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

Rom 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.

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?

1. King Saul (1Sa 9:1-31) – Saul was honored with kingship, but he repeatedly disobeyed God, acted impulsively, and refused correction.

-His honor didn’t refine him—it magnified his flaws
-His authority led to jealousy, violence, and national instability

“Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being  king.”(1Sa 15:23)

Saul is a textbook example of honor given to someone lacking wisdom, resulting in damage to himself and others. Saul of course represents our old man, the first man Adam that must be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming into our heavens (2Th 2:5-8).

2. Nabal (1Sa 25:1-43) – Nabal was wealthy and influential, but foolish, arrogant, and abusive.

-His status didn’t make him noble
-His lack of discernment nearly brought bloodshed on his household

“As his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.” (1Sa 25:25)

His story shows that social standing doesn’t equal wisdom, and fools in positions of honor bring danger. God gives positions of honour to the weak of the world, so that in time the world will come to see and understand that flesh has nothing to do with what God has determined will be done, and no flesh will glory in His sight (1Co 1:26-29).

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

3.Rehoboam (1 Kings 12) – Solomon’s son rejected wise counsel and listened to foolish advice.

-His foolish leadership caused the kingdom to split
-Honour without wisdom led to national division

“The king rejected the counsel of the old men… and answered them roughly.” (1Ki 12:13)

Pro 26:2  As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

Balak wanting to curse Israel by way of Balaam is a case study of this proverb. The proverb reassures the innocent and warns the complacent.

1. The “curse causeless”

In Numbers 22–24, Balak hires Balaam to curse Israel. But Israel hasn’t wronged Moab, and—more importantly—God at this stage in the story had no intention of cursing Israel via the prophet Balaam. From the proverb’s perspective, the curse Balak wants is causeless.

Balaam himself eventually recognizes this reality:

“How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?” (Num 23:8)

That line is basically (Pro 26:2) said out loud.

2. The wandering bird imagery

Balak keeps moving Balaam from place to place—high place to high place—hoping the curse will finally “take”. That physical wandering mirrors the proverb’s imagery: the curse keeps trying to land but can’t. Like the bird or swallow, it stays in motion, never settling. Each attempt produces not a curse, but a blessing. The curse has no resting place. The giants in our land will be bread for us, and the accuser of the brethren is used of God to strengthen us and learn that we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ (Num 14:9, Rev 12:10, Isa 54:17).

Num 14:9  Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

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.(2Co 10:4-6)

Isa 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

3. God’s sovereignty prevails regardless of what men think

The curse cannot come because it is not what God intended to have happen.

That fits the proverb’s deeper claim: words alone don’t carry power; alignment with God’s will is what will happen (Joh 19:10-11).

Joh 19:10  Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
Joh 19:11  Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

This story of the vagabond Jews who were “exorcists” reveals this reality as well, and it represents our time in Babylon when we were not going from glory to glory but rather from bondage to bondage, because there was no spiritual healing power in Babylon, no stay of bread or water (Isa 3:1) to quicken us via the Son of God (Act 19:14-16, Isa 3:1, Joh 8:34-36).

Act 19:13  Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
Act 19:14  Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this, [Babylon’s complete 7 power to bind us in darkness]
Act 19:15  when an evil spirit said to them, “I know Jesus! And I have heard about Paul. But who are you?”
Act 19:16  Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them up. They ran out of the house, naked and bruised.

Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

The lesson for God’s children as I mentioned earlier is that despite ourselves, those without cause who come up against God’s people, even with ‘potent speech’ will not prevail against them (Mat 24:24, Rev 20:7-10).

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

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

4. The curse fails, but harm still comes later

Although Balaam cannot directly curse Israel, (Num 31:16, Rev 2:14) Moab did in time seduce Israel into idolatry and immorality.

Num 31:16  Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.

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.

The curse never “flies in” from outside; the damage comes from within (Mat 15:11).

Mat 15:11  Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

[The doctrine of Balaam is like the leaven of the Pharisees that Christ warned His disciples about, and we need to always be on guard regarding how we handle the word of God. If the Lord will grant us to try the spirits, and not think above what is written (1Co 4:6), the doctrine of Balaam, will never be able to take root in our heavens.]

In short Balaam’s story dramatizes the ineffectiveness of Satan’s influence on the church, because the Lord has prayed for us and is keeping us from the wicked one (Luk 22:32, 1Jn 5:4).

Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

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

God’s blessing is unstoppable, which was also demonstrated in this story with Balaam, and ultimately Israel’s curse comes about at the time appointed by God, teaching us that His Sovereign Hand is over all the affairs of our life, the light and the darkness, the peace and the evil (Isa 45:7), all which unfolds according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11, Gen 50:20, Luk 2:35).

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

Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Luk 2:35  (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

We pray the Lord will continue to deeply impress this truth upon the body of Christ found in (Rom 11:25), and with that humble foundation we can “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge”, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God (Eph 3:19-21).

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

Eph 3:19  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Eph 3:20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Eph 3:21  Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Next week Lord willing we will look at these next three proverbs as we continue to work our way through this 26th chapter.

Pro 26:3  A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back.
Pro 26:4  Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
Pro 26:5  Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.

The Spiritual Significance of Numbers

The Number Two Signifies Both Division and The Witness to Him Who Unites

[Study Aired January 2, 2026]

While the number one signifies the unity that is in the “Holy spirit of God” (Eph 4:30), the number two sets the stage for all that “one spirit” (Eph 4:4) is doing with His creatures.

That work requires a foil against which His love can be displayed. That foil includes a second being in a second realm. It requires an incorruptible, spiritual heaven which is diametrically opposed to a naturally corruptible physical earth. It requires within those two opposing spheres good versus evil and right versus wrong. In that sense ‘two’, in its negative application, signifies division and opposition.

This principle is revealed in the first verse of scripture where we are told that the Lord created two things, the one being opposed to the other:

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created [1] the heaven and [2] the earth.

Here is one of many verses of scripture which reveal the contrast between these two creations:

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.

Genesis 3 reveals that the natural inclination of any wife is to be “against” her husband:

Gen 3:16  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [H413: ‘el’, against] thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

The Lord did not command Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the vain hope that they would be obedient children and live forever in physical bodies of “corruptible… flesh and blood” (1Co 15:50). That is not what the scriptures teach at all.

How could that possibly be true when we are clearly told:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

That verse is only one of many which reveal that God knew exactly what Adam and Eve would do “before the world began”, and He had already “given us grace… in Christ Jesus before the world began.” There is no way God could give us grace in Christ before the world began if He had not known in advance that Adam and all of mankind would need that grace to teach [them] to forsake ungodliness and disobedience and to live Godly lives’:

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;

That is the significance of the number two. It signifies both the foil of sin and corruption, and it signifies the incorruptible righteousness of God which witnesses against that sin and unites us with Christ and His Father.

This great hidden Truth of the foreknowledge of God concerning both good and evil is repeated throughout scripture:

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Informing us twice that our calling in Christ was given to us “before the world began” witnesses to us that God has every day of everyone who has ever lived ‘written in [His] book before there were any of those days’:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

Psalm 139:16 tells us that God knew “before the world began”, before He ever created Adam and Eve, that they would first disobey His commandments, and He knew that they would need the salvation which is given us through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ “before the world began”, and He had every day of Adam’s, and our lives, “written in His book before there were any of them”. That verse is just as true for Adam and Eve as it was for King David and as it is for each of us.

Two verses in Proverbs 16 confirm the Lord’s omniscience, His knowledge of everything even before it happens, and His omnipotence, His power over all things good and evil:

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

Lest there be any doubt about the significance of verse one this what we are told in verse 4:

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

There we have the great Truth which is the spiritual significance of the negative application of the number 2. As surely as the earth opposes the heavens, and Eve’s curse is to be “against” her husband, this division will at the appointed time produce the unity, the “one flesh”, of the two when the time arrives  that “thy husband… shall rule over thee.”

Gen 3:16  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [H413: ‘el’, against] thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Cain also disobeyed the Lord which is revealed to us when the Lord told him:

Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
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 [H413, ‘el’, against] thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

“If you do well, shall you not be accepted” reveals that Cain had not done well and that is why the Lord had no respect to Cain’s offering which was “of the fruit of the ground.” It is manifest from the fact that the Lord had respect to Abel’s offering “of the firstlings of his flock”,  that the Lord had already instructed mankind concerning never offering a flour offering without first offering a blood offering:

Num 28:31  Ye shall offer them beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, (they shall be unto you without blemish) and their drink offerings.

Notice that when the Lord is judging Cain’s sin, He uses the exact same language He used when judging Eve for her sin… “and unto [H413: ‘el’, against] you shall his desire be and you shall rule over him.” The pronouns ‘his’ and ‘him’ both refer to “sin [which] lieth at the door.” Sin had no desire to please us or God. ‘The law of sin in [our] members wars against us and brings us into captivity to that law of sin which is in our members’:

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members,  which is in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

If there is any doubt that the Hebrew word in Genesis 3:16, where the Lord tells Eve her desire shall be “to your husband” should read ‘against your husband’, and that in Genesis 4:7 where the Lord tells Cain that ‘unto thee shall be his [sins] desire’, should read ‘against thee shall be his [sins] desire’, if there is any doubt about that statement consider how that Hebrew word is translated in the very next verse:

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 [H413: ‘el’, against] Abel his brother, and slew him.

Eve was of Adam, and she was designed to oppose him as a witness of how the natural carnal mind is just naturally “against the knowledge of Christ.” She is given that rebellious spirit for the very purpose of overcoming it and denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living a Godly life in this present age (Tit 2:11-12) and submitting to her husband’s rule. The same is true for Cain and for each of us. We, too, are “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin” (Psa 51:5), and we all have “another law in our members and bringing [us] into captivity to the law of sin which is in [our] members” (Rom 7:23).

Fortunately for mankind there is a “second man Adam” who was “slain from the foundation of the world” to atone for our sins:

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

Rev 5:4  And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

This is what Christ tells us of ourselves if He is abiding within our hearts and minds:

Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Mat 5:15  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Mat 5:16  Let your light so shine before men, [Be My two witnesses] that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

The metaphor of light is cast against the foil of darkness. Light signifies spiritual Truth, Godly direction and a life full of purpose and meaning. A life of light is contrasted with a life of darkness, being a slave to sinful passions, rebellion against authority; a life of futility and emptiness.

Contrary to what many have been taught, the opposite of heaven is not hell. The opposite of heaven is the earth, and this is what we are told in the very first verse of scripture:

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The second verse describes the initial condition of ‘the earth’:

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

Verse two is a prophesy of what God is doing with this ‘earth’, which signifies these dusty, clay bodies of sinful flesh and blood. Verse two of Genesis 1 describes what mankind is spiritually to this very day. Spiritually all men come into this world “without form, and void… shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin”, and [in spiritual] darkness. Then the spirit of God begins to move upon the face of the waters’, upon which ‘waters’ the great whore sits as a queen:

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

Rev 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.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

The number two in this context divides heavens from a dark, “without form and void” earth. The number two divides the darkness of earth from light of “the spirit of God” which is in the process of “moving on the face of the waters” and dividing the light from the darkness.

Gen 1:3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

The Greek word for ‘double’ in Revelation 8:6 is G1363, ‘diploo’. Here is Strong’s definition for ‘diploo’:

G1363
διπλόω
diploō
dip-lo’-o

From G1362; to render two fold: – double.

The great harlot who controls the beast will receive “two fold… torment and sorrow, according to her works”. This is God’s righteous judgment against this great religious harlot, It is not a positive application of the number two, nevertheless, in the end good comes of this ‘two fold’ punishment.

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Notice that it is God who created both the darkness and the light. The darkness was created before the light because we are explicitly told, “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” This Genesis principle of God beginning His work with darkness is repeated in the New Testament where we read:

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The typical physical works of God in Genesis 1:3 signify the spiritual work He is doing in us in 2 Corinthians 4:6. We are all born in spiritual darkness, and we must all be brought out of that darkness into the spiritual light of “the face of Jesus Christ”:

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

King David is not telling us that he had an immoral mother. What he is telling us is that ‘corruptible flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God’ (1Co 15:50).

 It is all being worked around the number two.

