Isa 65:21-25 The Wolf and the Lamb Shall Feed Together…and Dust Shall be the Serpent’s Meat

[Study Aired October 11, 2020]

Isa 65:21  And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
Isa 65:22  They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Isa 65:23  They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
Isa 65:24  And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
Isa 65:25  The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

Which stage of ‘the kingdom of God’ are these words describing? When will the wolf and the lamb eat together? When will the lion eat straw like the bullock? When is dust the serpent’s meat?

When we finish this study, I hope we will have answered all of those questions.

There are three stages of the “kingdom of God” which are all expedient to accomplish the Lord’s goal of bringing all things together in Christ so the Father will be “all in all”.

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: [Stage one: the Passover season, in the spring of the year] Christ the firstfruits; afterward [Stage two: Pentecost, the summer wheat harvest, also called “the feast of firstfruits”] they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then [Stage three: the Feast of Tabernacles “in the end of the year” when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ”] cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

Before we proceed to the goal and purpose of God’s will, which He is working through His Son and His Son’s children, let’s look at how the Lord’s plan for mankind is typified for us in the Old Testament:

Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15  [1] Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  [2] And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and [3] the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

Here is scripture’s second witness to this Truth:

Deu 16:16  Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; [1] in the feast of unleavened bread, and [2] in the feast of weeks, and [3] in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:

Just as the Passover is the integral prelude to the days of unleavened bread, so the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day of the Feast are the essential and integral prelude to the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death which is the destruction of death. Death is distinguished in scripture as “the last enemy to be destroyed”.

Now let’s continue with this revelation which Paul was blessed to give to us:

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.

If we simply consider that these verses here in Isaiah 65 conclude with “dust shall be the serpents meat”, then we will know that these verses are not speaking of the thousand-year reign, because “that old serpent” the devil [is] bound for a thousand years:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

If we consider that we are being told, “They [the wolf, the lion, and the serpent] shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” then we will know what stage of the building of the New Jerusalem is being spoken of here in Isaiah 65.

The wolf, lion and serpent will be permitted for “a little season… after [the] thousand years [to] hurt and destroy” again. It is very significant to know that the wolf and the Lion will be attempting to ‘hurt and destroy’ the camp of the saints at that time:

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.

Nothing is more hurtful and destructive to any man than to ‘come up against the camp of the saints and to withstand the Lord’s beloved city’.

So it is in the first two stages of the Lord’s kingdom in which all these words can and must be applied, and those stages are: 1) “Christ the firstfruits; 2) afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” During these two stages “the Lord and His Christ” have the kingdom of God within them and have all the beasts of the earth within them, but those beasts are all subdued like all the beasts within the ark of Noah. In Noah’s ark the wolf and the lion ate grass with the  lamb, and the serpent ate dust, and there was no hurt in all of Noah’s ark. There was the promise of a typical new world, but it was not yet realized. Life in the ark of Noah typified our lives in Christ. We have the promise of the kingdom, but the fullness of the purchased possession is not yet realized:

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in [the] Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Christ and His kingdom are within us, and the serpent and all other beasts of the field are subdued and have no dominion over us. Christ is supreme, the beasts within us come willingly to Him. However, that is not all there is to it, and the best is yet to come.

Gen 6:20  Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.

Here are just a few of the promises given to incentivize those to whom it is given to endure to the end:

Rev 2:7  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Rev 2:10  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Rev 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Rev 2:17  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

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 2:28  And I will give him the morning star.

Rev 3:4  Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
Rev 3:5  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

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.
Rev 3:10  Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
Rev 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

If we are given and are predestined to be overcomers, we will be “granted to sit with [Christ] in His Throne with His Father” in His kingdom.

The certainty of all these promises is the theme of this prophecy of Isaiah:

Isa 49:15  Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

This prophecy is built upon all previous scripture. Isaiah echoes and repeats all the promises Christ made to His kingdom of Israel. Here is this same promise in:

Deu 4:31  (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

King David gives us the same assurance.

Psa 27:10  When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.

The beginning of the Lord’s “beloved city” is long before the first resurrection, and that city and that kingdom do not come to an end or stop being His kingdom and His “beloved city” after the thousand-year reign. We were His “beloved city… before the world began”, and we will continue to be “the beloved city” even after the “short season” of rebellion which follows the thousand-year reign of “the camp of the saints.”

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;

Only after that universal rebellion which follows the thousand-year reign does our work of becoming “saviours upon Mount Zion” begin. This work culminates in the destruction of death, “the last enemy to be destroyed.”

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.

The destruction of “the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth” immediately ushers in the judgment of all the rest of mankind before the Great White Throne.

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.

‘Mount Zion’ is just another name for “Jerusalem above… the New Jerusalem… the beloved city” of which ‘Mount Zion’ we are told:

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

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.

“Through Him” means ‘through us’ because Christ said:

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

The Truth is that “we are the temple of God… the household of God… the beloved city… the New Jerusalem… a bride adorned for her Husband”, and we are espoused to Christ with all those titles right here and now. As such, Christ is sending us to accomplish what His Father sent Him to accomplish, which is:

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.

Christ’s doctrine is that “the kingdom of God is within you”, and as such we are all children of Jerusalem above and saviors who have “come up on Mount Zion”. Obadiah reveals to us that the judgment of the world is done by “the kingdom [which] is the Lord’s”. Therefore, it is made very clear that it is “the kingdom of the Lord”, His elect saints, who will be the judges of all the rest of mankind:

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.
Luk 17:22  And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
Luk 17:23  And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
Luk 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
Luk 17:25  But first must he [and His Christ] suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
Luk 17:26  And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Luk 17:27  They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:28  Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
Luk 17:29  But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:30  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

That stage of building of the new heavens and a new earth is the stage we are in at this very moment… at “this present time”. It is our time of dying daily to our old man as our new man increases daily. That daily dying is very painful, but we are incentivized to endure to the end with these words:

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

This stage of the construction of the new heavens and new earth is this down-payment “earnest of the spirit” stage (Eph 1:14) where the Lord is allowing the tares to grow with the wheat in the kingdom of God. This is not the post-first resurrection New Jerusalem, nor is it the post-great white throne judgment New Jerusalem. “Dust shall be the serpent’s meat” is “the kingdom of God is within you” stage of the New Jerusalem. In other words, these verses of Isaiah 65 are primarily speaking to us of our own time in these fleshly vessels of clay. The serpent is given no dust to eat in the great white throne judgment. He himself is being devoured by the flames of the words of truth.

For the sake of context here are the last three verses of our last study:

Isa 65:18  But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
Isa 65:19  And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
Isa 65:20  There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

Both “I will rejoice in Jerusalem” and “joy in my people” are in the Qal stem. “The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying” is in the ‘Niphal’ tense, or ‘stem’, and this is how that part of Hebrew grammar is defined:

H8833
Niphal
a) Niphal is the “passive” of Qal-See [H8851]

The point is that this construction of Jerusalem is a process, and therefore this is who “Jerusalem” here in verse 19 symbolizes:

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

Rev 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

God’s elect are His “bride adorned for her husband” who have “the name of the city of [their] God written upon [them]”, and they are the subject of the verses we will be studying today. These verses are certainly not primarily addressed to those who do not overcome in this present time, and who in this age are not the Lord’s “elect” (vs 22). These verses of our study today are for us in “this present time”.

Before we continue, I want to finish making the point concerning the word ‘judgment’ with which we concluded our last study:

Here is how Christ describes this particular ‘sinner’ who is feasting with His people in ‘Jerusalem’:

Mat 22:11  And when the king came in to see the guests [at the marriage of the king’s Son (vs 2)] he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
Mat 22:12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

This man was taking part in the wedding of the King’s Son, and yet he was discovered to not have a wedding garment! This is how those who are given a proper wedding garment are to avoid the fate of that man:

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge [G1252: diakrino, verb, separate, make a distinction, to prefer] ourselves, we should not be judged [G2919: krino, verb].
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged [G2919: krino, verb, judged in this present time] we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned [G2632: katakrino, down judged, judged against] with the world.

Being “condemned with the world” refers to the judgment against “the ungodly and sinners” (1Pe 4:18) of this age who will “appear” at the “white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death” because they are not being judged as “the house of God… in this present time”, and are not given a wedding garment in this age. Christ distinguished those being judged in “this present time” from the judgment of all others:

Mat 23:33  Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation [G2920: Greek, krisi, judgment] of hell? [G1067, Greek: ghenna, the great white throne judgment, krisis, the  lake of fire/second death].

This message of the order of being judged is reaffirmed in:

Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment [Greek: krisis, G2920] also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [at the beginning of the thousand year reign]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [Exact same Greek word translated ‘judgment’ in verse 27, krisis, G2920… the “white throne… judgment” (Rev 20:11-15)].

This order of judgment is again reaffirmed in:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment [G2917: ‘krima’, noun, neuter, same root as the Greek noun: ‘krisis’ G2920: feminine, noun], must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? [The answer to Peter’s rhetorical question is that they will be “condemned with the world to the “resurrection of damnation, Greek krisis, (Joh 5:27-29) over a thousand years after the first resurrection]
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

All “[the Lord’s] elect” who are in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection” are even now in down-payment form given to build and plant the things of the spiritual ‘kingdom within’ themselves, and to even now eat the fruits of the spirit, and to have dominion over every beast in their lives, even in “this present time” as the elect of the Lord:

Isa 65:21  And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

Christ gives us the best example of the houses being built by the Lord’s elect, and He gives us the contrast between the houses of His people and the houses which are built by anyone else:

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

When we “do the things which [our Lord] says” only then are we living in the house we built upon a Rock because that ‘Rock’ is Christ Himself and “the things [He tells us to do]”.

