[Posted April 5, 2024]

Hello Mike…I hope you and Sandi are doing well!

I was wondering if the IWWB family of elders, brothers, and sisters are all on board with your personal response in concern of… “Is it Wrong to Gather with Family and Friends on Holidays?”

I was always of the belief that to participate by being part of (ie: physical presence) the festivities at any pagan holiday/traditions of men was something to avoid…even if we don’t actually participate in the fanfare of such… I, too, always assumed that we should never get involved in any type of Babylonian worldly matters…even at the cost of being shunned and persecuted for our spiritual understanding of the Word of God.

I, too, missed the point entirely through the years of the fact that God’s Word approves of such practice…meaning being involved to the point of actively being at a ‘traditions of men’ event if invited!

I’m a bit confused over it all and would appreciate any further insight you would care to give.

Thank you very much, Mike, and God bless.

YbitC
M____

Hi M____

The elders have all discussed this subject extensively and have come to see that Christ went to every holy day event just because that was the best time to reach the most people with His message which He knew would be rejected. Nevertheless, He went up in the middle of the feast and declared on the last great day of the feast of Tabernacles that any who would come to Him… “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters” giving life to all men:

Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Joh 7:39  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Paul informs us that we can indeed attend a feast ‘if we are so disposed’:

1Co 10:27  If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake.

Romans 14 and Galatians 4 make it clear that the Lord’s elect do not themselves keep days, months, times nor years:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3  Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
Rom 14:4  Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
Rom 14:5  One man [who is weak in the faith] esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

It does not require being strong in the faith to observe days, months, times or years. It requires great faith to abstain from following the traditions of men:

Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments [G4747: stoicheion] of the world, and not after Christ.

These “traditions of men and rudiments of the world are clearly defined in Galatians 4 as “days, months, times and years”:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements [G4747: stoicheion], whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

If we follow in the footsteps of Christ and His apostles then we will declare Christ to be “Lord of the sabbath” and we willing to be rejected of family and friends, for letting them know that we do not observe days, months, times or years, just as Christ was rejected of His family and the society of His day. Yet we can, and at times we should, attend the feasts of unbelievers “if [we] are disposed to go” for the purpose of serving as an example of the love of Christ for His creatures. It is obviously all a matter of what is in our heart. Are we attending out of fear of rejection or are we attending to display the love of Christ? The Lord only knows the hearts of men, and He is quite capable of judging each of us based upon our motivations.

That is the consensus of our elders, and yes, we are all “speaking the same thing, we are of one mind and of the same judgment.”

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

YbiChrist, Mike

Hello Mike…Thank you so very much for the spiritual clarification in concern of my inquiry.

I will admit that I have always believed to stay clear of any type of traditions of men in whatever flavor they were made up of… I really do not know how I came to that conclusion but now feel like a “fool” for avoiding all of my family and friends over the many past years for not showing up to holiday/birthday functions when asked!

I do have another question though…

In Job, all of his children were killed on the ‘appointed day’ of one of his sons. I always believed it was a birthday celebration. Were the children destroyed because of the celebration on ‘his day’? If so how can we then attend such activities knowing that day only brings about bondage and spiritual destruction per-se?

Thank you, Mike!

ybitC…M____

Hi, M____,

I am pleased to hear that you realize how Christ and the apostles dealt with this subject. I pray you will continue to follow in the Lord’s footsteps and use the traditions of men as an opportunity to witness against those traditions by simply letting your family and friends know that your presence is not for the purpose of following men. Your presence with your family and friends on their traditional days is for the purpose of showing Christ’s love to them, just as Christ was in the synagogue every sabbath for the very purpose of healing people and telling them to pick up their bed contrary to the law of Moses.

Concerning Job’s sons, it is true they all died on the eldest sons [birth] day:

Job 1:4  And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

Job 1:13  And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
Job 1:14  And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
Job 1:15  And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Joseph told Pharaoh’s baker that he would be be hanged, and that took place on Pharaoh’s birthday:

Gen 40:16  When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head:
Gen 40:17  And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
Gen 40:18  And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
Gen 40:19  Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
Gen 40:20  And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
Gen 40:21  And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand:
Gen 40:22  But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.

In these stories, we are not the celebrants. We are Joseph, who foresaw what would happen on Pharaoh’s birthday, and we are signified by the messenger who escaped to tell Job of the death of his sons.

It is also incredibly instructive that the holy spirit has not given us the birthdays of even one person in all of scripture; not Adam, not Noah, not Abraham nor any of the patriarchs, judges, kings, prophets, and not even the Lord Himself, nor any of His apostles. There is a reason for that, and here is that reason:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

John the Baptist was beheaded on Herod’s birthday, but John never wavered in his witness of Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Joh 1:29  The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Joh 1:36  And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

We, too, must be willing to die for what we believe, and the death of John signifies how we die daily, offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, and count ourselves as crucified with Him.

The “souls under the altar” signify all who have died daily with Christ and who have lived out the rejection and persecution promised to all who will be given to stay faithful to the end. They are not all necessarily literally killed for their testimony. The world hates the Lord’s elect, and that is what the Lord counts as murder:

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

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

Again, “The Lord looks on the heart” and judges accordingly:

1Sa 16:7  But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

So do not be ashamed that you have missed a lot of opportunities to be with your family. You did what you did with a pure heart, and that is what you should continue to do with your new-found understanding. Do all that you do “as unto the Lord.”

Col 3:23  And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

I have made the very same mistake, but I, too, did it with the desire to please the Lord and to fear Him more than men, and the Lord knows that is still true.

Your brother who struggles with you,
Mike

Law of Moses Versus the Law of the Spirit – Part 18

[Posted July 2009]

Updated March 23, 2034

Adam, along with all his descendants, was created so spiritually blind that he did not even realize that he was created naked and in need of clothing to cover his spiritual nakedness.

Gen 3:10  And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I [realized that I] was naked; and I hid myself.

2Co 5:3  If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

That clothing for Adam and Eve was provided by God in the form of a sacrifice. Christ shed the blood of animals to use their skins to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve, signifying His own death when “the fulness of the time [came] to redeem them that were under the law.”

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.

Christ’s blood is the only clothing for our sins, our nakedness, with which we are born. Nakedness, from the very beginning, signifies sin, and sin is defined as transgressing the law:

1Jn 3:4  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Our nakedness is most pronounced in our own self-righteousness. It is when we think that by keeping the law that we are coving our nakedness that we are the most exposed before God and man:

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

This is the lesson of the book of Job.  Job thought of himself as a perfect man who feared God and eschewed evil:

Job 1:1  There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

There is no doubt that Job did indeed fear God, and there is no doubt that he did eschew evil. There was no doubt in his own mind that he was indeed a good man of great integrity. He certainly thought of himself as such which he vehemently expressed before his “miserable comforters”:

Job 27:5  God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.
Job 27:8  For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

There is one transgression which is so insidious that no man can see it of himself. We can all see it in others, but without the very mind of Christ, we cannot detect this most insidious transgression within ourselves. It is “the pride of life”, the last and most insidious of the three categories which encompass “all that is in the world”:

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the [1] lust of the flesh, and [2] the lust of the eyes, and [3] the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

The law of Moses is a carnal commandment and is nothing more than “the Gentiles [which] are a law unto themselves”:

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

Job was a self-righteous Pharisee before there were any self-righteous Pharisees. As is always the case with every man, Job could not see that he was ascribing the work of the Lord to himself. When we take the credit that is due to the Lord, we become guilty before God of the most insidious of all sins. It is the sin of iniquity, and ‘iniquity’ is defined as “trusting in [our] own righteousness”:

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

If we agree with Paul that “we are no longer under the schoolmaster …after faith is come (Gal 3:22-25), and that we are “not under the law but under grace” (Rom 6:14-15), are we encouraging disobedience to God? Are we saying, “Let us sin that grace may abound” (Rom 6:1)? Does the doctrine that we are coming out from under the “schoolmaster” suggest that we can now sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? “God forbid.” Does coming of age and leaving home and leaving behind parental authority necessitate becoming a lawless criminal? No! Of course it does not! When Paul says, “We are no longer under the schoolmaster… after that faith is come”, he and we are pointing out that Adam’s earthy composition and naked condition from the hand of the creator necessitated “a schoolmaster… a carnal commandment [to govern us] until faith should come”.

Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

It is “the faith of Jesus Christ” which justifies us, not “the works of… a carnal commandment.”

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Leaving our parents and becoming a contributing member of society, leaving the schoolmaster behind signifies “the faith of Jesus Christ” as we mature spiritually and grow into “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2).

No longer being under a schoolmaster simply signifies a work in progress:

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. [“Christ in you” (Col 1:27)]
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.

“The Time of Reformation”

Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed [G1945: epikeimai, laid upon, pressed upon] on them [only] until the time of reformation.

The Greek verb G1945, epikeimai, which is translated “imposed” in the KJV, is in the present tense because we are all “under the law” in every generation until “the faith of Jesus” come to each of us. That is why Paul tells us:

1Co 9:19  For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
1Co 9:20  And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
1Co 9:21  To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

Paul says he is “not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.” Being “under the law to Christ” is what made it possible to minister “to them that are without law.” Paul was certainly not under the law of Moses or he would have encouraged circumcision, and he would have kept “all things written in the book of the law.” So what law was he “under…to Christ?” He was under the “new commandment” (Joh 13:34); he was under “the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2).

None of this was immediately understood by any of the 120 Jewish disciples on the day of Pentecost when the gift of the holy spirit was first given to mankind. Not one single person who was there when the gift of the holy spirit was poured out on those 120 people had so much as a hint that Christ intended to give His spirit to the Gentiles. The gift of the holy spirit does not bequeath instant spiritual maturity. What the gift of the holy spirit does do is to give us the ability to begin to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”.

The apostle Paul was the only Jewish apostle who was called into the ministry outside the physical nation of Israel. His calling began just outside the city of Damascus, in Syria.

Here is what Christ told ‘Saul of Tarsus’, who would later become ‘Paul the apostle’, when He first struck him down on the road to Damascus:

Act 9:9  And he [Saul of Tarsus, Paul] was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.
Act 9:10  And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
Act 9:11  And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,
Act 9:12  And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.
Act 9:13  Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:
Act 9:14  And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
Act 9:15  But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:

Christ told Ananias that He would send Saul, who later was renamed Paul, to the Gentiles, but that was not where Saul of Tarsus went to begin with.

Act 9:17  And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
Act 9:18  And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.

Saul began his ministry immediately, but he went to the Jews first:

Act 9:19  And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the [Jewish] disciples which were at Damascus.
Act 9:20  And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

Saul spent three years preaching to Jewish Christians in Damascus. Then he returned to Jerusalem for “fifteen days” before leaving for his hometown of Tarsus in Cilicia:

Gal 1:18  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
Gal 1:19  But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
Gal 1:20  Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.
Gal 1:21  Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;

About the time Paul left Jerusalem for Tarsus, the holy spirit gave the apostle Peter the distinction of being the first person to take the gospel to the Gentiles. This was well over three years after the day of Pentecost, and not one apostle had taken the gospel to a single Gentile. Demonstrating how attached the apostles and the entire early church were to being physically descended from Abraham, Peter was forced to defend the fact that he had   preached the gospel to the Gentiles in Caesarea:

Act 11:1  And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
Act 11:2  And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him,
Act 11:3  Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.

“They that were of the circumcision” included the apostles themselves. Peter’s experience while in the home of Simon the tanner left no room to doubt that his actions were a work of the holy spirit telling Conelius in Caesarea to send for a man named Peter 30 miles south of Caesarea in Joppa. Then, just as the three messengers from Cornelius arrived in Joppa the holy spirit, three times Peter was told that he was to call no man common or unclean.

Act 11:2  And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him,
Act 11:3  Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.
Act 11:4  But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,
Act 11:5  I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:
Act 11:6  Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Act 11:7  And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
Act 11:8  But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
Act 11:9  But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
Act 11:10  And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.
Act 11:11  And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me.
Act 11:12  And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house:
Act 11:13  And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
Act 11:14  Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
Act 11:15  And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
Act 11:16  Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Act 11:17  Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?

This was three or four years after the holy spirit was first given on the day of Pentecost.

Immediately after Peter had defended his actions in the house of the Gentile Roman centurion these are the very next words we read:

Act 11:19  Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.

Leaving the schoolmaster was not an easy thing for the early Jewish Christians to do. This is what the apostle Peter tells us about how difficult it was for the early Jewish Christians, and the Gentile proselytes, to understand the principle of coming out from under “the schoolmaster” of the law of Moses:

2Pe 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Even after Paul’s first missionary journey with Barnabas, the law of Moses still had such a hold on the early Christians that there was almost a split in the church over the question of whether physical circumcision was required for the salvation of the Gentile converts. The question was resolved by seeking a multitude of counselors from all “the apostles and elders” at Jerusalem:

Act 15:5  But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them [Gentile converts] to keep the law of Moses.
Act 15:6  And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.