In the garden of Eden there is the second person, the woman who was deceived. There is the second being, that old serpent the devil and Satan. The work which the Lord is orchestrating between these two, the woman and the serpent, produces a “second man… the seed of the woman” where this number two becomes very positive as a witness of all this work which was all ordained and written in the Lord’s book… before the world began”:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

The second day of creation builds upon what the Lord did on the first day. On the first day the Lord created the heavens and the earth and called light out of the darkness which was upon the face of the waters:

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 1:3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

‘Heaven and earth’ are the first pair mentioned in scripture. The second pair mentioned is light and darkness. Someone might consider ‘the evening and the morning’ to be a third pair, but ‘the evening and the morning’ is really just another way of saying light and darkness. Both are mentioned in the account of what the Lord did on the first day of creation.

On the second day the Lord introduces a third pair… “the waters which are under the firmament, [and] the waters which were above the firmament”. This again is physical words which are meant to convey a spiritual message to the Lord’s elect through this dichotomy which is signified by the number two.

The waters under the firmament signify the waters on which the great whore sits (Rev 17:15). The firmament and the waters above the firmament signify the fiery trials and tribulations needed to evaporate the waters below the firmament and move them into the waters which are above the firmament. The fact that we are told that on the fourth day the Lord ‘set the stars in the firmament of the heavens’ is not a contradiction of Him also telling us that the birds fly in the firmament of heaven because the word ‘firmament’ simply signifies that which is above the waters which are below the firmament.

Gen 1:16  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
Gen 1:17  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:19  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

The fact that in the very next verse of scripture we are told that the birds also ‘fly above the earth in the open firmament of the heavens’ demonstrates that “the waters [which are] above the firmament” simply signify the separation of that which is spiritually “above the earth” from that which is spiritually below the firmament of the heavens.

There are so many pairs mentioned in scripture, and in nearly every case it is for the purpose of demonstrating the work the Lord is doing with the old “first man Adam” to produce the “the last Adam… the second man… the Lord from heaven” within every man.

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. [So much for the false doctrine called ‘the law of circularity’]
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.

Here is what E.W. Bullinger has to say about the number of pairs found in scripture:

“It is impossible even to name the vast number of things which are introduced to us in pairs, so that the one may teach concerning the other by way of contrast.

“The two foundations of Mat 7:24-27: the one which ‘fell not, for it was founded upon a rock;’ the other which ‘fell , and great was the falloff it’. The two goats (Lev 16:7); and the two birds (Lev 14:4-7); the two opinions (1Kg 18:21; the two masters (Mat 6:24); the two commandments (Mat 22:40); the two debtors (Luk 7:41); the two covenants (Gal 4:24); the two men [who went up to the temple to pray] (Luk 18:10); the two sons [who were asked to work in their father’s vineyard] (Mat 21:28, and Luk15:11, and [the two sons of the two wives of) Gal 4:22, etc. etc.” (End Quote)

The positive application of the number two is that of being a witness:

The number two, like every other subject in scripture, has both a positive and a negative application. That dichotomy is the spiritual significance of the number two. Negatively it signifies division, chaos, and confusion. In its positive application it brings unity by being the Witness to the Truth, which Truth empowers those who cling to the Truth and bear Truthful witness to that Truth by displaying a life that reflects the light of Christ to this evil world. Therefore the number two signifies the “two witnesses” who are also signified by “two olive trees which stand before the God of the earth.”

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

These “two olive trees” are defined as “the Word of the Lord” in Zechariah 4:

Zec 4:1  And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,
Zec 4:2  And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

The words of the book of Revelation are to be read, heard and kept in every generation since Christ by those who are given eyes that see and ears that hear (Mat 13:10-15, Rev 1:3). Therefore these “two witnesses” signify those who have the light of Christ and His Words in their hearts and minds.

Deu 19:15  One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

Mat 18:15  Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

In Conclusion

Considering all we have seen regarding the number two, we can conclude that in its negative application, it signifies the difference between the old and the new man, and it signifies the division, chaos, futility and corruption which characterizes the realm of our dying, carnal-minded old man.

In its positive application, the number two signifies the unity of the Father and the Son, the unity of the husband and his wife, and the fact that the Lord is calling light out of darkness.

The spiritual significance of the number two also includes the concept of being a Truthful witness to the Truth of the “Word of the Lord”:

Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know [witness to] his voice.

Numbers 24:1-25  Balaam’s Eyes Being Opened to See

[Study Aired October 16, 2023]

Num 24:1  And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. 
Num 24:2  And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him. 
Num 24:3  And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: 
Num 24:4  He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: 
Num 24:5  How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!
Num 24:6  As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the LORD hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.
Num 24:7  He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.
Num 24:8  God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. 
Num 24:9  He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee. 
Num 24:10  And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. 
Num 24:11  Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from honour. 
Num 24:12  And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying, 
Num 24:13  If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the LORD saith, that will I speak? 
Num 24:14  And now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days. 
Num 24:15  And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: 
Num 24:16  He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: 
Num 24:17  I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. 
Num 24:18  And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly. 
Num 24:19  Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city. 
Num 24:20  And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever. 
Num 24:21  And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. 
Num 24:22  Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee away captive.
Num 24:23  And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this!
Num 24:24  And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish forever. 
Num 24:25  And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place: and Balak also went his way.

Introduction

This chapter continues with Balak and Balaam attempting to curse the people of Israel. However, in this chapter, the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes to see things from the Lord’s viewpoint. As a result, Balaam gave us more insight on who the Lord’s elect are and their destiny. He also prophesied concerning our captivity in Babylon and how Babylon shall be destroyed. A good takeaway from this study is the fact that in Christ, nothing can harm us and that what we speak when our eyes are opened is a parable to the people of the world, including our brothers and sisters in Babylon. That is why they cannot understand what we say. In summary, this is what happens to us when our eyes are opened:

Mar 16:17  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Mar 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.

Speaking in a new tongue means speaking in a parable that only the elect can understand. Casting out devils also implies doing away with the lies or the false doctrines of the evil one. Taking up serpents and not being hurt by drinking any deadly thing signifies that nothing can harm us if we are in Christ. 

Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

The LORD Opened Balaam’s Eyes to See

Num 24:1  And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. 

It is when Christ comes to us that our eyes are opened, and our ears begin to hear the words of the Lord. That is when we begin to see who the Lord’s elect are and that they are a blessed people. That was what happened to Balaam. 

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

As we come into the church of the firstborn, that is when we come to see the blessedness of the Lord’s elect.

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.

As a result of Balaam’s eyes being enlightened, he stopped seeking enchantments and set his face toward the wilderness. Seeking for enchantments symbolizes seeking another Jesus. What this means is that when Christ comes to us, and we become part of the church of the firstborn, that is when we stop seeking another Jesus as we focus on the path of life the Lord had apportioned for us. 

Psa 23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

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.

Num 24:2  And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him. 

In verse 2, Balaam lifting up his eyes to see the Israelites abiding in tents signifies that we, His elect, are strangers here on earth. As we are aware, strangers do not become entangled in the affairs of the city where they are dwelling. This implies that as strangers here on earth, we are to focus on what will please our Lord in this life and not become entangled in the affairs of this world. 

Jer 35:7  Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.

Living in tents also implies that we are looking for the city whose designer and builder is God. In other words, the Lord causes us to seek Him.

Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 
Heb 11:9  By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 
Heb 11:10  For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 

Abiding in tents according to their tribes implies that the Lord has called and chosen His elect from every tribe and tongue.

Rev 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

The Spirit of the Lord coming upon Balaam in verse 2 is another way of saying that Balaam was given eyes to see and ears to hear the word of the Lord just as the Lord’s elect are enlightened to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

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.

Speaking in Parables

Num 24:3  And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: 
Num 24:4  He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: 
Num 24:5  How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! 
Num 24:6  As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the LORD hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters. 

As indicated, it is when our eyes are opened, as shown in verse 3, that we hear the words of the Lord (verse 4). Seeing the Almighty as our eyes are opened means the Lord is coming to us with the brightness of His coming to open our eyes to see and ears to hear.

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

In verse 5, it is when our eyes are opened by the Lord that we come to appreciate the beauty of our dwelling place in tents and also the tabernacle of Israel. As Psalm 90:1 suggests, Christ is our dwelling place. This implies that we come to see that we are in Him as He is in us. The beauty of our tent is therefore Christ. 

Psa 90:1  A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

The tabernacle of Israel refers to Christ coming to dwell in us.

Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

In verse 6, the elect is described as valleys which have spread forth. According to Strong’s Dictionary, the valleys are actually streams. It is therefore insightful to describe the elect as streams that spread forth. As we are aware, streams or water stands for the word of the Lord. This implies that the elect being described as streams spreading forth means we live according to the word of the Lord which is alive and active in our lives just as the Lord Jesus represents the word of the Lord.  

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

The elect is also described as gardens by the river’s side. This means that what nourishes us is the word of the Lord. Again in verse 6, we, His elect are described as cedar trees beside the waters.  These descriptions of the elect being a garden by the river’s side and as cedar trees beside the waters means that if we live by the word of the Lord, we shall surely prosper in all that we do.  

Psa 1:1  Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
Psa 1:2  but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 
Psa 1:3  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 

In verse 5, we are also described as trees of aloes which the Lord has planted. This implies that we do not contribute anything to our salvation. Everything is the work of the Lord from the very beginning up to the finish line. 

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

As stated in John 6:29, the work of God causes us to believe in Christ. 

Joh 6:28  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 
Joh 6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Num 24:7  He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.

It is instructive to note that Israel in these verses is referred to as “He.” This is because, in this case, Israel is seen from the perspective of Jacob and not as a woman betrothed to Christ. 

Num 24:5  How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!

What this means is that we are looking at the elect from the perspective of a man with dominion or authority who submits to Christ. This verse therefore emphasizes the role of the elect in prophesying or speaking the word of the Lord without having our heads covered. 

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
1Co 11:4  Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. 
1Co 11:5  But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.

In verse 7, we are told that the Lord’s elect shall pour the water out of his buckets. This signifies that we shall prophesy or speak the word of the Lord from what the Lord has given to each one of us. In other words, every joint shall supply the word of the Lord. 

Mat 12:35  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

His seed shall be in many waters signifies that the Lord has called and chosen His elect from the nations of the world. As we are aware, the many waters mean the nations of the world as shown in the following verse:

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:

The king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted means that our Lord Jesus as king shall reign through the ages to come, unlike our earthly kings like Agag whose reign was very temporal or short. It also means that as king, Christ is superior and more powerful to all earthly kings as all power is given unto him. He shall establish his kingdom over the whole world in the fullness of time when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. 

Heb 1:8  But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Heb 1:9  Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Heb 1:10  And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
Heb 1:11  They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;
Heb 1:12  And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

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.

Num 24:8  God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows. 
Num 24:9  He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.

The Lord brought us out of the world (Egypt) to serve Him with a mighty hand which is described as the strength of a unicorn. A unicorn is a wild bull with great strength. 

Exo 32:11  And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Deu 5:15  And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

The Israelites eating up the nations, breaking their bones and piercing them through with arrows, signifies that as His elect, we shall overcome the old man or our flesh, represented by nations. This will be done through the word of the Lord which is symbolized by arrows. In verse 9, the elect is signified by a great lion who is ready to eat its prey which is our old man or the flesh.

Num 23:24  Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.

Those who bless us shall be blessed, and those who curse us shall be cursed. The Lord also told Abraham the same thing. What this means is that those who fight against us shall find themselves fighting against the Lord. 

Gen 12:3  And I will bless them that bless thee (Abraham), and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Num 24:10  And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times.
Num 24:11  Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from honour. 
Num 24:12  And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying, 
Num 24:13  If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the LORD saith, that will I speak? 

Balak saying that Balaam had blessed the Israelites three times shows us that it is a blessing to be judged as we go through the process of attaining spiritual maturity (the significance of the number three). People of the world think that they have the power to promote people to great honor since they believe in man charting his own destiny through his free will just as Balak thought in verse 12. The fact that he admitted that the Lord had kept Balaam from honor is to let us know that whatever happens here on earth is according to the counsel of God, whether good or evil.   