When we accept completely that the Lord Himself is “working all things after the counsel of His own will, and that He is working all things together for good to them who love Him and are the called according to His purpose, then we will be doing the things our Lord tells us to do. If we are given to be obedient, then we will reap and eat the good fruit of our own vineyard, and no one will be able to take it from us:

Isa 65:22  They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

There is that phrase “mine elect” again. We, the Lord’s elect, are the subject of this entire 65^th chapter as we read in:

Isa 65:9  And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

Christ Himself is the seed brought forth out of Jacob, and according to Christ Himself, we are Him:

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

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

If we are granted as His elect to endure to the end in this present time, then we will indeed ”Long enjoy the work of our hands” ruling with a crown of life with Christ for a thousand years, after which we will also become “saviors… on Mount Zion [and] judge[s of] angels” in the great white throne judgment:

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

We are not saved in this present time simply for our own benefit. Rather we are being saved in this present time for the purpose of showing all others the same mercy of which we, in this present time, are the first recipients.

“We [are]… the first to trust in Christ” (Eph 1:12). That is predestined and certain:

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

“The Father” (vs 2) is working all things after the counsel of His own will that we… who first trusted in Christ… should be to the praise of his glory”. However, we will not know beyond any question that we are those “who first trusted in Christ… faithful… to the end” until we are raised up in “the resurrection of life” (Joh 5:27-29). That is why we’re told:

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

Paul reaffirms the efficacy of this mindset in the very next chapter of this same epistle to the Philippians:

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

Paul now goes on to make clear the resurrection for which he is striving:

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

If it is proven that we are in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection” then:

Isa 65:23  They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.

Christ never physically married, yet what we are told of His spiritual offspring is that they are far more in number than His first physical wife who is always the first to be very fertile in the things of the flesh.

Isa 53:8  He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Act 8:33  In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.

It is to us, if we are “His generation”, that these words are addressed:

Isa 65:24  And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

These words are true, but they are not telling us that we don’t need to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”. We are commanded to ‘call out’ to our Savior, and we are that ‘importunate widow’ of the Lord’s parable because that is what He tells us to be:

Luk 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Luk 18:2  Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
Luk 18:3  And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
Luk 18:4  And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
Luk 18:5  Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
Luk 18:6  And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
Luk 18:7  And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
Luk 18:8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

The greatest adversary any of us face in this life is that beast we face in the mirror every morning. The worst feature of every beast of the field is to be found in that one beast which comes up out of the vast sea of all flesh with “seven heads and ten horns” being empowered and enthroned by the “great red dragon” (Rev 12:3).

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having [like his father] seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

That is the enemy of the importunate widow, and by giving us dominion over that enemy within us, Christ is avenging us of our enemy, and the wild beast with seven heads and ten horns is now under our dominion, and we are no longer under his dominion.

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.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.

”For he that is dead…” is in the aorist tense, but “…is freed from sin” is in the perfect tense, which means that we are “dying daily” to that inward, multi-headed beast (1Co 15:31), and that is the meaning of:

Isa 65:25  The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

“They [these beasts] shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain” is just another way of saying ‘They shall not hurt nor destroy the kingdom of God within us’ here and now in this present time.

It accords with the witness of John the Baptist when he was inspired to say this about Christ:

Joh 3:30  He must increase, but I must decrease.

All of our trials in this present time are working together for our good, and if we are the Christ of Christ, then those trials will all serve only to transform our old man’s death into the strength and the birth of our new man, Christ within us. Our trials are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is yet to be revealed in us at “the resurrection of life”:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

That is our study for today. Next week we will begin the last chapter of Isaiah, chapter 66, and these are the verses we will be studying. It is all the same message. The Lord is taking vengeance upon the heavens and the kingdom of our rebellious old man and is in the process of blessing the heavens and the kingdom of God within our new man:

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?
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 66:3  He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
Isa 66:4  I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
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.
Isa 66:6  A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompence to his enemies.

Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.
Psa 104:31 The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.
Psa 104:32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
Psa 104:33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
Psa 104:34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.
Psa 104:35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.

This last section of our study entitled “I will be glad in the LORD” commences with the two verses that explain how that gladness is made possible in the lives of those with whom He is working. “Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth” and “The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works“. It is God’s work, in which He delights within his creation, and he shares in that joyful process with us as we are shown in His word.

1Th 2:19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
1Th 2:20 For ye are our glory and joy.

What could be more joyous and reassuring than to know that our all-powerful Father’s purpose is to take His workmanship and bring it unto perfection on the third day so that we can enter into His joy. These following verses remind us that we are God’s joy, and when we mature and share the gospel with others, that is our joy, knowing that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

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

Mat 25:21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Psa 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation [cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow]; and uphold me with thy free spirit. [Rom 8:14, 2Co 3:17-18]

Notice that it is Christ and His body, the “I shall be perfected” part of Luke 13:32, who are being perfected on the third day [all in Adam in time in other words], and that the “I do cures to day and to morrow” is speaking symbolically (Mat 13:34) of the day of the Lord for the elect and the day of the Lord for the rest of the body of Christ, a witness (2) that all of humanity will come to see their need for a physician to cure them (Luk 5:31) and bring them unto perfection on the third day, the day that symbolically represents when we go unto perfection through the process of judgment (3).

Psa 43:4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God [After we are healed by God’s word, then we go “unto the altar of God” (Luk 15:17-18)]

Psa 45:13 The king’s daughter is all glorious within [Joh 17:13, 1Jn 2:16]: her clothing is of wrought gold [Rev 19:7].

Psa 45:14 She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework [Exo 36:35, Heb 10:20, Rev 21:2]: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.
Psa 45:15 With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.
Psa 45:16 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth (Isa 2:3, Mic 4:2, Oba 1:21, Isa 60:3).
Psa 45:17 I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever (Rev 2:17, Rev 3:9).

Mat 25:21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

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

Act 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Rev 4:8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

It is an amazing reality to think about, to know that you will never be tired again, that we will never lack for energy and a desire to praise and serve God and each other, together with the body of Christ worshiping Him and experiencing this great gladness that will flow from us like rivers of living waters, even as it does in earnest today. The knowledge that He has shown us in mercy is sanctifying us and making us one body through His spirit, as He brings us unto perfection on the third day. We therefore say three times “Holy, holy, holy, [thankful for the process of sanctification] Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” knowing that it is more blessed to give, and to lay down our life today, and so we sing these praises toward God believing that our experience of being sanctified first will be used to help bring in the rest of humanity, and that these praises will continue on.

Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Psa 145:1 David’s Psalm of praise. I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
Psa 145:2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.

Chapter 17 of the book of Revelation speaks of the sealing process that the Israel of God will go through [God’s elect, are typified by Israel who is made up of Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Nepthalim, Manasses, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zabulon, Joseph and Benjamin who collectively make up the symbolic number of 144,000 which represents the foundation of God’s government (Rev 7:4)]. Ultimately all of humanity will be washed by the blood of the lamb and arrayed in white robes which typify His righteousness within us: “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:1-17).

Gal 6:16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

God’s elect must endure all that is written in chapter six of Revelation through Christ (Rev 6:1-17), and have all those seals poured out upon them, and as a result of that suffering they must endure, that much tribulation, that “washing of water by the word”, which is His judgment upon us, we can then know that we have been prepared of the Lord to rule and reign under Him (Eph 5:26, 2Ti 2:12).

Having done all and standing is to be wearing the whole suit of armour God provides so (Eph 6:13, Rev 19:7), we can be used by Christ to help wash the great unwashed masses of this world (Isa 1:16). Without the seals and the trumpets and the vials being poured out upon ourselves first, we could not put on the whole armour of God and stand or be that bride “his wife hath made herself ready” and therefore the question is asked “who shall be able to stand“? The answer is: those who have gone through the day of the Lord as explained in the verses in this chapter 6 that precedes verse 17 (Rev 6:1-16).

Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Rev 6:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Being able to stand is all connected to our joy in the Lord, our gladness in the Lord, knowing that in Him and through Him, we are more than conquerors (Rom 8:37) who are now able to minister His judgments on “the four corners of the earth” within ourselves first and ultimately as kings and priests on all the nations of this world one day (Rev 7:1, Rev 1:6, Rev 5:10). The number of angels that are doing this work are said to be standing in the same verse that comes after the judgments spoken of in Revelation chapter six, and so the Lord is telling us this is our inheritance in Him to bring the rest of the world into maturity just as He has already done in us, if we are blessed to endure unto the end and be found in the blessed and holy first resurrection where it will be more blessed to give this saving knowledge of our Lord that we have already received through the church.

Rev 7:1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

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

The verses we will examine in this study point to the sovereign power of God which brings us to a place of spiritual healing where we can stand in Him and experience the joy and gladness of knowing that His purpose for us will stand, as it will for the rest of humanity.

Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

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

Psa 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

God sends forth His word (Psa 107:20) which is spirit (Joh 6:63) and “they are created”. Now whether the “they” in this verse are Adam and Eve being physically created, or the “they” are the marred vessels being made anew in the Potter’s hands as the second Adam, both are created by God and for His purpose of showing us that He is the one who “renewest the face of the earth”.