The holy spirit told the apostles Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, that it was not yet time for the Jews to come out from under the law of Moses:

Act 15:21  For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

It was the holy spirit setting the schedule for spiritual growth of the church, and the holy spirit declared that the Jewish church was not yet ready to come out from under the schoolmaster, the law of Moses:

Act 15:23  And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:

Act 15:28  For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
Act 15:29  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Many years later we find the Jewish Christians at Jerusalem still under the schoolmaster, the law of Moses. It is in Acts 21 that James erases any doubt that the Jewish Christians were still under the law of Moses, even to the extent of still offering blood animal sacrifices as if the death of our Lord were not sufficient to atone for our sins. Paul had been living by the decrees of the apostles and elders to the extent that he had circumcised Timothy and had been keeping the sabbath and holy days. Nevertheless, he was falsely accused of teaching the Jews among the Gentiles to forsake the law of Moses:

Act 21:17  And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.
Act 21:18  And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.
Act 21:19  And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.
Act 21:20  And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law [“the schoolmaster”]:
Act 21:21  And they are [falsely] informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

Act 21:22  What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.

James and the apostles and elders at Jerusalem had already conceived a plan to attempt to prove that Paul himself was keeping the law of Moses:

Act 21:23  Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;
Act 21:24  Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
Act 21:25  As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

Paul spent another two years as a prisoner in Caesarea under the charge of the governors Felix and Festus before being sent to Rome. It was only after Paul was a prisoner at Rome that the Lord finally opened the eyes and ears of the rest of the apostles to accept the “some things hard to be understood …” which were even then considered to be scripture:

2Pe  3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Not one Christian in a thousand realizes that all the apostles were living under the law of Moses until Paul was sent to Rome as a prisoner, where the Lord finally gave him this revelation in his epistle to the church at Ephesus:

Eph 2:11  Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Eph 2:17  And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Eph 2:18  For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Eph 2:19  Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Eph 2:20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Eph 2:21  In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Eph 2:22  In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Even though most people do not realize it, this whole story of the early church struggling to come out from under the law of Moses, signifies each of us today as we struggle to come out from under the doctrines of Babylon with all its widely accepted traditions. This whole story signifies the necessity of a period of transition in the life of every man called “the time of reformation” (Heb 9:10). Christ made it clear to us that there were “many things” even his closest associates could not “bear…now” – could not at first receive:

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

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (Joh 16:12). This is a principle that applies to each believer individually. “Peter…and the other Jews dissembled (and) Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation” (Gal 2:11-13) simply because in their own “time of reformation”, that time of transition from the old to the new covenant, they were still “not able to bear” some of the truths of the new covenant even at this late date. When Paul said: “I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem” (Act 18:21), he said that because he had agreed with the apostles in Acts 15, that the holy spirit had decided that the Jewish Christians were not yet able to receive the Truth of the words of our Lord. Jesus had said that the time would come when ‘Neither in Samaria, nor in Jerusalem, would men worship God.’  Peter, Paul and Barnabas were submitting to the consensus of the counsel of the elders in Acts 15. The Jerusalem conference was held many years after the death and resurrection of Christ, and it would be many more years before the truths of Ephesians 2:11-22 would be made known by the holy spirit. At the time of the Jerusalem conference, the Jewish Christians, including most of the apostles, were still unable to accept or “bear” the Truth Christ Himself had declared to the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob:

Joh 4:21  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Joh 4:22  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

There is now no difference between a Jew and a Gentile before God. The Jewish tradition of esteeming one day above another, of “observing days, months, times and years” enumerated in Leviticus 23 and 25 and in Numbers 28 and 29 was one of the hardest things for the early Christian church to relinquish. Immediately after chastising the Galatians for observing days, months times and years, Paul says “tell me you that desire to be under the law…” (Gal 4:21). Obviously, the days, months, times and years were the Sabbaths, holy days, new moons, land rest and jubilee years cited by Moses in the scriptures in Leviticus and Numbers given above. There are no days, months, times, or years to be observed under the new “law of faith” (Rom 3:27).

Modern day Christians have this very same struggle as they are being dragged by the Lord out from under the law in which they have been brought up as their “schoolmaster… the law of the Gentiles” which is the same as the law of Moses:

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

Is it Wrong to Gather with Family and Friends on Holidays?

Hi my friend Mike,

It appears to me we have much in common. I am delighted to see that you and I have been battling mutual straw men. I wrongly have imputed motives upon you about what I falsely thought was your carnal attempt to obtain a righteousness by refraining from family get togethers that were organized at socially convenient times.

For years I have enjoyed family gatherings on December 25, Thanksgiving and sometimes the long “easter weekend” because that is when my children come home from college. As the leader in my family, I have often mentioned that these times mean nothing to God; they are man’s ideas. We also do not regard Sunday as any day special, except that often my kids and I are off work together, so it is a good day for fun together or yard work or a time to invite friends over for dinner.

Both my wife and I have for years seen the folly in spending more than we have to impress friends or our children with expensive gifts at ANY time in the year.

Mike, I believe that part of my problem has been a desire to “fit in” with the apparent leaders at IWWB. I have been anxious to somehow impress you guys, but have felt that my enjoying times with my family at xmas, etc. would have left me outside the accepted practice of the group. So I imputed upon you a certain self-righteousness and assumed that you were actively telling your friends that they needed to stop ALL holiday related activities.

Will you forgive me Mike, for assuming wrong motives of you?
I feel that this writing to you and your responses have helped me to work through some of my own areas of idol worship: i.e. seeking to please men rather than pleasing God.

I still have a desire to understand how one rightly divides the word. Discerning the spiritual meaning of a word or phrases and how to know which carnal meanings are still applicable for me is still a puzzle.

Love in our Lord,
J____

Hi J____,

Thanks again for your godly attitude of wanting to help others by what you have experienced. That is what John (the humble one) calls “the testimony of Jesus Christ… the spirit of prophecy:)”

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

Your brother in Christ,

Mike

Hey, Mike,

Thank you for bearing with me through the past couple of years. If this current correspondence could be of any value to others, then I say you might publish the exchange in FAQS if you want.

In HIM,
J____

Hi J____,

What a wonderful attitude!

In truth, I personally think that families rarely getting together should always come before coming to a weekly Bible Study. It is not a good witness to be separated from our families just because we do not agree on doctrine. I attend every family function I am invited to, whatever the reason is for being there. I do not exchange gifts, but I do show up. According to Romans 14, this does not amount to the level of heresy, and we are never to attempt to force our level of understanding on others in any event.

Of course, I forgive you. I hope you will forgive me if I have ever said a word that was not in the patience and love that is our Lord. I am far from perfected, and struggle to overcome the flesh and to die daily just as you do.
As far as learning how to rightly divide scripture is concerned, we both know that the understanding of spiritual matters is a gift from God, but there are certain principles that are revealed concerning those who have been gifted with the discerning of spirits and the ability to see the mysteries of the kingdom of God. A few of those principles are to always remember that:

1) Christ’s words are spirit and do not always mean what they say, but rather mean what they mean.
2) Many times, like with all the commandments except the fourth one, the commandments are still in line with the spirit of the commandment. We cannot dishonor God or our brother, and claim to be living in the spirit.
3) We “must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” and “keep the things written therein.”
4) Truth is to be found only in the sum of God’s word and not to be based on one single verse.

Those are just a few very Biblical principles that come to mind.

When it comes to what parts of the Old Testament are to be kept, both Paul and Christ give us the principle of expediency. Christ said it was expedient that He return to the Father:

Joh 16:7  Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

Paul says “I can do all things, but all things are not expedient.”

1Co 10:23  All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

1Co 6:12  All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
1Co 6:13  Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body [is] not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

It is expedient that we love and honor God and our fellow man, but the world as a whole ignores the Biblical definition of what it means to love our brothers and love God. This, too, is a principle that helps us to rightly divide the word of God.

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

There is no hope of understanding God’s Word without an understanding of these verses. We cannot confuse the love of our brothers with the love of God. We are not told, ‘By this we know we love God because we love our brothers’, and place what we consider to be love above what God commands. Rather, we are told that the only way to know we love our brothers is to obey God’s commandments.

This is not a complete study on this subject, but I hope this gives you something to consider and will in some way edify you.

In the final analysis, eyes that see and ears that hear are a gift that is either given or is not given to each of us by a sovereign God.

1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, [even] the hidden [wisdom], which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.

If you ask God for wisdom, and if it is according to His will, you will be given that wisdom.

Jas 1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all [men] liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

1Jn 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

I truly believe God is giving you eyes that see, and ears that hear.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Acts 10:24-48  God Hath Shewed Me that I Should not Call any Man Common or Unclean

[Study Aired March 26, 2023]

Act 10:24  And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends.
Act 10:25  And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
Act 10:26  But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
Act 10:27  And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together.
Act 10:28  And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
Act 10:29  Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me?
Act 10:30  And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,
Act 10:31  And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.
Act 10:32  Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the sea side: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee.
Act 10:33  Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.
Act 10:34  Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
Act 10:35  But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
Act 10:36  The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)
Act 10:37  That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;
Act 10:38  How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
Act 10:39  And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:
Act 10:40  Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;
Act 10:41  Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.
Act 10:42  And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.
Act 10:43  To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
Act 10:44  While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
Act 10:45  And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 10:46  For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,
Act 10:47  Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
Act 10:48  And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

In our study today we will find Peter and six other Jews entering the house of a Gentile Roman centurion, which is doing something contrary to the law of Moses. We will see how Cornelius, the Roman centurion, reacts to meeting the apostle Peter and how Peter deals with Cornelius.

Finally, we will be shown that the holy spirit was given to these Gentile converts before they were even baptized, and I will draw your attention to the words used when Peter baptized these converts. Those words are the same words used when baptizing new converts throughout this book of the Acts of the apostles.

We begin our study today in:

Act 10:24  And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends.

If we include the last verse of our last study, we will see that Peter and the six other Jewish men from Joppa, along with the Roman soldier and the two men who were of Cornelius’s household, spent a whole day and part of another day, traversing the 34 miles from Joppa to Caesarea.

Here is the last verse of our last study:

Act 10:23  Then called he [Peter] them [the three men sent by Cornelius] in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.

The repetition of “and the morrow after” in the very next verse, verse 24, tells us they spent a whole day and part of another day making that 34-mile trip by foot from Joppa to Caesarea.

Act 10:25  And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.

Peter is the man who the “holy angel” had told Cornelius to send for, and like John did two times in the book of Revelation Cornelius also fell down to worship the Lord’s messenger:

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

Rev 22:8  And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9  Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

Act 10:26  But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.

“The angel which showed me these things” signifies Peter and each of us who are granted to “show these things” to others: “I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.” As long as we are in these clay vessels, we are not to be worshiped. However, the day is coming when we will not tell those we rule and judge that we are mere men:

Rev 3:9  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Act 10:27  And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together.
Act 10:28  And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

The fact that Peter was in a house by the seaside when the three Gentile men came to get him is as significant as the number of times he was shown his vision. The sea represents all of mankind to whom the gospel is now being given.

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

The ‘sea’ signifies all flesh, and both Joppa and Caesarea are “by the sea side”.

Act 10:29  Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me?
Act 10:30  And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,
Act 10:31  And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.
Act 10:32  Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the sea side: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee.
Act 10:33  Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.

This is the beginning of the gospel being preached to the Gentiles. This is the very first indication that being a Jew is now not a matter of being a Jew outwardly. This is the beginning of showing all men, that being a Jew is now an inward matter, and being circumcised is also now a matter of being circumcised of the heart in the spirit.

Rom 2:25  For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
Rom 2:26  Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
Rom 2:27  And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

It will take years for even the apostles themselves to relinquish the doctrine of physical Jews having an advantage based upon physical descent and physical pedigree. Jews have always been taught that they, by virtue of their physical pedigree, are the apple of the Lord’s eye by simply being born Jewish. Even today most Christians believe that is still true. What they have always been told was a great advantage has now begun to be seen as ‘transgressing the law’ of Christ, and bringing reproach upon God by being circumcised physically but not being ‘circumcised’ spiritually of the heart in the spirit’:

Rom 2:27  And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law [of Christ], judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?

Act 10:34  Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

Peter was made to go with the three Gentile men whom the Lord Himself had supernaturally sent to him and told him to go with them to the home a Gentile. Now he finds himself in the house of a Roman Gentile centurion where he is forced to confess that the Lord has shown him that “God is no respecter of persons” simply because of one’s physical descent from Abraham. Nevertheless, and despite having been given this great honor of being the first person to take the gospel to the Gentiles, many years later Peter was still struggling to accept this ‘mighty earthquake’ of a revelation of “things to come” (Joh 16:13 and Rev 16:18-19):

Gal 2:11  But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Gal 2:12  For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Gal 2:13  And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
Gal 2:14  But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Peter typifies each of us when we put the fear of men above our fear of God. Think for a moment what confusion such hypocrisy had to have placed into the minds of the Gentiles at Antioch who knew that this was the apostle whom the holy spirit had chosen to be the first to bring the gospel to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius. “And all the other Jews [Christian Jews] dissembled [they all played the hypocrite along with Peter] insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation [their hypocrisy].”

