The Book of Joshua – Part 3: Israel Crosses the Jordan – Jos 3:1-17

[Study Aired March 5, 2023]

“The last shall be first, and the first last.”

It is glaringly obvious to the Body of Christ that the ‘natural precedes the spiritual’ when understanding anything in scripture, particularly the physical Promised Land as a shadow of Christ, the Elect’s inheritance.

Since Christ’s death on the cross to this day, and until the First Resurrection, the Elect of God is the last to cross their spiritual Jordan. The rest of immature Babylonian Christianity, and in their minds, jubilantly have already crossed.

Joh 6:44 No man [you, me or anyone else] can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: helkuō, ‘drag’ against his will] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

It is natural for mainstream Christianity to think it would mirror the Israelites’ mass crossing their figurative Jordan at Christ’s coming and entering eternal life. However, not knowing that the natural precedes the spiritual, nor understanding the spirit, blinds their understanding of the two resurrections.

For the Bride of Christ, we shall see in this study that the Priests bearing the Ark cross last, and represent her.

Jos 3:1 And Joshua rose early in the morning. And they moved from Shittim and came to Jordan, he and all the sons of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.
Jos 3:2 And it happened after three days the officers went through the host.
Jos 3:3 And they commanded the people saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall move from your place and go after it.
Jos 3:4 Yet keep a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, so that you may know the way by which you must go. For you have not passed this way before now.
Jos 3:5 And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow Jehovah will do wonders among you.
Jos 3:6 And Joshua spoke to the priests saying, Take up the ark of the covenant and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
Jos 3:7 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Today, I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel so that they may know that I will be with you, as I was with Moses.
Jos 3:8 And you shall command the priests that carry the ark of the covenant, saying, When you have come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still in Jordan.
Jos 3:9 And Joshua said to the sons of Israel, Come here and hear the Words of Jehovah your God. 
Jos 3:10 And Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 
Jos 3:11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into Jordan.
Jos 3:12 And now take yourselves twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 
Jos 3:13 And it shall be, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that carry the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above. And they shall stand all in a heap. 
Jos 3:14 And it happened, when the people moved from their tents to pass over Jordan, and as the priests carried the ark of the covenant before the people, 
Jos 3:15 and as those who bore the ark had come to Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bore the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for Jordan overflows all its banks, all the time of harvest); 
Jos 3:16 that the waters which came down from above stopped and rose up all in a heap, very far from the city Adam that is beside Zaretan. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over across from Jericho. 
Jos 3:17 And the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah stood firm on dry ground in the middle of Jordan. And all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people had passed completely over Jordan. 

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Jos 3:1 And Joshua rose early in the morning. And they moved from Shittim and came to Jordan, he and all the sons of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.

Shittim is located east of the Jordan River and approximately 15 miles north of the Dead Sea. The Shittim wood is a particular type of Acacia that must have dominated the area’s landscape to be named, Shittim. The wood of the Ark of the Covenant was made of Shittim wood overlaid with pure gold. The origin of the name Shittim is H7850 and means to ‘scourge; pierce’. If the same Acacia at Shittim is common to most of continental Africa, it is noted for long thorns, among which are the tree leaves that animals, particularly Giraffes, love to forage. 

The type of plant, the thorns that the soldiers plaited for Jesus, is simply referred to as a “briar” and could be any type of thorny shrubbery (Joh 19:2), and one’s Western mindset goes immediately to an easily plaited blackberry-type briar. Yet, that crown of thorns could more likely be a Shittim “briar” from the young flexible branches of the Shittim Acacia, particularly since its name means to scourge and pierce.  Not only that, but the Ark of the Covenant (Exo 25:10) containing the word of God commanded the same scourging and piercing nature.

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.

The Body of Christ individually, yet collectively lodged many years in Shittim on the figurative east bank of our Jordan River, unwittingly waiting for the command to pass over. We thought we had arrived in the Promised Land many years ago upon being baptised with water in Gentile Christianity. We never understood that we would have to rise early to fight battles where the piercing sword of our Lord’s word crowning our heads would never leave our house.

Of course, we know that the sword never leaving our spiritual house is a glorious thing which King David wasn’t spiritually given to appreciate. Upon his sin with Bathsheba:

2Sa 12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

Jos 3:2 And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host [the camp of Israel]; 
Jos 3:3 And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. 

As we have understood for many years and seen in Part 2 of this study of Joshua, the third (Number 3) is the process of a particular matter. While the Israelites suffered the tribulation of forty years in the wilderness (Number 4 representing the whole of the matter), they were now required to wait three days on the east bank of the Jordan. For the more God-given astute Gentile Christians, adding 4+3=7 signifies their entry into their Promised Land of eternal life, where they erroneously believe, as demonstrated by the Israelites crossing the Jordan, all Christian believers are now saved.

It is the same pattern for the Elect of God today, only with Christ’s spirit within discerning His spirit since we will see an incredible significance that the Priests can only bear the Ark and be last to cross the Jordan.

The Elect of God see that the number 3 signifies the process of spiritual completion through judgment; to them, waiting to cross the Jordan is only the beginning of that process within each member. Having been given eyes that see and ears that hear to discern their Lord’s spirit and becoming perfected on their ”third day” before entering the First Resurrection on the Seventh Day, they are following Christ’s pattern of perfection before He returned to His former glory with the Father.

Luk 13:32 And he said unto them, [the Pharisees] 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. 
Luk 13:33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

The nation of Israel was the growing, yet immature, old earthy Jerusalem being established in the wilderness and remains to this very day as the Great Whore, the Lord’s rejected wife. As such, the prophet Moses didn’t die outside of old Israel, effectively symbolized as a type of Jerusalem (Salem). In perfect parallel, the prophets of Christ, His Christs, die daily inside the same Old Jerusalem as they move into the heavenly Jerusalem being established within. 

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
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.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 
Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Jos 3:4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits [1 cubit = 18 inches] by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore. 

Interestingly, a space exists between Christ’s death and the First Resurrection of approximately two thousand years (two thousand cubits). In parallel, like physical Israel preparing to cross the physical Jordan, a mighty space exists between the anointed rejected wife and the anointed elected Bride of Christ. Only the Bride can know the way they must go since nobody other than the Lord’s Priests can or any person preceding them have ever passed this way since (“heretofore”) Adam.  

Num 4:15 And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.

The origin of the cubit measurement of distance means H517′ mother’. How fitting that the Bride of Christ, who is becoming our Lord’s wife, is the “mother of us all”, and nobody may come near her understanding of the Lord’s spirit. Yet for the moment, on the banks of the Jordan, the two women within the one woman, greater Israel, are oblivious to her inherent bondage, even while ecstatic at the prospect of possessing the physical Promised Land.

Gal 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 
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. 
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Jos 3:5 And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.

As we are accustomed to knowing, sanctifying ourselves means setting ourselves apart from our ways and devoting ourselves to the Lord for any occasion, and for this cause, the coming battle against Jericho. Today, the Bride has mighty spiritual strength by His faith for us to win our daily battles (1Sa 17:47, 1Jn 1:9, 1Pe 5:6-7). The Body of Christ has seen the wonders of Him in each joint of the Bride and is physically seen by the particular account of the Lord going before Israel against Jericho. In human history, this is the only generation (since the cross) led by the Bride of Christ ever to experience passing “this way” through Christ going spiritually before them. Through being in Christ, she is as He is, represented by the Priests being the only ones who can touch the Ark and not die, taking it up and passing over before the people of the entire world.

Jos 3:6 And Joshua spoke to the priests saying, Take up the ark of the covenant and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
Jos 3:7 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Today, I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel so that they may know that I will be with you, as I was with Moses.