When we hear the word of God, we are blessed (Mat 13:16) because we are becoming that renewed creation in him as we receive that word or seed that must die daily (Joh 12:24, 1Co 15:31). We are being given power to bring all our thoughts into subjection unto God through Christ (2Co 10:5). That is the sanctification process that we rejoice in and sing “holy holy holy” for: the Lord granting us eyes and ears in this age to come out of the “earth earth earth” or the world (Rev 18:4, Jer 22:29).

The same Strong’s number is used in Jer_22:29, Gen 1:1 and Gen 3:19:^G1093 — for earth and dust, telling us we are the marred vessel of dust and the earth that needs to have our heavens cleansed through a judgment (1Pe 1:1-8), which can only be effective if we are hearing the word of the Lord and abiding or continuing in those words (Joh 8:31-32).

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth^G1093. [and both were marred]

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust^G1093 thou art, and unto dust^G1093 shalt thou return.

Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Psa 104:31 The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.

What God has started in us will have no ending because “The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isa 9:7). As mentioned at the beginning of the study, part of our joy or gladness comes in knowing that we will never grow weary in the Lord in our newly resurrected bodies, and even today He brings us to a point where we can rejoice and be glad in the Lord for “his wonderful works”. He is doing those works within us both to will and to do (Php 2:13) so God’s elect can be blessed to have our eyes set on the prize of the mark of the high calling. The joy that is set before us is being able to share in the fulness of that relationship, seeing the Lord face to face in each other and no longer only in part.

Psa 107:15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

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.

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

1Co 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1Co 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Psa 104:32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.

The imagery presented in this verse explains the need for the Lord to look upon us in our weakened state so that we know how vulnerable we are in these weak vessels of clay that He is making his strength perfect through.

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

Heb 13:21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

We tremble in our flesh at the prospect of disappointing our Father, and yet he tells us that’s exactly what we’re going to do (Isa 63:17), until we don’t (Joh 8:36), and then we have peace in knowing that he has worked the whole process both to will and to do as he brings us closer to Him through our weaknesses and trials which bring us to cry out for deliverance; a deliverance that he promises will come as these following verses tell us (we are the widow and the fatherless child in God’s eyes coming out of Babylon and being delivered.

Exo 22:22 Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.
Exo 22:23 If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;

Jer 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

Psa 91:14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
Psa 91:15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
Psa 91:16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Jas 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

God created the hills within us, and He “toucheth the hills, and they smoke” which symbolically represents the living sacrifice which we are being dragged to the altar (Rom 12:1), which is the cross where Christ gives us the power to put off our flesh through the fiery trials which humble us in this age (Exo 19:18, 1Pe 4:12, 1Pe 4:17).

Psa 104:33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

When we are convinced that God has “set his love upon me”, when we believe that we are the redeemed of the Lord, when his spirit bears witness that we are his sons (Rom 8:16), then we will “sing praise to my God while I have my being“, a praise which He is perfecting in the saints, in the elect, which is typified in these verses below and is another reason why Christ says we must become as children to inherit the kingdom of God; children who have perfected praise.

Mat 21:15 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,
Mat 21:16 And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?

Mat 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Heb 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Heb 13:16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

It is humbling to know that God looks at us as the weak of the world, the “not many noble” brethren, but that should only make us all the more grateful for His ways which don’t depend on the arm of man, and to know that we are in His care “while I have my being”. It should give us great reason to rejoice in the Lord, and “again I say rejoice” (Php 4:4), because you are the apple of His eye and the first to know of His great love within us, which makes our hope in him real and tangible and not something of which we are ashamed.

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.

Ecc 9:11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

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 (Ecc 9:11):
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Rom 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Psa 104:34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.

Our meditation of God is sweetest when we think about those things that are above (Col 3:2-3, Php 4:8-9), and that is one of the most important parts of our fighting a good fight of faith, not loving the world or the things that are in this world that are not of the Father (1Jn 2:15-17).

If God will grant that we continue to work together toward that goal of losing our life so that we may find it in him (1Co 3:9, Mat 10:39) as we die daily together, we will not only find and know God and Christ (Joh 17:3), but we will find each other in that blessed and holy first resurrection together as a family ready to be about our Father’s business of saving the rest of humanity, who will be saved through Christ and His Christ (1Co 15:22). I mentioned on a study some time ago that the saving of the physical world from destruction is a type and shadow of what we will do as the body of Christ for the rest of humanity, and that is the reason we have gladness in the Lord knowing that he loves all mankind that much and is giving us a joyous part in this incredible process of salvation.

Mat 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

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

Psa 104:35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.

The last verse in our study explains how “I will be glad in the LORD”: it is by having sins consumed out of my earth, and the wickedness no more, so that I can bless the LORD, and praise Him. The world without can’t experience this joy just yet, and it is this process of judgement upon us (1Pe 4:17) that brings joy to God’s kind of first fruits (that judgment ripens us Jas 1:18).

We will be instrumental in delivering the world from all the sadness, all the tears, and all the sorrow that we will be blessed to wipe away, and will have experience in our own life to various degrees so that we can fulfill our role of being saviours (Psa 30:5, Psa 126:5, Joh 6:44). The world will finally cry out to God and be saved by those humbled saviours who will come up on Mount Zion, and that is a great reason to be “glad in the LORD” (Oba 1:21).

We must be consumed out of the earth, along with the wicked who cannot be anymore (Eze 24:10, 2Ti 2:12, Act 14:22). We are the weak of the earth whom God has mercifully predestinated to save in advance of all the world (Rom 11:31-32, Eph 1:4), and that knowledge brings us to say “bless thou the LORD, O my soul” and “Praise ye the LORD” because of His unfathomable love toward us. It is His love shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5) which enables us to rejoice and say with all confidence “I will be glad in the LORD”.

Jos 3:17 And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.

Jos 4:11 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the LORD passed over, and the priests, in the presence of the people.

Eze 22:14 Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.
Eze 22:15 And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.

1Jn 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
1Jn 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Next week, Lord willing, we will start a little mini-series compiled from all the emails which God gave us through our elders regarding the second resurrection, as I mentioned in a recent email I sent to the body.

Audio Links

Awesome Hands – part 50

“Smite the dust of the land”

Up until this study, we have covered two of the ten plagues that befall Egypt. In the study today, we are going to look at what happens as the Pharaoh has his heart hardened once again resulting in the Lord sending the next two plagues to Egypt.

“The Pharaoh sees relief”

 

Exo 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

As we discussed last study, and up until this next plague we are going to read about, the Pharaoh has witnessed 3 miracles and 2 plagues.

The first miracle was that of Aaron’s serpent swallowing the serpents of the sorcerers. The second was the first plague of the water turning into blood, and the third was the frogs destroyed everything on the land.

The plague of the frogs was enough for the Pharaoh to ask Moses to petition the Lord to take away the plague. However, this will not be a lasting petition once the Pharaoh gains relief, respite.

With this, the Lord is going to bring about lice/gnats/fleas. This particular plague is going to be a specific turning point however, because the magicians will not be able to duplicate this plague.

This will be the start of the magicians no longer being able to deceive with their “strange fire.”

Exo 8:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:17 And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:18 And the magicians did so with their enchantments (H3909) to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.

There is a point when we all experience in our walk with God, that the “fire which comes down from heaven,” and can be called upon by even babylonish ministers, will no longer be blessed to happen by the will of God.

It may seem odd that I am connecting this plague with the aspect of “fire from heaven,” but let us dive into the scripture to see if there is a precedent for this important connection.

If you will recall, the enchantments which are being performed up until this point actually represent those things done in secret since the Hebrew word “enchantment” used here means “secretly.”

As a reminder, here are two verses used which convey this thought.

1Sa 18:22 And Saul commanded his servants, saying, Commune with David secretly (H3909), and say, Behold, the king hath delight in thee, and all his servants love thee: now therefore be the king’s son in law.

1Sa 24:4 And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily (H3909).

“The finger of God”

As a result of the magicians being unable to duplicate this miracle, they refer to this as “the finger of God.”

Exo 8:19 Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

Why is this important?

What is telling are the times we see the finger of God being mentioned in scripture.

Exo 8:19 Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.

This is the first example, but as you will be given to see Lord willing, it is but the start of the explanation of the process the Lord uses to separate His people from the rest of the world.

This is typified by Egypt in this story and broadened in scope with the fourth plague of flies.

The next two examples help to point this out.

Exo 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
Exo 31:17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
Exo 31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, TABLES OF STONE, written with the finger of God.

Deu 9:7 Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.
Deu 9:8 Also in Horeb ye provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry with you to have destroyed you.
Deu 9:9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:
Deu 9:10 And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
Deu 9:11 And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.
Deu 9:12 And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

So, we have the plague of lice coming forth from the “dust of the land” being turned into lice and being referred to as an act of the “finger of God.”

The next time we see an act of God referenced in this way, we see it referenced when the Ten Commandments are written and given to God’s people.

What then are we being taught? What are the admonitions from which we can learn from and apply to our lives today?

Luk 11:16 And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven.
Luk 11:17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth.
Luk 11:18 If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub.
Luk 11:19 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges.
Luk 11:20 But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.

Connecting all of these verses together, allows us to paint a very clear spiritual picture of the
sign of the times,” which is upon us when we recognize what we are being told.

Christ clearly states that He casts out devils with the finger of God, so how does this relate to the lice which have been converted from the “dust of the land,” and the very next plague which follows the lice?”

Exo 8:18 And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.
Exo 8:19 Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.
Exo 8:20 And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

This time around, the Lord our God is going to make a new covenant. The making of a new covenant, of a new testament of what is going to happen is going to be shown with force of the power of God.