Why did Peter cave to “certain… that… came from James”? The answer is always the same… “fearing them which were of the circumcision.” That is the same as saying in today’s society, ‘fearing those who are still in a Babylonian society “observing days, months, times and years”, and it all boils down to fearing what men will think of us more than we fear what God has told us to do:

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 [G3516: ‘nepios’ “carnal babes in Christ”, 1Co 3:1-4], were in bondage under the elements [G4747: ‘stoicheion’] 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 [G5206: ‘uihothesia’ mature sons of God].
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 [of sin], but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Gal 4:8  Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements [G4747: ‘stoicheion’], whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? [What are these ‘stoicheion’, these ‘elements of the world’?]
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

This revelation by the holy spirit at that time was more than many Jewish Christians could yet accept. Breaking the sabbath as Christ did is something they simply cannot follow yet.

Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

The apostles themselves did not consider healing a lame man to be breaking the sabbath, but Christ confesses to “profaning the sabbath day” in Matthew 12:

Mat 12:1  At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2  But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
Mat 12:3  But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
Mat 12:4  How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
Mat 12:5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? [What is Christ’s defense? Does He deny profaning the sabbath? Absolutely not! Here is His defense of “profaning the sabbath day”:]
Mat 12:6  But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
Mat 12:7  But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

Paul makes clear that the law of Moses is a carnal commandment, which is no more spiritual than the law of the Gentiles:

Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law [“not made for a righteous man” (1Ti 1:9)], do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Rom 2:15  Which shew the work of the law [“a carnal commandment” (Heb 7:16)] written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

The keeping of the carnal traditions of the law of Moses was still very much a part of the early church throughout the entire book of Acts. Keeping the traditions of men is still one thing which separates those who fear God from those who fear men:

Pro 29:25  The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.

It is the man who “puts his trust in the Lord” and does not fear what men think of him who “esteems every day alike” in:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3  Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not [is weak in the faith] judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
Rom 14:4  Who art thou that judgest [speaking to the weak in the faith] another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
Rom 14:5  One man [who is weak in the faith] esteemeth one day above another: another [who is not weak in the faith, who fears God more than men (Gal 4:9-10)] esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind [“We then that are strong ought to bear [with] the infirmities of the weak” (Rom 15:1)].

The beast within every man wants to please men and fit in with society. It is as natural as breathing. Peter was chosen by the holy spirit to demonstrate to us that we must be willing to go against the traditions of the great harlot system into which we are all born. Peter is also used of the holy spirit to show us that it is a great struggle for him and for us to come out of this world” (Rev 18:4). Peter’s hypocrisy and weakness typify each of us in our natural state.

At this moment, Peter is being made by the spirit to accompany six other Jews to the house of a Gentile Roman centurion, and now Peter is accepting what the Lord is revealing to him and to the whole world:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

What is now required to become a part of the household of God, and to become a spiritual ‘Jew’, is to simply fear God and be obedient to the Words of Christ as Peter tells everyone in Cornelius’s house:

Act 10:35  But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
Act 10:36  The word which God sent [first] unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)
Act 10:37  That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

Peter is well aware that the gospel of Christ, and the witness John the Baptist gave of Christ, was known by Cornelius and by all societies of the Roman Empire because of all the miracles Christ had performed while on this earth, and because of what had happened on the day of Pentecost when the Jews from all over the Roman empire had “heard the wonderful works of God in their own tongue.” Peter is not speaking to people who have never before heard of Christ and His doctrines. Let’s read these last two verses again:

Act 10:36  The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)
Act 10:37  That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

“The baptism that John preached” was a big ‘splash in the pan’ at that time. However, no one in the history of mankind has affected the lives of all mankind to the extent that the life of Christ has. Christ Himself set an example for all men. His crucifixion and His love for even those who crucified Him is the most powerful weapon against all His enemies and “[Christ] is love”:

1Co 13:4  Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1Co 13:5  doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;
1Co 13:6  rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;
1Co 13:7  beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

1Jn 4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

That is the voice of the True Shepherd, but that is not the doctrine of the law of Moses, which taught “an eye for and eye” and “hate thine enemy”. The contrast between the law of Moses and the law of faith, also called the law of Christ, is stark, and the story of the life and doctrine of Christ, at the time Peter was in the house of Cornelius, has been and is being spread all over the Roman empire not just by the apostles, but by those from all over the world who came to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and heard in their own tongue “the mighty works of God” as we are told in:

Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place.
Act 2:2  And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them.
Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Act 2:5  Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.
Act 2:6  And when this sound was heard, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speaking in his own language.
Act 2:7  And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying, Behold, are not all these that speak Galilaeans?
Act 2:8  And how hear we, every man in our own language wherein we were born?
Act 2:9  Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judaea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia,
Act 2:10  in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and sojourners from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11  Cretans and Arabians, we hear them speaking in our tongues the mighty works of God.
Act 2:12  And they were all amazed, and were perplexed, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

What was it all these nations heard that day “In our tongues”? This is what Peter tells us they heard that day:

Act 10:38  How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
Act 10:39  And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:
Act 10:40  Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;
Act 10:41  Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.

This fulfills Christ’s own words concerning the coming of His kingdom within us (Luk 17-20-21).

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Mat 26:29  But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

Of course, the drinking of the wine signifies our fiery trials in this life, but it had to be done in the natural realm first.

“Nor to all the people, but… even to us [the] few chosen”:

Mat 20:16  So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

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

Act 10:42  And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.
Act 10:43  To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

Before this very moment Peter understood those words to apply only to physical Jews. Peter is just now verbalizing the meaning of the thrice repeated vision he had been given in the house of Simon the tanner in Joppa. It is at this point that the holy spirit does something which makes the words Peter just spoke to be undeniably true:

Act 10:44  While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
Act 10:45  And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 10:46  For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,

By this means the Lord has shown Peter and the six Jews who accompanied him that this event in the house of the Gentile, Cornelius, a Roman centurion, is the very same work of the Lord which took place on the day of Pentecost. The only difference being that it is now “they of the circumcision which believed” who are the “unbelievers [for whom] tongues are a sign”:

1Co 14:22  Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.

Until this very moment “they which were of the circumcision” did not believe that the gospel was for anyone other than the Jews.

As Peter tells the Jews at Jerusalem in our next chapter:

Act 11:15  And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
Act 11:16  Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Act 11:17  Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?

The Lord has now made it indisputably clear that “ye shall be baptized with the holy ghost” applies to the Gentiles who are in Christ just as much as it applies to “they of the circumcision which believed.”

Nevertheless, it will be decades later, in the book of Ephesian in chapter two, before it will finally be revealed that “the middle wall of partition” between the Jews and the Gentiles is now being taken down:

Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14  For he is our peace, who hath made [Aorist tense, ‘is making’] both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances [the ordinances the Jews were still under according to the letter to the Gentiles in Acts 15]; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16  And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

It is this same book of Ephesians which revealed that the outward ritual of water baptism is not at all what cleanses us:

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it [“the church” verse 25] with the washing of water by the word,

The whole church has not yet been given to know this and so Peter does what should be done under those immature circumstances:

Act 10:47  Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
Act 10:48  And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

The only formula given for baptism is “in the name of the Lord”. It is not ‘in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost’ as we have been led to believe by the prophets of the great whore. Here is the link to the article which shows The Truth of this question:

Is God a Trinity?

The three thousand who were added to the church on the day of Pentecost were all “baptized in the name of Jesus Christ”:

Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The men of Ephesus were “baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus”:

Act 19:4  Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.

Act 19:5  When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Everywhere the formula for being baptized is mentioned in scripture, it is “in the name of the Lord Jesus’ or ‘in the name of Jesus Christ’. There is not one instance in scripture where anyone is baptized ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the holy ghost’!

We can only imagine the sweet fellowship that was shared between Peter and the six Jewish men who had accompanied him to the house of the Gentile, Cornelius, for those “certain days” as they discussed this “wonderful work of the Lord”:

Psa 107:8  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Next week we will learn how this all went down with the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. It is not exaggerating to call this event one of the “mighty [spiritual] earthquakes, mentioned in the book of Revelation, being lived out in the lives of all the Christian Jews in Jerusalem.

Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

This ‘opened temple’ now includes Gentiles who are not circumcised outwardly but who are circumcised inwardly of the spirit (Rom 2:28-29)]. This undeniable event, which was without any doubt, a work of the holy spirit, was contrary to the law of Moses:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

That was a hard pill for the Jewish Christians to swallow, so to speak. It was as hard, or even harder, to believe than “any good thing [can] come out of Nazareth”:

Joh 1:45  Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
Joh 1:46  And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

That is what the Lord will say to the whole world when He reveals to them His bride, with whom He will rule this earth for a thousand years, and then ‘judge angels’ in the lake of fire/ white throne judgment/ second death: “Come see what I have made of those who were not wise, mighty, or noble in this world. Come and see how I have made the foolish, the weak, base and despised of this world into My blessed and beautiful bride and wife.”

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.

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Dan 8:1-14  The Vision of the Ram and the He-Goat

[Study Aired January 10, 2022]

Dan 8:1  In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. 
Dan 8:2  And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai. 
Dan 8:3  Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. 
Dan 8:4  I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great. 
Dan 8:5  And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. 
Dan 8:6  And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. 
Dan 8:7  And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. 
Dan 8:8  Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. 
Dan 8:9  And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. 
Dan 8:10  And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. 
Dan 8:11  Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. 
Dan 8:12  And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered. 
Dan 8:13  Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? 
Dan 8:14  And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. 

This chapter is about the second vision Daniel had relating to a ram and a he-goat. In several dimensions, this vision is similar to the first vision Daniel had in Daniel chapter 7. As we have already indicated in all our reviews of Daniel, there is a spiritual interpretation of the word of God which is applicable now, and there is the outward manifestation of the word in the future. Our focus is how the word of God applies to us now, that is, its spiritual interpretation. This is because it is the spirit that gives life. The flesh or the letter of the word profits nothing. We will, therefore, focus more on the spiritual reality of this vision.

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.

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

Dan 8:1  In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first.

The mention of the third-year reign of king Belshazzar in verse 1 means that it is by the process of our spiritual completion through judgment that we are given visions and their understanding. This process of understanding visions or the mysteries of the kingdom through judgment continues until the days of the sounding of the voice of the seventh angel. The sounding of the voice of the seventh angel signifies the completion of our understanding of the mystery of God as our Lord has declared to His servants, the prophets. The days of the voice of the seventh angel are the last seven plagues of God’s judgment or wrath upon our sins.

Rev 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

It is during the days of the voice of the seventh angel, or God’s judgment or wrath upon our sins, that we hear plainly the voice of our Lord.

Joh 16:25  These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
Joh 16:26  At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 
Joh 16:27  For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. 
Joh 16:28  I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. 
Joh 16:29  His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.

Daniel, being a symbol of the Old Testament prophets, was not given understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of God. These Old Testament men of God are, therefore, given visions and dreams. However, like Moses, we are given to know the mind of Christ or His mysteries. The reason our Lord talked plainly with Moses was that he was the only Old Testament prophet who was given the task of bringing his people out of bondage of sin (Egypt) to know Christ in the wilderness. As His elect, we are also given the same role as Moses – that is, the world should be saved through His Christ.

Joh 3:17  For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.

Performing such an audacious role requires knowing Christ intimately, that is, being given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

Num 12:5  And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.
Num 12:6  And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. 
Num 12:7  My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. 
Num 12:8  With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

In verse 1, the statement that this vision given to Daniel is after the first vision given to him in chapter 7, tells us that this vision of Daniel is a second witness to the single truth revealed in the first vision. Although the details are different regarding these two visions, the meaning is the same and it shows that the time is imminent.

Gen 41:25  And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. 
Gen 41:26  The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.

2Co 13:1  This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

Dan 8:2  And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai. 

It is significant to know that the vision Daniel saw took place at Shushan in the palace. Shushan means lily, and it represents the elect as shown in Hosea 14:5. The palace here represents the temple, or the bodies of the elect, where Christ sits in the throne of our hearts. So, it is within the elect that all the details of this vision are taking place. Shushan is in the province of Elam, and Elam means eternity. This is to let us know that this vision is taking place in the elect of every generation.

Hos 14:5  I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 

Ulai stands for leaders or mighty. The mighty or the leaders are the elect. The Ulai river therefore symbolizes the word of God given to the elect. This river is what every joint supplies, which is the word of God. This word of God is what makes us understand what is taking place within the elect. This river is the same as the one proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The Lamb is Christ, and as Christ has sent us with His words, this river of life is also proceeding from the elect.