Although the ones who say that they are Jews do unknowingly lie about their spiritual orientation (Rev 2:9, Rev 3:9, Rom 2:28), for the moment, they are blind to Christ being magnified in their sight. It will only be after the First Resurrection that they will become disconcertedly aware that the Lord is primarily with that little flock represented by the Priests, as he was with Moses.

In Israel, Joshua and the Priests are magnified for the incipient separation of the two women; the rejected wife and the finally elected wife. Hence, both parties “pass over” the Jordan, unaware that the Priests and the main camp of Israel will become two women. The fact that Israel unwittingly crossed the Jordan at harvest time prophesies the future established little harvest and the main harvest of souls in two very different resurrections. 

Jos 3:8 And you shall command the priests that carry the ark of the covenant, saying, When you have come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand still in Jordan.

The significance of standing still on the bank of the raging spring water overflowing the banks of the Jordan (from H3381 – to go down, descend, march down, to be taken down) is to magnify the strength of God in the hearts of the people. To the natural mind, Wildebeest en-mass crossing the Masai Mara River in central Africa has more hope of survival.

There were tens of thousands of mothers with children burdened with clothing and possessions; helping the young men manage animals and carts looked like a catastrophe waiting to happen. What will the Body of Christ do in every likelihood in this age to be tested similarly and typified by a host of other preceding Saints having faced dire circumstances (Remember Daniel; Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego; Christ)? Of course, if the Lord wills, He will likewise conduct a physically safe passage even though our spiritual passage is assured.

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

Psa 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. (See all of Psalm 27)

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

Jos 3:10 And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 

The Lord was teaching the children of Israel to believe in Him. It took a multitude of miracles in Egypt to the brink of the Jordan to teach a carnal nation that the Lord is true to his word, and now, with another series of miracles. A little upcoming win over Jericho would bolster Israel’s faith in her Lord to rout their land of more significant enemies.

For the Body of Christ, miracles are largely terminated. No hearts before or after Christ were converted by miracles.

Mat 16:1 The Pharisees and the Sadducees came to Him, tempting Him. And they asked Him that He would show them a sign from Heaven. 
Mat 16:2 He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say, Fair weather; for the sky is red. 
Mat 16:3 And in the morning, Foul weather today; for the sky is red and gloomy. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot see the signs of the times! 
Mat 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. And there shall no sign be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And He left them and went away.

Jos 3:11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into Jordan. 

Stephen, like Christ, did many miracles before the people, yet the Pharisees and Christians still killed them both (Act 6:8). Nonetheless, endless physical miracles must precede the Body of Christ, and they, having not personally witnessed outward miracles, have no excuse to not believe spiritually. Hence, Christ, the covenant of all the earth, has passed over by His spirit and shown us the way to likewise save our brothers and sisters.

Jos 3:12 And now take yourselves twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 
Jos 3:13 And it shall be, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that carry the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above. And they shall stand all in a heap.

The twelve sons of Jacob represent every person and nation on Earth and spiritually signify the ultimate salvation of every conception since Adam. It begins with the feet of Christ touching the mountains of the Lord, the Bride of Christ, and Him taking his Bride over her figurative Jordan into the First Resurrection. His feet touched the Mount of Olives two thousand years ago, and he cleaved the woman in two – the Old Jerusalem and the Heavenly Jerusalem.

That original rift was unwittingly created by Hagar, the Bond Woman, Old Covenant Israel, crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land leaving behind those who died in the wilderness. As we know, she continued her unfaithfulness to her Husband, and the process was again implemented spiritually at the cross; only this time for his very few faithful followers. 

Just as the Lord’s first wife was baptized crossing the Red Sea and sanctified crossing the raging Jordan, the Lord’s new Bride is baptized with fire as she crosses her spiritual Jordan in the duality of the Mount of Olives split in two with a gulf the Bond Woman cannot cross.

Zec 14:4 And His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall divide from its middle, from the east and to the west, a very great valley. And half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all [the twelve tribes symbolizing the entirety of humanity] will be made alive. 
1Co 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the first-fruit, and afterward they who are Christ’s at His coming.

“And it shall be, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that carry the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above. And they shall stand all in a heap.”

For two thousand years, the sea of humanity has been cut off and stands in a heap, like the waters of the Jordan, while the Lord’s Elect cross into the First Resurrection. 

After which, and having been cut off, they rage in a torrent as Gog and Magog as they, too, rush into the Dead Sea, which symbolically is the Lake of Fire that will purify the great harvest in the Resurrection to Judgment.

Jos 3:14 And it happened, when the people moved from their tents to pass over Jordan, and as the priests carried the ark of the covenant before the people, 
Jos 3:15 and as those who bore the ark had come to Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bore the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for Jordan overflows all its banks, all the time of harvest);
Jos 3:16 that the waters which came down from above stopped and rose up all in a heap, very far from the city Adam [‘red; first man’] that is beside Zaretan [‘their distress’]. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over across from Jericho. 

The Bride of Christ carries Him, as Solomon was carried in his royal carriage on the shoulders of his ascribed ‘elect’. Carrying the Ark, she goes before her brothers and sisters of Gog and Magog, who number as the sand of the sea (Rev 20:8) who are pictorially heaped up waiting in turbulent distress and their order for salvation since Adam, having been completely cut off from the First Resurrection.  

Even though the entire nation of Israel, including the mixed multitude, are all symbolised going into the Promised Land, it signifies that the entire world of humanity will be saved upon the completion of the Eight Day. 

Isa 43:1 Now this is what the LORD says— He who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine!
Isa 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze. 
Isa 43:3 For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. (BSB)

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

Jos 3:17 The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed over the dry ground, until the entire nation had crossed the Jordan. (BSB)

The Elect of God, the Priests, stand firm in their Lord’s word on the dry ground amid the Jordan, by the Lord’s power, holding back the water while their children, the “many called”, pass on the dry ground (Note: probably at a distance sustaining two thousand cubits, 3,000 feet or 1.33 miles to the Priest’s left since greater Israel has been distanced from the Ark) being the first to step into the physically Promised Land. The Priests shouldering Christ, the Ark, are the “few chosen” who are last to complete the crossing.

In speaking of the disgruntled laborers in the vineyard, greater Israel is the first laborers, and the Elect of God shouldering the Ark are the last,

Mat 20:14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. 
Mat 20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? 
Mat 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen. 

The Priests representing the Elect of God come from behind the entirety of the world of greater Israel. Having been the last, the very few chosen become the first to represent the much later spiritual crossing of a figurative Jordan into the First Resurrection.

2Ki 5:11-27  “Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean”

[Study Aired September 22, 2022]

2Ki 5:11  But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
2Ki 5:12  Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
2Ki 5:13  And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
2Ki 5:14  Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2Ki 5:15  And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.
2Ki 5:16  But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused. 
2Ki 5:17  And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD. 
2Ki 5:18  In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing. 
2Ki 5:19  And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way. 
2Ki 5:20  But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the LORD liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.
2Ki 5:21  So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well? 
2Ki 5:22  And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments.
2Ki 5:23  And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him. 
2Ki 5:24  And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed. 
2Ki 5:25  But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither.
2Ki 5:26  And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?
2Ki 5:27  The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.

God’s expectation for the body of Christ, and all of humanity in time, is clearly stated in these two verses: (Jer 29:11, 1Co 15:22), and yet our flesh has many preconceived notions as to the way we think (1Pe 4:12, Heb 12:6) we should go that is pleasing to God in order to find this expected end (Pro 14:12, Luk 18:21-22). 