This can be seen in how the Lord makes a covenant with Israel via the Ten Commandments. This can be seen as Christ brings the power of the NEW Covenant that God makes with His people, via the the will of God, and the MIND that Christ ushers in with His presence on this earth.

This is all typified in the truth that the first plague was that which remained in the water. The second plague came up out of the water, and this third plague in the process makes its way via the HEAVENS, “the sky”, the wind and air and that which is ABOVE.

Do you think me crazy, a lunatic for speaking such things? What did we just read as examples of this process and did Christ speak of the same things I speak to you now?

Let us see, if the lice and flies spoken of in Exodus, are the same type and shadow of what I speak to you now.

Mat 16:1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
Mat 16:2 He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
Mat 16:3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

Here is the “sign of the time” happening to Egypt and the people of God during this plague and the one to follow.

Exo 31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, TABLES OF STONE, written with the finger of God.

Deu 9:10 And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to ALL THE WORDS, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

And the result is …

Isa 29:5 Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.

Isa 29:6 Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring FIRE.

Isa 30:30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring FIRE, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that WALKETH righteously, and SPEAKETH uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

It is now that we have arrived at the difference in God separating His people and causing them to undergo the same plagues which befall Egypt.

It is now that we are at the start of being called out of her.

The very sign of this tremendous and miraculous event in our spiritual lives is that of the sign of Jonah.

Mat 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

In the context of this plague, here is that sign:

Exo 8:21 Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.
Exo 8:22 And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.
Exo 8:23 And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall THIS SIGN BE.

The Lord is the Lord our God while we are IN EGYPT. He is our God causing us to ERR while in the MIDST of the EARTH. It is the miracle of the “striking of the dust” which caused the DUST to TURN INTO something that goes into the HEAVENLIES!

It is the striking of the dust which then leads into the next progression of being separated BECAUSE we are now in the heavenlies, in type and shadow, represented by the flies which DO NOT befall the Jews.

It is the Lord alone who causes us ALL TO ERR, and it is the LORD ALONE who will cause DIVISION to happen so that He can call us forth from WITHIN the HEART of the EARTH….. the same EARTH which we previously had our treasure in.

Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Didn’t Christ do the same thing? Was He not in the “heart of the earth” and then through process taken to the “promised land?” Just where is it that Christ ascended to?

Mat 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and ADULTEROUS generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
Mat 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Mat 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the PREACHING of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
Mat 12:42 The queen of the south shall rise up IN THE JUDGMENT with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to HEAR THE WISDOM of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.

Do you doubt this? Do you doubt that you were once just like the Egyptians but it was God who by division separated you unto Himself?

Isn’t it intriguing that Christ talks about an adulterous generation seeking a sign and that same generation will be JUDGED?

Who again is it that dwells in the FIRE comfortably? The FIRE is the WORDS OF GOD!

“For I am tormented in this flame”?

 

Luk 16:23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Luk 16:24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

There is another mount which should connect this nicely together for all of us. It is the mount of Olives.

Joh 8:1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.
Joh 8:2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
Joh 8:3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
Joh 8:4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
Joh 8:5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
Joh 8:6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
Joh 8:7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
Joh 8:8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
Joh 8:9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
Joh 8:10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
Joh 8:11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

When God comes to separate His people, He is going to make a covenant which for all intents and purposes was designed for Israel to be faithful to. However, we know that just like with Pharaoh, the Lord hardens their stiff necks and hearts to not OBEY their Husband.

Exo 8:22 And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.

Rev 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;
Rev 2:13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

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.

Pharaoh’s thoughts and intents are made manifest by these plagues and continues to be used to harden his heart.

Exo 8:23 And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be.
Exo 8:24 And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.

It is during this time that the flies (the positive application is that they are in the heavenlies “flying” around) DESTROY the land.

This is to say that the start of the OLD MAN being DESTROYED starts during this time. The old man and new man are having themselves separated and it is all done with the Word of God, which is also the mind of Christ, the Father’s Word.

Exo 8:25 And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.
Exo 8:26 And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

We are NOT to return to the abominations of the Egyptians and “sacrifice their abomination”. This is what the Pharaoh wants Moses and Aaron to do.

However, the Lord commands that we go to “His land”, that we process into the wilderness to start our journey to mount Sion.

Exo 8:27 We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us.
Exo 8:28 And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: intreat for me.
Exo 8:29 And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will intreat the LORD that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to morrow: but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.
Exo 8:30 And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD.
Exo 8:31 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one.
Exo 8:32 And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.

The old man simply will not give up. It will take an utter DEATH experience and killing of the “old man” and all that he represents before this battle will be over.

In the next study, we are going to continue to see how we are admonished to “live, and breath and have our being” in what the Lord commands of us. If we do not, “DEATH of the BEASTS” will be the result. What do you think Pharaoh will do?

(Key verses: Gen 15:1-6)

This is our sixth discussion relating to the foundational theme of faith, as we are focusing specifically on the life and journeys of Abram (only later called Abraham). The faith that Abram displayed from his initial calling in Ur in the land of the Chaldees is a type of the faith of Jesus Christ which we receive to please God and to gain access to his spirit and his mind (Rom 4:1-12; Heb 11:6; Mar 11:20-26). Through the faith and life of Christ in us, we are given guarantees through His word that we will be overcomers and be faithful until the end (1Ti 6:12; 1Jn 5:4; Heb 12:2; Gen 15:1).

Rom 4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.
Rom 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Flesh and its natural mind cannot receive the spiritual things of God, but the faith of Christ brings to us spiritual enlightenment even as it is approved through fiery trials (1Co 2:14; 1Co 2:5; 1Pe 1:7). Everything we have is from God, and faith also is a gift from God which produces the good works of God or the fruit of God’s spirit in us (Rom 11:33; 1Co 4:7; Rom 10:17; Joh 6:63; Gal 5:22-23):

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 life and pilgrimage of Abraham was written down to admonish us in terms of how the faith of Christ will facilitate our spiritual growth to maturity as we also are called to “bring forth fruit unto God” (Rom 7:4):

Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
Heb 11:9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
Heb 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

God is truly sovereign, and that means no creature has a free will – it is God who is causing everything and everyone to “live, and move, and have [their] being” in Him (Act 17:22-29). That encompasses everything in our own life and the lives of others, good and evil, for those who can receive this truth (Job 2:10; Pro 16:4; Pro 20:24; Pro 21:1). Even when we cannot acknowledge God as such and He is unknown to us, He still controls every aspect of our lives (Rom 1:21; Jer 10:23; Psa 139:1-16). God speaks to us in “divers manners” (even through His “dark sayings”) first before He speaks to us clearly though His “express image” of His Word, Jesus Christ (Psa 78:2-3; Pro 1:5-7):

Heb 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Heb 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

We get to know Abram as a man with a tent and an altar openly witnessing to his detachments to any idea of physical permanency as he also obeyed God above all. Abram indeed learned how to fight the good fight of faith through the many tribulations he had to endure since his calling in Ur, which included separation from loved ones and the familiar environments in Ur, a severe drought in a foreign land (Canaan), a humiliating rebuke from the Egyptian pharaoh (and a Philistine king at a later stage), getting involved in a war to save his nephew Lot, and the temptation of gifts from the king of Sodom (1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 4:7; Act 14:22). Many more tests and trials were still waiting in the future for Abram:

Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

Faith comes by hearing the word of God, and that is also how faith will grow stronger (Rom 10:17). Throughout his life “the word of the Lord came unto Abram” to strengthen and reassure him of God’s plan and purpose for his life, even through God’s servants (Gen 12:1; Gen 13:14; Gen 14:18; Gen 17:1; Gen 18:1; Gen 22:1; Gen 22:15). No one comes to God, and no one can do anything unless God initiates and maintains it (Jer 10:23; Joh 6:44; Rom 9:16; Rom 11:36; Eph 1:11).

“Fear not, Abram”

God admonished Abram to “fear not”. God is making it clear to Abram (and to us) that fear is a definite obstacle to faith, and this is the aspect of faith we will mainly focus on in this discussion, as God leads. Although we touched on this theme of fear in Study 25, in this discussion we want to juxtapose fleshly fear in terms of the faith of Christ, as these two work as opposing spiritual forces in our lives. Faith is an assurance of the things we hope for and a strong conviction of the spiritual things of God which our natural mind cannot receive (Rom 8:24-25; 1Co 2:14):

Heb 11:1 (ASV) Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.