Rev 22:1  And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

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. 

Dan 8:3  Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. 

A ram in the scriptures symbolizes Christ as the lamb who sacrificed His life for our sake.

Gen 22:7  And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 
Gen 22:8  And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. 

Gen 22:13  And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

Lev 5:14  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 5:15  If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the LORD; then he shall bring for his trespass unto the LORD a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with thy estimation by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering: ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 

As Christ is, so are we. We are therefore this ram with two horns. In the scriptures, the horns of ram are used as trumpets.

Jos 6:4  And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
Jos 6:5  And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. 

In Revelation 1:10 the voice of the Lord is likened to that of a trumpet. So, we can say that the two horns represent the two voices of the Lord, that is, the law of the letter and the spirit of the word.

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

The first horn speaks of the letter of the word of God or the law which kills. The second horn, which came later and is higher than the first horn, is the speaking of the word of God in the spirit. As we are aware, it is the spirit that gives life. The flesh or the letter of the word profits nothing. We also know that the flesh or the letter always comes before the spirit as the latter horn came after the first horn. The Lord’s elect represents the ram by the riverside carrying these two horns. We start our walk with Christ based on the law, and when the law has finished its walk by bringing us to know that we are the worst sinners, then we are given to understand the spirit of the word.

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.

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.  

Dan 8:4  I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.

As we know, a king is not separate from his kingdom. The coming of Christ is the coming of the kingdom of God. This kingdom is now within the elect where the detail of this vision is taking place.

Mar 1:14  Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
Mar 1:15  And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.  

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. 

The ram pushing westward and northward and southward tells us about the expansion of the kingdom of God within us after leaving the world or Egypt. However, the expansion comes at the back of false doctrines within our heavens which black out the knowledge of Christ. A rendition of verse 4 here in Daniel chapter 8 in the New Testament is the mustard seed which grew to become a great tree such that fowls of the air lodged in its branches.

Luk 13:19  It [the kingdom of God] is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.

The statement that no beasts might stand before him and neither were there any that could deliver out of his hand lets us know that this is all part of the Lord’s plan who has made us to submit to these false doctrines within our heavens.

Rom 13:1  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:2  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 

The statement that he did according to his will is the same as having the name of Christ but eating our own food and wearing our own garment. This confirms that the expansion of the ram westward, northward and southward is in the negative context.

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

We come to trust in our own self-righteousness which is iniquity before the Lord. This means we are using our own effort to build the kingdom of God within. The statement that the ram became great is to let us know that we become proud as we glory in our own self-righteousness.

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

Dan 8:5  And as I was considering, behold, an he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. 

This male goat came from the west which signifies coming out of the great sea of flesh of humanity as the west signifies the great sea in Ezekiel 47:20. The beast from Revelation 13:1 also came from the sea. At the start of this chapter, we are told that this vision of Daniel is a witness to the first one which means that the dream is one!! This he-goat is therefore the same as the beast although it has a different description.

Eze 47:20  The west side also shall be the great sea from the border, till a man come over against Hamath. This is the west side.

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. 

Touching not the ground means that this beast operates in the air. We can therefore say that this beast is the same as the prince of the power of the air. Operating in the air means that this beast operates in the spiritual realm.

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Understanding that the dream is one means that the notable horn between the eyes of the he-goat and the ten horns of the fourth beast in Daniel chapter 7 are all the same. The ten horns’ function is to the perfection of the flesh or to make us worse off in our sins. The same is achieved by the one horn between the eyes of the beast.

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

Dan 8:6  And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power.

As we have indicated in verse 4, the ram doing his own will means that we come to trust in our own self righteousness or effort to build the kingdom of God within. This is iniquity before the Lord, and if we are destined to become His elect, then it is a matter of time for the Lord to send the adversary to overcome us, making us worse off.  Making us worse off is all part of the Lord’s ways of bringing us to come to know that we are the greatest sinners. Coming to this conclusion of being a great sinner is the beginning of our deliverance from sin. What the he-goat was going to do to the ram is the same as what our Lord said he will do His vineyard:

Isa 5:1  Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
Isa 5:2  And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 
Isa 5:3  And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 
Isa 5:4  What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 
Isa 5:5  And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 
Isa 5:6  And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 
Isa 5:7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

The emphasis of the ram standing by the river is to let us know that this whole struggle within is about the word of God. The adversary’s fury of his power is in the pollution of our heavens with false doctrines making it impossible to know Christ in our situation.

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

Dan 8:7  And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. 

The statement that the he-goat came close to the ram and was enraged against him and struck the ram reminds us of the devil’s wrath as he comes to us at the time we are dwelling on earth and the sea and not in the heavens.

Rev 12:12  Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Part of the description here of the work of the evil one in verse 7 is the same as the description of the fourth beast who is the devil in Daniel chapter 7:7.

Dan 7:7  After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.

The he-goat casting the ram to the ground and stamping upon him is to let us know that we are overcome by the evil one through the beast within. We therefore submit to the dictates of the evil one and therefore become his children.

Joh 8:44  You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

The essence of this vicious attack by the evil one against us is to destroy our strength or effort in serving the Lord as signified by the destruction of the two horns of the ram. As indicated in verse 7, the destruction of the two horns leaves the ram powerless. At that time of our walk, we were virtually sold out to the evil one, and no one could deliver us out of his hands. However, this is all part of the process of making us sons just like the prodigal son!!

Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

During this dark period of our lives, our cry to the Lord is as follows:

Psa 71:9  Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent.
Psa 71:10  For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together 
Psa 71:11  and say, “God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him.” 
Psa 71:12  O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!

Dan 8:8  Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. 

What is being said here is the same as the beast receiving a mortal wound and later getting healed. This mortal wound in Revelation 13:3 is the same as destruction of the great horn.  This wound being healed is the same as the appearance of four notable ones in place of the broken great horn. The four horns mean the whole of the strength of the beast.

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

Here in verse 8, we are given additional information that the four notable horns that appeared are toward the four winds of heaven.  This means that the Lord uses the whole of the strength (horns) of the beast or the evil one as part of His spiritual resources to effectuate His purpose. For example, the Lord used the four winds to scatter His enemies and also to give life to the whole of mankind.

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

Jer 49:36  And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.

Eze 37:9  Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
Eze 37:10  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

Dan 8:9  And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.

As we have indicated, the vision here in Daniel chapter 8 is similar to that of Daniel chapter 7 based on the principle that the dream is one. Although the details are different regarding these two visions, the meanings are the same.

Gen 41:25  And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. 
Gen 41:26  The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. 

In the previous review of chapter 7, we said this little horn is the same as the beast based on the functions it performs. Here in verse 9, we are shown that the little horn became great and spread toward the south, east and the west which was the pleasant land. The little horn waxing great refers to its formidable opposition to the things of God within us. This beast’s formidable opposition is like a mountain within us, and it is only the Lord who can deal with it. The work of this beast is to make us realize that it is not by might nor by power but by the spirit of the Lord which is the word of God.

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. 
Zec 4:7  Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

The spreading of this horn towards the west and south is to let us know of the beast’s dominion over the people of the world signified by the west and the physical churches of this world (Babylon) denoted by the south.

Jos 5:1  And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

Jos 17:10  Southward it was Ephraim’s, and northward it was Manasseh’s, and the sea is his border; and they met together in Asher on the north, and in Issachar on the east.

This little horn or the beast also had dominion of the east which represents the Lord’s elect.

Num 3:38  But those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, even before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward, shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. 

The little horn or the beast’s victory over the Lord’s elect is demonstrated in the next verse as follows:

Dan 8:10  And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. 

Casting down some of the host and the stars to the ground and stamping upon them is the same as being given power to overcome the Lord’s elect or saints.

Dan 7:21  I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

Dan 8:11  Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. 

Verse 11 continues to spell out what happens to us when we are dominated by the beast within. We end up putting more confidence in the works of our hands, which is our self-righteousness, and become boastful before the prince of the host who is Christ our Lord.

Psa 94:4  How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

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

Verse 11 gives us more insight into our woeful state when we are dominated by the beast within. He takes away our daily sacrifice and casts down the place of our Lord’s sanctuary within us. The altar is where our sacrifices are offered to the Lord. Within us, this altar is our heart and mind with our body as the sacrifice. This is because with our hearts, we offer a sacrifice of praise to the Lord and with our bodies we present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the Lord.

Psa 9:1  To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David. I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

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. 

The taking away of the daily sacrifice therefore signifies our inability to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, as our hearts and mind are dominated by the beast or the evil one through false doctrines. As long as we are carried about by diverse and strange doctrines, we do not have access to the altar of our hearts to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.

Heb 13:9  Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. 
Heb 13:10  We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

The place of our Lord’s sanctuary is our body. The casting down of the place of sanctuary relates to not being able to offer our bodies as a dwelling place for God. This is because, through the influence of the beast, we have conformed ourselves to the standards of this world. In addition, our minds are not renewed to prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 
1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 

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. 

Dan 8:12  And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered. 

This verse affirms the reasons why the daily sacrifice is taken away. The reasons given are transgression and the casting down of the truth to the ground. In the next verse, this transgression is described as the transgression of desolation. The transgression of desolation is when the beast within us occupies the throne of our hearts and mind and sets himself forth as God.

2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

In verse 12, this transgression involves the casting down of the truth to the ground. Upholding false doctrines in our heavens which is also called the stumbling block of iniquity results in the casting to the ground the truth of the word which is the same as resisting the truth of the word of God.

Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

Dan 8:13  Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? 
Dan 8:14  And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. 

The question posed here concerns the period of time that the daily sacrifice will cease, together with the transgression of desolation and the treading underfoot by the beast. This question is basically talking about the time it takes for us to be under the dominion of the beast. The answer given was two thousand and three hundred (2300) in verse 14. This number (2300 = 23x10x10) signifies the period of time that the beast reigns supreme in our lives with our judgment about to commence.

2Ki 23:31  Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

1Co 10:8  Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 

In Exodus 9:38-42, the burnt offering was offered morning and evening on a daily basis, which suggests that the number 2300 refers to the number of times that the daily sacrifice was not offered. In that case, the number (2300) could mean 1150 days. This type of numbering days is seen in Genesis 1 where an evening and morning constitute a day.

Exo 29:38  Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar: two lambs a year old day by day continually. 
Exo 29:39  The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even: 

Gen 1:8  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. 

However, in the sight of the Lord or in the spirit, a day or a thousand years are the same.

2Pe 3:8  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 

So, whether it is 1150 days or 2300 days is irrelevant. It is the numbers themselves that are significant. We know that 2300 = 1150 x 2. So, what we are being told is that the period of the taking away of daily sacrifice within every individual is established since by two or three witnesses a thing is established. These 1150 days fall short of the one thousand, two hundred and sixty days (1260) in which the beast will be given the power over us which is the same as the cessation of the daily sacrifice. It is also the same as when we, the Lord’s elect, are trodden upon by the gentiles.

Rev 13:5  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. 
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.

These 1150 days are short of the thousand two hundred and threescore days (1,260 days) by 110 days which is equal to 11×10 days. The number eleven signifies the ruin and disintegration of the perfection of the flesh which is the same as what 110 signifies. Thus, the difference between 1,150 days or the 2300 days and the 1,260 days has to do with the fact that the cleansing of the sanctuary was not part of the 1,150 days while the 1,260 days includes the process for the destruction of the beast.  This is affirmed by verse 14 of Daniel chapter 8 which says that it was after the 2300 days that the cleansing of the sanctuary took place.

Dan 8:14  And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

Jer 12:10-17  I Will Bring Every Man to His Heritage

[Study Aired July 4, 2021]

Jer 12:10  Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
Jer 12:11  They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.
Jer 12:12  The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.
Jer 12:13  They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
Jer 12:14  Thus saith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.
Jer 12:15  And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
Jer 12:16  And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.
Jer 12:17  But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD.

Let’s begin this study by including the last verse of our last study:

Jer 12:9  Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour [“my people”].

King Saul was the Lord’s anointed, His “heritage”. He was also the Lord’s rejected anointed. King Saul was anointed by Samuel, who was the same prophet who anointed King David to replace King Saul, the Lord’s ‘rejected anointed’ who feared and reverenced the people more than God:

1Sa 15:26  And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.

King Saul typifies our self-righteous anointed old man. He had done much of what the Lord had told him to do. He went to war against the people the Lord had sent him to destroy, and he had destroyed every man, woman and child except the king. He had been instructed to destroy everything that breathed but the people wanted to keep the best of the cattle and herds, and King Saul acquiesced to the desires of the people instead of insisting on being obedient to the invisible God. You and I do the same thing when we keep days, months, times and years to please our families and friends. Christ’s example of breaking the weekly sabbath and not keeping the annual holy days is not as influential upon us as is the pressure of appealing to the desires of our families and friends to fit in with society and ignore Christ’s example and the solemn warning of the apostle Paul:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

What are “the weak and beggarly elements [to which we] desire again to be in bondage?”

Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Those are not my words. Those are the inspired words of the holy spirit. They are telling us that if we continue in our ‘weak in the faith… esteeming one day above another’ ways, the labor of the Lord in our lives will be “in vain”, as it was in the life of King Saul, the Lord’s “rejected… anointed”, who feared what the people thought of him more than what the invisible God thought of him. King Saul was willing to do “many wonderful works” in the name of the Lord, but he was not given to fear the Lord more than men. That was just asking too much of his weak faith.

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3  Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
Rom 14:4  Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
Rom 14:5  One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

“Let every man be persuaded in his own mind” is simply an admonition to “receive [and] bear with [the] weak in the faith” with the view of coming to be of “one mouth and one mind”, that being a mature mind which is not ‘weak in the faith’:

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Rom 15:2  Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
Rom 15:3  For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
Rom 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Rom 15:5  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Rom 15:6  That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 15:7  Wherefore receive ye one another[even “he that is weak in the faith”], as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

Christ received us while we were still keeping days, months, times and years, and we must do as He did. However, Christ did not fear His family or friends and did not become weak in the faith to please His family, friends, or the society of His day. He was very patient with his carnal disciples, but He rebuked them when they attempted to bring Him down to their weak level. He refused to become a “speckled bird” just to accommodate his “yet carnal… babes in Christ” disciples:

Mar 8:31  And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Mar 8:32  And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.
Mar 8:33  But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
Mar 8:34  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Mar 8:35  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
Mar 8:36  For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mar 8:37  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Mar 8:38  Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

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

Four times in four verses we are told that we are all “carnal babes in Christ… weak in the faith” before we are “strong in the faith”. A bird may be completely white with just one or two black spots, and it is still “a speckled bird”, a “carnal babe in Christ”, which is rejected by the Lord:

Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

2Pe 3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

Being “without spot” is the opposite of being the speckled bird of Jeremiah 12:9. This “speckled bird” is ‘speckled’ for the very reason that her prophets and pastors are not given to fear the Lord more than the Lord’s spiritually immature, carnal children.

This is why the Lord likens His people to “a speckled bird”:

Jer 12:10  Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
Jer 12:11  They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

Here is the New Testament version of this statement here in Jeremiah 12:

Mat 26:56  But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

1Ti 1:18  This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
1Ti 1:19  Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

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

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

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

The name ‘Hymenaeus’ means “the god of weddings”. We have all forsaken our Lord in favor of being wed to “another Jesus” who wants his birthday kept on December 25^th. We have been “trodden underfoot” by pastors who do not “lay to heart” the fact that they are making us all spiritually “desolate” by pandering to the people just as King Saul did.

Hymenaeus and Alexander, Phygellus and Hermogenes, and Philetus and Diotrephes one and all wanted the preeminence among the people, and just as with King Saul, the people gave them that desired preeminence. So we see the church which Jesus and His apostles gave their lives for has forsaken them to follow after men who are willing to speak smooth deceits instead of the fiery words of Christ.

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

At first we all ignore the example of our Lord, and we refuse to give His church ‘[His] whole counsel’ and we “speak unto [them] smooth things”, the things they want to hear, and we encourage ourselves and the Lord’s people to do what we want to do rather than “declare unto [them] all the counsel of God”. That is what King Saul, the Lord’s rejected anointed did. That is the spirit of Hymenaeus, who wants to wed us to “another Jesus”:

Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act 20:30  Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Act 20:31  Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
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.

“Another gospel” requires “another Jesus”, and Paul was dealing with this same adulterous spirit of Hymenaeus when writing to the churches of Galatia:

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.
Gal 1:8  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Gal 1:9  As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

When we reject the Lord as our husband, we are automatically “accursed”, and we are being spiritually “spoiled” by the Lord’s adversaries who inadvertently become His “sword” by which He chastens and scourges us:

Jer 12:12  The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.
Jer 12:13  They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

It is the Lord Himself and His Word that raises the storms of our lives which drag us to Himself. These fiery trials are “His goodness [and] His wonderful works to the children of men [you and me]” which bring us to repentance.

Psa 107:20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Psa 107:21  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22  And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:23  They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

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?

We simply do not come to repentance without first being brought to our “wits’ end”. That is the inward meaning of “the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.” “The land” is our physical body with all its Philistines and giants which mercilessly rule over and oppress us. Those oppressors are sent to us by the Lord Himself to show us what is in our ‘land’ and to burn it out of us.

“The sword of the Lord has both a positive and a negative application. In the positive sense, the Lord’s sword is “the Word of God:

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

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.

While ‘the Word of God’ certainly helps us to try the spirits and discern false doctrines coming out of the mouths of false prophets in our midst, the primary meaning of “the Word of God… as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”, is that Christ and His Word help us to see what is within ourselves.

It is also at the Lord’s word that His ‘sword’ becomes wicked men whom He sends to chasten and scourge us:

Lev 26:25  And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

It is the Word of God which convicts us of our own hate-filled and vengeful thoughts and desires against our fellow man. We know that no man can do anything the Lord does not cause him to do. Yet when the Lord sends someone to show us how little we really believe that He is working all things after the counsel of His own will, that is exactly what we discover. So often we discover that we cannot yet “run with footmen” much less ‘men on horses or the swelling of Jordan’.

Psa 17:11  They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;
Psa 17:12  Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

“The wicked” who are the Lord’s sword, fail to realize that they also are merely a tool of the Lord who is “working all things… yea, even the wicked… after the counsel of His own will”:

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

Inwardly we think that our hate-filled, vengeful rebellion against the Lord’s words is being blessed, and we think we are in His service when the truth is that the exact opposite is true:

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

These words are the same refrain of the self-righteous whore of Revelation 18:

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.

This is the spirit which the Lord is in the process of burning out of His elect. As we read in Psalms 17, He uses “wicked men” as His sword to chasten and punish His elect. He always then punishes those wicked men for their own wickedness. Inwardly our “evil neighbors” are all the evil passions of our old man. Outwardly our evil neighbors are those whom the Lord uses to tempt us and to try our patience and demonstrate to us just how wicked our own old man really is. In either case, both inwardly and outwardly the enemies of Christ must be banished and destroyed:

Jer 12:14  Thus saith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.

The Lord uses Babylon to chasten and punish us for our infidelity to Him and to His doctrines. Then He punishes Babylon, and as He punishes Babylon, He drags us out of her.

Jer 25:11  And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Jer 25:12  And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

Jer 29:10  For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

“Return to this place” is returning to our “first love”, whom we left when we were carried away by lying false doctrines into Babylon:

Rev 2:3  And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

It was the Lord Himself who placed us as captives in Babylon “for [our] good”:

Jer 24:1  The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
Jer 24:2  One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
Jer 24:3  Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
Jer 24:4  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 24:5  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.

As the Lord’s elect, we are “predestinated” to that position with Him. We are His “firstfruits, [His] good figs]”. Both the good and bad figs are from the Lord’s fig tree. We are all “evil… figs” before we are dragged to the Lord and are made to become His “good figs”.

Joe 1:6  For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
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.

The basket of good figs is just God’s way of telling us that some few will be delivered from out of all the false doctrines of that rebellious and oppressive system which rules over us for a symbolic ‘seventy years’. We are all captives in Babylon until the Lord drags us out of her and her lies. All the contradictions in her doctrines are used of the Lord to bring us all to our wits’ end and make us cry out to the Lord for His mercy. The whole “experience of evil” (Ecc 1:13 CLV) works together for good for those who are given to love God and who are the called according to His purpose in this present time:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

It is verses like these here in Jeremiah 12, as well as all the other prophecies of the Old Testament, which led the apostle Paul to understand the very Biblical doctrine of predestination.

Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

It has all been pre-determined and is “being worked after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11):

Jer 12:15  And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

As the Lord’s predestined firstfruits, when we return to the Lord, we do so with a whole heart, and we bring forth “good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them”:

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The Greek word translated ‘workmanship’ is:

G4161
ποίημα
poiēma
poy’-ay-mah
From G4160; a product, that is, fabric (literally or figuratively): – thing that is made, workmanship.
Total KJV occurrences: 2

This Greek word is a noun, and it appears just twice in the New Testament. It means “thing that is made”. In other words, we are just what the Lord has made us to be. This noun ‘poiema’, G4161, is derived from its verb G4160, ‘poieo’. This word appears almost 576 times, and here is how Strong’s defines G4160:

G4160
ποιέω
poieō
poy-eh’-o
Apparently a prolonged form of an obsolete primary; to make or do (in a very wide application, more or less direct): – abide, + agree, appoint, X avenge, + band together, be, bear, + bewray, bring (forth), cast out, cause, commit, + content, continue, deal, + without any delay, (would) do (-ing), execute, exercise, fulfil, gain, give, have, hold, X journeying, keep, + lay wait, + lighten the ship, make, X mean, + none of these things move me, observe, ordain, perform, provide, + have purged, purpose, put, + raising up, X secure, shew, X shoot out, spend, take, tarry, + transgress the law, work, yield. Compare G4238.
Total KJV occurrences: 576

The most common English translation of this word is ‘do, did, and done’. The next most common is ‘made’, just like G4161. The point the holy spirit is making is that we are what the Lord makes us to be, and we do what He makes us to do. We are His making, and we are His doing, yes, even our sins:

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

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

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

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

After making us to ‘err from His ways and making us wicked for our day of evil’ then:

Jer 12:16  And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.
Jer 12:17  But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD.

Under the law of Moses, Israel is here commanded ”to swear by [the Lord’s] name”. We know and appreciate the fact that our Great Reformer changed that commandment:

Mat 5:33  Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
Mat 5:34  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
Mat 5:35  Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
Mat 5:36  Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
Mat 5:37  But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Any time the word ‘if’ appears in scripture it is not there because God is wondering what might happen next. When the word ‘if’ appears as in “if they will diligently learn… [or] if they will not obey…” it is there just to let us know that God’s sovereignty does not negate the fact that we must “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling”:

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.

Our “fear and trembling” at the thought of disappointing our heavenly Father is as much a part of His sovereign work in us as the good fruit is which that fear produces. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” is simply telling us that we are never to take our election for granted. It is true that God does indeed know exactly what we will do tomorrow because He has already written it in our ‘book, even the days ordained for [us] when as yet there were none of them”:

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)

God has a spiritual ‘book’, a day-by-day plan for each and every man who has ever lived. He has the good and the evil in the life of every man written in advance, for each day in each ‘book’ of every man who has or whoever will live:

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

Philippians 2:12 tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. However, the words “fear and trembling” do not suggest that the outcome is uncertain from God’s perspective. The word ‘if’ is never to be understood as being from God’s perspective. The very next verse in Philippians 2 gives us God’s perspective of why we must “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, and why we must be spoken to with the word ‘if’:

Php 2:13  For [G1036: ‘gar’, because] it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

As demonstrated earlier, God makes us what we are, and He makes us do what we do. He works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure, and it behooves us to get with His program “with fear and trembling”. That is the extent of the sovereignty of God. If we accept the Truth that God has written in His book every day of our lives, then we can possibly find our names in “the book of life”. If we think that we do anything of our own free will, then the beast still sits on the throne of Christ in our heart and in our mind, and our name is not in the book of life.

That is our study for today. We will begin with chapter 13 in our next study:

Jer 13:1  Thus saith the LORD unto me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.
Jer 13:2  So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.
Jer 13:3  And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying,
Jer 13:4  Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
Jer 13:5  So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
Jer 13:6  And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded thee to hide there.
Jer 13:7  Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.
Jer 13:8  Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 13:9  Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
Jer 13:10  This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
Jer 13:11  For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
Jer 13:12  Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
Jer 13:13  Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
Jer 13:14  And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

[Study Aired May 30, 2021]

Jer 10:1  Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Jer 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
Jer 10:4  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Jer 10:5  They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
Jer 10:6  Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is  great in might.
Jer 10:7  Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms,  there is none like unto thee.
Jer 10:8  But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
Jer 10:9  Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
Jer 10:10  But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
Jer 10:11  Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
Jer 10:12  He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
Jer 10:13  When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

Our study today begins with these words:

Jer 10:1  Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

Christ informed us that very few have been given eyes which can see or ears that can hear His words concerning the mysteries of the kingdom of God:

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 [“The multitudes” of Christians] 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.

Understanding that Christ did not want the multitudes to see and hear and understand and be converted reveals to those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, that Christ did not come to save the world at this time. He certainly did come to save the world, but He will do so only in the order in which He planned it to be accomplished “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;

Here is that “order” in which all men will be saved:

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: [1] Christ the firstfruits; [2] afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. [“The first resurrection” (Dan 12:13, Rev 20:6)]
1Co 15:24  [3] Then cometh the end, [The great white throne judgment “when the thousand years are expired” and Satan leads mankind into one last rebellion against God (Rev 20:7-15)] when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him,  that God may be all in all.