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

Balaam’s stance that he could not go beyond the Lord’s commandments and that whatever the Lord says is what he would do or speak, affirms the fact that it is the counsel of the Lord which shall stand – not what we want. Balam’s resolve not to accept if Balak offered him his house full of silver and gold is to let us know that in this life, what is important is knowing Christ – not riches.  

Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 
Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 
Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Num 24:14  And now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days. 
Num 24:15  And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: 
Num 24:16  He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: 

In these verses, we are being reminded that all Balaam was saying about Israel was the result of his eyes being opened by the Lord. It is instructive to note that he mentioned that what he was going to say about Israel comes as a parable. As Jesus stated, a parable can only be understood by one whose eyes have been opened by the Lord, which in this case is the Lord’s elect. This means that the physical churches of this world who focus on the letter of the word of God, do not have a clue as to what the word of the Lord is actually saying to His people.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 
Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

In verse 14, Balaam stated that he was going to tell Balak what the people of Israel would do to the people of Moab in the latter days. The people of Moab represent our flesh which the Lord shall destroy through His elect who are the people of the Lord in the latter days. 

Hos 3:5  Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

Jer 23:20  The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.

Num 24:17  I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. 
Num 24:18  And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly. 
Num 24:19  Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city. 

Here Balaam is prophesying that he shall see the Lord but not in His lifetime. It is during the lake of fire age that all humanity, including Balaam, shall see the Lord. The star out of Jacob is Christ, who is the morning star. A sceptre is a symbol of rulership. Thus, a sceptre that shall rise out of Israel is speaking of the Lord’s kingship over His elect and His kingdom. 

Gen 49:10 The scepter [of royalty] shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh [the Messiah, the Peaceful One] comes, And to Him shall be the obedience of the peoples. (AMP)

These verses also assure us that when the Lord, the Star of Jacob, comes to us, He shall destroy our old man or the flesh through the breath of His mouth and the brightness of His coming. The old man or the flesh is signified here by the Moabites, the Edomites and Seir who are being destroyed within His elect by the fire of His word.

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

In verse 19, He that has dominion and comes from Jacob is Christ our Lord. It is He who is fighting our battles for us to become overcomers. He shall destroy everything that remains of our old man or the flesh in our city (bodies).

Exo 14:14  The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

Num 24:20  And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish forever. 
Num 24:21  And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. 
Num 24:22  Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee away captive.

Amalek means ‘dweller in a valley.’ The Amalekites are descendants of Esau and therefore are fleshly related to Israel. They represent our flesh which is being subdued by the Lord’s elect.

1Sa 15:2  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. 
1Sa 15:3  Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. 

1Sa 15:7  And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt. 
1Sa 15:8  And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

The instruction by the Lord to totally destroy the Amalekites is to show us that we cannot leave any aspect of our flesh untouched. The defeat of our old man must be thorough if we are to become overcomers. The Kenites were a nomadic tribe. Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses, was a Kenite. A significant number of them settled among the Israelites.

Jdg 1:16  And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people.

In verse 21, Balaam prophesied that the Kenites’ dwelling place was strong, and they put their nest in a rock. This implies that the Kenites were initially secured as a result of their dwelling among the people of Israel and the fact that they worshiped the Lord who is the rock. However, as time went on, the people of Israel, including the Kenites, forsook the Lord their God. The Kenites therefore also represent Babylon.

In verse 22, Balaam prophesied that the Kenites shall be taken away captive by the Assyrians (Asshur). The going into captivity of the people of Israel included the captivity of the Kenites. It is insightful to note that Heber’s wife Jael, a Kenite, was the one who killed Sisera when their family separated themselves from the Kenites. This means that it is only when we separate from Babylon that we are able to overcome the flesh.

Jdg 4:11  Now Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had severed himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh.

Jdg 4:15  And the LORD discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot, and fled away on his feet. 

Jdg 4:17  Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 
Jdg 4:18  And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle. 
Jdg 4:19  And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him. 
Jdg 4:20  Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and enquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No. 
Jdg 4:21  Then Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

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.

Balaam and Balak Finally Separated

Num 24:23  And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this!
Num 24:24  And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish forever.
Num 24:25  And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place: and Balak also went his way.

Balaam’s question in verse 23 that who shall live when God does this is to remind us that what he was prophesying will take a long time to occur. 

Hab 2:3  For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

In verse 24, Balaam predicted the fall of Babylon which is represented by Asshur (Assyria) and Eber. Abraham is described as a descendant of Eber, and therefore Eber also represents Babylon. This destruction of Babylon is first within us. Later, Babylon shall be destroyed for everyone to see.

Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. 
Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. 
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, 
Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

Rev 18:17  For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, 
Rev 18:18  And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city! 

In verse 25, Balaam and Balak separated from each other. As the Lord’s elect, the Lord will separate us from people who are close to us, who have the potential to influence our walk with Christ negatively. It is sometimes very painful, but it is necessary for our walk with Christ. Abraham’s call by the Lord to go to the land of Canaan was characterized by separating himself from his people and kindred. The nature of the call of Abraham is applicable to us today. It is the same as what happened to Lazarus. When he was raised from the dead, he could not walk because of the grave clothes. As we are aware, clothes or garments represent righteousness. Grave clothes therefore represent our own righteousness (iniquity) which includes some of our relationships which we cherish but are not helping us to grow in Christ. That is when Christ comes in to take them away so we can walk with Him.

Joh 11:43  And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 
Joh 11:44  And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

May the Lord continue to show mercy to us as He drags us to Himself. Amen!!

Numbers 23:1-30  Balaam’s Encounter with Balak

[Study Aired October 9, 2023]

Num 23:1  And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams. 
Num 23:2  And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram. 
Num 23:3  And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go: peradventure the LORD will come to meet me: and whatsoever he sheweth me I will tell thee. And he went to an high place. 
Num 23:4  And God met Balaam: and he said unto him, I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram. 
Num 23:5  And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. 
Num 23:6  And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he, and all the princes of Moab. 
Num 23:7  And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. 
Num 23:8  How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? 
Num 23:9  For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. 
Num 23:10  Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!
Num 23:11  And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. 
Num 23:12  And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD hath put in my mouth? 
Num 23:13  And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place, from whence thou mayest see them: thou shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all: and curse me them from thence. 
Num 23:14  And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. 
Num 23:15  And he said unto Balak, Stand here by thy burnt offering, while I meet the LORD yonder. 
Num 23:16  And the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Go again unto Balak, and say thus. 
Num 23:17  And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken? 
Num 23:18  And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: 
Num 23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? 
Num 23:20  Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. 
Num 23:21  He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. 
Num 23:22  God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.
Num 23:23  Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! 
Num 23:24  Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain. 
Num 23:25  And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.
Num 23:26  But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, Told not I thee, saying, All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do? 
Num 23:27  And Balak said unto Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place; peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence. 
Num 23:28  And Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor, that looketh toward Jeshimon.
Num 23:29  And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams. 
Num 23:30  And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. 

Introduction

This chapter looks at the first two attempts by Balaam and Balak in preparation to curse the people of Israel which involves the sacrifice of oxen and rams, the contrary instructions given by the Lord to Balaam and the blessings that Balaam was compelled to pronounce upon the people of Israel, instead of a curse. The chapter ends with a third attempt with Balaam and Balak preparing to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. 

In the previous chapter, we learned that the Lord came to Balaam and told him specifically that the people of Israel could not be cursed since they were blessed. This should have ended Balaam’s quest to enrich himself with his divination. However, he kept on working with Balak thinking that the Lord would change His mind. Even after he got the revelation that the Lord is not a man that He should repent, Balaam kept on searching for a way to receive reward from Balak. This is what Jude said about Balaam:

Jud 1:11  Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Today’s study shows us the ways of the Lord and the Lord’s view about the church of the firstborn, which is symbolized by the people of Israel as they encamped in the plains of Moab on the side of the Jordan opposite Jericho. 

First Attempt to Find a way to Curse Israel

Num 23:1  And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams. 
Num 23:2  And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram. 

As indicated in the previous study, Balaam and Balak represent our brothers and sisters in Babylon. This expensive sacrifice offered by Balak and Balaam was for the purpose of changing the Lord’s mind to cause Balaam to curse the people of Israel instead of blessing them. The Lord had made His will known to Balaam that the people of Israel cannot be cursed since they were a blessed people. The offering of seven oxen and seven rams on seven altars signifies the complete offerings of our brothers and sisters in Babylon where they put more premium on sacrifice in the form of tithes, giving to the church and working for the church, instead of obedience to the Lord. The scenario here is the same as King Saul who disobeyed the Lord’s words by keeping the best of the spoils instead of destroying them. This was what characterized our walk in Babylon. We were paying more attention to sacrifice instead of obedience to the Lord.

1Sa 15:18  And the LORD sent you (Saul) on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 
1Sa 15:19  Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?” 
1Sa 15:20  And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 
1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”
1Sa 15:22  And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 
1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.” (ESV)

What the Lord requires is the sacrifice of a broken heart or a repentant heart. 

Psa 51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Num 23:3  And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go: peradventure the LORD will come to meet me: and whatsoever he sheweth me I will tell thee. And he went to an high place. 
Num 23:4  And God met Balaam: and he said unto him, I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram. 
Num 23:5  And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. 

Verse 3 shows us that the Lord will not visit us while we are paying more attention to sacrifice than obedience to His words. It was when Balaam had left Balak at the burnt offering that the Lord visited him. Our sacrifices in Babylon were therefore an impediment to the Lord visiting us to drag us to Himself. It is insightful to note that in verse 4, when the Lord visited him, Balaam was boasting to the Lord about his sacrifice of seven oxen and rams. As indicated, Balaam represents our brothers and sisters in Babylon who are only interested in showing to the Lord their tithes and offerings and their good works of charity. This was what happened to us when we were in Babylon. 

Isa 1:11  To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
Isa 1:12  When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 
Isa 1:13  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 
Isa 1:14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 
Isa 1:15  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Isa 1:16  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 

In verse 5, the Lord putting a word in Balaam’s mouth is another way of saying that the preparation of the heart in man, and what comes out of our mouth, is from the Lord. 

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

Num 23:6  And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he, and all the princes of Moab. 
Num 23:7  And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. 
Num 23:8  How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? 

Balaam returning to find Balak and all the princes of Moab standing by the burnt sacrifice signifies the fact that Babylon is stuck to their sacrifices and are not willing to obey the words of the Lord. That is why in the fullness of time, they will show their sacrifices to the Lord by saying to Him that they have prophesied in His name, cast out devils and done many wonderful works. To this the Lord will tell them they are workers of iniquity because they prefer sacrifices to obedience.

Mat 7:21  Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

In verse 7, the enmity of our brothers and sisters in Babylon to the Lord’s elect is evident here as Balak, the king of Moab, sought to curse the people of Israel through Balaam. This enmity is demonstrated by King Saul, who represents Babylon, trying to kill David, a type of the elect.

1Sa 19:14  And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she (Saul’s daughter) said, He is sick.
1Sa 19:15  And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him.
1Sa 19:16  And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster. 
1Sa 19:17  And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?

Verse 8 assures us that whoever the Lord has blessed, no one can curse or harm. It is another way of saying that no weapon formed or fashioned against the Lord’s elect shall prosper.

Isa 54:17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

Num 23:9  For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. 
Num 23:10  Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!

Verse 9 shows us that it is only in Christ, symbolized by the top of the rocks and the hills, we see who the Lord’s elect are. The people dwelling alone and not counted among the nations of the world signifies that the Lord’s elect are distinct from the people of the world and do not conform to the standards of this world.   

2Sa 7:23  And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods? 
2Sa 7:24  For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever: and thou, LORD, art become their God.

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 marvelous light:

The dust of Jacob in verse 10 is a reference to the prophecy by the Lord that the people of Israel would become as the dust of the earth. This implies that the people of Israel had become so many, which symbolizes that they had become a strong or powerful nation.

Gen 28:14  And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 

We, His elect, represent the dust of Jacob spiritually as we are the innumerable company of angels as shown in the following verse:

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,

The fourth part of Israel in verse 10 alludes to the form of their camp, which is grouped into four teams under four standards. The number four signifies the whole of the matter under discussion. This implies that the fourth part of Israel represents the whole of the Lord’s elect. Balaam stated that he wanted to die the death of the righteous in verse 10. This death of the righteous is the dying of our old man, or the flesh, through the Lord’s judgment. It is not attained by desire as Balaam wished, as the Lord had already penciled in those who are to die to the old man before the foundation of the world.

Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

The Second Attempt to Find a Way to Curse Israel

Num 23:11  And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. 
Num 23:12  And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD hath put in my mouth? 
Num 23:13  And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place, from whence thou mayest see them: thou shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all: and curse me them from thence. 
Num 23:14  And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. 

Balak accused Balaam of blessing the people of Israel instead of cursing them, and in response Balaam told Balak that he could only speak what the Lord had put in his mouth. As indicated earlier, this is to show us that it is the Lord who controls what we speak. Irrespective of what we may conceive in our hearts and mind, what comes out of our mouth is what the Lord has ordained. 

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

Balak thought that changing the location of the offering could influence the Lord to cause Balaam to curse the people of Israel. Balak took Balaam to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah for another expensive offering to the Lord to influence His decision. Pisgah means ‘division.’ As we are aware, it is in Babylon where we have various sects or divisions. What this means is that while we were in Babylon, we thought that if the Lord were not with us in one church, then perhaps, if we go to another church, we may find Him. This resulted in our wandering in the churches of this world trying to find God, just as Balak and Balaam thought by changing location (going to another church) they may find God to change His mind regarding the fate of the people of Israel.

Num 23:15  And he said unto Balak, Stand here by thy burnt offering, while I meet the LORD yonder. 
Num 23:16  And the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Go again unto Balak, and say thus. 
Num 23:17  And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken? 
Num 23:18  And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor:

As indicated earlier, our sacrifices in Babylon did not result in the Lord appearing to us. It is when we ‘go yonder’ (leave Babylon) that the Lord comes to us with His brightness as He puts His words in our mouth just as He did to Balaam. Again, the fact that Balak was standing by his burnt offering together with the princes of Moab is to let us know that the only thing our brothers and sisters in Babylon can offer is sacrifice, not obedience to the words of the Lord. When Balaam went yonder and had a revelation of Christ and the church, he came to Balak and told him about it in verse 18. As we shall see later, what Balaam told Balaam fell on deaf ears. In other words, our witness of Christ to the churches of this world will fall on deaf ears. 

Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. 
Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people (Babylon), Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 
Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 
Isa 6:11  Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 
Isa 6:12  And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 
Isa 6:13  But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. 

In Isaiah 6:11, we are given the time frame when our brothers and sisters will start to heed our witness of Christ. Their hardened hearts will continue until Babylon is destroyed, and there will be a great forsaking in the midst of the land (Isaiah 9:12). This great forsaking is when the human race gathers against the Lord and His elect, which will result in the death of all humanity and the beginning of the lake-of-fire age. 

The next verses show us the revelation given to Balaam concerning Christ and His church.

Num 23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? 
Num 23:20  Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. 
Num 23:21  He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. 
Num 23:22  God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

One of the key revelations given to Balaam is that God is not a man that He should repent (verse 19). There are several scriptures which state that God repented, and so we need to investigate the word “repent” in verse 19. The word “repent” in everyday usage means reviewing one’s actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs and taking steps to show a change for the better. However, in the verses where the Lord repented, the word “repented” actually means to pity (in a favorable way), have compassion or console, according to Strong’s Dictionary. 

In Numbers 23:19 and 1 Samuel 15:29 on the other hand, the context shows us that the Lord not repenting because He is not a man has to do with the Lord not changing His mind as we human beings do. 

Gen 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 
Gen 6:6  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 

Jer 26:13  Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.

Jon 3:9  Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

1Sa15:29  And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

Verse 20 shows us that it is what the Lord has purposed which shall stand. 

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

As the Lord’s elect, the Lord does not see iniquity and perverseness in us even though in time past our ways were perverse, and there was iniquity in our hearts. This is because the Lord who has come to us is doing His work of removing iniquity and perverseness in us. The Lord is therefore looking at us from the perspective of His finished work in us. Are you worrying about some sins in your life? Have confidence that what our Lord starts, He is able to bring to completion. We are indeed blessed that the Lord does not see iniquity in us as He is gradually dealing with the source of our iniquity which is the old man.

Psa 32:2  Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

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

The shout of the king among them in verse 21 signifies that Christ has come into our lives riding on a white horse to grant us the victory over our flesh or old man.

Rev 6:2  And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

Num 23:23  Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! 

Verse 23 is another way of saying that nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ. In other words, if God is for us, who can fight against us?

Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 
Rom 8:33  Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 
Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Num 23:24  Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain. 

This verse is another way of saying that since Christ has come into our lives, He will conquer our old man. We, His elect, are represented in this verse as a great and young lion who shall not rest until we have overcome the flesh, or our old man, who is represented here as the prey. Drinking the blood of the slain symbolizes our victory over the flesh, or our old man. 

Deu 20:4  for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.

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

Num 23:25  And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.
Num 23:26  But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, Told not I thee, saying, All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do? 

Balak was gradually getting weary of his multitude of counselors, as he wanted Balaam not to either curse or bless the people of Israel.

Isa 47:12  Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. 
Isa 47:13  Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

In verse 26, Balaam continued to reiterate what the Lord had put in his mouth that which he would speak or do. This is to show us that it is the Lord’s counsel which shall stand in every circumstance.

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

The Third Attempt to Find a way to Curse Israel

Num 23:27  And Balak said unto Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place; peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence. 
Num 23:28  And Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor, that looketh toward Jeshimon.
Num 23:29  And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams. 
Num 23:30  And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. 

Balak decided to take Balaam to a third place called Peor which overlooks Jeshimon. Peor is a mountain near Mount Nebo in the land of Moab. Here the Moabites’ god Baal was worshiped, hence the name Baal-Peor. Balak believed that at this place, the sacrifice would be acceptable to the Lord and therefore change His mind since it is acceptable to his god, Baal. At Peor, they again built seven altars and sacrificed seven bullocks and seven rams. The question is, why was Balaam tagging along when he knew that the Lord would not change his mind? It is because he had set his eyes on the reward of divination and therefore could not see beyond the reward.

Jud 1:11  Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

If it is in this life that we have hope, then we are the most miserable people on earth. The Lord may reward us physically in this life, but that is not the main motivating factor. It is the joy that is set before us which is the driving force for our actions here on earth.

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

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

Zec 5:1-11 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me

[Study Aired June 29, 2023]

Babylon is “cursed with a curse” because they have robbed God, and what they have robbed Him of is a life of dedication and fidelity to His word, which is impossible to accomplish without God’s spirit within us (Rom 8:9). It’s ridiculous to think that we could actually rob God of anything, seeing He owns everything (Psa 50:10). Mankind’s thieving ways demonstrate the spiritual condition of our hearts which are naturally against the spirit of God (Gal 5:17). With such a nature, we will rob and take that which is not ours to take, as demonstrated from the very get-go with Adam and Eve, but again these outward actions in the garden just demonstrate how we naturally misappropriate God’s word inwardly (Gen 3:6, Rom 1:20).

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 

Gen 3:6  And when the woman [typifying the spirit of the churches of Babylon] saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat [demonstrating our need to be under the law of Moses at first, the schoolmaster, which the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents until we are dragged to the tree of life representing Christ (Joh 1:17, Rom 3:20, Rom 7:7)].

Zec 5:1  Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.
Zec 5:2  And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.
Zec 5:3  Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.
Zec 5:4  I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof. 
Zec 5:5  Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth. 
Zec 5:6  And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth. 
Zec 5:7  And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah. 
Zec 5:8  And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. 
Zec 5:9  Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. 
Zec 5:10  Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
Zec 5:11  And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base. 

This section of Zechariah specifically shows us how we naturally go into Babylon, and only by the grace and faith of Christ, ‘come out of her my people’ (2Co 6:17). The imagery of a flying roll (Zec 5:1) and two women with the wings of a unclean bird called a stork, demonstrate how at first we carry the lies of Babylon throughout all our earth within, and outwardly we are all initially witnesses of another Jesus whose false gospel is made known, loud and clear from the abundance of our deceived hearts throughout the world. This is done via the churches that have been given power to do that. Those churches of Babylon are represented by the two women that have wings of a stork (Zec 5:9) and the flying roll is the word of God they bring to the great unwashed masses (Zec 5:1).

2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

We all must first go into Babylon, and by God’s great power be dragged out of her, presenting our bodies a living sacrifice through Christ (Rom 12:1-2) which is what the book of Malachi points to. Christ and His body are the means by which we will overcome all the lies that have been perpetrated by the devil throughout the years, in the land of Shinar (Zec 5:11), which represents the place where Mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots, thrives. The place where we ‘come out of her’ to be caught up to God in heaven is by the power of Christ in His people that is far higher than the powers and principalities that ruled us in Babylon; the wings of the unclean stork (Rev 12:5, Eph 2:6, Eph 1:19-21).

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

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. 

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 

Eph 1:19  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, [What the greatness of his power toward us produces  (Col 4:5-6, Jer 23:24, 1Th 5:16-18)]
Eph 1:20  Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Eph 1:21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

Zec 5:1  Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.

Right after we learn of the two witnesses who witnessed against Babylon (Zec 4:12-14), Zechariah says “then I turned.” This action of Zechariah turning symbolizes for God’s people that we know who we are, as our function in the Christ is to witness of these things (Luk 24:48), being those who observe and see and understand the lies that we’ve come out of by the grace and faith of Christ (Eph 2:8), which is what Zechariah’s statement “then I turned” typifies. 

Luk 24:48  And ye are witnesses of these things.

It is a lifelong journey coming out of Babylon and cleansing our heavens as we are sanctified by the spirit of God. We don’t turn once, say a ten-second sinner’s prayer and it’s all over. Rather we keep turning where the Lord would have us go to be His witnesses of these things in the earth, our whole life that has many seasons which concludes in our turning to dust again (Joh 17:17, Joh 6:63, Ecc 3:20). All that process of turning and seeing who we are, or where we were, is prophesied for us in Ezekiel 21:27 which shows us what God is doing with our old man who will be abased so that a new creation can increase and come forth (Eze 21:26-28).

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

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

Eze 21:26  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high [take off the false way by which you misappropriated the word of God, which can only happen through a process of judgment symbolized by the three overturnings].
Eze 21:27  I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him [Rev 4:10, Luk 17:10].
Eze 21:28  And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering: 

With this in mind, we see the prophet Zechariah, who represents the elect turning and lifting up his eyes and looking and beholding a flying roll. That roll is not another gospel. It is the word of God (Gal 1:5-7), but it is wrapped around the idol of carnal hearts that naturally pervert the truth manifesting in a divided Christ. There are two gospels flying around in the heavens – one that is coming from the manifold wisdom of God made known by the church (Eph 3:10), and another that is a “flying roll” filling the world with lies, and must be overcome in our own heavens (Rev 9:2-3, Rev 12:14, 2Pe 2:19-20). 

Gal 1:5  To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Gal 1:6  I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Gal 1:7  Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of 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, 

Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle [the same symbolism as the unclean stork], that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent  [for an in-depth description on this symbolism, see Mike’s studies on Revelation 12, Rev 12:1-5 and Rev 12:14-17 in particular].

2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 
2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

The negative smoke rises from the pits of Babylon (Rev 9:2) that we come out of, and the positive smoke ascends up to God “with the prayers of the saints” (Rev 8:4). A  review of the word roll^H4039 will help us see the negative and positive use of this word. 

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 8:4  And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.

H4039 “Roll”
– Definition:
roll, book, writing 
– Origin: from H1556
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine 
– Strong’s: From H1556; a roll: – roll volume. 
Total KJV Occurrences: 21 
roll, 20

Jer_36:2; Jer_36:4; Jer_36:6; Jer_36:14(2); Jer_36:20; Jer_36:21; Jer_36:23; Jer_36:25; Jer_36:27; Jer_36:28(2); Jer_36:29; Jer_36:32; Eze_2:9; Eze_3:1; Eze_3:2; Eze_3:3; Zec_5:1; Zec_5:2 

volume, 1
Psa_40:7

In Zechariah it represents the negative way in which we use God’s word at first in Babylon. In every instance it is talking about something that is written down, and more specifically, the word of God which is likened to the ephah in Zechariah 5:10. This “roll” talked about in the book of Zechariah is the word of God as Psalm 40:7 attests to in its use of this Strong’s number. What does a thief do but rob you of your possessions, which is what Babylon does with the words of God that are carried on unclean wings, the stork, that represents the carnal mind which can’t rightly divide the word of truth (Lev 11:13, Lev 11:19).