God knows our natural makeup because He made us of “the dust of the ground” – weak and fragile and devoid of the life of the spirit of God (Gen 2:7; Psa 103:14; Rom 8:20). It is not news for God that we are fearful creatures, full of darkness and insecurities – we are indeed being marred in the hand of the Potter (Gen 1:2; Jer 18:4). Although this is our initial status, all in the generation of the first Adam will be eventually inhabited by the spirit of God in Christ (1Co 15:22):

Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

In our spiritual state of darkness and death, fear is a negative and strong force which controls the natural mind (in photography we learn that negatives are developed in a dark room). This world knows how to bring fear to the natural mind with all the reports on which they focus. The expression to “fear not” appears 62 times in the KJV in various contexts, but here is one example to help us understand how fear not only has a negative application, but also a positive application. In this positive application of fear we will learn, God willing, to see how we can be strong when all around us fail:

Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

God’s word to Abram was to not fear “them which kill the body”, but to fear Him who works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11). If we obey the word of God and do His commandments, then we fear Him and we will understand that all things, good and evil, are sent by God for our good (2Co 11:23-28; 2Co 12:7-10; 1Pe 3:13-14):

Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

When we fear God, we do not resist the very things He sends to fulfill His good plan for our lives:

Mat 5:38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
Mat 5:39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Heb 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

Here is another way to see how we submit to this truth when we can indeed see that God is sovereign over everything in this creation:

Rev 1:17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

The flesh is spiritually dead from its creation from the hand of the Potter, and that is also how carnal fear is to be understood – it operates when death and darkness rule in our minds:

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Jesus Christ, through His revealed spirit life in us, sets us free from the fear of death as we associate intimately and truthfully with His suffering and death (Joh 6:63; Mat 10:36-39; Gal 2:20; 2Ti 2:11-12; Rom 6:3-18):

Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Heb 2:15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Heb 2:16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

“I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward”

“…the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” is a powerful truth of what the faith of Christ in us is doing. The faith of Christ is active through the application of His word (Heb 4:12). While we are in this flesh we will always struggle with human fear, even after glorious victories over our enemies in the flesh – as Abram achieved over the four worldly kings we discussed in our last study (57). Even Elijah, that great man of faith, was running for his life after God proved him in front of the world to be a servant of God in the killing of the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal on mount Carmel (1Ki 18:17-40):

1Ki 19:1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
1Ki 19:2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.
1Ki 19:3 And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.
1Ki 19:4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.

Fear is an evil spirit from the Lord and is an integral part of the human condition because we all cannot see God’s purposes through our natural observations and earthly sensors (Heb 12:9; Isa 45:7). Subjection to God, who is the Father of spirits, is what releases us from the “spirit of bondage…to fear” from this physical creation (Gen 2:7; Rom 8:20; Gen 3:9-10). Natural fear wanted to cause an obstacle to Abram’s faith, and it wants us to consider a short cut to spiritual glory. This is what is revealed in Abram’s natural heart as we all consider short term earthly solutions to avoid the enduring trial of our faith:

Gen 15:2 And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
Gen 15:3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

But Eliezer was not in God’s plan to bring forth an offspring for Abram – it would have been the easy route. Although God works all things in this natural creation, He indeed specializes in what humans perceive as impossible (Luk 1:37):

Gen 15:4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

The flesh and its works shall not bring forth God’s spiritual offspring in us in any shape or resemblance. These fleshly solutions and earthly images are strong delusions which God brings to all who are still attached to the earth in their appointed time (1Co 15:46-50; Rom 1:21-23):

Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rom 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

All fleshly miracles are temporary, and it is only through the faith of Christ that His elect are enabled to resist the inward worship of physical signs and miracles. The elect of God are looking for a healing which is much deeper – the healing of their hearts as they want all the seven heads (the complete carnal mind) of their beast to be killed with the sword of His Word. God promised Abram that his offspring “shall come forth out of thine own bowels” which connects both to the physical and spiritual application – God’s work in this creation brings both to apply in our lives at the appointed times (Exo 14:19-20; Isa 45:7). The last time God spoke to Abram about his offspring it was equated with “the dust of the earth”:

Gen 13:14 And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
Gen 13:15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
Gen 13:16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
Gen 13:17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

In one way the earthly seed pointed to Ishmael, the firstborn of Abram, who was Abram’s offspring through an Egyptian slave, Hagar (Gen 16:1-16). But even through Abram’s physical offspring via Isaac, the physical Jews were not the true spiritual application of what God had in mind, which few can see in this age of much deception. This is what the apostle Paul wrote about all the physical Jews who came through Isaac:

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.

So even the Jerusalem “which is now” is in spiritual bondage with her children, even as all the multitudes who are under the rulership of “the tutors and governors…under the elements of the world” (Gal 4:1-3). So this earthly offspring of Abram has various levels of applications with a deeper delusion within each application, even including the multitudes that follow the “other Jesus” or the “Christ after the flesh” in the spiritual whore Babylon with her enticing provisions (Gal 4:25; 2Co 5:16; 2Co 11:4; Rev 17:1-18):

Joh 6:2 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.

Joh 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

All natural fears cause us to rather hide in the safety of our tent, even as Adam and Eve hid away from God and thought God’s view is limited to what they perceived (Gen 3:9-10). For Abram to get a better and deeper idea of what God was talking about, God had to bring Abram out of his tent – out of his natural limitations and perceptions – to see beyond the veil of flesh, even to see Christ as the Saviour of all:

Gen 15:5 And he brought him forth abroad [Hebrew: “chûts” = separate/outside], and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

This time God pointed Abram’s attention in another direction. It is only when we are given the faith of Christ to see beyond the “dust of the earth” with all its fear and delusions that our heavens will be opened to see what the heavenly Jerusalem is all about and how the fear of God operates (Gal 4:26-27). Then we can see how God is our shield and our protection through Jesus and His offspring, even His church (Rev 21:1-4). The spirit of God, which is His word, brings the faith of Christ that destroys even our natural fears and releases us from earthly bondage (Isa 61:1; 1Co 15:50; 2Co 3:17):

Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

2Ti 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

A “sound mind” is anchored in the Word of God and fearless in proclaiming the truth. This is what brought forth the faith in Abram to believe God and this is what counts for righteousness, even before Abram was circumcised:

Gen 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Outward circumcision is not a prerequisite to receiving God’s righteousness, except the circumcision is of the heart – which is the removal of the fleshly heart to be replaced with the spiritual heart or mind of Christ (Col 2:11; Php 3:3):

Gal 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
Gen 6:16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

The life of Abram shows us how he even obeys God’s commandment: “fear not”. Faith activates the fear of God in us as Abram trusted God and His words and diligently heeded God’s commandments. Abram had this unwavering belief in God’s promises despite overwhelming testimonies to the contrary:

Rom 4:18 [Abram] Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
Rom 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
Rom 4:20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Rom 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

———-

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

Fear Not!
Why Is Christ Called “Everlasting Father”?
Awesome Hands – Part 05: “So that you will be a blessing”
Awesome Hands – Part 06: “What will thou give me”
Christ is Preached Even in Babylon

Key verse: Genesis 3:14-15

The book of Genesis gives us not only the truth of the creation of a physical world, but it uses these visible things to give us an understanding of the invisible things of God, for those who can receive that. The physical world reflects the spiritual types of God’s works within us:

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.

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.

God is busy working His one plan of salvation, even through this “evil experience / sore travail…in the earth” (Ecc 1:13). This is done in a way God alone decided, as no man was asked to give Him counsel or advice (Rom 11:33-36). Everyone in the first Adam will eventually humbly submit to His ways of doing things when all will give an account to this effect (Php 2:9-14, Rom 14:12). We actually start off thinking we are spiritual and eternal beings who have been placed in a body of flesh having a “free” will to make “independent” choices. However, the scriptures are very clear on our initial earthy status – inside and outside (Rom 8:20, Jer 18:4).

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

Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

We cannot accept these truths at first, but when God starts to open our eyes, it becomes a humbling, painful, yet joyful process of judgment we must endure (Heb 12:11). The theme of judgment is foundational in this God-ordained process of creating humanity and all carnal-minded creatures in His spiritual image. The judgment of Adam and Eve, with this serpent, helps us tremendously to understand this wonderful and “strange work” of God “in the earth” (Psa 107:1-10, Isa 28:21).

Psa 46:8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

Chapter three of Genesis is packed with so much of what the natural man experiences in the earth, and its true spiritual applications form important foundations for our understanding of God’s hidden secrets. God indeed wrote everything in His book “before the foundation of the world” and through Jesus all will be judged (Gen 18:25, Joh 5:22, Joh 17:24, 1Pe 1:20, Rev 20:12, Col 1:15-17, Heb 1:2, Php 1:8, Rev 1:1-3, Eph 1:11).

Psa 139:16 (CEV) but with your own eyes you saw my body being formed. Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything I would do.

Although God is causing every thought and action of His creatures, they still need to give an account of their own actions. Giving an account is included in the process of judgment, but the natural mind sees this accounting quite differently to what the Scriptures actually say, as the natural minds in Adam and Eve also demonstrated:

Gen 3:9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
Gen 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Gen 3:11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Gen 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Gen 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

Adam and Eve could not give a proper accounting why they did what they did. They simply saw the outward and thought that God was also removed from what is happening “in the earth”. We naturally believe we were left to survive on our own with our own fabled “free” will and the “free” choices we must make in line with, or against, the will of God, but no one can resist the will of God in anything they do.

Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

Because the natural or carnal mind cannot see God’s hand in all things, he cannot give a proper accounting of what God has written in His book. God has ordained that this accounting should only be done through a process of judgment, which will bring salvation to all, “by His grace” (Jer 49:12).

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

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

The Greek verb for “hath appeared” is in the aorist tense, which reaffirms that “all men” are appointed to salvation and will receive it at God’s appointed time (1Co 15:22-28).

1Th 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

God’s grace works through His wrath, which is poured out on all ungodliness and worldly lusts in “all [who] have sinned”, and His wrath lasts for a limited period (Eph 2:2-3, Rev 15:8). The Greek word “paideuō” in Titus 2 verse 11 is explained in this verse:

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth [paideuō], and scourgeth [flogs] every son whom he receiveth.