At this present time, Christ has purposely blinded the multitudes of Christians and is dragging to Himself a select few with whom, and through whom, He will save all men of all time through the fiery great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death’:

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.
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Christ spoke to the multitudes in parables lest they should see any of these “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven”. That being the case, the first verse of this chapter is addressed specifically to us, if we have been given eyes that see and ears that hear His words:

Jer 10:1  Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

Hearing the Lord’s Word infers that we are doing what those words command. James admonishes us:

Jas 1:22  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Isaiah tells us this about those to whom the Lord looks to become “kings and priests” to rule the kingdoms of this world with Him during that thousand-year reign.

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look,  even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Isa 66:5  Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

We are all first babes in Christ before we mature enough to “tremble at His Word”. There were two things about “the Word of the Lord” which made the church and society of Christ’s day “hate [Him, and] cast [Him] out” of their synagogues. Here are those two things:

Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because [1] he not only had broken the sabbath, but [2] said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

Christ did not break just the weekly sabbath. He also broke the laws concerning the annual holy days when He failed to appear in Jerusalem on the first day of the feast of tabernacles as commanded in the law of Moses:

Lev 23:33  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 23:34  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
Lev 23:35  On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

Christ was not there for that “first day… holy convocation”:

Joh 7:1  After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.
Joh 7:2  Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.
Joh 7:3  His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.
Joh 7:4  For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world.
Joh 7:5  For neither did his brethren believe in him.
Joh 7:6  Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.
Joh 7:7  The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth,  because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
Joh 7:8  Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.
Joh 7:9  When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee.

Joh 7:14  Now about the midst [Greek: mesoo, middle] of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.

The apostle Paul was well aware of these facts when He wrote:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

The apostle Paul had met Christ on the road to Damascus. At that meeting Paul was physically blinded to graphically make him and us aware of just how blind we all are to the Word of the Lord, and how we must be taught to “tremble at His word”, including His Words which said:

Mat 12:6  But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.

Mat 12:8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

The apostle Paul knew the doctrine of Christ even though he was not one of the original twelve apostles, and it was with that knowledge he was given to instruct us:

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child [Greek: nepios, infant], differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children [nepios], were in bondage under the elements [Greek: stoicheion, principles, rudiments] of the world:

We will examine these two Greek words, ‘nepios’ and ‘stoicheion’, in a moment, but first we need to go on to our next verse to discover how these two words will contribute to understanding the judgment we are enduring as it is revealed to us here in Jeremiah ten:

Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

What does the Lord mean by, “Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them?” This fear includes the fear which false astrologers place upon how the stars line up in the heavens and ‘blood moons’ and astrological signs. This fear also includes the “dismay… at the signs of the heavens” which is experienced by those who observe “the customs of the people” which customs are all built around “the signs of the heavens” like the weekly sabbath and the holy days and the new moons. Many ‘Christians’ literally fear to miss going to church on Sunday. This is clarified in the very next verse:

Jer 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

“The customs of the people” revolve around “the signs of the heavens” in the previous verse. The cutting of a tree is done for the purpose of observing “the customs of the people”. That was and is as true of the Jewish customs of the law of Moses as it was and is of the pagan holidays of the nations around Israel. Both the Pagan holidays and the holy days given to Israel by the Lord were designed to keep those nations in bondage to “the weak and beggarly elements” of this world. Christ came to deliver us out from under that bondage, and when He, as our example which we must follow, broke those customs, the people of the church of His day wanted to kill Him for doing so:

Mat 12:1  At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2  But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.

Joh 5:16  And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

1Pe 2:21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Clearly Christ is telling us that the keeping of days, months, times and years, are idols of our hearts which we keep and observe to avoid being rejected of our families and our friends and the entire society in which we live. This is true in every culture on earth. Every holy day and every holiday demand our submission to “the customs of the people”. It may not be direct physical idolatry but it is definitely an “idol of the heart “which is what physical idolatry symbolizes. “His molten image is falsehood…” (Jer 10:14) and this:

Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

While this next verse outwardly refers to the construction of a physical idol decked with silver and gold it also typifies the expense we put into “observ[ing] days, months times and years”:

Jer 10:4  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Jer 10:5  They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

False doctrines are false, regardless of how many people believe them. The doctrine of eternal torment will torment no one when they die because “the dead know not anything (Ecc 9:5). Those ‘idols of our hearts’ destroy our relationship with Christ, but they have no power in the realm of Truth. So much for our “idols of the heart”.

When the Lord toppled the idol of Dagon, the god of the Philistines, Dagon could not even right himself, much less harm anyone. Instead, the Philistines had to place Dagon back on his pedestal:

1Sa 5:2  When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
1Sa 5:3  And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.
1Sa 5:4  And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
1Sa 5:5  Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.

That is how little the Lord thinks of physical idols. How much less must He think of spiritual idols of our hearts which affect the hearts and minds of men. How much less must He think of His people observing days, months, times, and years, against which he admonished His people Israel:

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

The holy spirit gives us this very same admonition in these verses in Galatians four:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements [Greek: stoikeion], whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? [Here is what is Paul is referring to as “weak and beggarly elements”]:
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Paul emphasizes the need to understand the Lord’s mind on this subject in these verses where that same Greek word ‘stoicheion’ is used in relation to the time we spend as spiritual babes (Greek: nepios, infants) in Christ:

Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world [Greek: ‘stoikeion’, “days, months, times, and years”, (Gal 4:10-11)], and not after Christ.
Col 2:9  For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Col 2:10  And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Col 2:11  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Col 2:12  Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Col 2:13  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Col 2:14  Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
Col 2:15  And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Col 2:16  Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

This 16^th verse is often used to justify the keeping of “days, months, times and years”, when the exact opposite is its meaning, as is proven by verse 8 in this same chapter and by:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Col 2:17  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

The word ‘is’ is not in verse 17 above in the original texts, and what this verse is saying is that we are not to let carnal men judge us, but we are to let the body of Christ be our judge in these matters.

Romans 14 tells us to receive the weak in the faith who are still “esteem[ing] one day above another and are being careful to eat only herbs. These “carnal babes in Christ” have many customs and laws which dictate “touch not, taste not, nor handle” anything other than spiritual herbs which will never bring us to spiritual strength and maturity.

Col 2:18  Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
Col 2:19  And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
Col 2:20  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments [stoicheion] of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
Col 2:21  (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
Col 2:22  Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

There it is as plainly as it can be written. We are to count ourselves as “dead with Christ from the rudiments, the stoichieon of the world [the] days, months, times, and years” which are “the customs of the people [which] are vain”.

let us examine how these verses accord with what Paul teaches us in Romans 14:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

Paul is contrasting “We then that are strong [in the faith]” (Rom 15:1) with “him that is weak in the faith”. He goes on to make it clear that those who are weak in the faith “eat only herbs [and] they esteem one day above another”.

Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3  Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not [is weak in the faith] judge him that eateth [is strong in the faith]: for God hath received him.
Rom 14:4  Who art thou [who are weak in the faith] that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him [that is strong in the faith] stand.
Rom 14:5  One man [who is weak in the faith] esteemeth one day above another: another [who is strong in the faith] esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. [Don’t let the adversary convince you that it takes more strength to keep days than it takes to ‘esteem every day alike’]
Rom 14:6  He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
Rom 14:7  For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
Rom 14:8  For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
Rom 14:9  For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

Verse nine is not telling us to equate ‘dying daily’ with being dead while we live in sin. All of these verses are focused mainly on those who are not spiritually “weak in the faith”, and they are simply instructions for how “We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak”:

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Romans 14 does not instruct the spiritually strong to forgo their “meat of the Word”. Romans 14 teaches us to accommodate “him that is weak in the faith” without despising his weak and immature spiritual condition, while at the same time instructing the weak not to judge and condemn those who are given to “eat all things [and] esteem every day alike”.  Anyone can “esteem one day above another” because that is what the whole world does, but it takes a man who trembles at the word of God and is spiritually strong in that Word to “esteem every day alike”.  The spiritually strong in the faith are instructed to bear with the infirmities of the weak, and they who are weak in the faith are instructed against judging their spiritually strong brothers. It is very difficult for any brother who is “weak in the faith” to acknowledge his spiritual immaturity. All toddlers just naturally think they are adults.

The holy spirit continues instructing us:

Rom 14:10  But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Rom 14:11  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Rom 14:12  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Rom 14:13  Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Rom 14:14  I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Rom 14:15  But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.

“Destroy him not with your meat” does not read ‘forsake your meat lest you offend your brother who is weak in the faith’. Again, while Paul is giving instructions to both “We that are strong” as well as “him that is weak in the faith”, his main focus is toward “we that are strong”, and he instructs us “destroy him not with your meat”. There is no hint at compromising the Word, but there is a command in this chapter to “bear with the weak” and never attempt to stuff strong meat down the throat of a “babe in Christ who must be fed with spiritual milk until he is capable of digesting “strong meat”.

Paul applied this principle in dealing with the immature Corinthians:

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

Look again in Hebrews 5 how Paul addresses those who are weak in the faith:

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.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

“When for the time you ought to be teachers” tells us that there are some who are very slow to mature, and there are many who never spiritually mature in “this present time” (Rom 8:18). King Saul is a type of such a person. He was much older that the “strippling” who slew Goliath, yet King Saul was incapable of discerning good and evil, and was in fact a spiritual babe, as his sloppy understanding of the instruction he was given demonstrates:

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.

This is a physical instruction to physically destroy everything pertaining to Israel’s enemy, Amelek. This is how we are to take these words today:

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

Yes, we surely ought to “lay aside every sin that so easily besets us”, but apply those words personally and remember:

Rom 14:12  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Romans 14 ends with these words:

Rom 14:20  For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
Rom 14:21  It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Rom 14:22  Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
Rom 14:23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

These words: “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” apply both to “him that is weak in the faith [and] we that are strong”. Babes in Christ, which we all are to begin with, require time to mature and come to “tremble at My Word”. If we think we are strong in the faith, then we need to “bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves”.

That is the New Testament spiritual application of “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.” It is addressed inwardly to those who are mature enough and spiritually strong enough to receive it. However, like King Saul, at first we simply do not see the need to be that thorough in our obedience. Also, like King Saul we first bring the sacrifice of our own works and expect the Lord to appreciate our blatant disobedience. We may be willing to give up pagan holidays for “God’s holy days” as we reasoned in the World-Wide Church of God. But we were still keeping “days, months, times and years”, and our knowledge of the Father and His Son was impeded by our ignorance and our disobedience. It took decades before the Lord allowed me to see these very plain statements:

Mat 12:5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?

Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

‘Christ in us’ is the focus of this chapter of Jeremiah. He is our example in whose steps we must follow (1Pe 2:21):

Jer 10:6  Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
Jer 10:7  Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.

We all make light of the Lord’s instructions for the same reason King Saul did so:

1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.

As in this story of King Saul’s presumptuousness, the Lord instructs us to destroy everything within ourselves which pertains to His enemies. Moses was given the same instructions concerning the enemies of the Lord’s people many years earlier:

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:

Nevertheless, we all first follow in the steps of King Saul and bring a sacrifice to the Lord of the very thing He instructed us not to bring to Him. Our whole life is supposed to be “a living sacrifice unto God” (Rom 12:1). However, just like King Saul, we all first sacrifice to the Lord according to what we deem worthy of His acceptance and we are “deceiving our own selves” (Jas 1:22) that we are being obedient and we are bringing to him a proper sacrifice. After all, we are giving to Him the sacrifice we want to give Him. That is especially true when we want to offer Him “the customs of the people [which] are vain” (vs 3). That presumptuous spirit is the subject and the theme of this chapter of Jeremiah:

Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Jer 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

My personal journey has taken me from an extremely strict Pentecostal church, where alcohol was of itself a sin, much like many think of guns here in the states. In the Pentecostal Churches of the 50’s and 60’s just touching a beer or a bottle of wine would have been unimaginable. Dancing, card games and theater going were all the devil’s instruments to keep me from going to heaven and to send me straight to an eternal ever-burning hell. However, the observance of Christmas, Easter and the 4^th of July were all wonderful ways of worshiping the Lord in the Pentecostal church.

In His time the Lord took me out of those blasphemous doctrines and into a much more self-righteous, but what I considered at that time, to be a more merciful church, the World Wide Church of God. This organization of men swapped the Pagan holidays for the more Biblical ‘holy days’ of the law of Moses. It is these days to which Galatians 4 refers:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Just a few verses later in this same chapter Paul asks:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

Earlier in the epistle to the Romans the apostle Paul made it clear that the law of Moses was really, as far as its ability to bring us salvation, nothing more than the spiritual equivalent of the laws of the Gentiles:

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

This is the Truth, and keeping Jewish holy days made me no closer to God than keeping pagan holidays. I was blatantly thumbing my nose at the example Christ had set for me, and I was as blissfully ignorant as King Saul of my presumptuous expectation that the Lord should feel honored that I was keeping days, months, times and years to Him. As Paul says in Romans 14:

Rom 14:5  One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Rom 14:6  He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

When we are in the grips of “the… vain… customs of the people” we read these two verses as if the first verse of this 14^th chapter and the first verse of the 15^th chapter are not even there. However, they are right there before our very blinded eyes:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

We read Romans 14:4-5 as if being “weak in the faith” were a strength to be desired, and we read Romans 15:1 as if it were telling us that being infirmed and spiritually weak and sickly were a desirable sacrifice to present to the Lord (Rom 12:1).