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, [Isa 55:8] saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 

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

Pro 14:12  There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death [That way in our flesh excludes the process of judgment that stems from the affliction, the persecution, the tribulation, the suffering, of which God says is necessary if we are going to overcome and enter into the kingdom of God within us day by day (Luk 17:21) as we die daily – these things (affliction –  persecution – tribulation – suffering) represent what will bring death to our old man, and going in the way that seems right to us is what will keep our old man alive and bring death to Christ in us (Heb 6:6)].

Luk 18:21  And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. 
Luk 18:22  Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all [Mat 16:25] that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. 
Luk 18:23  And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

[It was a “certain ruler” in this parable (Luk 18:18) who represents the fleshly pulls of our life that want to rule over us, who was rich in a self-confidence or a self-righteous spirit that did not acknowledge his need to be continually dragged to Christ who is the only one who can do the work within us of overcoming (Php 2:12-13, Joh 15:5) – Both physical riches and doing many wonderful works can blind us from our need to continually acknowledge our blind and naked condition in this life, causing us to go back into the world (Joh 9:41, 1Ti 6:8-10, 2Ti 4:10). Without following Christ and His body, the church (Eph 5:30, Heb 10:24-25), we will surely experience that blindness of (Joh 9:41), which will keep us from seeing truth that, if continued in, will set us free (Joh 8:31-32)]

God is dragging the elect out of Babylon in order for us to learn what it means to have the true patience and faith of the saints which is realized through a lifetime of much tribulation leading to our ultimate deliverance from these bodies of death (Rom 7:24-25) in the first resurrection, Lord willing (Rev 14:9-12, 2Th 1:4-5, Act 14:22, Rev 20:6).

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

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: [Rev 14:9-11] here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

[Keeping God’s commandments and having the faith of Jesus is why we will be hated of all men for His name’s sake, His word (Mat 10:22)] 

2Th 1:4  So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: 
2Th 1:5  Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: [2Ti 2:12]

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

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

In type and shadow, Naaman, who is a type of the elect, is showing us in this section of scripture how if we are God’s kind of first fruits, despite ourselves we will be dragged to Christ (Psa 118:27, Joh 6:44) and go through a process of judgment that will wash away our leprous condition and make us ready or mature us to be in the first resurrection (Luk 13:32, Rev 19:7). Being made completely ready is symbolized by Naaman being dipped seven times in the Jordan river, and all such spiritual increase comes from God alone, the giver of every good and perfect gift (1Co 3:6, Jas 1:17). Those gifts are given to us from our Father through Christ who is typified by Elisha who, when Naaman finally listened, was able to be washed: “Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God.“

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.

Rev 19:7  Let us [those who are being judged in this age and going through a process that is leading to maturity] 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 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

2Ki 5:11  But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

This reaction of Naaman towards Elisha is a shadow of how we at first despise God’s goodness that leads us to repentance (Rom 2:4) not knowing that the work that God is doing in the body of Christ has nothing to do with a fleshly outward show: “Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place“. Rather, we come to see that it is not by might nor by power but by the spirit of God (Zec 4:6, 2Ti 1:7) that we are given the ability to mortify the deeds of the flesh, destroying the inward man of perdition who wants to rule and reign on throne of our hearts (Rom 8:13, Rom 3:20, 2Th 2:8). 

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? 

Rom 8:13  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 

Rom 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 

Naaman “was wroth“, and this anger is directed toward Elisha, who is a type of Christ that Naaman wants to know after the flesh, as was indicated with these words: “Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.” No, none of those things happened. Instead, Elisha “sent a messenger unto him” which is symbolic of the comforter coming to us to do a work that requires that we hear the still small voice of God through our prayerful and repentant relationship that is our strength (1Ki 19:12, Isa 30:15). 

1Ki 19:11  And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
1Ki 19:12  And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Isa 30:15  For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

2Ki 5:12  Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

We all just naturally look at the outward appearance and don’t look at the heart of a matter the way Christ did and can through us (1Sa 16:7, Joh 7:24). 

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

Joh 7:24  Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

2Ki 5:10 and Elisha [my god is salvation] sent a messenger unto him, saying, go and wash in Jordan [descent] seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. (PNBkjv)

2Ki 5:12  are not Abana (unchanging/^{H71 ‘stony’}) and Pharpar(rapids^{H6554 ‘swift probably from H6565 [break up/violate/frustrate] in the sense of rushing’}), rivers of Damascus(sack of blood/^{H1834 ‘silent is the sackcloth weaver’}), better than all the waters of Israel(he will rule with god) may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he [Naaman(pleasantness)] turned and went away in a rage. (PNBkjv)

When we judge a matter in the flesh, as we can see even with the definitions used of all these names in the ‘Proper Names Bible’ version above, we are looking to be washed by what the strength of our flesh can offer, symbolized by “Abana (“unchanging”) and Pharpar (“rapids”), rivers of Damascus (sack of blood”)“. Then Naaman asked the question, “May I not wash in them, and be clean?” to which Christ tells us emphatically, “No, there is only one place where we can be washed and find living waters (Heb 13:10) and that is through Christ where we are baptized into his death to be given living waters to never thirst again.” (Rom 6:3, Mar 1:9, Joh 4:9-14)

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 

Mar 1:9  And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

Joh 4:9  Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 
Joh 4:10  Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 
Joh 4:11  The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
Joh 4:12  Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 
Joh 4:13  Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
Joh 4:14  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

When flesh doesn’t get its way, it foams up in a rage (Jud 1:13, Jas 4:5); but if Christ is working within us He can and will still those raging seas and bring a calm to us (Psa 107:29-31), a peace that passes all natural understanding that is carnal and in battle against the spirit (Rom 7:24-25). Naaman is us turning away in a rage, “So he turned and went away in a rage” until God mercifully sends someone his way to restore him from this condition (2Ti 2:25-26).

Jud 1:13  Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

Jas 4:5  Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?

Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. 
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

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

2Ti 2:25  In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
2Ti 2:26  And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

2Ki 5:13  And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 
2Ki 5:14  Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 

The servants in this part of the story also represent the spirit of God that is helping Naaman or leading him into all truth (Joh 14:26) to gain a right perspective in regard to what is being asked of him, and what is being asked of him is to “Wash, and be clean” and it really is not, as he says a “great thing” what is being asked of him, reminding us of (Rom 8:18, Lev 26:40-42, Mic 6:8). When we humble ourselves and obey God’s commands [Jordan ^{H3383 ‘descent’ from root H3381 ‘go down/come down/sink/be prostrated}] we will receive of his holy spirit (Act 5:32, Heb 5:8) and be washed and cleansed, but God is the one who must do the dragging and converting which is what this story of Naaman is a shadow of and written for our sakes upon whom the end of the ages are come (1Co 10:11).

Joh 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 

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. 

Lev 26:40  If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; 
Lev 26:41  And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 
Lev 26:42  Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 

Mic 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?  

Act 5:32  And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. 

Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

It is after Naaman is convicted of what the servant says to him that he went down and “dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” The spirit that Christ is forming in us is that of a little child (Mar 10:15, Heb 12:25) in the sense that a little child is teachable and humble as Naaman demonstrated by humbling himself in going down and dipping himself in the Jordan seven times. The seven times dipping is the same principle as the seven sneezes that are needed to drive the evil spirits out of the child that was dead but raised to life by the prophet Elisha (2Ki 4:35).

Mar 10:15  Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: [“Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God.“] 

2Ki 4:35  Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. 

2Ki 5:15  And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. 
2Ki 5:16  But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.
2Ki 5:17  And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD.

Naaman sounds like Nebuchadnezzar when he says what he said after the fiery furnace experience of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: “Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.” 

Naaman is convicted, but in type and shadow he is not a mature son, and the proof of that is expressed by his not freely receiving this gift of healing but wants rather to pay something back to Elisha: “I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.” Elisha, a man of God, simply tells him, “As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.” (Mat 10:8)

Mat 10:7  And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 
Mat 10:8  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers,[Naaman] raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

Then Naaman’s request to take back with him “two mules’ burden of earth” to “henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD” is also written for our sakes to remind us of what God’s word does for us today: Our citizenship is in heaven (Php 3:20 – CEV, CLV) and taking this earth from Israel to Syria on a beast of burden is symbolic of how we are in the world [earth] and not of it (Joh 17:16) and able as such to worship God in spirit and truth (Jer 22:29, Psa 107:20, 1Pe 5:7, Joh 4:24). The earth symbolizes the spiritual plot of land that we sojourn in while on this earth called Jerusalem above the mother of us all (Eph 2:6, Gal 4:26).

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

Psa 107:20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. 

1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

The gift of being healed and liberated from idolatry and false worship is the true reward that cannot compare to any gift in the earth (Psa 50:10), “For thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD” (Act 3:6).

Psa 50:10  For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

Act 3:6  Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

2Ki 5:18  In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.
2Ki 5:19  And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.

Naaman confesses his fault of bowing himself in the house of Rimmon, a Syrian deity, after his master who is worshiping there leans on his hand “In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon.” This confession of Naaman comes after he is cleansed of his leprosy and is now convicted of his wrong behavior that he is giving an account of to Elisha (Rom 2:4). His master ‘leaning on his hand’ is symbolic of how Babylon wants to rule over us and does so until we are healed and confess our idolatrous ways which we embraced in Babylon. The end result of his confession to Elisha are these words from the prophet “And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.” God’s peace comes to us when we are abased and confess our faults (Pro 16:6-7, Pro 3:3-4).

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? 

Pro 16:6  By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil. 
Pro 16:7  When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. 

Pro 3:3  Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: 
Pro 3:4  So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

2Ki 5:20  But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the LORD liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.

Gehazi’s doublemindedness comes out with this opening statement, “Behold, my master hath spared^H2820 Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the LORD liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.” Out of his own mouth he is being judged here, saying he knows that this was an act of mercy on the part of the prophet “in not receiving at his hands that which he brought. Yet in the next breath he says, because of avarice and greed in his heart, “I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.“

spared^{H2820 [H8804 = Qal]} to withhold, restrain, hold back, keep in check, refrain 

Gehazi carries out these lust-filled actions thinking no one can see him, when in truth nothing is hidden from the Lord with whom we have to do (Heb 4:13, Act 5:1-5, Act 5:9-10).

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

Act 5:1  But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,
Act 5:2  And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Act 5:3  But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 
Act 5:4  Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
Act 5:5  And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.

Act 5:9  Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. 
Act 5:10  Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.

2Ki 5:21  So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well? 
2Ki 5:22  And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments.
2Ki 5:23  And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him. 

In the book of James we’re told, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust [“I will run after him, and take somewhat of him” (2Ki 5:20)], and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived [“My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments.“], it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. [“And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him“] (Jas 1:13-15).

Naaman is none the wiser regarding the lies of Gehazi who has orchestrated all these deceitful actions to his fleshly benefit. His master did not send him as he declared. It was his own lust that drew him after Naaman’s gift intended for Elisha. Gehazi receives “two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments” from Naaman that two servants bear before him. Gehazi does not bear the burden of repentance that these two talents of silver and changes of raiment signify. He just wants the reward now in this life without seeing the need to bear his burden, which is typical of believing in a substitutionary death of Christ (Jud 1:11, Col 1:24).

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

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

2Ki 5:24  And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed. 
2Ki 5:25  But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither. 
2Ki 5:26  And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? 
2Ki 5:27  The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.

Gehazi ‘used the system’ to his advantage like Babylon does to make riches off of others, making merchandise in this instance of Naaman, and using his servants to do all the heavy lifting to this end: “And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed“. The tower[H6076  = stronghold] represents the pride of Gehazi which we know always comes before a fall (Pro 16:18-19).

Pro 16:18  Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. 
Pro 16:19  Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Gehazi, still being plagued with a lying spirit, tells Elisha when asked where he had been, “Thy servant went no whither.” Then Elisha, a prophet of God who is able to be given to know his servants whereabouts (Amo 3:7), says this: “And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?” ‘Is this the time to receive gifts’ is the question Elisha asks him, and the answer is ‘no, not at this time’, telling us there is a time to receive gifts under the right circumstances (1Co 9:11) and there is a time to not receive them (Ecc 3:1-11) as was the case with Gehazi (2Ki 5:26) who not only had “gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward” (Jud 1:11), but had done so with a lying spirit on top of everything else that he had done wrong (Gen 14:23, 2Th 3:7-9).

Gen 14:23  That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:

2Th 3:7  For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; 
2Th 3:8  Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
2Th 3:9  Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.

Elisha pronounces upon Gehazi the punishment that he deserved for sowing to his flesh as he did: “The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.” This leprosy represents death, just as was pronounced on Ananias and Sapphira for their deceitfulness (Act 5:1-10).

The lesson for God’s elect is that our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and must die and be put off daily (Jer 17:9) in order to be cleansed of our leprous condition known as ‘being in flesh’, which is wretched in the sight of God but able to be subdued and worked with through Jesus Christ our savior (Rom 8:7-9, Rom 7:24-25).

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. 

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

[Study Aired June 27, 2021]

Jer 12:1  Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
Jer 12:2  Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
Jer 12:3  But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
Jer 12:4  How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.
Jer 12:5  If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
Jer 12:6  For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee; yea, they have called a multitude after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee.
Jer 12:7  I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
Jer 12:8  Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me: therefore have I hated it.
Jer 12:9  Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.

The shameless adultery of Israel ‘happened unto them… and… they are… all… written for our admonition’ and for our benefit:

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

The Hebrew word translated ‘ensample’ is ‘tupos’ and it means ‘types’. Verse 6 tells us everything that happened to ancient Israel was “types of us”:

1Co 10:6 Now these things became types of us, for us not to be lusters after evil things, (CLV)

Typical of us as “carnal… babes in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4), Jeremiah certainly was not aware at his time that the entire history and economy of his nation was for the benefit and admonition of God’s spiritual Israel:

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

Jeremiah, like Job, typifies who we are before we are granted to stop ‘contending with and reproving God’ to make ourselves appear to be more righteous than God:

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.

Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

When we ask these questions, like Job, we are implying that God is not a just God and that He is not nearly as righteous as we are. Typical of us, Jeremiah questions why the Lord afflicts His elect while blessing His Own enemies.

Jer 12:1  Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore [Old English for ‘Why?’] doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?

That question typifies the ignorant carnal mind in each of us. We simply are not capable at this point in our ‘experience of evil’ to see any of the benefits to be achieved from doing things like selling Joseph into Egyptian slavery. We can see no need for the nation of Israel to ever be slaves in Egypt. We would never anoint King Saul and then reject him as king. We would never have put David through years of being pursued by King Saul, and later have his own son, Absalom, seek King David’s life to acquire his throne. Finally, none of us would ever be pleased to bruise and kill our own son to pay for the sins of all mankind.

Isa 53:10  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Isa 53:11  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
Isa 53:12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Our heavenly Father does not pass the buck. He takes complete responsibility for every detail leading up to the death of His own Son:

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

It is the Maker and Creator of all things who has decided “before the world began” (2Ti 1:9 and Tit 1:2) that mankind was to be rebellious, corrupt and dying creature filled with the most heinous sins and in desperate need of a Savior:

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;

For us to be given “purpose and grace [and the] hope of eternal life… promised before the world began”, God would have to have planned out in advance every day of the lives of every man in every generation from Adam, and that is exactly what we are told He has done:

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

1Co 10:5 But not in the majority of them does God delight, for they were strewn along in the wilderness.”
1Co 10:6 Now these things became types of us, for us not to be lusters after evil things, (CVL)

Paul tells us that the holy spirit teaches us “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”:

1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;  comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

What these verses tell us is that the unconverted physical nation of Israel, even though they had a relationship with God, were still as completely unconverted as the apostles of Christ were after spending three and a half years with Him:

Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Being unconverted and being without the holy spirit, Christ’s apostles could not and did not understand “the things of the spirit”:

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.

Being a carnal-minded and rebellious people by nature, and as “types of us”, Israel became a harlot that typifies the great whore which the entire historical Christian church has become. We have all been a part of her, and we are all still in the process of ‘coming out of her…” as we come to see and to root out all of the lies she has taught us from our youth up:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city [Jerusalem, God’s rejected anointed] become an harlot! [the “great whore… which rules over all the kings of the earth”, Rev 23-24] it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Like Adam, and like any newborn child, Israel transgressed against their own Savior at their first opportunity:

Jer 12:2  Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.

“Thou hast planted them… they bring forth fruit”, but it is “very evil… fruit”. It is the fruit of our rebellious, self-righteous old man. Here is the fate of our rebellious old man:

Jer 24:1  The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
Jer 24:2  One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
Jer 24:3  Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
Jer 24:4  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 24:5  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
Jer 24:6  For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
Jer 24:7  And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
Jer 24:8  And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:
Jer 24:9  And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.
Jer 24:10  And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

There it is for anyone to read, yet only a few will see and understand (Mat 13:9-15). It is the Lord Himself who put us in Babylon, and it is the Lord Himself who brings us out if He decides to bring us back to Himself. Both the good and the evil figs are the Lord’s planting, and both are His work. Both are conquered by the king of Babylon, but Zedekiah and the Jews who fled to Egypt rebel against the king of Babylon and think within themselves that they need not drink of the wine of the Lord’s wrath. Such is not the case:

Jer 25:15  For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
Jer 25:16  And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
Jer 25:17  Then took I the cup at the LORD’S hand, and  made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:
Jer 25:18  To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
Jer 25:19  Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;

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

But ‘evil figs’ never see themselves as being evil. It is natural for every one of us to profess that we are Christians even as we rebel against every doctrine of Christ. Christ asks us:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

At this juncture in our experience of evil’ (Ecc 1:13), the Lord is near in our mouth, but He is “Far from [our] reins”.

The word translated as ‘reins’ here in Jeremiah 12:2 is the same word translated ‘kidneys’ in these verses:

Exo 29:13  And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.

Exo 29:22  Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat and the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two  kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder; for it is a ram of consecration:

Lev 8:16  And he took all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and Moses burned it upon the altar.

Here is that Hebrew word translated as ‘kidneys’:

H3629
כִּלְיָה
kilyâh
kil-yaw’
Feminine of H3627 (only in the plural); a kidney (as an essential organ); figuratively the mind (as the interior self): – kidneys, reins.

These are the entries for this word as it is translated in the King James Version:

כּליה
kilyâh
Total KJV Occurrences: 31
kidneys, 18
Exo_29:13, Exo_29:22, Lev_3:4 (2), Lev_3:10 (2), Lev_3:15 (2), Lev_4:9 (2), Lev_7:4 (2), Lev_8:16, Lev_8:25, Lev_9:10, Lev_9:19, Deu_32:14, Isa_34:6
reins, 13
Job_16:13, Job_19:27, Psa_7:9, Psa_16:7, Psa_26:2, Psa_73:21, Psa_139:13, Pro_23:16, Jer_11:20, Jer_12:2, Jer_17:10, Lam_3:12-13 (2)

This Hebrew word ‘kilyah’ is most often translated as ‘kidneys’. The kidneys are strongly associated with “the inwards”, and as such “the reins” is the phrase which the holy spirit uses to speak of our innermost parts spiritually.

Psa 26:2  Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.

Jer 11:20  But, O LORD of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause.

Jer 20:12  But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.

“The holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1Co 2:13). It is the spirit within us with which the Lord is working, and that is why we see the heart and mind so often associated with “the reins”… the kidneys… the inward most part of each of the Lord’s elect, “of the heart, in the spirit”:

Mar 7:21  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

Luk 6:45  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

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.

These bodies of corruptible flesh did not become corruptible because Adam ate of the fruit of the tree. If Adam’s flesh had been perfect, he would never have eaten of the fruit of the forbidden tree. Adam ate of the tree because he was not yet the finished product he is being created to become.  Adam was made of flesh, and flesh and blood are corruption and were never designed or intended from “before the world began” to inherit the kingdom of God:

1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

It is our hearts and minds with which the Lord is concerned. Our hearts and our minds are the “reins [which He] tries” to show us what resides therein, and the Truth is that we are all born into bodies of sinful flesh and blood:

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

It is only with the spirit of Christ within us that we can fear Him and be obedient to Him:

Ecc 12:13  The end of the whole matter let us hear: –`Fear God, and keep His commands, for this is the whole of man. (YLT)

Adam and Eve typify us just as ancient Israel also typifies us. They were the Lord’s original physical people, and like ancient Israel, Adam and Eve rebelled against their own God, and as the story of Cain demonstrates, they hate and kill any and all who “do well” and fear God and keep His commandments:

Act 7:52  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

The fact is that it is not and never has been possible to come to Christ and keep His spiritual commandments without having His mind and His spirit:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: Helkuo, to drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

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

Having “tried [our] reins” the Lord knows us very well:

Jer 12:3  But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

The plural pronouns ‘they’ and ‘them’ in scripture most always refer to the family and kingdom of our own old man. When we see these ‘sheep’ as evil men with whom we have nothing in common… people the Lord is “pulling out… for the slaughter”, and we fail to see that this is exactly what the Lord is doing to our own rebellious, self-righteous, carnal-minded old man, then we are making the word of God of no benefit to ourselves. On the other hand, if we are granted just to see ourselves “as other men…” as the one asking the Lord these accusing questions, as if He had to explain Himself to us, then we will in time see the foolishness of attempting to hold our very Maker and Creator accountable to ourselves.

However, we are all a self-righteous Pharisee before we can come to see ourselves as a repentant publican:

Luk 18:11  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

We all begin as immature, foolish, spiritual “carnal… babes… in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4) “contending with” our very Maker, attempting to “instruct [and] reprove” Him (Job 40:2):

Jer 12:4  How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.

We may know better intellectually, nevertheless, we all first act as though the Lord does not see us when we are returning to our vomit and our wallow in the mire. The Lord poses this question for our contemplation:

Psa 94:9  He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

Like Job, Jeremiah wants to know how long his suffering will last, and just as He did with Job and with the Pharisees, the Lord turns the tables on Jeremiah and on us by answering our questions with His own question:

Jer 12:5  If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?

The Lord is in effect telling Jeremiah and each of us that if the men of Anathoth, Jeremiah’s hometown, weary him, what hope does Jeremiah or we have of facing the same self-righteous and condemning spirit from the whole nation, and if our own nation, “the land of peace wherein you trusted, has wearied you” how will you act when the nations all around you turn on you and your entire nation, the entire nation of your old man?

This phrase “the swelling of Jordan” appears two other times in this prophecy of Jeremiah. We need to look at the other two entries of this phrase to understand exactly what the Lord is enquiring of us.

The first is the prophecy of the judgment of Edom by the invading armies of Babylon:

Jer 49:19  Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?

It must be understood that the ‘him’ in this verse is all the men of Edom who are forsaking ‘her’, their own land, and people of whom they thought as “the habitation of the strong”.

The next entry of this phrase “the swelling of Jordan” speaks of the judgment of Babylon:

Jer 50:44  Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?

Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians without a battle. These two verses are the same word for word, and they both contain the phrase ‘from the swelling of Jordan’. Chapter 49 concerns the judgment of the Lord against Edom at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Chapter 50 reveals the judgment of the Lord against Babylon at the hands of “a nation… out of the north”:

Jer 50:1  The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
Jer 50:2  Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
Jer 50:3  For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make  her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove,  they shall depart, both man and beast.

The pronoun ‘her’ in both Jeremiah 49:19 and 50:44 is referring to the nation which the Lord is judging. Both verses add the words ‘like a lion from the swelling of Jordan’ to emphasize the extent of the ferocity of the Lord’s impending judgment. In all three verses, here in Jeremiah 12:5, 49:19 and 50:44, “the swelling of Jordan” refers to a worst-case scenario.

Inwardly the Lord is telling Jeremiah and us that if we cannot stand firm in the day of adversity, our strength is little:

Pro 24:10  If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

The Lord continues to admonish us:

Jer 12:6  For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee; yea, they have called a multitude after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee.

“[Our] brethren, and the house of [our] father” is our own flesh, the flesh of our old man, and “[our] father [is] the devil”. It is through “fair words… speaking smooth things”, that ‘our own brothers, and the house of our father’ “deal treacherously with [us]”:

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

What the Lord is telling us is that our old man sees what he wants to see and hears what he wants to hear. Our old man simply cannot receive the undefiled doctrine of Christ. The Lord knows this and has devised a means whereby our old man and his kingdom will be destroyed, and through that destruction our new man will be born. For that to happen the Lord must forsake the kingdom of our rebellious old man whom He has planted:

Jer 12:7  I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
Jer 12:8  Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me: therefore have I hated it.

The doctrines of the great whore are the lying, monstrous doctrines of our old man telling us that the Lord will burn us in hell for all eternity for our sins. Such blasphemy is crying out against the doctrine of Christ which declares that all in Adam shall be made alive, in the same manner we were made to die in Adam:

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

All the false doctrines of the transmigration of souls or the law of circularity notwithstanding, the Truth is that none of us were around before our birth to choose by our own will to be in “in Adam”. Adam’s creation was an independent work of the Lord Himself. ‘As [we had no choice but to be] in Adam… even so in Christ none of us chooses of our own will to be in Christ.’ That also is an independent work of the Lord Himself, and He makes that super clear with these words:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: helkuo, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

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

It is the Lord who has ordained that we must be in “the first man Adam” before we will be in “the last Adam”:

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such  are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

In our last verse of this study our “first man Adam” is called “a speckled bird”:

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

There is no reason to think that the dove that descended upon Christ at His baptism by John was a “speckled bird”. Christ and His Christ are in the eyes of our heavenly Father “without spot”, while our old man is indeed “a speckled bird… made to be taken and destroyed”:

Heb 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

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.

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

“The birds round about… her” are called ‘unclean and hateful birds’ who are in and about the great whore who is the Lord’s rejected ‘heritage’:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! [Jerusalem, verse 1] it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: [“the faithful city is become an harlot”]
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Rev 18:1  And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Rev 18:2  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit,  and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,  Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Lord willing, we are those who are coming out of that “speckled bird… [that] great harlot” system and we are the first to be washing our robes white in the blood of the Lamb:

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson,  they shall be as wool.

Rev 7:14  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.

This verse is referring specifically to those who will be in the great white throne judgment, but as Isaiah 1:18 demonstrates, those in the first resurrection are the first to come out of that “speckled bird… Babylon the great” and wash their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.

That is our study for today. In our next study we will see that this “speckled bird” is full of “many pastors [who] have destroyed [the Lord’s] vineyard…”

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

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Awesome Hands - part 161: “The mighty hand of the Lord” - Discussion

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Awesome Hands – part 161

“The mighty hand of the Lord”

December 2, 2019

In our previous study we found ourselves seeing ourselves in the story of Rahab and the 2 spies which she helped escape from king Jericho’s men.

In this study, we are going to skip forward a few chapters to Joshua 4. It is here that we finally see the moment the Israelites cross over into the promised land and mark the occasion with stones for a generational memorial.

This marking of the passage through the river Jordan was a command from the Lord via Joshua to the people of Israel.

Jos 4:1  And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,
Jos 4:2  Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,
Jos 4:3  And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.

Joshua is told to appoint twelve men, one from each tribe, to take a stone from the Jordan where the priests carrying the ark stood, and place those stones in the lodging place.

Jos 4:4  Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:
Jos 4:5  And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel:
Jos 4:6  That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?
Jos 4:7  Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

If you are like me, you may be wondering if these stones are still in this place, and the answer is no. It is also an interesting study in and of itself to look into the word “forever” as mentioned here is verse 7, but I will just cover a brief point.

The word used here in English as “forever” is a combination of two words. Those two words are H5704, making the “for” part, and H5769 making the “ever” part.

What is interesting is that H5769, “ever” is the Hebrew word “olam”.

H5769

‛ôlâm    ‛ôlâm

o-lawm', o-lawm'

From H5956; properly concealed, that is, the vanishing point; generally time out of mind (past or future), that is, (practically) eternity; frequentative adverbially (especially with prepositional prefix) always: - always (-s), ancient (time), any more, continuance, eternal, (for, [n-]) ever (-lasting, -more, of old), lasting, long (time), (of) old (time), perpetual, at any time, (beginning of the) world (+ without end). Compare H5331, H5703.

Total KJV occurrences: 438

The root of “olam” is H5976 which means veil, hide or concealed.

H5956

‛âlam

aw-lam'

A primitive root; to veil from sight, that is, conceal (literally or figuratively): -    X any ways, blind, dissembler, hide (self), secret (thing).

Total KJV occurrences: 28

H5956

‛âlam

Total KJV Occurrences: 27

hid, 11

Lev_4:13, Lev_5:3-4 (2), Num_5:13, 1Ki_10:3, 2Ki_4:27, 2Ch_9:2, Job_6:16, Job_28:21, Eze_22:26, Nah_3:11

hide, 8

Lev_20:4, Deu_22:1, Deu_22:3-4 (2), Psa_55:1, Isa_1:15, Isa_58:7, Lam_3:56

hideth, 2

Job_42:3, Pro_28:27

secret, 2

Psa_90:8, Ecc_12:14

blind, 1

1Sa_12:3

dissemblers, 1

Psa_26:3-4 (2)

hidden, 1

Lev_5:2

hidest, 1

Psa_10:1

“And these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever” is just telling us that God veils His purpose for all things, for only His children to discover and remember.

Obviously, this is not exactly what is said in English, but we know that the physical stones are no longer setup as a memorial for the physical Jews to ask their fathers about, so we can conclude that there is another meaning that is hidden within these passages.

The Israelites are going to do as instructed and gather the stones up.

Jos 4:8  And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the LORD spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.
Jos 4:9  And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.
Jos 4:10  For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over.
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.

This is one of those miracles that captures the imagination. It had to be a momentous occasion for the people of Israel. Yet, we know the miracles done to, for and around the people of God soon wane in their strength to hold their attention.

This isn’t going to happen right away, but the Lord did want to mark the occasion in His own way, and He did so with stones.

Stones have been used throughout scripture for many reasons whether to erect an altar or to mark an occasion such as we read about here. However, the chief cornerstone always comes to mind when speaking about stones in general.

1Pe 2:4  To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
1Pe 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
1Pe 2:6  Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
1Pe 2:7  Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
1Pe 2:8  And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.

The foundation of needing to cross the river Jordan is truly needed for all Christians. It is spiritual for us of course, but we are living stones which follow after THE Living Stone.

It is the same Greek word mentioned above for the word “living” and “lively”, G2198.

The river Jordan is where John the Baptist preached all around it (Luk 3:3), and it is the river Jordan that Jesus was baptized (Mar 1:9-10).

It is straightway coming out of the Jordan water that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove unto Jesus; therefore, the symbolism of the Jordan and the baptism in it is something that all Christians should recognize.

Just like with the foundation of the church by the 12 disciples, these twelve priests established a “monument of stones” which let everyone know that they themselves had witnessed this event and were letting everyone know this by their actions with the stones.

1Jn 1:1  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

As such and keeping in context of our story in Joshua today, we need to recognize that war is imminent and to be prepared for when we are talking about the Jordan river.

Jos 4:12  And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh,     passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them:
Jos 4:13  About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the LORD unto   battle, to the plains of Jericho.

Jesus came out of the river and immediately was taken into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. The children of Israel show us this in type and shadow as they enter into the promised land.

What does this mean for us as Christians? Are we not supposed to be ready for war as well?

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36  And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

Are we not to be ready to fight?

Jos 10:24  And it came to pass, when they brought out those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them.
Jos 10:25  And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.

1Ti 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

2Ti 4:6  For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
2Ti 4:7  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

Do we not wrestle?

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Like the children of Israel, when we cross over into the promised land we are not simply going to have it easy-peasy. We are going to have to wage war against the inhabitants.

Only, the enemies we face are within ourselves AND within others. This is what is meant by we shall be hated by all men for His names sake.

Luk 21:14  Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
Luk 21:15  For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
Luk 21:16  And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
Luk 21:17  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
Luk 21:18  But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
Luk 21:19  In your patience possess ye your souls.

We must be ready to enter into the promised land and lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us so that we can do the will of God.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

In the awesome hands 160 study given on Saturday, I mentioned Faith a lot. The way we make war and run the race for the prize of the makr of the high calling is to keep our focus on Jesus whom we are “looking unto”.

When we faulter and look away from Jesus for just a second, we sink into the sea of humanity of which we have come from.

Mat 14:24  But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.
Mat 14:25  And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
Mat 14:26  And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
Mat 14:27  But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.
Mat 14:28  And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
Mat 14:29  And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
Mat 14:30  But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
Mat 14:31  And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
Mat 14:32  And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.

If we want the wind to cease, we must “come into the ship”, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a storm happening. It just means the tossing to and frow doesn’t affect is and cause us to go off course.

Jos 4:14  On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.
Jos 4:15  And the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying,
Jos 4:16  Command the priests that bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of Jordan.
Jos 4:17  Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come ye up out of Jordan.
Jos 4:18  And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.

Isn’t it amazing that when we listen to the voice of the Lord, the water takes its perfect course? It is the wind the stirs up or hold back the water.

It was the wind that was contrary to the waves that caused the waves to go to and fro and knock the ship around. It was the Lord who contained the waters of the Jordan in their place until the time was right for the waters to “return to their place”.

It is always the Lord who controls the wind and the water, so what are we concerned about that causes us to fear others when we should be fearing the Lord?

Jos 4:19  And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.
Jos 4:20  And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.
Jos 4:21  And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?
Jos 4:22  Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.
Jos 4:23  For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over:
Jos 4:24  That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.

Notice the message is still the same for us today. “When your children shall ask their fathers in the time to come, saying, What mean these stones?”, it is then that we say it is the Lord who dried up the waters of the Jordan before you ….. that all the people of the earth might know the mighty hand of the Lord! 

We are constantly to remind ourselves, and the children of God, that He is in control of everything. He controls the earth, the water, and the wind. He controls it all.

That is to say, He controls everything we are made of both physically and spiritually. We are made of earth and water and His spirit, His wind, and we are in a good mighty hand.

Foundational Themes in Genesis – Study 111

(Key verse: Genesis 49:19)

The theme of “the last days” helps us understand the time of the harvest or judgment in our lives when we are able to see the road behind us through which the Lord has brought us. This is also how the apostle John was enlightened when he heard the “great voice as of a trumpet” behind him, and he was given to understand the revelation of Jesus in him:

Rev 1:12 And I [John] turned [Greek: epistrephō = changing direction/repent/convert] to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

God indeed works both the good and evil in our lives, and it is only in the “last days” when these things are clarified (Mat 13:36-52; Heb 5:14; 1Pe 4:17). This theme of the “last days” also appears in the final words of Jacob to his twelve sons:

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

We already touched on Jacob’s words to Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar and Dan in previous discussions. In this discussion we want to look at a few aspects in the lives of Gad and his tribe to see what we can learn of the process of spiritual conversion and the discerning of the function of both good and evil in our own lives. Gad is the eighth son Jacob addressed just before his death in Egypt.

Gad: the meaning of his name

Gad was Jacob’s seventh son, but the first son that Zilpah, the handmaid of Leah, bore for him:

Gen 30:9 When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.
Gen 30:10 And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son.
Gen 30:11 And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad [Hebrew: gâd = crowd/raiders/a band of people attacking]

Leah gave this name to Jacob’s son from her handmaid, Zilpah, and the name means a troop or crowd of people invading or on the offensive. In its negative application, the name “Gad” connects with the ten-horned fleshly beast who was given complete control in us through “the law of sin” by God (Rom 6:20; Rom 7:14-25; Eph 2:2-3; Rev 13:7). The flesh was given a worldly spirit at its creation, filled with earthly lusts and pride, which is what spiritual darkness and barrenness is all about (Gen 2:7; Gen 3:6; 1Jn 2:16; Jer 18:4).

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 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.

In the positive application, Gad’s name connects with overcomers in warfare against this ten-horned beast and all its worldly powers. This overcoming spirit of Christ is now reserved only for the elect of God (Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-39; 1Ti 4:4):

Rev 17:14 These [rulers in the flesh] shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

These are basically the two applications also seen in the words of Jacob to Gad:

Gen 49:19 Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.

For the spiritual generation of Gad, these words of Jacob to Gad are important for they also open up our own journey from darkness to light and from immature babes to maturity in Christ (Joh 1:5; Act 26:18; Eph 1:17-23; Col 1:13):

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

This is the generation in whom “all these things [are being] fulfilled”, even as no word of God which is written will pass away (Mat 4:4). The journey and experiences of Gad and his tribe, with all the physical Israelites from Egypt to the promised land, is our journey from flesh to spirit (Rom 1:20):

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

Gad’s position within the nation of Israel

Within the forty years of journeying in the wilderness, the tribe of Gad was associated with the tribes of Reuben and Simeon in terms of their position at the south side of the tabernacle in the wilderness:

Num 2:10 On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their armies…..

Num 2:12 And those which pitch by him shall be the tribe of Simeon…..

Num 2:14 Then the tribe of Gad….

In its negative application, the spiritual meaning in the scriptures attached to this geographical position or direction of the south is that of rebellion against God and being under the dominion of earthly or fleshly counsel (2Th 2:10-12):

Isa 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
Isa 30:2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

Isa 30:6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.

Dan 11:5 And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.

Egypt is situated directly south of the promised land, and we know that the south is the opposite of north from where God’s judgment comes, according to the scriptures (Lev 1:11; Job 37:22; Isa 14:31; Isa 41:25; Jer 1:14; Jer 4:6; Jer 6:1; Jer 10:22; Jer 25:9; Eze 1:4; Eze 48:1). The south therefore points to our natural inclination to trust our fleshly counsel, which also believes we can avoid God’s judgment through much tribulation and the seven vials (Act 14:22; Rev 15:8). This connects with the false doctrine of the rapture. We also see this in the life of Abraham who moved southward to avoid the famine which is a type of God’s judgment:

Gen 12:9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.
Gen 12:10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
Gen 12:11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
Gen 12:12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
Gen 12:13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.