Zec 5:10  Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah^H374?

BDB Definition: Definition: a. a dry measure of quantity; b. the receptacle for measuring or holding that amount 

Strong’s Definition: an ephah or measure for grain; hence a measure in general

Psa 40:7  Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume^H4039 of the book it is written of me, 

BDB Definition: Definition: 1. roll, book, writing 

Strong’s Definition: From H1556; a roll: – roll volume. 

Zec 5:2  And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.

The roll’s dimensions, “the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits”, reveals that this is the word of God that is going forth, actually ‘flying forth’ in the heavens of mankind, typifying what God’s quick and sharp two-edged sword of His word (Heb 4:12) can and will ultimately accomplish against the flesh of all mankind. It will not go forth in vain, and it will accomplish that which God has sent it out to do, and will not return void (Isa 55:11). What God has sent it to do is witness [2×10 = length of 20 cubits] against the flesh of mankind [10 cubits = breadth of 10 cubits] via a process of judgment [20 cubits + 10 cubits = 30 cubits], each man in his order (Isa 26:9, 1Co 15:22-27).

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

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

Zec 5:3  Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.

When the word goes forth, it is the light which reproves the darkness of our heart and shows us that we have stolen from God, “for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it“; and we have sworn falsely by God’s word as well, “every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.” The very subject of Malachi chapter three is about the curse that is upon all flesh for not being able to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God (Mal 3:8-9). When we try to gain our own salvation only knowing Christ after the flesh, we are crucifying Christ afresh by not seeing our need to follow Christ’s exemplary not substitutionary sacrifice by filling up what is behind of His afflictions for His body’s sake in our own lives (Col 1:24). That is when our old man becomes cursed in the positive sense as we are given to read, hear and keep the sayings of the prophecy (Rev 1:3), being crucified with Christ, our flesh being cursed for hanging on that tree of life, Christ, as our new man is blessed to now live by the faith of Christ (Gal 2:20, Deu 21:23).

Mal 3:8  Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 
Mal 3:9  Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 

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

Deu 21:23  His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Zec 5:4  I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

The word of God comes forth into our lives, and then it begins its work of convicting us of our thieving ways, our falsehoods and lies, and it “shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.” This is all telling us that when we defile the temple of God, He will destroy the first temple with the timber and stones thereof and make it anew in the Potter’s hand (1Co 3:16-17, Jer 18:4). These are prophecies Zechariah is seeing of what God is going to do to all the world, each man in his own order, and for God’s elect today they reassure us of God’s power to burn up the wood, hay and stubble so that, Lord willing, we will go onto perfection on the third day, if He will permit (1Co 3:12-13, Heb 6:3).

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.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Zec 5:5  Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth. 
Zec 5:6  And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth. 
Zec 5:7  And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.

The angel of the Lord, who is talking to Zechariah, provokes him to love and good works in type and shadow by telling him “Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.” Zechariah, who represents the young babe in Christ, says once again “What is it?” and the angel of the Lord who represents the church tells him, this is the word of God that is going forth into the whole world via the churches of Babylon, “This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth” (Php 1:15-19).

Php 1:15  Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: 
Php 1:16  The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: 
Php 1:17  But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. 
Php 1:18  What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. [“This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth“]
Php 1:19  For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

The ephah is the measure of grain that goes forth from God’s hand (Mar 4:14), and it goes out to this woman who represents Babylon who is in the midst of it, and it is “a talent of lead” that is being lifted up, which is a base metal representing all that the world can get out of God’s word, without the discerning spirit of God within them, or the trials of God that burns away those base metals and purifies the precious stones God is creating within the elect (Mal 3:17-18).

Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 
Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

Zec 5:7  And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.
Zec 5:8  And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. 

The woman who represents Babylon is “cast into the midst of the ephah.” That ephah represents the measure of God’s word which has “the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.” The word of God is a curse to our old man while under “tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father” (Gal 4:1-7). The lead cast upon the mouth thereof is the law for the lawless and disobedient of (1Ti 1:9) under which we all must be until our mouths are purified with fiery trials that take us from the basest of metals, lead understanding, to precious words that have been purified in the fiery trials of life by which we are received of God (Isa 6:6-7, 1Pe 1:7, Heb 12:6). The lead covers the mouth of this basket which has the woman and the ephah within it, symbolizing how the word of God is closed off through spiritual blindness from Babylon for an appointed time (Mat 13:10-11, Rom 11:20,  Rom 11:30). 

For an in-depth look at this base metal, please read Mike’s study on Lead. Here are a few excerpts: 

“…corruptible base metals are used to describe the masses of unconverted, unenlightened, carnal, rebellious mankind. These metals are all refined from out of the earth. But a base metal, even when refined, is still a base metal.  In other words, it really is not that uncommon or of very much value to God. The fire that refines these metals can also consume them(Jer 6:29)

… Both lead and flesh will be consumed by the fire of God’s Word (Jer 6:29)

…Babylon is “a talent of lead” which “is the curse going into every house.””

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

Isa 6:6  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 
Isa 6:7  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Zec 5:9  Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephahH374 between the earth and the heaven. 

H374‘êyphâh    ‘êphâh ay-faw’, ay-faw’

Of Egyptian derivation; an ephah or measure for grain; hence a measure in general: – ephah, (divers) measure (-s).  Total KJV occurrences: 40

The dream is one principle applies here (Gen 41:25), and the flying roll and the two women with the wings of a stork are telling us the same thing with different details. Zechariah representing the elect who has his eyes open to see in type “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH”, not one harlot, harlots plural, two women flying to witness there are many churches that have gone out with “the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork” representing those who have come out of the sea of humanity and are now “between the earth and the heaven” filling it with every foul spirit, every false doctrine symbolized by them doing this “and they lifted up the ephah^H374 between the earth and the heaven.”

When you are between the earth and the heaven and not in the third heaven, representing where God’s elect are raised in heavenly places (2Co 12:2-4, Eph 2:6), then you are at a stage where you are a “beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon” (Rev 13:11). Having the words of God and casting them behind us is what it means to have horns like a lamb, but speak as a dragon. Not resisting evil, condoning war, hating our enemies while saying we are Christians is what must be burned out of all those who are going to be in the blessed and holy first resurrection, and this love toward our enemy is connected to those who are blessed to develop “the patience and faith of the saints” (Rev 13:10)

2Co 12:2  I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
2Co 12:3  And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 
2Co 12:4  How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 

Rev 13:10  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 

Zec 5:10  Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?

When we start seeing the hypocrisy in Babylon, we start seeing it in ourselves as well, and we start asking questions like, “Why do these churches “bear the ephah”?” We learn that Babylon, who is represented by the court in the temple, has been sacrificed for our sakes to do the heavy lifting of bearing the ephah so that the word can go forth to all nations, thus a few chosen out of those many called can emerge by God’s grace (Mat 22:14, Eph 2:8-9).

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

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. 

Zec 5:11  And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar^H8152: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.

What these two women with the stork wings do is fly into “the land of Shinar“, which is another word for Babylon, where they establish their own righteousness “upon her own base” which is where we all go at first (Php 3:9). 

H8152 “Shinar” 
– BDB = country of two rivers 
the ancient name for the territory later known as Babylonia or Chaldea 
– Strong’s: Probably of foreign derivation; Shinar a plain in Babylon: – Shinar.
– Proper Names Bible: (the city has changed its nature)

Only the Lord can build the true spiritual house (Psa 127:1) so building “an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base” all represents our own righteousness, our many wonderful works which are really just a house build upon sand, and we have talents buried within the earth (Mat 7:24-27). When we operate in our flesh, we are cursed and robbing God of His glory that can and will be manifest in those who are blessed to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” knowing it is “God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Otherwise our talents are just being buried in the earth (Php 2:12-14).

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

Mat 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: [Rev 1:3, Psa 127:1] 
Mat 7:25  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
Mat 7:26  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Mat 7:27  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

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. 
Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 

Isa 24:1-12 The Lord Makes The Earth Empty

Isa 24:1  Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Isa 24:2  And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
Isa 24:3  The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
Isa 24:4  The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
Isa 24:5  The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Isa 24:6  Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Isa 24:7  The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa 24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
Isa 24:10  The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
Isa 24:11  There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
Isa 24:12  In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

The first four verses of this chapter contain within them the purpose for which the Lord first created mankind in a “marred, dying”, condition, which operates upon ‘the law of sin and death’ (Rom 7:17-23):

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

The “marred… vessel… of clay” is not a slip-up on the part of our Creator. It is a deliberate, premeditated action which will require the sacrifice of Christ to “make it another vessel” which will then “seem good to the Potter”. We know this is all true because we are also told:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

It was “according to His own purpose and grace” that He first created a “marred vessel of clay”, which He already knew “before the world began” would require a Savior “which was given us in Christ Jesus”.

We are even told specifically that in the mind of the Father Christ was “slain from the foundation of the world”:

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world [Greek: kosmos G2889, the physical creation].

The sacrifice of Christ was not ‘Plan B’. The sacrifice of Christ for the sins of His marred vessel was “promised before the world began”, and He is working all that occurs “according to His own purpose and grace”.

The inescapable conclusion to all of this information is that in order to accomplish “His own purpose” of calling us in Christ before the world began, all mankind must first become sinners in dire need of a Savior. For that very purpose, our Creator, from the beginning while “the vessel of clay was … [yet] in the hand of The Potter”, deliberately “marred… that… vessel of clay” by placing within its members the law of sin and death. Indeed that is exactly why we are all “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin” before we are even born.

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

The New Testament accords with King David’s revelation of the nature of the Lord’s “marred… vessel of clay”. As we are plainly told:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Here we have the holy spirit telling us that we are all governed by “a law, [which], when [we] would do good, [makes] evil [to be] present with [us]. Then we are clearly told this “law of sin” was placed within our members by the “one lawgiver”:

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

It should now be obvious that “the first man Adam” was never intended to “inherit the kingdom of God” simply because:

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

It is because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” that we are made to err from the Lord’s ways. It is because of “the law of sin… in [our] members” that we are made by the Lord to live out these first six verses of this 24th chapter of Isaiah.

Place your own name, or the words ‘My old man’, every time you see the words ‘earth’ and ‘the land’ in these six verses. If you can do that from your heart you will get more out of these words than the most learned of all the mighty men of ‘Tyre [and] Babylon’:

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

“The curse devours the earth… the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left”, is primarily to be taken in its spiritual sense, by us as the Lord’s firstfruits. But dispensationally it accords with what Christ tells us about His appearing at the time of the first resurrection, which occurs at the beginning of the thousand year reign of Christ and His Christ.

Here are Christ’s words relating to that time:

Mat 24:36  But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the floodthey were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Mat 24:39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Utilizing our “line upon line and precept upon precept” principle (Isa 28:10-13) let’s see what else we are told about the days of Noah:

Gen 6:10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Gen 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Gen 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Gen 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violencethrough them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Yes, men have been violent since the days of Cain, but there is no denying that today also “the earth [is] filled with violence” [and has] corrupted His way upon the earth”. For this reason, in its dispensational application, we are told “the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men [are] left.” (Isa 24:6)

The ‘fire’ here is the same “fire” in this story:

Jdg 9:19 If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:
Jdg 9:20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.

Here is this “fire [which came out from the men of Shechem… and devoured Abimelech”:

Jdg 9:22 When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel,
Jdg 9:23 Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

This “fire” was civil unrest which turned every man against his brother, and destroyed Abimelech in the process. That is exactly what we see in the earth today, just as Christ said it would be before He sets His kingdom up on this earth.

Inwardly, “the earth” in these verses in Isaiah 24 and in Genesis 6, symbolizes our rebellious, deceived, old man with all of his false Babylonian doctrines, which he has received from his youth via the great whore who has deceived him (Jer 22:29). This great whore who is called ‘Babylon the Great the mother of harlots’ (Rev 17:1-4), is symbolized in scripture by ‘Tyre and Babylon’, and in Revelation 13 she is symbolized by a “beast [which comes] up out of the earth”:

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

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

As impossible as it seems at this moment, while the religions of this world still have an incredible hold upon the people of this world, that hold will be taken away, and that harlot will be hated by all men. We are speaking of a very painful death both spiritually within each of us and outwardly in its dispensational, end time application. It will be a very painful experience in the Babylonian religions of the various societies of this world, and it will take place at the appointed time:

Isa 14:21  Prepare slaughter for [Babylon’s] children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
Isa 14:22  For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
Isa 14:23  I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom [Hebrew: maṭ’ăṭê’ – broom] of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.

That dying process within us reveals the truth of the leveling effect of the grave upon all men as we read earlier in this same 14th chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 14:5  The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
Isa 14:6  He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
Isa 14:7  The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
Isa 14:8  Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
Isa 14:9  Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
Isa 14:10  All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
Isa 14:11  Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

This was the fate of the physical king of Babylon, and this will be the fate of the great whore of Revelation 17-18, who symbolizes the religions of this world.

Physical death is no respecter of persons. Over 6,000 years of history have demonstrated that the strongest, richest, most powerful men have all died and returned to the dust. Our experience of dying daily in Christ is the same. The first and most important application of the process of dying to our flesh is for each of us, regardless of our social standing, rich or poor, esteemed or despised in this world, is that we must all come to see that it is the kingdom of our own old man being utterly destroyed which brings life at the appearing of Christ and His Truth. As that truth slowly sinks into our hearts and minds, our old man, the beast, the man of sin sitting on the throne of God within our hearts and minds, is systematically dying daily, and we are daily being crucified with Christ.

This daily process is what is called “suffering with [Christ]” the painful, fiery death of our old man. Prophetically it is described to us in our next verses.

Isa 24:7  The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa 24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

If indeed we are to live by these words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4 and Luk 4:4), how do we do so? We do so, and we experience these very words, by being brought by the hand of God in our lives to see just how hollow is our life as we continue turning our backs to His words and His commandments. When the Lord begins to judge us, all those things which once seemed so important to us begin to be revealed to us as destructive to our well-being, and are uncovered and shown to be nothing more than an insidious deception, and at that time they begin to be taken away from us. ‘The new wine mourns and the vine which produces it begins to wither away’, and all the things that once made us merry suddenly become an unbearable burden from which we now can see our own crying need for deliverance from the self-serving, materialistic beast we can now see within us.

When judgment begins at the house of God within us, an angel from the Lord intervenes in our life, and our life suddenly becomes very troubled and unsettled. All the things which once brought us “pleasure for a season” now cease to do so. The message of these words is repeated when Babylon is being judged and destroyed within our lives, as is also prophesied in Revelation 18:

Rev 18:21  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
Rev 18:22  And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

That ‘sea’ into which “a stone like a great millstone” is cast is the flesh out of which arises our own lives.

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

These three verses here in Revelation 18 are the New Testament repetition of Isa 24:7-9. Both are telling us that the life of our first man Adam must be revealed for the hollow, empty, hopeless and miserable and vain experience which it, in reality, is:

Isa 24:7  The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa 24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

It is very important that we understand that this all comes upon us while we are in Babylon, while we think we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. These judgments come upon us while we are ‘proud of  heart’ and while we are prospering in the lies of Babylon, where we think we are God’s chosen people, when in reality we are His enemies.

Isaiah 24:7-9 are a repetition of:

Isa 9:8  The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.
Isa 9:9  And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
Isa 9:10  The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
Isa 9:11  Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
Isa 9:12  The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 9:13  For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.
Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
Isa 9:17  Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 9:18  For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
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.
Isa 9:20  And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
Isa 9:21  Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

We, who think of ourselves as God’s chosen people, discover we are really nothing more or less than spiritual Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. This “vessel of clay” is a work of the Lord Himself, but it is “marred in [His] hand” by His design, and it was never intended to be saved from destruction. It was created as the larvae of a butterfly. This “vessel of clay” is typified by the caterpillar stage of a butterfly. In this stage all we do is eat and devour to satisfy our bellies upon which we crawl. But when His judgments are in our earth, everything we once enjoyed no longer satisfies, and it is “cut off from [our] mouth”:

Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
Joe 1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

Amo 4:9  I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

But this ravenous caterpillar must first become a chrysalis, where the larvae will die. It is through this dying process that we will become a new man made to conform to the image of Christ, able now to mount up to and to dwell in the heavens. But to get to that stage we must first live out these words:

Isa 24:10  The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
Isa 24:11  There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
Isa 24:12  In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

Only then will our predestinated change come upon us:

Joe 2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

The end is a good end, but there is so much work that must first be accomplished by the Lord’s “great army”. That is what we will see in our next study where, Lord willing, we will learn that all these prophecies about the death of our old man are really very good news. We certainly do not at first consider our daily dying trials to be ‘good news’, but in His time the Lord brings us to be able to “glorify the Lord in the fires”, which we are at this very time enduring:

Isa 24:13  When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.
Isa 24:14  They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.
Isa 24:15  Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
Isa 24:16  From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
Isa 24:17  Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
Isa 24:18  And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

Awesome Hands – Part 132

To bless or curse

April 14, 2018

Oftentimes we find ourselves questioning the various situations in which the Lord has placed us. These questions come to our minds as easily as air comes to our lungs.

While it may seem negative at first to question why we are in a situation or trial, it doesn’t need to always be viewed this way. In truth, the Lord wants us to realize that we are where we are because He has put us there. Likewise, it is He who will deliver us as time progresses.

This is a theme that will follow us all of our days. The story we are going to cover today will show us how we should respond to the Lord when He puts Himself in our path.

The reality of our lives is that we should ALWAYS see our trials as the Lord’s angel standing in the road to block our way or to give us passage. It is all of the Lord. How we REACT to what the Lord does determines if we will live or die unto the Lord, spiritually speaking.

To bless or curse

Our story today finds us looking at the choices we make in light of our situation. We oftentimes know what to do, but doing it comes much harder than just knowing it.

The Lord always places choices in front of us, but He also already knows what we will choose. It may seem like there is no real choice in this situation, since the Lord knows ahead of time what will happen, but the process of choosing is to show us that WE DO NOT KNOW what we will choose until we choose it.

Choices are to show us where we are with the Lord, not where the Lord is with us. In other words, our choices are a reflection of our obedience to do what the Lord commands or not.

Balaam and Balak show us these differences. Most of the verses in this study are from the ESV unless otherwise noted.

Num 22:1  Then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.
Num 22:2  And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.
Num 22:3  And Moab was in great dread of the people, because they were many. Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel.
Num 22:4  And Moab said to the elders of Midian, “This horde will now lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.” So Balak the son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time,
Num 22:5  sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the River in the land of the people of Amaw, to call him, saying, “Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me.
Num 22:6  Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”

Balak’s sole motivation in this story is fear. In his fear he wants to use a man’s power of blessing or cursing, as he perceives it, to curse the Israelites. He sends off for Balaam offering Balaam anything he wants in return for his “powerful cursing ability”.

Num 22:7  So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand. And they came to Balaam and gave him Balak’s message.
Num 22:8  And he said to them, “Lodge here tonight, and I will bring back word to you, as the LORD speaks to me.” So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.
Num 22:9  And God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?”
Num 22:10  And Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying,
Num 22:11  ‘Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and it covers the face of the earth. Now come, curse them for me. Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out.'”
Num 22:12  God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
Num 22:13  So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your own land, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you.”
Num 22:14  So the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak and said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.”

The will of God is made very clear to all parties involved. Balaam is the mouthpiece of the Lord, and  Balak will not have the curse come from Balaam. Do you think this will sit well with Balak? Of course it won’t. It also doesn’t sit well with Balaam either, and that is revealed in how Balaam petitions the Lord for a second time.

Num 22:15  Once again Balak sent princes, more in number and more honorable than these.
Num 22:16  And they came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor: ‘Let nothing hinder you from coming to me,
Num 22:17  for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Come, curse this people for me.'”
Num 22:18  But Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the LORD my God to do less or more.
Num 22:19  So you, too, please stay here tonight, that I may know what more the LORD will say to me.”
Num 22:20  And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.”
Num 22:21  So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab.

The Lord surely had His wrath kindled with this request from Balaam. Balaam wanted to see “what more” the Lord would say to him, but the Lord has already made it clear that the Israelites were not going to be cursed.

Balaam is being offered honor and whatever else he asks of Balak. Though he denies these requests with his words, Balaam’s heart is far from the Lord.

This is where we need to constantly be diligent in our own dealings with the Lord. Where is our heart when we know to do right, but do the opposite anyway?

I find that with myself, I often almost always know what the Lord would have me do, but something in my thinking looks for what is excusable with the Lord or with myself. What can I get away with that keeps me on the fence line without “really” disobeying the Lord?

Not all situations happen this way, but many do. I almost always know what I have learned is the right way to deal with what the Lord has placed in my life, but I do not always want to obey that understanding and knowledge of what is right with the Lord. Such is how we find Balaam, who is a servant of the Lord.

You can’t really blame Balak for trying to keep him and his people safe. If he can get this “man” Balaam to do his bidding, all is good. It isn’t the Moabites who worship Yahweh, so they don’t really care that Balaam is saying he must do what the Lord says. Yahweh is not their Lord.

To that point, here Balaam is going with the Moab representatives even though he already said the Lord said he couldn’t place a curse on the people.

The Lord answers Balaam according to the idols of his heart and tells him to go with “the men”, but that will not be the end of it.

Num 22:22  But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him.
Num 22:23  And the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road.
Num 22:24  Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side.
Num 22:25  And when the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So he struck her again.
Num 22:26  Then the angel of the LORD went ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left.
Num 22:27  When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff.

The Lord uses the donkey to save the life of Balaam by preventing him from taking the “wrong road” to his destination. The wrong road, of course, would end in death .. i.e the path that Balaam was on.

The Lord certainly is merciful to Balaam, but this wasn’t strictly for Balaam’s sake. Balaam is still going to be used of the Lord to execute His judgment on the Moabites and to let them know what that judgment is going to be.

Num 22:28  Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”
Num 22:29  And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.”
Num 22:30  And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.”

Isn’t it amazing that this dumb animal knew more and saw more than Balaam did? Balaam was blinded by the prospect of divination and honor, but this donkey saw the angel of the Lord!

Isa 1:3  The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

The donkey was smart enough to avoid danger on behalf of his owner, yet Balaam did not have the wherewithal to know the will of his Master!

Num 22:31  Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face.
Num 22:32  And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me.
Num 22:33  The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.”
Num 22:34  Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.”
Num 22:35  And the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak.

I do not have time in this study to read all of the verses that pertain to the entire interaction between Balaam and Balak, but Balaam goes on to have altars erected and offerings/sacrifices made on them.

It should be clear by now that Balaam desired to go and see what Balak had to offer. There simply was no other reason for Balaam to go, seeing as all that Balak wanted was a curse that “could” help him defeat Israel.

Being that Balaam is a type of God’s prophet, and we are all being raised up as the children of God with the prophecy of Jesus Christ in our hearts and minds, we should pause and evaluate if we, too, desire the gains of this life over the life the Lord has promised us.

It is a fair question and one only we can ask ourselves sincerely.

The hands of the Lord work in all things, and while that is intellectually understandable, it is spiritually a hard pill to swallow.

Balaam is ultimately used, via the help Balak provides in creating the altars needed by Balaam, to bless the people of Israel in front of many Moabites.

Num 23:17  And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”
Num 23:18  And Balaam took up his discourse and said, “Rise, Balak, and hear; give ear to me, O son of Zippor:
Num 23:19  God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Num 23:20  Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.

Num 24:1  When Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness.
Num 24:2  And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him,
Num 24:3  and he took up his discourse and said, “The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
Num 24:4  the oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down with his eyes uncovered:
Num 24:5  How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel!

The ultimate goal of this study is show that we will all eventually, as the people of God, see what pleases the Lord and what does not.

You might be wondering how we can know what pleases the Lord. Sometimes, we are just told. There is much more that can be said about this topic, but I think these verses help to guide us in to right direction concerning this topic.