In my own experience, I finally gave up both the pagan holidays and the Jewish holy days, and yet I presumptuously retained the celebration of being made sin, by being made of “corruptible flesh and blood” (1Co 15:50). Sandi and I observed birthdays for the whole ten years we were following the greasy grace doctrines of the Concordant Publishing Concern.  We saw no need whatever to give up observing and celebrating our wedding anniversary. We saw nothing at all wrong with keeping Thanksgiving Day, mother’s day and father’s day. “Surely”, we reasoned, “the Lord did not really mean every day, month, time and year. Why, Thanksgiving Day was a day to give thanks to Him. Surely, we could keep these days and months and years if we were doing it in sacrifice to Him. After all we were doing it all just to glorify Him.” We thought we were giving our whole life to Him and that He would accept our offering of disobedience since we were doing it in sacrifice to Him.

All the while Sandi and I were just repeating the presumptuous sins of King Saul who also proclaimed just how thoroughly obedient He had been in serving the Lord:

1Sa 15:13  And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.

All the while, Christ remained faithful to His own words and not to ours. All the while He was asking us:

1Sa 15:14  And Samuel said, What  meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

What then is this singing of ‘happy birthday’ and this greeting of ‘happy anniversary’, etc?

Our next verse gives us our true spiritual diagnosis of our spiritual health when we use the verses of scripture which instruct us to bear the infirmities of the weak for an excuse to bring to the Lord our own presumptuous sacrifices and expect Him to be pleased with us attempting to dictate to Him our agenda:

Jer 10:8  But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

How true those words are! I saw and heard the founder of CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, admit that he was certainly aware that Christmas and Easter were of Pagan origin, but he justified keeping these Pagan customs as if they were not “a doctrine of vanities” at all because, as he explained to his audience of Babylonian Christians (spiritual followers of King Saul), “We know that Christmas and Easter were originally pagan holidays but we have Christianized them, and we now keep these days to God and not to pagan gods.” Just like King Saul, this man thinks that God needs to get with his program and accept his sacrifice of blatant disobedience to the very clear instructions from our very Creator.

The Hebrew word translated as ‘stock’ here in verse 8 is H6086, ‘ets’, and it is almost always translated as either ‘wood’ or ‘trees’. It is the same word translated as ‘wood’ in this verse with which we are all familiar:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood [H6086: ‘ets’], and it shall devour them.

No expense is spared to keep these Pagan days “to our God” when we are in the grips of the great whore:

Jer 10:9  Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
Jer 10:10  But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
Jer 10:11  Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
Jer 10:12  He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
Jer 10:13  When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

There we have the message of this part of our judgment. ‘The nations [which] shall not be able to abide His indignation” are all the idols of our hearts which we think the Lord should accept as pleasing to Him. We are told, “Learn not the ways of the heathen for they are vain… they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities… But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.”

The founder of CBN the Christian Broadcasting Network, thinks the Lord is pleased with us Christianizing pagan holidays and bringing those pagan holidays in sacrifice to our Lord. What does the Lord Himself have to say about doing such a thing? We read this earlier, but it bears repeating:

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

We must be incredibly careful that we do “not add thereto, nor diminish from” His Words:

Rev 22:18  For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life [the first resurrection], and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20  He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Yes, indeed, we are to bear with the infirmities and weaknesses and spiritual sickness of those who are weak in the faith, but we do so with this goal in mind:

Rom 15:5  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Rom 15:6  That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 15:7  Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

Christ did not die for us while we were yet in our sins so we could turn His chastening grace into lasciviousness. He died for us so we could fill up in our bodies what is lacking of His suffering “for His body’s sake, which is the church”:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

That is our study for today. Here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 10:14  Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Jer 10:15  They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Jer 10:16  The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.
Jer 10:17  Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.
Jer 10:18  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.
Jer 10:19  Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
Jer 10:20  My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
Jer 10:21  For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
Jer 10:22  Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Jer 10:24  O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
Jer 10:25  Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

[The next study in this series is here.

Isa 48:12-22 The Lord Has Loved Him...He Will do His Pleasure on Babylon...Tell This, Utter it Even to the End of the Earth - Discussion

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Isa 48-12-22- The Lord Has Loved Him… He Will Do His Pleasure on Babylon… Tell This, Utter It Even to The End of The Earth

Isa 48:12  Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
Isa 48:13  Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.
Isa 48:14  All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
Isa 48:15  I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
Isa 48:16  Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
Isa 48:17  Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
Isa 48:18  O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
Isa 48:19  Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
Isa 48:20  Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.
Isa 48:21  And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
Isa 48:22  There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.

Once in Colossians and twice in the book of Hebrews we are told that the things of the Old Testament are “shadows of things to come”:

Col 2:17  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

Heb 8:5  Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

Our verses for this study are a prophecy of the destruction of Babylon at the hands of Cyrus. However, the physical destruction of Babylon at the hands of Cyrus, according to Colossians 2:17 and Hebrews 8:5 and 10:1 is “a shadow of good things to come”, and this prophecy typifies the climactic anti-type of the destruction of all the false religions of this world, referred to as “Babylon the great the mother of harlots and of abominations of the world” in Revelation 17 and 18. The great harlot system must be destroyed first within us, and later, this prophecy here in Isaiah 48, is also a shadow of the climactic destruction of the religions of this world at the hands of Christ and His Christ. This “end of the age… last time” event is at this very moment taking place inwardly in all the Lord’s elect, symbolized in these verses by the work the Lord is prophesying 200 years in advance that He would do to Babylon through Cyrus

1Jn 2:18  Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

There will also eventually be an outward end of this dispensation and an end of this age with an outward destruction of spiritual Babylon which will, at the appointed time, be replaced by “the kingdom of God”, the Lord and His elect:

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.

This seemingly impossible event is prophesied in greater detail a few chapters later:

Rev 15:5  And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:
Rev 15:6  And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.

We will see in a few minutes that these “seven angels” are the anti-type of Cyrus, who literally destroys the physical city of Babylon. What the Lord did through Cyrus is a type and a shadow of what He is first doing within us in this age, and it is also a type and shadow of what He will use us to do to spiritual Babylon outwardly after the first resurrection:

Isa 45:1  Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
Isa 45:2  I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
Isa 45:3  And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

Here is the very same prophecy in the book of Revelation:

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. 
Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

Let’s take note that it is the seven angels who are the Lord’s instrument of Babylon’s destruction, as well as being made the rulers of “the kingdoms of this world” (Rev 11:15):

Rev 16:17  And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19  And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 
Rev 16:20  And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21  And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

It is to the “seven angels”, typified and foreshadowed by Cyrus, whom the Lord is using and whom He will use to destroy Babylon and rule the nations of this world to which the Lord addresses these words:

Isa 48:12  Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. 
Isa 48:13  Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together. 
Isa 48:14  All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. 
Isa 48:15  I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

“Which among them hath declared these things” while referring to Cyrus in its literal typical sense, it is the Lord’s elect, His “seven angels”, who “ha[ve] declared these things”. It is the Lord Himself who “makes [the work of the seven angels] prosperous”. The work of the seven angels is really the work of Christ, first in our lives, and His work in our lives in no way depends upon us, though it seems otherwise to our flesh:

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

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

Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

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

The Lord knew Cyrus “by name” hundreds of years before he was born (Isa 44:28), and He wants us to know and acknowledge that everything He did through Cyrus was just as  much a work of His hands, as was the work He did to Pharaoh through His “two witnesses”, Moses and Aaron. He wants us to know that the work of the seven angels to destroy Babylon within us and after the first resurrection is also the work of His hands:

Isa 44:28  That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.

The seventh angel pours out his vial into the air precipitating the greatest ‘earthquake’ in the history of the ‘earth’. This great earthquake causes the great city of Babylon to be divided into three parts, indicating the process of judgment which has come upon the anti-type of ‘Babylon’ within, which must also come upon outward ‘Babylon” soon after the “blessed and holy first resurrection” (Rev 20:4-6).

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

An integral part of this judgment is a plague of 70-pound hailstones  (”the weight of a talent”) which symbolically comes upon Babylon which brings men (us) to their wits’ end causing them (us) to “blaspheme God” instead of repenting of their (our) sins.

Rev 16:21  And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

In the third verse of the first chapter of the book of Revelation we are clearly told that it is the reader who must “read, hear, and keep the things written in [this book]”:

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

So, we the readers are given to see and hear the things of the spirit. We are the first to be judged by the fiery words of God and the first to “read… hear… and keep the words of this prophecy” (Rev 1:3):

Deu 33:2  And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.

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

Before the Lord’s words can be fire in our mouths, it must first do its fiery work within us, and we must first see ourselves as the unfaithful whore, Babylon the Great. After being judged we will then become the seven angels who, through death and resurrection from the dead (Rom 6:1-4), come out of the temple in heaven to judge and destroy Babylon.

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

This destruction of Babylon is also typified and foreshadowed as being accomplished through the hail which symbolizes the Truth of the Word of God which “shall sweep away the refuge of lies” which ‘lies’ are themselves symbolized by Babylon itself, “the great city… where also our Lord was crucified”:

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

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

In our last study the Lord was declaring that He is not shackled by the false, lying, Babylonian idols of our heart. There were false prophets in ancient Israel prophesying peace and prosperity for Israel, even as the nation continued its descent into the pagan worship of the nations around them. The ‘gods’ of that time were literal idols which were either carved of wood or cast of molten metal into the form of the supposed ‘gods’ of that time. The Philistine god, Dagon (1Sa 5:1-6), was supposedly half man and half fish. The “idols of [our] hearts” today are our false doctrines (Eze 14:1-9). But God is no more beholden to our false doctrines than He was to the inanimate idols of the ancient pagans.

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

When the Lord speaks of the heavens and the earth, He is speaking of us, to our earth and to our heavens, which must be purified of all ‘the idols of [our] hearts’:

Isa 48:13  Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.

The physical heavens and earth are but types and shadows of the “new heavens and new earth” to which we are being conformed, and the book of Hebrews makes clear to those with eyes that see the things of the spirit:

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves [that would be us] with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself [That is us, Joh14:18], now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Christ had earlier made it clear that He would enter into us:

Joh 14:18  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to [“enter into”] you.

Notice how often the Old Testament refers to us as ‘heaven’ and ‘earth’:

Lev 26:19  And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:

Deu 4:26  I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

Deu 11:21  That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.

Psa 113:6  Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!

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

Isa 37:16  O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.

Isa 40:10  Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
Isa 40:11  He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
Isa 40:12  Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

Isa 44:24  Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

Isa 66:1  Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

All these statements are addressed to the Lord’s people, symbolized by the phrase, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth”. Are ‘the Lord’s people’ only the righteous of this world? No “Hear heavens, and give ear O earth” is not addressed to us as the righteous of the world. It is more aptly addressed to us as “the chief of sinners":

Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 
Isa 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Isa 1:6  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Isa 1:7  Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

Mar 2:17  When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

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

Being humbled and coming to see just how all flesh is wicked is essential to being prepared to be a priest of God who can “be touched with the feeling of our infirmities”, and we are as He is in the world (1Jo 4:17):

Heb 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Our Head was “made sin” (2Co 5:21), but was not given to commit a single trespass, but “His body” knows all about trespasses, and through ‘His body’ He is not only a sin offering, but through us Christ also fulfills the trespass offering as the scapegoat and the second bird of the offering for the incurable leper as given us in Lev 16 and 14 respectively. As such we are as much an offering for the sins of the world as is the Lord Himself because “as He is so are we, [and we must] fill up in [our] body that which is behind [lacking] of the afflictions of the Christ in [our] bodies for His body’s sake which is the church”:

Lev 16:7  And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Lev 16:8  And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
Lev 16:9  And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD'S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
Lev 16:10  But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

Our sufferings are right here in Colossians 1:24 declared to be “for you… the church” just as much as were the sufferings of Christ Himself. “As He is so are we in this world”, and that being true we, too, are “a living sacrifice… for a scapegoat… filling up what is behind [lacking] of the afflictions of Christ in [our] flesh for His body’s sake which is the church… to make an atonement with Him (Lev 16:10)”.