As it happened to Abraham, this brings us in a position of compromise – “to sit still” and take the counsel of the world to preserve our old life (Rev 3:14-23):

Isa 30:7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.

God’s judgment will reach the south, as Abraham also found out, among others in the scriptures (Exo 7:19-12:30; Eze 29:1-16; Jer 46:1-28). Yes, Gad in us must be spiritually positioned in the south initially and be overcome by the troops of the flesh not knowing that all will be brought into the judgment of God, which is actually for our good (Heb 12:6; Tit 2:11-12):

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.

Gad’s dedication and commitment

When the tribes of Israel settled in Canaan, the tribe of Gad settled on the east side of the river Jordan for the grazing of their huge amounts of cattle and sheep (Num 32:1-5). They were indeed “rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” which again typifies this lukewarm and doublemindedness in us (Rev 3:14-23). They were again joined here by the tribe of Reuben, but now the half tribe of Manasseh joined them. We know that the Jordan River is the spiritual symbol for our baptism in fire when we are given the spiritual conversion to enter the spiritual battles in our heavens – dying to self and the spirit of the world (Mat 3:11; Mat 10:39; Mat 20:22-23; 1Co 15:31; Gal 2:20). If we love this world, it is impossible to make war with our beast and kill the passions of the flesh:

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

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Moses questioned these tribes along the same lines when they came with this request to him to live on the east side of the Jordan River:

Num 32:6 And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?
Num 32:7 And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD hath given them?

A double-minded person believes it is possible to serve two masters with total commitment, which is not possible according to the scriptures (Mat 6:24; Jas 1:8; Jas 4:8). In this state of mind, we want to use our physical means to conquer spiritual battles, and this we also see in the tribes on the east of the river Jordan at this stage. They gave their full commitment to the battles of Israel:

Num 32:16 And they came near unto him, and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones:
Num 32:17 But we ourselves will go ready armed before the children of Israel, until we have brought them unto their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land.
Num 32:18 We will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.

These tribes indeed had “valiant men”:

1Ch 5:18 The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow, and skilful in war, were four and forty thousand seven hundred and threescore, that went out to the war.

Their dedication to Israel’s cause was commendable as Joshua also mentioned in his praise for them when he blessed them:

Jos 22:1 Then Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh,
Jos 22:2 And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you:
Jos 22:3 Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the LORD your God.
Jos 22:4 And now the LORD your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side Jordan.

Joshua also included a warning in this praise session:

Jos 22:5 But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Jos 22:6 So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away: and they went unto their tents.

As Paul admonished the church in Rome, we all start off like these tribes of physical Israel in our spiritual walk being very zealous, “but not according to (spiritual) knowledge” (Act 18:24-28):

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

Our position and walk should not cause misunderstandings

“If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men” and what we do should not bring confusion to others:

1Th 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.

And this is what these tribes on the eastern side of the Jordan could not avoid as they erected “a great altar” for the purpose of a witness to God for His faithfulness:

Jos 22:10 And when they came unto the borders of Jordan, that are in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by Jordan, a great altar to see to.

This altar was not erected as an altar of sacrifice, as the temple in Jerusalem was the only place where sacrifices were to be made as commanded by God. In this they were very careful. It was an altar of “witness between [them] that the Lord is God”:

Jos 22:26 Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice:

Jos 22:34 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God.

The other tribes did not know this and wanted to attack the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh:

Jos 22:12 And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them.

After these tribes explained the purpose of this altar, peace was established when the misunderstanding was cleared:

Jos 22:27 But that it may be a witness between us, and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD.

However, our “great altar” of good intentions and good works of the flesh indeed brings a separation from the works of faith through the spirit of Christ in us (Eph 2:8-10; Jas 2:1-26):

Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

When truth is not yet fully established in a person’s life, we will use the deceitful wisdom of the world thinking it will bring forth good spiritual fruit:

Jas 3:13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
Jas 3:14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
Jas 3:15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Jas 3:16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

Within this time of being under the earthy and sensual wisdom of the world, like Job, we stubbornly cling to our righteousness (our “great altar”) and are wise in our own conceit and our understanding of things:

Job 10:15 If I be wicked, woe to me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see you my affliction;

Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

God’s spirit is the spirit of truth and will not bring confusion, as all our intentions will be made clear at the appointed time:

1Co 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

“A troop shall overcome him…”

The scriptures warn us of allowing the “little leaven” into our lives as it has the ability to “leaveneth the whole lump”:

1Co 5:6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

Leaven in its negative application has to do with sin and false doctrines according to the philosophies of the world. These things deceitfully entangle us when they drag us into conversations and “reason[ings] among themselves” where no good spiritual results or no growth in our faith will be achieved (1Co 5:6-8):

Mat 16:6 Then Jesus said unto them [His disciples], Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Mat 16:7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
Mat 16:8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?

The tribe of Gad and these tribes on the east of the Jordan worked together, but this alliance also brought trouble for all of them. When the half tribe of Manasseh sinned against God, all these tribes on the east of the river Jordan were punished by God:

1Ch 5:23 And the children of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land: they increased from Bashan unto Baalhermon and Senir, and unto mount Hermon.
1Ch 5:24 And these were the heads of the house of their fathers, even Epher, and Ishi, and Eliel, and Azriel, and Jeremiah, and Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valour, famous men, and heads of the house of their fathers.
1Ch 5:25 And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them.
1Ch 5:26 And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.

Our alliances can indeed bring evil on us, although we are not directly involved in particular sins and transgressions. Our natural alliance with the first Adam makes us guilty of all, although we physically did not commit the sins which others in the first Adam do:

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 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

As we are associated with the first Adam, we can also associate with the last Adam, as the first Adam was a figure of the last Adam, Jesus Christ, for this very purpose. So we see that, in the positive, the association of Jesus with us in every sense opens the door to our salvation and the salvation of all in the first Adam:

Heb 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Heb 2:18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

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

Although Jesus Himself never committed a sin, yet He was made sin for coming in a body of sin, like Adam, and that is how death was imputed on Him also (Rom 6:6). As Jesus associated with us in death, so we can associate with Him as He imputes His righteousness and justification on us:

2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Rom 4:24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
Rom 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

We are first overcome by this evil association with “the troop” of flesh which brings death to us before the spirit of the life of Christ will also overcome everyone “at the last” (1Co 12:3; Php 2:5-11; 1Co 15:22-28). This promise is also seen in Jacob’s final words to Gad.

“….but [Gad] shall overcome at the last”

Gad and his tribe also bring this promise of overcoming over flesh and all its evil associations. In Moses’ words for the tribe of Gad we see that a few new symbols were added here to Gad’s function within the commonwealth of physical Israel, which helps us to see how this applies in our own lives, even within the spiritual “Israel of God”, His church (1Co 10:11; Gal 6:16):

Deu 33:20 And of Gad he [Moses] said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the head.
Deu 33:21 And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, was he seated; and he came with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments with Israel.

This tribe of Gad fought on Saul’s side against David, but some “separated themselves” to join David and his army and were fearless and skillful fighters:

1Ch 12:8 And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains.

We know that David is a type of Christ, and as such we also see the spiritual Gadites, those few in Christ who were separated from their brothers, being part of the called, chosen and faithful elect who are sealed within the twelve tribes of the spiritual “Israel of God” in the book of Revelation (Mat 22:14; Rev 18:4). The spiritual Gadites indeed “came with the heads of the people” and will “executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments with (spiritual) Israel”. These are the ones who have overcome the “troops” of flesh in all its various and subtle deceptions and delusions in this age:

Rev 7:5c …Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.

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

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

Who Is Taken and Who Is Left?
How Long Do We Continue In Sin?
Milk Doctrines – Baptisms
Crossing Over Jordan
Numbers in Scripture
Foundational Themes in Genesis – Study 55