How clear is that? One must be blinded and beguiled not to see the “simplicity” of Christ’s one mind on this (2Co 11:3). We should know that judgment is a good thing for our spiritual development which teaches us about God and His righteousness. We receive His righteous mind, His clothing for us, through judgment “in the earth” only:

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

It is then significant to see that this judgment is also appointed for the serpent:

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

One of God’s “wonderful works” is His creation of a “crooked serpent” (which means he was created with a deceptive carnal mind). He was made by God to go “to and fro in the earth” deceiving all with the same carnal mind in the first man Adam (Job 26:13, Joh 8:44, Job 1:7). From the “sum of God’s word” we know that this serpent (alias Satan, devil, leviathan, the dragon) was cursed and crooked from the hand of the Potter – “from the beginning” (Rev 12:9, Joh 8:44, Job 26:13).

Isa 27:1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon [Hebrew: tannı̂yn] that is in the sea.

Gen 1:21 And God created great whales [Hebrew: tannı̂yn], and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

The “sea” and “waters” here refer to his spiritual condition and carnal activities. We are, like this serpent, in that same state of spiritual death which is also typified in Scripture with “dust of the ground” (Gen 2:7). We are dust and carnal, and that is how the first Adam, and all in him, share the same “menu” with the serpent (Joh 3:5-6, 1Co 15:46, Rev 13):

Rom 8:6 For to be carnally [earthy/fleshly] minded is death; but to be spiritually [heavenly] minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

“Upon thy belly shalt thou go” is not merely referring to a physical way of moving around for this serpent, but rather confirming his vain and lowly carnal condition of being earthy. Many miss this spiritual truth because they are deluded to focus on whether the serpent walked upright before. The Scriptures do not say that the serpent walked upright, because he was never spiritually perfect and righteous (“upright in heart”). Spiritually he was on his earthly belly all the time as he was “crooked” from the hand of the Potter (Rom 8:20). The spiritual application of God’s word has much more profit than the naturally puffed up opinions of men (1Co 4:6).

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.

The judgment on this serpent here in Genesis chapter 3 is the first indication in Scripture that this evil spirit being will be saved and given the righteous robes of Jesus Christ (Rev 19:11). This serpent, and all others with the same mind as him, should be seen for what they are – serpents. Nevertheless, all serpents will eventually dwell on the “holy mountain” of God – “seated in heavens”. This is what is meant with the bruising of his head…his carnal mind will be destroyed. This means that Satan and all evil spirits like him, including all in Adam, will have the spirit mind of Christ feeding on the “dust” of God – the holy spirit “menu” of God:

Isa 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Isa 6:2 Above it stood the seraphims [Hebrew: śârâph – a poisonous fiery serpent]: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Isa 6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

Isa 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

This is how the words “dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” are fulfilled in the judgment of the serpent. It also reveals to us the positive application of dust as all things created by God have both a negative (“corruption”) and positive (“incorruption”) application. The “dust” of God is His brimstone which will bring spiritual healing to all and “throughly purge his floor”:

Isa 34:9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone [Hebrew: gophrı̂yth], and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

Mat 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Mat 3:12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone [Greek: theion], where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented [Greek: basanizō] day and night for ever and ever [the eons of the eons].

The Hebrew word for brimstone is “gophrı̂yth” and is described as the breath or judgment of God:

Isa 30:33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

This links beautifully with the Greek word for brimstone which is “theion” and comes from the base “theos” which means Godly. The Greek word “basanizō” refers to a test for purity of gold or silver which are types of God’s Word. All this is saying is that God’s one and only spiritual fire brings spiritual purification in all He judges (Heb 12:29, 1Co 3:13-15, Jer 5:14, Isa 66:18):

Psa 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

God’s judgment on this serpent also brings separation between the serpent’s seed and the seed of the woman. With this God confirms the impassable distinction between the darkness and the light:

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

The serpent’s seed operates in the deep pit of darkness – the carnal mind which is typified by the grave (“she’ôl” in Hebrew and “hadēs” in Greek). It is in the thoughts of the natural mind where all the “negatives” are developed which then manifest in words and actions “against the truth” (Psa 88:6, 1Co 15:55). Thoughts/words are spirits – both the good incorruptible “seed” and the evil corruptible “seed” (Mat 13:3-9, Mat 13:24-30):

1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

1Jn 4:5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

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.

1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible [seed], by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

This seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman are both also reflected in the various genealogies we find throughout the Scriptures. This starts off with the genealogies of two sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Seth who was appointed by God as “another seed instead of Abel”). Also included are the genealogies of the two sons of Isaac (Esau and Jacob), and also the two sons of Abraham (Ishmael and Isaac):

Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise [of the spirit].

Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

This is how the serpent bruises the heel of the elect. The serpent or dragon will always persecute the seed of the woman in every generation – those who read, hear and keep the testimony of the “Seed”, Jesus Christ (Rev 1:1-3).

Rev 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

[The writer may be reached at glgroenewald@gmail .com for questions or comments.]

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

The Wrath of God
Till the Seven Plagues are Fulfilled
Give an Accounting
The Flood and the Dragon
Will Satan and his Angels be Saved?
Will Satan and his Angels be Saved #2?
What Does it Mean “Dust Shall be the Serpent’s Meat”
What is the Spiritual Significance of Genealogies?

The foundation of earthy man was built on sand as God made it from “the dust of the ground”, which is a temporary dwelling for all in the first Adam (Gen 2:7, Mat 7:26-27). This Adam was given a body of sin and death which reflects the spiritual condition of “the wicked” on whom God will “rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest” because flesh in whatever form cannot enter the Lord’s holy temple (Rom 6:6, Rom 7:24, 1Co 15:50):

Psa 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Psa 11:4 The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.
Psa 11:5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
Psa 11:6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

God’s righteous judgment will destroy “the wicked first man Adam” which is indeed a “horrible tempest” for him. The symbolic cup of our old man is first filled with all forms of iniquity from his creation when he was made “subject to vanity” and corruption “by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope”:

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

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

The punishments of Adam, Eve and the serpent as written down in Genesis 3 not only give us a type of the true spiritual judgment which will destroy all carnal minds, but it also gives us three different perspectives and also important aspects of this foundational theme of judgment. We already touched on a few of these aspects in our previous two discussions.

The natural man does neither accept, nor does he understand, the purpose of God’s judgments, and he thinks he can somehow avoid it by his own good works (Isa 28:15, Jer 25:27-29, Jer 49:12). This self-righteousness is represented by the fig leaves used by Adam and Eve as a covering for their nakedness, and also in the offering of the fruit of the ground by their firstborn son, Cain:

Pro 28:5 Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things.

God’s judgments are connected to His righteousness and mercy. Only through a process of judgment can anyone be taught the righteousness of God. It is not instantaneous as many falsely propagate (Psa 9:8, Psa 19:9, Psa 98:9, Isa 26:9).
Although God is causing every thought and action of His creatures, they still need to give an account of them. This accounting is seen by the natural man as if he is expected to inform or report to God about things of which God was supposedly unaware. The natural mind cannot see that God wrote all our thoughts and actions, both good and evil, in His book long before we were born in the flesh, and He is ‘working’ in us from start to finish (Php 2:12-13):

Psa 139:16 (CEV) but with your own eyes you saw my body being formed. Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything I would do.

God’s judgment is His “strange work” of saving grace which comes through His wrath on the old man in us (Isa 28:15-29). This wrath is therefore poured out on all ungodliness and worldly lusts in “all [who] have sinned” (Rom 3:23, Eph 2:1-3, Rev 14:7-11). This wrath of God has an appointed time period and only lasts until His goal is achieved, which is salvation:

1Th 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

God’s judgment brings about His righteousness to all, which includes all evil angelic creatures, also Satan, that old serpent. Satan’s carnal ‘meal’ is symbolized by dust, and this dust is turned into brimstone when God brings spiritual healing and purification through His fiery Word (Heb 12:29, Jer 5:14, Jer 23:29). This word ‘brimstone’ supplies the spiritual meaning of how this serpent, and all other serpents or seraphs around the throne of God, will eat dust “all the days” of their lives (Gen 3:14, Isa 6:1-3):

Isa 34:9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone [Greek: theion from the base theos which means God-like = His spiritual image], where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented [Greek: basanizo – to test for purity] day and night for ever and ever [the eons of the eons].

God’s judgment reveals the impassable distinction between the light and the darkness and the “great gulf fixed” between the children of light and the children of darkness (Gen 1:2-3, Luk 16:26). This also reveals how we first start off as children of darkness to eventually be translated into His true Light, Jesus Christ, who is the exact or “express image” of the “Father of lights” (Eph 5:8, 1Th 5:5, Jas 1:17):

Heb 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Heb 1:4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

God’s judgment also reveals to us that the froward mind-set of carnality always thinks God is changing His mind because of the thoughts and actions of His creatures. The thoughts and actions of creatures are never the cause of anything, especially changing the plan and purposes of God. God is the only Cause, or Creator, of both good and evil in every aspect and operation of this creation (Isa 45:7). God also approaches the carnal mind on the level He deceives it, and that is also revealed in the way the Scriptures are written (Eze 14:1-10, Jer 4:10, 1Ki 22:22, 2Th 2:11, Isa 46:10):

Psa 18:26 b …. with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.

Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness [inconstancy; fickleness; unsteadiness], neither shadow of turning.

Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

Judgment clarifies that all in the first Adam are appointed by God to first experience this state of spiritual death, before the final judgment is brought on us when this eon of death is completely destroyed. ALL death (all carnal minds) will be destroyed and consumed by the life and mind of Christ. With everything God does He has a good purpose (an end goal) in mind and that also applies to judgment. This truth brings so much comfort and joy (1Pe 4:12-14):

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

We naturally do not honor God’s spiritual order as we do not wait on God but walk ‘uncovered’ in the flesh as Eve did when she “prophesied with her head uncovered” and in the process “dishonored her head” (Adam) when she addressed the serpent instead of Adam (Gen 3:1-5, 1Co 11:3-5). Eve represents our own flesh and carnal reasoning when we naturally do not listen to His commandments and think we can help God through our own zealousness and false sincerity, as Abraham did who listened to Sarah’s wrong advice when she thought that the promised seed will come through Hagar. This is also typified in the sacrifice which king Saul offered in his disobedience and impatience. King David’s ignorance in the way the ark of God was supposed to be moved, and Saul (later Paul) persecuting the church helps us to see why judgment is so important for us to see the right perspectives (Psa 27:14, 2Co 11:3, 1Co 11:3, Gen 16:1-3, 1Sa 13:7-9, 1Ch 13, Act 9:5).

Eve’s punishment included “sorrow and conception” and this is a type of the real spiritual process of conception in and through Christ and His body (Rom 8:21-25, Rom 11:30-31):

1Co 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
1Co 6:4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.

Continuing with this theme of judgment mentioned as a type in Genesis chapter 3, we see that the punishment of Adam in the garden of Eden also confirms all these truths and also adds more insight to this foundational theme in Genesis:

Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened [listened or obeyed] unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Gen 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

It is not recorded in Scripture that Eve spoke to Adam to eat of the tree, but only that she gave him of the tree, and he also ate. That is how Adam “hearkened unto the voice” of Eve:

Gen 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

The word ‘voice’ is not limited to audible words, but also to following another person’s walk or directives. We follow either the spirit of God through listening to His Word and also doing what He said, or we follow the “voice” of strangers in their words and their actions (Mat 7:24-27, Gal 2:20, Eph 2:2-3, Gal 5:19-23, Jas 2:18-26, Rev 1:3):

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

Eve was “beguiled by the serpent” as she followed the ‘voice’ of the serpent and Adam also followed that same ‘voice’ revealed in his actions (2Co 11:3). Adam was initially unaware of many things, including his own status and nakedness. Like Eve, he also had no clue what good and evil were, among all the other earthy things in and around them. Again it appears to the natural mind that God was now redirecting or changing His plan with the ground (“cursed is the ground”). Anything earthy, including the ground, was made marred and corrupt from the hand of the Potter (Jer 18:4, Rom 8:20, 1Co 15:42-43, Rom 9:21). Everything “of the ground” refers to temporary and carnal things. This also is reflected in the outward things which God created within the six days of the physical creation. Nothing in this physical creation is ‘good’ in itself, but only good for the purpose God will use it, including all evil (Gen 50:20, Isa 5:20, Pro 16:4):

Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

This godly principle that evil and darkness were there (inwardly and outwardly) long before we become aware of it, is also typified in the other punishments of Adam:

… in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Thorns and thistles were all created on the third day of the six day creation but were revealed to Adam and Eve now for the first time. “All things are full of labour” as the sensual perceptions of mankind always find ‘new’ knowledge which is actually only new to the carnal observer (Ecc 1:18):

Ecc 1:8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
Ecc 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Ecc 1:10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

The “thorns and thistles” also refer to spiritual perspectives in the natural heart of our first man, which the judgments of God mercifully reveal to us as being false doctrines in a reprobate mind (Rom 1:28). This is when we are limited to a spiritual diet of herbs and we are spiritually weak with immature or untested knowledge (1Co 8:1, 1Th 5:19-21, 1Co 14:29, 1Jn 4:1, Rom 12:1, Heb 10:24-25, Pro 27:17):

Rom 14:2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

Being in this weak state spiritually, we ‘sweat’ as we cannot judge properly and do our works in the flesh to gain healing and salvation for flesh and spirit through natural means:

Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

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.

Through His judgments these thorns and thistles/briars are burned out of us progressively until the day death is totally destroyed in us:

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

Heb 6:8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

Jos 23:13 Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

Adam’s returning to dust was preordained by God because flesh and blood will never, and has never been in the spiritual kingdom of God. The body of flesh is “the body of this death” and that is also how “sin entered into the world”:

Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Next week, God willing, we will continue our discussion in this foundational theme of judgment as typified in Genesis.

[The writer may be reached at glgroenewald@gmail .com for questions or comments.]

[Detailed studies and emails written relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the www. iswasandwillbe. com website, including:
The Head of Christ is God
The Sum of Thy Word
What is Life Aionois?
After the Counsel of His Own Will

Hello Mike,

What is your understanding of Isa 54:16. (Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.) Could the destruction be thought of as the serpent feeding on our dust? Look forward to hearing from you.

Your brother who is laboring in the word,

M____

Hi M____,

It is always good to hear from you. Thank you for your question.

You ask:

What is your understanding of Isa 54:16? (Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.) Could the destruction be thought of as the serpent feeding on our dust?

Here is that verse, and the next verse:

Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

You are exactly right about the waster feeding on our dust. That is what this verse is saying. What is so little understood is that when we acknowledge that the waster has destroyed us and we repent of that destructive life style, we are then in the position, by God’s design, to rule over that destroyer within our own lives.

In other words, it is God who forms both us and the weapon formed against us. And, as the book of Job demonstrates so graphically, that weapon, “that old serpent the Devil, and Satan… [ does] not prosper”, but all of his efforts and all who he sends to oppose us become “bread for us”.

Num 14:6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
Num 14:7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
Num 14:8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
Num 14:9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not

So what Isa 54:16-17 is telling us is that when “the Lord is with us”, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn,” and they become “bread for us”.

Here is the way Paul puts this same principle:

Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

I hope you find this to be confirming to you that what you are seeing there in Isa 54:16 is exactly right. I also hope you are encouraged by coming to understanding that our trials, while they are “fiery trials” and they are destructive of our old man, are at the very same time “food for us”, and in the end they increase our strength and help to make us into “another vessel, as seems good to the Potter to make it”.

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

Here is how our Lord describes this process:

Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Your brother in that process,

Mike

A Discussion That “here a little, there a little” builds the answer to this spiritual question.

Hello,

I have a question about Isaiah 65 and could use your help in answering it.

Isa 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

What does it mean spiritually that dust shall be the serpent’s meat?

Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

S____

Hi S____,

Everything will indeed be accomplished when God is all in all. But “My holy mountain” is God’s kingdom, and that ‘mountain’ or ‘kingdom’ is within us even now.

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come [when Isa 65 would be fulfilled], 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.

Therefore when we read of the New Heavens and New Earth in Isaiah 3 or Isaiah 65, they also have a very present application in down payment form.

I hope this is of some help.
Your brother in Christ.
Mike

Mike, thank you for what you’ve added to my understanding on Isaiah 65. I really see more clearly the present “is” application of what I believe this prophecy is showing us today.

Seated with Christ now in the heavens, we are able, through Christ who strengthens us, to have all of our tears and many tribulations understood (1Pe 4:12) and not thought of as strange as He increases and we decrease.

The “is” part of the ‘is, was and will be’ nature of God’s word in each joint supplies an effectual work which makes increase of Christ’s body as we edify each other with Godly love now.

Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

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.

That suffering I perceive to be nothing compared to the glory that is going to be revealed as God continues to heal us and wipe away all our tears which He causes as we grow in our realization of His goodness which leads us to repentance.

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?

Your grateful brother in Christ,
Tony

Hi S____,

I believe the serpent in this situation of Isaiah 65 is the elect during the millennium prior to the great white throne judgement, and they are ruling with a rod of iron over the dust, which is a symbol of the yet unconverted first Adam. (ie: no one is converted during the millennium, there can be no overcoming without an adversary, who is bound at this time.) These symbols can be both negative and positive, and in this case we can easily think that a serpent is Satan when in fact the serpent represents the elect seraphim of Isaiah 6, and the lion is the Lion of the tribe of Judah within us as He rules as the King of kings and Lord of lords during the millennium.

Speaking of Moses and Aaron: Exo 7:12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

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

Consider the rod (rod of iron) as being a serpent for a moment. The magician’s rod which was turned to a serpent was swallowed up by Moses’ (Aaron’s) rod. This tells us that the law (Moses represents the law) will overtake the camp (The magicians of Egypt, the world – Exo 7:12).

Exo 7:12 For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

The next stage is for the rod of Moses to be engulfed by Christ (Christ is the end of the law… Rom 10:4), and this is symbolically shown in the wilderness where the new rod (Christ and His Christ) is raised in the wilderness to symbolize the dominion that God will give the world one day over sin (where is your sting… 1Co 15:55-57) The raised Christ (seraphim – Elect) in the wilderness do not convert the people who are being stung by serpents, that ultimate victory will only come later. Notice he is in the wilderness, and this is a type of where mankind will be during the millennium. Man’s heart is not converted during this time, and therefore he is in the wilderness, or the kingdoms of this world (Rev 11:15) as God’s seraphim ruling with a rod of iron over the nations of this world (Rev 2:27).

Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

1Co 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
1Co 15:56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
1Co 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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

Rev 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.

The lamb (Christ in us) and the wolf of Isaiah 65 will dwell together in harmony as long as the devil is bound (Rev 20:2), but as soon as God allows Satan to be released (Rev 20:3) from the pit or abussos, the wolf in sheep’s clothing will be revealed for what its true nature is. Gog and Magog symbolize this time as well (Rev 20:8-9).

Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

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.