It was Christ Himself who told us clearly:

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

As His Father sent Him, “even so” Christ is sending us. Which begs the question, “Exactly what did His Father send Him to accomplish?” That question is answered very clearly for us in this same gospel:

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

It is Christ Himself who considers us, “His body” to be Himself, as is repeated over and over in scripture:

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

Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

It seems counter-intuitive that “the chief of sinners” can also be called the Lord’s people, whose lives will be offered as a living sacrifice with the Lord’s sacrifice, as the saviors of this world, but that is exactly what we are told must happen. The Lord’s people who love Him most are those who see themselves as those who have sinned most, as the Lord tells us when we are first a self-righteous Pharisee:

Luk 7:36  And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat.
Luk 7:37  And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,
Luk 7:38  And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
Luk 7:39  Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.
Luk 7:40  And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.
Luk 7:41  There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.
Luk 7:42  And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?
Luk 7:43  Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. 
Luk 7:44  And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Luk 7:45  Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
Luk 7:46  My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Luk 7:47  Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

Now we should begin to understand that every word about how evil and rebellious Israel was and how her sins exceeded the sins of the nations around her is addressed first to us as His bride in the New Testament, and what “Live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4) means.

We should also be able to see and understand that even these words are addressed to the Lord’s people who see themselves as “the chief of sinners”:

Isa 48:16  Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
Isa 48:17  Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. [“…but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”]
Isa 48:18  O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
Isa 48:19  Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
Isa 48:20  Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob. 
Isa 48:21  And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
Isa 48:22  There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.

“Go forth of Babylon” is the inspiration for the same commandment give us in:

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

It is the water flowing out of the Rock which sustains us even while we are wandering around in the wilderness and desert, which is Babylon. Where did that water originate? In the New Testament body of Christ, we are still drinking of that same “Rock”:

1Co 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

The incredible stubbornness displayed by Israel in the wilderness and the death in the wilderness of all those over 20 years of age, are all types and shadows of our own carnal-minded, stubborn and rebellious old man who cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 15:50).

Let’s become familiar with who we first are as the Lord’s people. If we do not see ourselves as Cain who killed his own brother, as Pharaoh who oppressed the Lord’s people, and now as Babylon continuing to oppress the Lord’s people, then the scriptures will profit us nothing, and we will be nothing more than self-righteous Job.

Notice to whom Jeremiah 22 is addressed:

Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

And what symbol does the Lord use as a type of His people, the “the king of Judah… and [his] servants”?

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

The Lord also mentions ‘the heavens and… the earth’ when speaking to His people in Zechariah:

Zec 12:1  The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

The burden of the Word of the Lord is “for Israel”. The Word of the Lord is only for the Lord’s elect who are healed of their spiritually blind and spiritually deaf “marred” condition and composition.

Look again at how our study began today:

Isa 48:12  Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. 
Isa 48:13  Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.

In Isaiah 1:3, in Jeremiah 22:2 and 29 and now here in Isaiah 48:12-13 are all accounts of the Lord speaking to His own people, and He refers to them as “the heavens and the earth”.

I have been emphasizing how “the dream is one” principle is carried throughout the scriptures:

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

Following that principle, the Lord has seen fit to say most everything He says twice but using different words to do so. Such is the case when He tells us “the Lord… stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundation of the earth”. The point He is making is that it is He who “formed the spirit of man” within him as “the heavens” within us, and for the moment the heavens within us are bound up in a vessel of clay, which He calls “the earth”. It is these “earthen… vessels of clay”, which He also calls “corruptible… flesh and blood”.

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

The Lord reveals to His elect that it is He who has created both our heavens and our earth, and He wants His elect to know that the heavens and the earth, our minds and our bodies and all that takes place in both, are the work of His hands, and the script was written for every man before he was ever born. So of course, “when [He] calls unto them, they stand up together”:

Isa 48:12  Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
Isa 48:13  Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.

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)

There was no way anyone in Isaiah’s day could possibly have known that the Medo-Persian empire would one day conquer the mighty Assyrian-Babylonian empire of King Nebuchadnezzar, much less name the Persian king who would conquer Babylon. Yet that is exactly what the Lord did through His servant Isaiah 200 years before it happened, foretelling that event and even giving us the name of the Persian King who would carry out the Lord’s will concerning the rebuilding of His temple:

Isa 44:24  Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; 
Isa 44:25  That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;
Isa 44:26  That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:
Isa 44:27  That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:
Isa 44:28  That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.

This again is a prophecy of the work of the Lord’s elect whom He is using to build His temple today.

Isa 44:26  That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof: 

The Lord “confirms the word of His servant and performs the counsel of His messengers” because His messengers do not think above what is written, and they tremble at His words.

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

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

That is our study for today. Here are the verses for next study:

Isa 49:1 Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
Isa 49:2 And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;
Isa 49:3 And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
Isa 49:4 Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.
Isa 49:5 And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.
Isa 49:6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
Isa 49:7 Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

​Hi Mike,

R​eading about Egypt and A​ssyria and I​srae​l being blessed…but what of Isaiah 65:20 (sinners accursed…likely E​gypt…yet again…with child)

T​his confuses me…

T___

Hi T​____​,

I will say that your confusion arises from a lack of understanding of these verses of scripture:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. 

We are this “kernel of wheat”, and it is our old man, “the first man Adam, Esau, King Saul, Judas”, you and me, who must die before our new man Jacob, Joseph, King David, all of whom supplanted their predeccessor, as types of Christ in us supplanting the old you and the old me to become a new man, which is the very same thing as a new kernel of wheat coming forth from that very dying process. Every gardener knows exactly what Christ is saying here.

One does not and cannot go back and change the sins of the past. King David did not divorce Bathsheba, and you need to give your past over to where it already is, meaning a work of Christ in your life to bring you to where you now are. You and your husband are fine where you are. You just need to “go and sin no more lest a worse thing come upon  you”.  “Sin no more” in no way means that you must never again break the speed limit. What it does mean is that sin should no longer have dominion over you:

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Read this FAQ and the links within it to begin to understand the meaning of the words ‘olawm‘, (​Hebrew​) and ‘aion‘ (​Greek​) and to learn what the function of grace is in our lives.

Will I Make it to Heaven?

It is my prayer for you that you will be given to see what I have shown you about all the people of the Old Testament:

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

I understand how radical this all is,​ but it is right there in scripture: “Not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister.” Everyone in the Old Testament will be raised up and purified in the lake of fire along with everyone since Christ who has never been given eyes to see or ears to hear the mysteries of “the kingdom of God [which] is within you” (Luk 17:19-20).

Your days were all written in God’s book before there were any of them (Psa 139:16 [​ASV]​), and your sins are not your sins, but the product of the “marred vessel… in t​he Potter’s hand” (Rom 7:17-25 and Jer 18:4).

I pray you will take the time to read the links I have given you. They will help you immensely, if the Lord permits.

YbiC, Mike

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Awesome Hands - part 127 Discussion

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Awesome Hands – part 127

"The Cloud guides us all"

January 5, 2018

Our study today takes us to the heart of Israel’s divine guidance. Being that we are spiritual Jews, understanding that we are also led day and night by the Lord, is crucial to us understanding that everything which happens to us is for a purpose in the Lord’s kingdom.

Our verse for consider today are found in Numbers 9.

Num 9:23  At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses.

There is obviously some context to this verse, and that context gives us some insight on what the Lord is doing with His people “by the hand of Moses”.

Num 9:15  And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning.
Num 9:16  So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.

We have all heard about the cloud that the Lord used to guide the Israelites out of Egypt. We also know that this same cloud was used to protect the Jews form their enemies. So, can we conclude that this is still true today? If so, how do we know if we are being directed by this same cloud?

The first time we see the cloud come into our focus, as it pertains to relating to4 the Lord, is found in Exodus.

Exo 40:33  And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.
Exo 40:34  Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

The ark of the covenant was covered with the cloud, and the “tent of the testimony” was covered. What is it we can learn about this cloud aside from what appears on the surface?

H6051

‛ânân
aw-nawn'
From H6049; a cloud (as covering the sky), that is, the nimbus or thunder cloud: - cloud (-y).
Total KJV occurrences: 87

H6049

‛ânan
aw-nan'
A primitive root; to cover; used only as denominative from H6051, to cloud over; figuratively to act covertly, that is, practise magic: -    X bring, enchanter, Meonemin, observe (-r of) times, soothsayer, sorcerer.
Total KJV occurrences: 11

That can’t be right can it? The root of cloud is linked somehow to magic? Well we certainly know that the cloud was supernatural in nature, so that makes some sense. Look at how the root is used in scripture.

H6049
‛ânan
Total KJV Occurrences: 11
observed, 2
2Ch_33:6 (2)
soothsayers, 2
Isa_2:6 (2), Mic_5:12
bring, 1
Gen_9:14
enchanters, 1
Jer_27:9
meonenim, 1
Jdg_9:37
observe, 1
Lev_19:26
observer, 1
Deu_18:10
observers, 1
Deu_18:14
sorceress, 1
Isa_57:3

This all seems a bit out of place to my natural man? How can it be that the cloud that guided the Israelites and crushed the Egyptians be connected to, and have the same Hebrew root meaning, soothsayers, enchanters, sorceress and observers? Observers of what?

In order to better understand the answer, we are going to read some of these verses in their entirety.

2Ch 33:6  And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
2Ch 33:7  And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:

Isa 2:6  Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.

Mic 5:12  And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:

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

Lev 19:26  Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.

Deu 18:10  There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,

Deu 18:14  For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.

Isa 57:3  But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.

Here in Isaiah, we find some verses which will tell us just what the Lord thinks of the hearts of those who are at the root of the words we are reading.

Isa 57:1 (ESV) The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;
Isa 57:2  he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness.
Isa 57:3  But you, draw near, sons of the sorceress, offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman.
Isa 57:4  Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit,
Isa 57:5  you who burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
Isa 57:6  Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they, they, are your lot; to them you have poured out a drink offering, you have brought a grain offering. Shall I relent for these things?
Isa 57:7  On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifice.
Isa 57:8  Behind the door and the doorpost you have set up your memorial; for, deserting me, you have uncovered your bed, you have gone up to it, you have made it wide; and you have made a covenant for yourself with them, you have loved their bed, you have looked on nakedness.

Ahh yes, this doesn’t sound anything like the cloud the Lord have as a symbol for the Israelites to follow or does it?

If we remember how faithful the Jews were, to the Lord, while in the wilderness, then our questions will be abated. Oh yeah, that’s right, the Jews were not faithful at all to the Lord! In fact, they were quite treacherous to the Lord just the same as we all are! These verses are also in the ESV translation.

Gal 4:9  But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
Gal 4:10  You observe days and months and seasons and years!
Gal 4:11  I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Luk 11:29  When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, "This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

1Co 1:21  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
1Co 1:22  For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
1Co 1:23  but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
1Co 1:24  but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Why is it the Lord used a cloud, a supernatural sign, “in the heavens”, to guide and protect His people? The answer is easy to say but hard to understand.

The Lord uses His cloud to deceive!

1Co 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
1Co 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
1Co 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
1Co 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

The cloud is Jesus Christ. What then can we also see happens when a cloud comes to hide or reveal a thing?

Luk 9:32  But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.
Luk 9:33  And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said.
Luk 9:34  While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud.
Luk 9:35  And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.
Luk 9:36  And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.

When the cloud passes, from which the voice comes, Jesus is found alone.

Luk 21:26  Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Luk 21:27  And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Luk 21:28  And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Ahh, there it is again. This example listed in Luke is something we have all heard many times over. We rejoice in knowing that the Lord shakes the powers of the heavens. We rejoice in knowing that the second coming of Jesus will be on a cloud and we look up to the sky. How many Christians have come and gone believing Jesus will come back riding on a physical cloud, a physical sign which we can all see?

This alone is not a bad or evil thought, but the cloud Jesus comes back on NOW is a SPIRITUAL cloud and not something we physically see.

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

Given everything I have said already, what can we take away from these thoughts? Even while the Jews were tempted the Lord in the wilderness He was their shelter and guide. He illuminated their path, even at night, by being a fiery pillar in the cloud.

Psa 27:1  A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Psa 36:9  For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

Psa 121:5  The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Not only did God guide the Israelites, He did so in all things and that is really what this study is about.

In death we are led, while much of our lives appear to be in darkness:

Psa 48:14  For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

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

1Th 3:11  Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.

In light we are led as well:

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

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

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

We should all take comfort in knowing that no matter what our plans in life are, the Lord is guiding every detail. No matter what valley we are crawling through or what mountain we are trying to scale, the Lord is guiding us the entire way even when we think we are going to take control of our own lives and do things our way.

Peter that He would do the same:

Joh 13:36  Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.
Joh 13:37  Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.
Joh 13:38  Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.

Ultimately, the reason that the cloud was instituted for the physical Jews, and why the spiritual cloud is spiritually instituted today for Jews within, is to show us that the Lord is in control, looking out for us and has determined the route of our life for us.

Just as the Lord guided the Israelites through the wilderness, even while they tempted Him over and over, we too are guided through all aspects of our lives to ultimately be led to perfection after we are resurrected from the dead.