(KJV) Col 3:20  Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Or

(KJV) Col 1:5  For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
Col 1:6  Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:
Col 1:7  As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;
Col 1:8  Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
Col 1:9  For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
Col 1:10  That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Col 1:11  Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

The Lord presents choices for us every day of our lives as chances to discover where our mindsets and hearts are with the Lord. When we find that we are not in lockstep with being obedient to the Lord, these choices provide an opportunity for us to correct and judge ourselves in the presence of the Lord.

This truly is a wonderful and merciful way for the Lord to love and teach His children.

Audio Links

Awesome Hands – part 78

“The judgments” Part I

March 22, 2015

For the study today, we are going to focus on an obscure concept hidden in scripture. While the verse we are studying today will not directly reveal it’s meaning in English, we are going to look at the original words recorded and the other place which they are used in scripture.

The verse we are going to study today is:

Exo 22:28  Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.
Exo 22:28  Thou shalt notH3808 revileH7043 the gods,H430 norH3808 curseH779 the rulerH5387 of thy people.H5971

“Rulers and gods”

The first part of this verse tells us that we are not to revile gods, and the word “revile” here means to lightly curse. That is on contrast to the word used as “curse” in the second half of the verse which means to bitterly curse.

H7043

qâlal

BDB Definition:

1) to be slight, be swift, be trifling, be of little account, be light

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to be slight, be abated (of water)

1a2) to be swift

1a3) to be trifling, be of little account

1b) (Niphal)

1b1) to be swift, show oneself swift

1b2) to appear trifling, be too trifling, be insignificant

1b3) to be lightly esteemed

1c) (Piel)

1c1) to make despicable

1c2) to curse

1d) (Pual) to be cursed

1e) (Hiphil)

1e1) to make light, lighten

1e2) to treat with contempt, bring contempt or dishonour

1f) (Pilpel)

1f1) to shake

1f2) to whet

1g) (Hithpalpel) to shake oneself, be moved to and fro

Part of Speech: verb

A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root

Same Word by TWOT Number: 2028

So, we are told not to quickly, swiftly or lightly curse the gods. However, if the Lord will have us be fully committed to Him it may seem a little odd that we aren’t to lightly curse these gods.

The reason I say this is a light curse is because the majority of the time this word revile is used as curse or cursed.

H7043

qâlal

Total KJV Occurrences: 88

curse, 17

Gen_8:21, Lev_19:14, Deu_23:4, Jos_24:9, 2Sa_16:9-11 (4), Neh_13:2, Psa_62:4, Psa_109:28, Pro_30:10, Ecc_7:21, Isa_8:20-21 (3), Jer_15:10

cursed, 17

Lev_20:9, Lev_24:11, Lev_24:14, Lev_24:23, Jdg_9:27, 1Sa_17:43, 2Sa_16:5, 2Sa_16:7, 2Sa_16:13, 2Sa_19:21, 1Ki_2:8, 2Ki_2:24, Neh_13:25, Job_3:1, Job_24:18, Ecc_7:22 (2)

light, 7

1Sa_18:23, 1Ki_16:31, 2Ki_3:18, 2Ki_20:10, Isa_49:6, Eze_8:17, Eze_22:7

Gen 8:20  And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Gen 8:21  And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

God did not utterly curse the ground for man’s sake, but knew there would come a time where the ground was not going to be cursed.

That “reviling” or “light curse” is different than what we see we are told not to do to rulers which are over us.

H779

‘ârar

BDB Definition:

1) to curse

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to curse

1a2) cursed be he (participle used pr in curses)

1b) (Niphal) to be cursed, cursed

1c) (Piel) to curse, lay under a curse, put a curse on

1d) (Hophal) to be made a curse, be cursed

Part of Speech: verb

A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root

Same Word by TWOT Number: 168

Strong’s defines it as:

H779

‘ârar

aw-rar’

A primitive root; to execrate: –  X bitterly curse.

“Arar” can be found in verses examples such as:

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

This bitter curse is one that endures and is not lightly made.

Having said all of that, what are we to make of “not reviling the gods”, and not “cursing the rulers” of thy people?

“GOD, God, LORD or Lord”

In order to find out what we are being told we must evaluate who the “gods” are who we are not to lightly curse.

In the Old Testament, we have different words in the KJV which tell us who we are talking about in reference to the English words God, GOD, Lord, or LORD being translated from Hebrew.

This study is NOT about the different names of God in the Old Testament and which of them  is the “name of God”, but this study is about how to figure out the emphasis placed on the word being used in any given Old Testament verse.

Exo 22:28  Thou shalt not revile the gods(H430), nor curse the ruler of thy people.

“Elohim” is used in Hebrew to describe both false gods and the “one true God”.  Elohim is sometimes translated as “god or gods” while other times it is translated as “God”. Those forms of the English word are not to be confused with “GOD” and we’ll see why in a moment.

However, we know from the sum of the Word that the God/GOD of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ.

A few examples of Elohim being used can be found in Genesis.

Gen 1:26  And God (Elohim) said, LET US make man in our image, after OUR likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

We can see Elohim being used in the plural sense here and speaking about “God”. However, we can see another example of the same word being used to describe false gods and the singular form of “God”.

Exo 20:1  And God(H430) spake all these words, saying,
Exo 20:2  I am the LORD(H3068) thy God(H430), which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Exo 20:3  Thou shalt have no other gods(H430) before me.

God refers to Himself and then names Himself “LORD” Elohim. This would make sense when we connect the New Testament explanation of who Jesus is.

Deu 10:17  For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

1Ti 6:13  I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;
1Ti 6:14  That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1Ti 6:15  Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
Rev 17:14  These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Rev 19:16  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

We are being created in the very image of GOD and our LORD.

Psa 82:6  I have said, Ye are gods(H430); and all of you are children of the most High.

Joh 10:33  The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Joh 10:34  Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
Joh 10:35  If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
Joh 10:36  Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
Joh 10:37  If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
Joh 10:38  But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

When we see that we are not to revile the gods, we can conclude that we are being told not to revile those whom the Lord calls His children.

While we can apply this verse to “false gods”, we have been told by Jesus Himself that we indeed are “gods”.

The clarification and confirmation of the proper thinking on this verse comes when we look at the end of the verse.

Exo 22:28  Thou shalt not revile the gods(H430), nor curse the ruler (H5387) of thy people.

H5387

nâśı̂y’  /  nâśi’

Total KJV Occurrences: 130

prince, 56

Gen_23:6, Gen_34:2, Num_7:11, Num_7:18, Num_7:24, Num_7:30, Num_7:36, Num_7:42, Num_7:48, Num_7:54, Num_7:60, Num_7:66, Num_7:72, Num_7:78, Num_17:6, Num_25:14, Num_34:18 (2), Num_34:22-28 (7), Jos_22:14, 1Ki_11:34, 1Ch_2:10, 1Ch_5:6, Ezr_1:8, Eze_7:27, Eze_12:10, Eze_12:12, Eze_21:25, Eze_30:13, Eze_37:24-25 (2), Eze_38:2-3 (2), Eze_39:1, Eze_44:3 (2), Eze_45:7, Eze_45:16, Eze_45:22, Eze_46:2, Eze_46:4, Eze_46:8, Eze_46:10, Eze_46:12, Eze_46:16-18 (3), Eze_48:21-22 (3)

princes, 40

Gen_17:20, Num_1:16 (2), Num_1:44, Num_7:2-3 (3), Num_7:10 (2), Num_7:84, Num_10:4, Num_17:2 (2), Num_17:6, Num_27:2, Num_31:13, Num_32:2, Num_36:1, Jos_9:15, Jos_9:18-19 (3), Jos_13:21 (3), Jos_17:4, Jos_22:14, Jos_22:30, Jos_22:32, 1Ch_4:38, 1Ch_7:40, Eze_19:1, Eze_21:12, Eze_22:6, Eze_26:16, Eze_27:21, Eze_32:29, Eze_39:18, Eze_45:8-9 (2)

captain, 12

Num_2:3, Num_2:5, Num_2:7, Num_2:10, Num_2:12, Num_2:14, Num_2:18, Num_2:20, Num_2:22, Num_2:25, Num_2:27, Num_2:29

chief, 9

Num_3:24, Num_3:30, Num_3:32 (2), Num_3:35, Num_4:34, Num_4:46, 1Ki_8:1, 2Ch_5:2

ruler, 3

Exo_22:28, Lev_4:22, Num_13:2

rulers, 3

Exo_16:22, Exo_34:31, Exo_35:27

vapours, 3

Psa_135:7, Jer_10:13, Jer_51:16

prince’s, 2

Eze_45:16-17 (2), Eze_48:22

clouds, 1

Pro_25:14

governor, 1

2Ch_1:2

The word “ruler” as used in Exodus is mostly translated as “prince” throughout the Old Testament.

Gen 23:5  And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,
Gen 23:6  Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.

And:

Num 1:16  These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.

The reason I mentioned princes and not all the other words translated in English is because 1) there are a lot of them, and 2) prince gives us a clear understanding of who it is we are talking about.

A prince is a king in training.

When we see that Jesus is LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, and then connect the first part of this verse with the “gods” being referenced, then we know that the focus of this verse are the people around you whom the Lord has placed in authority over you.

“Yahweh” or “Adonai”

“Elohim” aren’t to be confused with “Yahweh” or “Adonai”.

Anytime you see the word GOD or LORD in all caps in the KJV, it is referring to the “Yahweh” of the Old Testament, but as we have learned from the “sum of thy Word”, “Yahweh” is Jesus Christ in the Old Testament and Israel was not made aware of this Truth.

That understanding did not come unto Jesus Christ brought it to us.

Joh 5:36  But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
Joh 5:37  And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

There are other verses that speak to this Truth, but that is out of the scope of this study.

Finally, when we see the word “Aondai” we see it in the form of “Lord”.

A good way to see how all these English words were translated from Hebrew in the KJV is to read Joshua 7:6-7.

Jos 7:6  And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD (Jehovah, H3068) until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
Jos 7:7  And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord (Adonai, H136) GOD (Yahweh,H3069), wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!

I was unable to find any reference to “God” at the end of Joshua 7:7, so I am not sure what inspired the KJV translators to use the word “God” towards the the end of this verse.

Regardless of that, you can see that the KJV translators tried to help us understand when a particular word was being used as God or Lord by using upper and lowercase letters to designate the Hebrew word.

The focus of the study today was to show that when the Lord tells us not to revile the “gods” or curse the rulers of the people, we were being told to not resist or curse those whom He alone, in His soverniety, has placed over us.

There are many examples that can be used, but Joseph was placed under the care of many different rulers before he finally became as the Pharaoh except for the power of the throne.

We too can learn from this that the Lord has a plan for our good but we must recognize that He knows better how to achieve the end goal of that plan than we do for ourselves.

Study Aired May 29, 2014

We have seen in our last discussion that the three main family lines of all physical nations on earth today came forth from the three sons of Noah as they all form part of one family or generation in the first man Adam (Gen 9:1; Act 17:26). The three sons of Noah and their offspring were given diverse attributes which sadly lead to much raging about vain things which actually all unite them to “take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed” (Psa 2:1-2; 1Co 15:45-50; Gal 5:17; Joh 3:6; 1Co 6:17; Eph 2:18; Eph 4:4). The flesh is of one mind which is a type of the one mind of the spirit of God, but the two minds are in total opposition to each other (Rom 1:20; Joh 3:6; Gal 5:17; Amo 3:3; 2Co 6:14). The flesh and all its nations supply the all-important resistance and persecution to the spiritual elect of God. Like the physical nation of Israel in type, all God’s spiritual elect must first be delivered from their immature journeys in the wilderness (of murmurings and contentions against God) to finally face spiritual warfare in the promised land (Exo 13:17-18; Deu 8:2-3):

Jdg 3:1 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
Jdg 3:2 Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof.

As physical Israel could not enter the promised land through the “eleven days” route, so it is with God’s elect who soon find out that the Babylonian doctrine of spiritual completion in the flesh or “fullness now” through a ten-second sinner’s prayer is indeed a false teaching (Deu 1:2-3; Rom 15:4; 1Co 10:11). The theme of opposition or resistance is foundational to our understanding of why God exposes us to enemies and those who oppose the truth (Act 13:45; Tit 1:9; 1Jn 2:18). Only through opposition and strong resistance can we be approved and be overcomers in Him (Luk 11:21-22; Rom 12:21; 1Co 11:19; Rev 21:7). We need to know why things are dragging along when there seems to be such an easy and quick solution from our immature natural perspective. As we have seen in our previous theme of productivity and fruitfulness, Noah was an example in all of this to his three sons, even in the building of the ark over a period of one hundred twenty years and even after the flood:

Gen 9:20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.

Even in our productivity we become overzealous and intoxicated with self-importance, and in our own immature prideful estimations of our times and seasons we unknowingly also uncover our own nakedness (1Co 4:5-6; Ecc 3:1; Rom 14:1):

Gen 9:21 And he [Noah] drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

Although Noah was private “within his own tent”, the enemy, in the form of his own son Ham, invaded that privacy and did not even keep what he saw to himself:

Gen 9:22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

As the phrase “uncover nakedness” is always referring to something of a sexual nature in the Scriptures, some are of the opinion that a wrongful sexual act occurred which involved Ham. Others add that the reason why Canaan’s name, Ham’s youngest son, is mentioned in this same sentence here is also connected to this sexual incident. There is also an explanation out there that the birth of Canaan was a result of Ham sleeping with his own mother which is also what “uncovering” the nakedness of one’s father implies in Scripture (Lev 20:11).

But Noah’s cursing of Ham’s youngest son seems to suggest that Canaan was already born at the time of this incident. It is also important to note that Ham did not “uncover” his father’s nakedness, but just “saw the nakedness of his father”. Ham deliberately looked (gazed) at the “uncovered” nakedness of his father. In his immaturity Ham then did not keep quiet about what he saw, but told it to his two brothers. He did not regard the vulnerable situation his father’s drunkenness brought about in the proper light and with a loving spirit and attitude. Fleshly drunkenness and nakedness are both symbols of sin and shame (Isa 20:2-4; Rev 16:15; Eph 5:18):

Exo 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)

Isa 47:3 Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.

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.

But “fools [like Ham] make a mock at sin” and think when one points to other’s evil and sin, their own nakedness and shame is somehow covered and not visible (Eze 16:29; Rev 4:8; 2Sa 12:7):

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

Ham indeed had a different spirit than that of his other two brothers who rather showed love in their actions in covering their father’s nakedness:

Gen 9:23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.

Their actions proved their love for their father who erred from the narrow way (the truth) in getting drunk and naked:

Jas 5:19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
Jas 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.

It seems as though Noah was quite unaware of the consequences of drinking too much wine as his nakedness was exposed in the process which is quite a digression from how the scriptures initially describe Noah as a man who was very much aware and careful of his walk:

Gen 6:9b ….Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Love indeed covers a multitude of sins, and it will inspire a person to go in private to the one who caused an offence. That is to lay the garment on our shoulders and walk backwards as to take spiritual leadership to forgive a past offence and not bind heavy burdens on other’s shoulders (Mat 18:15; Mat 23:4).

1Co 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

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

Ham’s behavior deeply offended Noah as it indicated that a sinful, proud and unloving spirit was present in Ham. Noah did not curse Ham as Ham was already blessed by God – the curse came on Ham’s youngest son, Canaan, for a specific reason (Gen 9:1):

Gen 9:24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
Gen 9:25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Many unscriptural speculations have been made as to why Canaan was cursed, but we cannot even think “above that which is written” as that only puffs us up in our own opinions (1Co 4:6). The Scripture reveals that Canaan was indeed the youngest of Ham’s four children which points to his immature position in the family (Gen 10:6). Immaturity was the correlation and reflection of Ham’s behavior toward his drunken father. Canaan represents our uncircumcised (religious) flesh within our time of spiritual immaturity when we think we are already matured and saved, having gifts that inflates our selfish ambitions (1Co 1:6-7; 1Co 3:1-3; Gal 4:1-4; Heb 5:13). Spiritual immaturity is the cause of much opposition to the word of truth because of the strong delusion God has sent on it (2Th 2:11). One of the oppositions it causes is spiritual deafness and blindness and the unskilled handling of the truth:

Heb 5:11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
Heb 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

Spiritual immaturity causes envying, strife and divisions in fellowships because it focuses on “foolish questions… [fleshly or carnal] genealogies and contentions” (Tit 3:9-11). It always concentrates on so-called contradictions (divisions and subtractions) in Scripture as it cannot make spiritual additions and multiplications (1Co 13:2; 2Pe 1:20):

1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

The immature babe in Christ (inside and outside) will always be a nagging menace until the day we physically die and will always want to bring “doubtful disputations” and be “measuring themselves by themselves” (Rom 14:1; 2Co 10:12). Noah was indeed uttering a prophecy that Canaan and his descendants will be that needful opposition to the physical nation of Israel. Knowing the end from the beginning, God inspired Noah to speak those words as God’s counsel shall also stand in the opposition which the generations of Canaan will provide (Isa 46:10). Canaan’s curse was in relation to the blessings on the witness of his two brothers which is very important to note:

Gen 9:26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Gen 9:27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Gen 9:28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
Gen 9:29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

Canaan had eleven sons, and he became the patriarch of the very people who were the thorns in the flesh of the Israelites and he was of the seed of Abraham, who was of the generational line of Shem, Ham’s brother whom he was to serve in every sense (Gen 10:15-18; Gen 11:10-27). This only occurs at the time determined by God when the iniquity of the Amorites (also a general name for all the Canaanites typifying our own high-minded carnal mind) will be “full” or in the “fourth generation”. This specific time of judgment first comes on the spiritual elect of God when the deep and deceptive heart of carnality is revealed to us (1Pe 4:17; Isa 26:8; Rom 2:4; Jer 17:9; 2Th 2:2-3; Rev 13:18; Ecc 3:18):

Gen 15:18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Gen 15:19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
Gen 15:20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
Gen 15:21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Gen 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again [to Canaan]: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

When the physical Israel as a nation first entered the promised land, there were seven Canaanite nations mentioned who were in the land already and were “greater and mightier” than they:

Deu 7:1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
Deu 7:2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them.

Although the flesh is always spiritually immature, yet it is a complete or mature beast which develops much earlier before the spiritual seed of Christ in us. Without the armor of Christ, we stand no chance against the wiles of this mature beastly opposition (Eph 6:11; Rev 13:1-2). These physically mature nations (“greater and mightier than thou”) were well known for their evil “works” in idolatry, incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexuality, and bestiality – all these are in our own flesh (Psa 106:34-39; Gal 5:19-21; Mat 4:4). Canaan’s curse was to be servants also in the sense that they were ordained by God to show Israel their own evil hearts to humble them (Deu 8:2). Those evils we see outside us reflect our own evil and show us that the inward spiritual battles are indeed for our good as only through these battles and tribulations shall anyone enter the kingdom of God (Exo 34:11-16; Lev 18:24-25; 1Pe 4:12):

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.

God commanded physical Israel to “utterly destroy” the inhabitants in that land and not to get involved in their habits and customs:

Deu 20:16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
Deu 20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
Deu 20:18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

There were also instances where God wanted these Canaanite nations and cities to make peace treaties with Israel to become their servants (1Sa 7:14):

Deu 20:10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.
Deu 20:11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.

Conquered nations were the strangers that were also allowed to become one with the nation of Israel under one law for all and loved as a brother (Deu 10:17-19):

Lev 19:34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Lev 24:22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.

These instructions from God do not contradict each other, but they all add up to give us a picture of the whole process we all will be involved in to understand the role of these “Canaanites” in our own lives. The Hebrew word for Canaan (kena‛an) is also translated as merchants or traders (Isa 23:11, Zep 1:11; Eze 17:4).

Hos 12:7 He is a merchant [Hebrew: “kena‛an”], the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.

It also points out how to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves as we engage each day with these nations within us “unto this day” (Mat 10:16; Jos 15:63; Jos 16:10; Jos 23:9; Jdg 1:21). The continued existence of the Canaanites even after several years of battles and wars are written to show us that our spiritual opposition will always be there to stimulate spiritual growth. We spiritually never “arrive” in the flesh (Gal 3:3). All the nations of evil in us will be driven out little by little as they will be destroyed progressively (Pro 24:16; Luk 21:19; Rev 14:9-12):

Deu 7:22 And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
Deu 7:23 But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.

2Pe 3:15a And account [esteem] the longsuffering of [from] our Lord is salvation.

The curse and servitude to the Canaanites were never motivated by their ethnicity or skin pigmentation as some want to believe, but rather by their spiritual importance as they would shape the strength and growth of the nation of physical Israel. Some see these curses and actions against the Canaanites as an excuse or motivation for ethnic cleansing or genocide, which is quite disturbing for those in the flesh who read these violent passages in the Scriptures with carnal perspectives in mind. Many wars and evil massacres in the history of mankind were fought under this banner. Xenophobic actions all form part in some way of these fears which some promote for personal or patriotic agendas, and even in our days these things are prevalent. The reason for this destruction of these Canaanite nations is given as a type of God’s judgment against evil not against the particular nation as such, but the very evil in our own hearts:

Deu 9:5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The military model used in the Scriptures was never supposed to justify wars and the murdering of other humans, but more as an example of our internal spiritual battles:

Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.

Jesus indeed will save all nations as this passage also alludes to the truth that God is no respecter of persons or particular nations, but uses them only as types of us (Act 10:34-35; Rom 14:11; Php 2:10-11):

Mat 15:22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
Mat 15:23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
Mat 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Mat 15:25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
Mat 15:26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
Mat 15:27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
Mat 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

——–

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

Uncovering The Nakedness Of Your Near Of Kin

Spiritual Drunkenness

http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/who-is-our-brother.php

Waging Spiritual Warfare

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/why-did-christ-curse-the-fig-tree/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-did-christ-curse-the-fig-tree Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:38:33 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=5605

Hi Mike,

Why do you think Jesus cursed the fig tree, and how does it relate to us? This experience is listed in the scripture Mark 11:13-14. I would really appreciate it if you could help me understand it.

Thanks,
D____

Hi D____,

Thank you for your question about why Christ cursed the fig for not having fruit on it at a time when it wasn’t even expected to have fruit. Here are a couple of verses in the Old Testament which demonstrate the spiritual significance of the fig tree:

Hos 9:10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

Joe 1:7 He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

So the fig tree is the type of what had been, up to that time, God’s physically chosen people, the physical nation of Israel. With this in mind let’s read those verses in Mark:

Mar 11:12 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:
Mar 11:13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
Mar 11:14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

Christ had come to them, but as with the fig tree, He deliberately came at the time when they weren’t even expected to bear any fruit. He came to them at a time when they were preordained to reject and crucify Him.

Joh 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

But Why did “His own receive Him not”? This is why:

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

Christ knew Israel would reject and crucify Him. That was why He came into this world:

Joh 12:27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

Joh 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

So Christ cursed His own fig tree for not bearing fruit even though He knew it was not the time for it to bear fruit. It all tells us simply that Israel was doing “whatsoever God’s hand and His counsel determined before to be done”. Christ was indeed hungry, but He was not pitching a temper tantrum, and He was not upset at the tree for not bearing fruit before its time. He did it all for our sakes, to teach us what He is doing:

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

Here is an Old Testament prophecy of what God intended to do with physical Israel and all physical nations, from the beginning:

Jer 8:13 I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

So here is that story again:

Mar 11:13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
Mar 11:14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

The spiritual application of this story for all of us is that “the flesh profits nothing” and while in this flesh, it is not the season for bearing fruit. We must die first before we can bear fruit.

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

The spiritual lesson in this story is that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”. Christ’s cursing of the fig tree at a time when it could not bring forth fruit is the cursing of all flesh, the old, “first man Adam” in all of us who must die and be destroyed for “the new man, the last Adam” to be born.

1Co 15:31 Every day do I die, by the glorying of you that I have in Christ Jesus our Lord: (YLT)
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.
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

That is the spiritual message behind the physical cursing of the fig tree. I hope this helps to explain why Christ cursed the fig tree while it was not even the season for it to bear fruit.

Your brother in the Christ,
Mike