The resurrected elect are represented by the lion who have the lion of the tribe of Judah within them, and they have dominion over the straw just like Pharoah had dominion over Israel when they were using straw to make their bricks, only later to have the straw taken away (Exo 5:18). This is a time of prosperity physically, and spiritually the world is as the Laodicean church (Rev 3:17) increased with spiritual riches which have not been tried in the fire. There is no adversary effecting humanity (humanity is being fattened for slaughter, ie: lake of fire), and there is ease in the sense that there is straw to make bricks, or a world that does not have the influence of Satan who has been bound for a symbolic thousand years (Rev 20:3). When the straw is taken away in type and shadow then Israel’s greater judgment, ie: the great white throne judgment will occur (lake of fire).

Exo 5:18 Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.

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:

So the lamb co-exists with the wolf = (elect and unconverted world during millennium) just as in Christ’s walk on this earth with the unconverted which He did not convert, and as He is so are we. 1Jn 4:17)

Serpent (Elect – seraphim of Isaiah 6) has dominion over dust (humanity – Gen 3:19, 14) as stated in Isaiah 65, which shows us the positive use of this concept, seeing we know that Satan once had all of humanity for his meal of dust, which is the negative use of this concept.

Isa 6:2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

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

Finally, the lion will be nourished (Caleb and Joshua – Num 14:9) by the unbelief of those who are yet unconverted during this time prior to the great white throne judgment which is why they are straw. This straw which the lion eats of Isaiah 65 is a good training ground for God’s elect, as it gets eaten by the elect in preparation of the great white throne judgment. This great white throne experience is when the symbolic straw is taken away (burned up) from Israel, the fiery trial of the lake of fire will consume everything that can be burned until all the world is comfortable in that fire (1Co 3:12-13, Isa 33:14, 1Co 15:22, 28).

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

1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

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.

I pray this helps answer this question about Isaiah 65, as I try to be a helper of your joy as you are of mine.

Your brother in Christ,
Tony

Hi Tony,

Thank you both for this opportunity to discuss this subject of the fulfilling of Isaiah 3 and Isaiah 65 relating to the kingdom of God, and its progressive, “like unto leaven” spread throughout each of us first, and then “through [our] mercy”, all of mankind.

Mat 13:33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

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

As Isaiah 33:14-15 demonstrates, God’s elect will, via the fire of the lake of fire, which is of course, God’s word within them, judge the devil’s angels and messengers “till the whole is leavened” or until the kingdom of God ‘becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth’:

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

Dan 2:35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

When Christ, the king of that kingdom, is in all men, then He will submit himself to His Father and God will be all in all.

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

Your fellow laborer to that end,

Mike

Hi S____,

I think Mike helped me see a fuller view of God’s word with the email he sent to you. If we consider the ‘is, was and will’ be nature of God’s word, then it is true that this prophecy in Isaiah 65 does apply to the time after the great white throne judgment as well as to the life of the elect in this age or generation that Christ is within (in earnest), as well as the millennium period (in shadow).

God’s word is eternal and is fulfilled in each generation, but not always in earnest as it is within the elect. If we break this into two groups, those who have God’s spirit now and are living out these prophecies in earnest (Eph 1:14) and those who don’t have God’s spirit within them and are living out the shadows which serve us who now believe with the holy spirit within us (1Pe 1:12), it remains true that the time frame when those tears are wiped away permanently is in the lake of fire, and until then we are either experiencing these prophetic words in earnest (spirit within) or in shadow like ancient Israel, and the world during the millennium.

Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

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.

The tears we wipe away during the millennium are worldly sorrow and not godly sorrow (2Co 7:10). We know that the nature of man has not changed, and there never really was godly sorrow because when Satan is loosed for a season, then the world turns into Judas over night and needs to go and encompass the camp of the saints to destroy them.

2Co 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

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.

Just like the manna which was a shadow of the true bread of life Jesus Christ (Joh 6:32), sorrow of the world which the elect are dealing with during the millennium is only a shadow of the Godly repentance that will lead to eternal life in the lake of fire.

Joh 6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

The same thing could be said of Jerusalem, because we know that for us today Jerusalem is above, and we rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice because of this, but that does not mean that we have the fullness of that rejoicing either, seeing we still have tears and much tribulation.

The fullness of our rejoicing will be when we see Him face to face, and the shadow of that rejoicing will be experienced during the millennium for the world, just like the manna providing temporary sustenance or the woman at the well that Christ says if she had asked Him for she would never thirst again because He would have given her living waters.

I love the question, and I hope it does help get us closer to the sum of His word on the matter.

ybic,
Tony

Mike,

When you kill yourself, where are you?
Where do you go…. to sleep… or does the breath go back to GOD…. then the body waits for Jesus to come and be resurrected.

P____

Hi P____,

Thank you for your question concerning where we go when we die.
You ask:

Where do you go…. to sleep… or does the breath go back to GOD…. then the body waits for Jesus to come and be resurrected?

That is right, you go to sleep, and you await the resurrection totally unconscious of the passing of time and events.
The dust returns from whence it came. There was no physical body before birth. We all come “out of the ground” and we go right back to the ground, because that is what we are.

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

What we are is dust, with the life of the breath of God within us. When He removes His life giving spirit we die and return to the dust of the earth, and His spirit returns to where it was before He put it into our bodies of dust.
So we are physical bodies having a spiritual experience. We are not immortal spirits having a physical experience. In fact we are told that if there is not a resurrection from the dead, then “they… which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished”. That would be a lie if indeed we are really immortal souls.

1Co 15:16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Co 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
1Co 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
1Co 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ”, then every word in those five verses is a lie. But they are not a lie because Christ is raised up from among the dead, those who are asleep in Christ, will be resurrected back to life, and in another age even those who have died in their sins will be purified and will repent of their sins and will be saved from their sins and the wages of those sins.

Please let me know if I can be of any service to you if this question has any personal application.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike

I read that you say that Bro. Eby is in error teaching that man was first spirit and lowered to the earthy realm. I am finding that difficult to prove with the meaning of “breath” in Gen.2:7 H5397 “neshâmâh” only used when denoting God or Almighty. I have stood with 1Co 15:45. You have any suggestions?
Spirit does not die!
Thanks,

D____

Hi again D____,

So then if I understand what you are saying, the Truth is “that which is spiritual”, really is first, and in truth we are not dust, we are in reality spirit? Is that what you are saying, even in light of these verses?

1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

If we are innately eternal immortal spirits, then how can Paul make this statement?

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

Our salvation depends upon a resurrection from “the dead”. “If there is no resurrection then they that are asleep in Christ are perished”.
Where is King David? Is he an immortal spirit? If he is, then so are all animals and birds and insects.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath [ Hebrew, ruach, spirit, Same Hebrew word translated ‘spirit’ in verse 21]; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

All things that consist are made by God “were not made of things that do appear”, but of things that do not appear – of spirit.

Heb 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear

They are all made of God’s spirit.

Psa 104:25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
Psa 104:26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
Psa 104:27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
Psa 104:28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
Psa 104:29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
Psa 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

So yes, as you say, “spirit does not die”, but God has not given us a spiritual body simply because “He sends forth His spirit and they are created”. Bugs and beasts are not eternal spirits simply because they have God’s spirit sustaining that life. What they are is dust with God sustaining their physical life by His spirit, just as he sustains the stars and planets by His spirit. So when God “takes away their breath [ ruach – spirit, they no longer have their spirit and] they die, and return to their dust.”
So you are not spirit but dust. That is what God Himself tells us. ” Dust thou art”.
“You take away their breath [ ruach – spirit] they die and return to dust”, not ‘they live and return to spirit’.
The word ‘breath’ in verse 29 is the Hebrew word ‘ruach’, and again, it is the same word translated ‘spirit’ in the very next verse.

Psa 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit [ ruach], they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

“You send forth your spirit, they are created”. not ‘They are relocated’. So you and I are “created” when God “sends forth His spirit” not when He sends us forth. This is true for everything that draws breath. That was God’s point when He asked Job:

Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

According to Brother Eby, Job could easily have replied, ‘Why I certainly do have understanding, I was right there with you shouting for joy. So what is your point, God?’ The very scripture God uses to show us and Job that Job was not there is used by Mr. Eby to show God that Job was there before the foundation of the world.
I hope this gives you something to consider. We are not spirits having a physical experience. We are rather “marred” (Jer 18:4) physical beings having a spiritual experience which will, in the end, bring us to be “raised a spiritual body”.

1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

We do indeed have the earnest of the spirit even now. But it will take “the redemption of the purchased possession” to gain that final spiritual body to which we hope to attain.

Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

We do not innately possess “the earnest of the spirit”, yet that ‘earnest’, that down payment, is all we have after we are called and chosen “until the redemption of the purchased possession”, which is the spiritual body we receive only when “it is raised a spiritual body”, not when it was actually a physical body to begin with.

1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

I have nothing against Mr. Eby. I have never met him. But everything he teaches on this subject is in direct contradiction to what the scriptures teach. Job was not there to declare where he was when God laid the foundations of the world, and you and I are not first a spiritual body, but a natural body and afterward that which is spiritual, via a resurrection from the dead. “If there is no resurrection from the dead then they that are asleep in Christ are perished”. Those words are a lie if we are originally immortal spirit bodies.
So again I ask, “Where is King David?” This is not what Mr. Eby teaches, but it is right here in the scriptures:

Act 2:34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,
Act 2:29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

Brother Eby tells us this is not so at all. He tells us that David is alive and in heaven with God at this moment, because King David is not dust at all, but is an immortal spirit, thus rendering the resurrection slightly less than useless and redundant for an immortal spirit.
I hope this gives you more to consider.
Your brother who is hoping and “waiting” to endure to the end and be saved in this age.

Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike