Judgments – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty Sun, 15 Mar 2026 16:37:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cropped-headerlogo-32x32.png Judgments – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com 32 32 Spiritual Significance of Numbers – The Number 18 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/spiritual-significance-of-numbers-the-number-18/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spiritual-significance-of-numbers-the-number-18 Sun, 15 Mar 2026 04:05:42 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=35675 Audio Download

Spiritual Significance of Numbers – The Number 18

[Study Aired March 15, 2026]

We have already learned that the multiplication of any number simply amplifies or matures that number’s meaning. For example, if the number six signifies incomplete mankind, created on the sixth day, then the number 666 amplifies and matures that concept of an incomplete mankind. If twelve signifies foundations, then 144,000 would amplify and mature that concept.

Our study today is concerned with the number eighteen, which is a multiple of the number nine. The number nine is unlike any other number in that no matter which number you multiply it with, the product of that number will always reduce back to nine when added together. If we multiply 9×2=18, and the sum of the numbers which make up that product will always equal 9 because 1+8=9. 3×9=27, and when you add 2+7 it equals 9. 4×9=36 and 3+6=9… 5×9=45 and 4+5=9, etc. etc.

The spiritual significance of the number 9 is judgment which leads to salvation as demonstrated by this verse of scripture:

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.

Here is an in depth study on what the scriptures reveal the number nine signifies spiritually: https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/numbers_nine/

If indeed the number nine signifies the Lord’s judgments, leading to repentance and deliverance, and knowing that multiples of any number amplify and mature that number, we should expect to find that principle being demonstrated throughout the scriptures, and indeed in the first two places when this number eighteen appears in scripture that is exactly what we see:

Jdg 3:14  So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
Jdg 3:15  But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.

Israel’s subjection and enslavement by Eglon the king of Moab, is the Lord’s judgment upon them for their sins. It was their judgment which led to their repentance and their deliverance. ‘When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.’(Isa 26:9)

The next time we see this number 18 is in:

Jdg 10:7  And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.
Jdg 10:8  And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
Jdg 10:9  Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.

What is the result of the Lord’s judgment of our sins and our repentance for those sins?

Jdg 10:10  And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.
Jdg 10:11  And the LORD said unto the children of Israel,  Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?
Jdg 10:12  The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.
Jdg 10:13  Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.
Jdg 10:14  Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.
Jdg 10:15  And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.
Jdg 10:16  And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Jdg 10:17  Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh.

Once again, the Lord’s judgments of our sins produces the repentance of those sins and the deliverance we all so desperately need:

Jdg 11:32  So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
Jdg 11:33  And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

The sins and the judgment of those sins of Israel, leading to the repentance and deliverance from those sins, is signified by this number 18. That was the number of years Israel was oppressed by her enemies. Paul tells us that all these things happened to Israel and they are written for our admonition:

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 ‘Israel’ of the Old Testament signifies those who are now claiming the name and character of Jesus Christ. It is now we who must come to see our sins and repent of those sins before we can be delivered from our bondage of desiring to be as the nations and the people around us.

The next time we see this number 18 is in the story of the destruction of the tribe of Benjamin for raping to death the concubine of a Levite who had spent the night in Gibeah, a city of Benjamin, in the home of a man of that city who had invited him to his house for the night. We will see in this story that both Israel and Benjamin lose 18,000 men each in two separate battles.

The men of Gibeah had demanded that the host send his Levite guest out to them so they could do to him what the men of Sodom had wanted to do to the two angels who had been invited into Lot’s home. The Levite gave the men his concubine and the men of Gibeah raped her to death. The next day the Levite cut her body into twelve pieces and sent a piece to each tribe of Israel hoping for revenge for the loss of his concubine who had given her life for him. The story of what had been done to the Levite’s concubine outraged the entire nation, and they determined to discipline Gibeah for this atrocity:

Jdg 20:11  So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
Jdg 20:12  And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?
Jdg 20:13  Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:
Jdg 20:14  But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

Israel wanted only the guilty men, but all of Benjamin refused to punish these perverts among themselves. Benjamin was of Israel, and what had been manifested at Gibeah was lying dormant in all Israel and is dormant in all flesh. The Lord used this occasion to punish both Israel and Benjamin even though Israel inquired of the Lord daily before going to war.

Jdg 20:14  But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
Jdg 20:15  And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
Jdg 20:16  Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.
Jdg 20:17  And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
Jdg 20:18  And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.

It is in this situation amidst the loss of thousands on both sides that both Israel and Benjamin lost 18,000 men in two separate battles:

Jdg 20:25  And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

These “eighteen thousand” were just on “the second day.” Israel lost many more on the first day:

Jdg 20:19  And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
Jdg 20:20  And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
Jdg 20:21  And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.

Eighteen plus twenty two equals a loss of 40,000 men of Israel in just two days with apparently very few of Benjamin being slain. It is plain for all to see the Lord was not happy with either side. Nevertheless, He did give Israel the final victory over Benjamin for the atrocities committed by the men of Gibeah against the concubine of a Levite.

Jdg 20:26  Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
Jdg 20:27  And the children of Israel enquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
Jdg 20:28  And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.

Israel was given to exercise a much better strategy on the third day acting as if they had come to fight in the same manner as they had the first two days. Then they intentionally fled before the men of Benjamin while “liers in wait” came out of the fields and burned the city behind the Benjamite soldiers causing them to flee for their lives:

Jdg 20:29  And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah.
Jdg 20:30  And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.
Jdg 20:31  And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
Jdg 20:32  And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.
Jdg 20:33  And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baaltamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.
Jdg 20:34  And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them.
Jdg 20:35  And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.
Jdg 20:36  So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.
Jdg 20:37  And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.
Jdg 20:38  Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city.
Jdg 20:39  And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.
Jdg 20:40  But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven.
Jdg 20:41  And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them.
Jdg 20:42  Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.
Jdg 20:43  Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.
Jdg 20:44  And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour.
Jdg 20:45  And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.
Jdg 20:46  So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valour.
Jdg 20:47  But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.
Jdg 20:48  And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.

Israel was given deliverance from the sins of Gibeah while Benjamin was almost wiped out as a tribe.

Jdg 21:2  And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;
Jdg 21:3  And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?

Israel was given to find a way to give wives to the six hundred Benjamites who had survived and were at the Rock Rimmon for four months. In the end they, too, were delivered and returned to rebuild their cities and the foundation of Israel was preserved in the twelve tribes.

The spiritual lesson in this story is the same as the story of the sin of Achan:

Jos 7:10  And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
Jos 7:11  Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
Jos 7:12  Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
Jos 7:13  Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

Israel had just destroyed Jericho, and they were moving on to war against another very small city called Ai. For some strange reason they were defeated by this very small town:

Jos 7:5  And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
Jos 7:6  And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
Jos 7:7  And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!
Jos 7:8  O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!
Jos 7:9  For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

The Lord revealed to Joshua there was someone who had taken for himself what the Lord had forbidden, and for that reason a curse was upon the whole nation. That ‘someone’ was Achan, who confessed his sin and was put to death:

Jos 7:19  And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.
Jos 7:20  And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:
Jos 7:21  When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
Jos 7:22  So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.
Jos 7:23  And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD.
Jos 7:24  And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
Jos 7:25  And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.
Jos 7:26  And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.

Once the sin was repented of and removed then the Lord delivered Ai into Israel’s hands, and Israel destroyed their enemy with the same strategy used by Israel to destroy Benjamin many years later:

Jos 8:10  And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
Jos 8:11  And all the people, even the people of war that were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai.
Jos 8:12  And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
Jos 8:13  And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
Jos 8:14  And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city.

While the number 18 is not mentioned in the story of the conquest of Ai, the principle of judgment leading to repentance followed by deliverance, signified by the number 18, is very evident.

The next appearance of this number eighteen is when King David was renowned for slaying 18,000 Syrians in the valley of salt. At that time the Lord delivered David from all his enemies:

2Sa 8:13  And David gat him a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt, being eighteen thousand men.
2Sa 8:14  And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David’s servants. And the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.

This was following David’s trials and his judgment at the hands of wicked king Saul. At this time David was humble and was delivered from all of his enemies.

Another appearance of this number eighteen, is in giving us the measurements of the two huge copper pillars at the front of the temple of Solomon. Each pillar was eighteen cubits high. That is 27 feet or 8.23 meters high:

The placement of these two pillars, which were 18 cubits high, at the front of the temple signifies that we are being delivered from our sins after being judged for those sins and repenting before entering into the house of our Lord.

We find this same number with the same significance in the New Testament. Christ makes it clear in Luke thirteen that this number signifies the repentance and deliverance which we all must experience when being judged of the Lord:

Luk 13:1  There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Luk 13:2  And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4  Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

This same number with the same spiritual significance appears twice more in this same thirteenth chapter of Luke:

Luk 13:10  And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
Luk 13:11  And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.
Luk 13:12  And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.
Luk 13:13  And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
Luk 13:14  And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.
Luk 13:15  The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?
Luk 13:16  And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
Luk 13:17  And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.

This woman was delivered from “a spirit of infirmity” which kept her “bowed together to the extent that she could not straighten herself up for 18 years. But at that point she was delivered from that infirmity and made whole.

There is much more that can be pointed out in scripture concerning the number eighteen but I will close this study at this juncture by pointing out that eighteen is three sixes, three signifying the process of judgment and six signifying our incomplete, carnal-minded old man who is in the process of being delivered from that sad state through the Lord’s judgments:

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

That is truly good news!

]]> Revelation 20:7-10 When the 1,000 Years are Expired, Part 1 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/revelation-207-10-when-the-1000-years-are-expired-part-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=revelation-207-10-when-the-1000-years-are-expired-part-1 Sat, 21 Jun 2025 15:47:11 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=33429 Audio Download

Revelation 20:7-10 When the 1,000 Years are Expired, Part 1

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

Introduction

In our last study we learned that Satan was placed under house arrest for “a thousand years” and was not permitted to deceive the nations during that time. This week we will see that “when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.”

As always we are reminded that these are not words only for those who will some day be living on this earth “when the thousand years are expired”, but that “this generation will not pass before all these things shall be fulfilled” (Mat 24:34), and that two thousand years ago we were told, “Keep the things written therein, for the time is at hand.”

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

With all of this in mind, let’s go to Matthew 24, and observe how Christ’s prophecy for “this generation” parallels this portion of this revelation of Jesus Christ within us.

Mat 24:21  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Mat 24:22  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
Mat 24:23  Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [ it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Mat 24:25  Behold, I have told you before.
Mat 24:26  Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, [he is] in the secret chambers; believe [it] not.
Mat 24:27  For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:28  For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Mat 24:29  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Mat 24:30  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, [even] at the doors.
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.
Mat 24:36  But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

“My words shall not pass away.” It is Christ Himself who tells all His disciples of all time, “this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” It is Christ Himself who tells us “My words will never pass away”, and it is Christ Himself who tells us that this includes “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Notice how this all accords with “the supper of the great God” in Revelation 19.

Rev 19:17  And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
Rev 19:18  That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all [ men, both] free and bond, both small and great.

Here in Revelation 19 we see an angel inviting the fowls of the heaven to eat the flesh of horses and them that ride on them at the supper of the great God, and here in Matthew 24 Christ is telling us that “the eagles will be gathered together wheresoever the carcase is.” “The dream is one” (Gen 41:25).

Since Christ tells us…

Mat 24:21  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

… and then He tells us:

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.

When we put Matthew 24:34-35 together with Revelation 1:3, 22:6-7 and 18-19, what does this tell us concerning this period called “a thousand years”? Here are those verses in Revelation:

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

Rev 22:6 And he said unto me, These sayings [are] faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed [is] he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Rev 22:18  For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Our permissive spirit always asks ‘which things written in this book are we to keep’, hoping to somehow avoid “keeping [all] the things written therein.” ‘Surely’, reasons our natural mind, ‘the things written therein (Rev 1:3) and the sayings of the prophecy of this book (Rev 22:6-7), do not include the seven last plagues, or this thousand years of being reigned over by God’s elect, or this thing called the lake of fire. Surely God is not saying that all men live by even these words!’

Well, if that is the case, then all these verses are bald face lies:

Ecc 9:2  All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

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

These words are all true, they have “never passed away”, and the reason “all things present and to come are ours” is because the words of Christ are themselves Christ, who in Truth “is, was and will be… the Word of God.”

That being said, however, the elect do not experience the actual lake of fire, which “is the second death” because we are assured:

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.

And…

Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

The elect ARE found in the book of life, so they are not cast into the lake of fire. The lake of fire, which is the second death, has no power over them and cannot hurt the Lord’s elect:

Rev 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Not that we don’t experience ‘fiery trials’ during our life in the flesh, but the experience called the ‘lake of fire’ is for those whose names were not found in the book of life.

What does all of this tell us about this period called “a thousand years”?

Is “a thousand years” literal?

This is a “signified” book:

Rev 1:1  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

However, it is a period of time, and that is what it signifies. It does not signify the Lord’s creatures or their actions, good or bad. It signifies a literal period of time.

The first thing we need to establish is the Biblical and spiritual signification of the number ‘one thousand.’ One thousand is ten to the third power; 10 x 10 x 10. We have seen in our earlier studies on the spiritual meaning of numbers in scripture that the number 10 is the Biblical symbol for our flesh at its worst and at its very best. God enumerated exactly ten nations in Canaan which He would give to Israel when He brought them out of Egypt. It was Joseph’s ten brothers who sold him into Egypt. There were ten plagues upon Egypt which brought Pharaoh, the Biblical type of our sinful flesh, to let Israel leave Egypt. God gave Israel the ten commandments in the wilderness to govern their actions in bodies of flesh. There were ten rebellions while in the wilderness by Israel against their own savior. One thousand is this number ten, the number of our flesh, to the third power. Ten is our flesh, and three is the number of the process of our judgment. As such, one thousand years is the spiritual symbol for the judgment of our flesh at its very best.

Spiritual Significance of the Number Ten

Numbers in Scripture: Three – the Process of Spiritual Completion Through Judgment

What do we find when God judges our flesh at its zenith? What we discover is that flesh, at its zenith, at its very best, is still corruption and rebellion against a pure, spiritual heavenly Father and His Christ.

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

So that is what all these verses concerning God’s sovereignty in “all things, things present and things to come” is telling us. They are declaring to us that God is working in our lives, and what He is telling us is that this “thousand years” is part of that “one event to all men.” What these verses are telling us is that “the time is at hand for us to keep [this] thousand years.” What they are telling us is that the phrase “a thousand years” signifies and is used by the holy spirit in this prophecy as a symbol of something “which must shortly be done” in our lives, and which we all will “shortly… keep” and do “for the time is at hand.”

What exactly is the spiritual significance of this thing called “a thousand years” or in theological jargon, “the millennium?” What takes place during this time when our flesh is being brought to its zenith, just before its destruction.

The first thing we need to realize concerning this symbol is what it is not. It is not a time when God will save this world. Rather, it is the time that sets up our flesh, and all flesh, for its own destruction. For God to be saving anyone, He has, throughout His Word revealed that being an overcomer requires “the wicked one… the tempter” to be overcome, as our Lord overcame him.

Mar 1:12  And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
Mar 1:13  And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

1Jn 2:13  I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
1Jn 2:14  I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

It is only through the fiery trials from the Adversary himself, that the Christ is tried. There is no such opportunity during the thousand years because Satan is hedged out of those lives during this time. When we begin to mature, “think it not strange concerning the fiery trials” which we must encounter to overcome the wicked one. He is released upon us at this time, and he will overcome us, before we are resurrected with our Lord and called up to heaven to sit with Him in His Father’s throne.

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus:

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

Rev 11:11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Only after all this has been done “in the same hour… a great earthquake” takes place within us, and we are then qualified to be “seated with Christ in the heavens.” This earthquake is the time of the destruction of our flesh so we can be “saved by fire” through that very destruction and through that death.

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

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

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

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Here is the account of that destruction of all flesh and the institution of the lake of fire which will be used by God to show mercy to, and to “save by fire”, all men, excluding those who were chosen to be God’s elect as they have already gone through their fire. Their fire is NOT the lake of fire, but what Peter calls our ‘fiery trials’; the fire being the purification by God’s word.

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

There is no “lake of fire” for us who are being judged at this time, as our experience is called fiery trials, and it behooves us to follow a ‘pattern of sound words’.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
1Pe 4:14  If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
1Pe 4:15  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.
1Pe 4:16  Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

“For the time is come” means “because the time is come that through suffering as a Christian, judgment must begin at the house of God.” There will be no “suffering as a Christian” taking place during the “thousand years”, and there will be no “judgment beginning at the house of God” during the thousand years, because Satan will be imprisoned, under the seal and the chain of the word of God. He will be under house arrest, in the bottomless pit, or abussos, of the carnal mind of our flesh. This is true also for the lake of fire as Satan himself is being purified in the lake of fire, so he is not doing the work he does now as an adversary in our lives. None of the necessary principles, ingredients or elements needed to produce or purify overcomers in this age is in place during the thousand-year reign nor in the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death. During the thousand-year reign there is no “wicked one [to] overcome.” The “wicked one” is imprisoned in the so-called ‘bottomless pit’ during the thousand-year reign:

1Jn 2:13  I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
1Jn 2:14  I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

Being an ‘overcomer’ is an essential factor for qualifying for having a part in the first resurrection and ruling with Christ over the nations of this world for a thousand years.

Rev 2:11  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

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

Therefore, since those who live in bodies of flesh and blood during the thousand-year reign cannot possibly be in the one and only “blessed and holy… first resurrection” of life which occurs at the beginning of the thousand-year reign of “our Lord and His Christ.” Everyone who lives in bodies of flesh and blood during that time will be raised up at “the resurrection of judgment… white throne judgment/ lake of fire/ second death.”

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; [At the beginning of the thousand year reign, (Rev 20:6)] and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. [Greek: ‘krisis’, judgment]

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

The only part the elect have in the thousand-year reign is rulership with Christ. They are not ruled over with a rod of iron for a thousand years. The words which the spirit uses to distinguish those in the resurrection of life from those in the resurrection of judgment should be the words we use also.

Here is a list of the phrases used by the holy spirit to make clear this distinction:

1) “Resurrection of life” at the beginning of the thousand year reign versus “resurrection of judgment” at the “great white throne judgment” (Joh 5:28-29, Rev 20:11)

 2) “Judgment… now” versus “white throne judgment” after one-thousand year reign (1Pe 4:17 and Rev 20:11)

3) “Numbered 144,000” versus “a great multitude which no man could number” (Rev 7:4 and Rev 7:9

4) “A manchild who was to rule the nations” versus “The woman [who] fled into the wilderness” (Rev 12:5 and Rev 12:14)

5) “The dead which die in the Lord” versus “gathering the clusters of the vine of the earth” (Rev14:13, Rev 14:18)

6) “They that are called to the marriage supper of The Lamb” versus “the supper of the great God” (Rev19:9. Rev 19:17).

7) “They that have part in the blessed and holy first resurrection” versus “whosoever was not found written in the book of life”.

The righteous overcomers are always mentioned first. It is they who are raised first because they are dying first and being judged first. Their resurrection is separated by a thousand years from the resurrection of judgment of those who are not dying in this present age and who are not being judged in this present age.

In our next study we will discover when physical Israel will be saved and we will see why the Lord had to rule the world for a thousand years before releasing Satan to deceive the world again.

 

]]> Rev 7:1-3 Part 4, Sealing The 144,000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/rev-71-3-part-4-sealing-the-144000/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rev-71-3-part-4-sealing-the-144000 Fri, 31 May 2024 19:25:25 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=30029 (Audio not available)

Rev 7:1-3 Part 4, Sealing The 144,000

[Study Aired May 31, 2024]

We are in chapter 7 of the book of Revelation. Christ has opened six of the seven seals which have the contents of this book closed and hidden from the multitudes who come to Christ. At this point in the revelation of Jesus Christ within us, the holy spirit pauses before opening the seventh seal which is the revelation of the blowing of the seven trumpet judgments upon the kingdom of our old man. Before the Lord shows us the contents of the seventh seal, which reveals our judgment being spiritually administered upon us through seven trumpet judgments, the holy spirit has seen fit to pause here and assure us that all men of all time will eventually be reconciled to their Creator. Because our Lord knows that we cannot endure these judgments without His comfort and encouragement, He pauses at the opening of the seventh seal to tell us that if we are given to “endure to the end” (Mat 10:22) then “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us” as His “overcomer… firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” (Rom 8:18, Rev 2:26, Rev 14:4). The seventh trumpet judgment is the pouring out of the seven last plagues which fill up God’s wrath upon the kingdom of our old man which has been dominated by a great spiritual whore. The Lord knows our frame, and He knows that it is at this point, just before we come to see and experience the fullness of His wrath upon the kingdom of our old man, that we, as the Lord Himself, need to be told that He has chosen us to be His “144,000… firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” (Rev 14:4), and that through our mercy (Rom 11:30-31), “a great multitude which no man can number… all in Adam” will be dragged to Himself:

Joh 12:32  And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Rev 7:9  After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Rev 7:13  And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
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.
Rev 7:15  Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

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

We have seen that the number four signifies the whole, or all of whatever is under   consideration. We have also come to know that the 144,00 and the “great multitude which no man could number, together they signify the whole or all of mankind of all time.

What are the four winds of the earth?

We have just seen that the spiritual significance of the number four is to signify the whole of that to which the spirit is drawing our attention. In this case it is the “winds of the earth.” The earth with all of its kingdoms is but a speck of dust in God’s heavens, and the sea is just part of God’s earth.

Isa 40:15  Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

Consequently, we see the heavens and the earth mentioned together many times. For example:

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

Psa 134:3  The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.

The phrase “heaven and earth” is used many times in scripture to encompass the whole of creation, both physical and spiritual. How does God work with His creation? God uses the whole of His spiritual creation to deal with His physical creation. So, the use in scripture of the phrase “the four winds,” is a way of acknowledging that God is the Father of the whole spirit world and “by His spirit… He rules in the kingdoms of men”:

Job 26:13  By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

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

Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected [us], and we gave [them] reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

All the protestations of all the ministers of Babylon to the contrary, this includes both the good and the evil spirits. They all come from the “Father of spirits.”

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15  And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

1Ki 22:23  Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

Pro 16:2  All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.

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

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

Here are a few very revealing verses which tell us what the “four winds of the earth” are.

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

How does God scatter the whole of His enemies? He does so with “those four winds.”

How will God give life to the whole of mankind? He will do so with “the four winds.”

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

Remember all Israel will be saved when the fullness of the Gentiles is come in.

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

How does God work with the beast which is the whole of mankind? He does it through the four winds, and the result is four creatures in Daniel, which are revealed to actually be one composite creature within us all in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Dan 7:2  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
Dan 7:3  And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
Dan 7:4  The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
Dan 7:5  And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
Dan 7:6  After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
Dan 7:7  After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

What is that fourth beast which was different from the other beasts? That beast is the great red dragon who is the father of us all while we are his children.

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

What do the children of this dragon look like? Here they are. Like Daniel’s four beasts, this composite beast also comes up “out of the sea,” looking like those very same beasts in Daniel 7.

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

The spiritual significance of these four beasts in Daniel’s prophecy is to show us that all the things that happened to Israel, signifying God’s people today, at the hands of the various Gentile kingdoms of old, signifying the government of this world today, “happened to them and are written for us upon whom the ends of this age are come.”

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.

“All these things… are written for our admonition,” because it is “every word” coming upon us all at the hands of “the four winds of the earth.”

What is the sea?

As we saw in the story of the six days of creation, the earth itself, and therefore all upon it, comes up out of the sea and is separated from the sea. What is the spiritual significance of the sea? Here is a verse which, along with every other verse containing the word ‘sea’, gives us the answer to what is the spiritual significance of the sea. The sea is the symbol of all that is flesh. The sea is the ‘abussos‘ or the abyss of scripture. The sea is all flesh of all time.

Psa 18:16  He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.

Isa 17:13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but [God] shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

Speaking of Babylon in both the Old and New Testaments, Babylon is found to be sitting on “many waters.”

Jer 51:1  Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;

Jer 51:13  O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.

What exactly are these “many waters?” Here is what the sea and many waters are:

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

We have demonstrated that the heaven and the earth are very symbiotic. This symbiotic relationship extends to and includes the heaven, the earth and the sea. All three are an essential part of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Gen 1:9  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Gen 1:10  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Act 4:24  And when they [the disciples] heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:

Act 14:15  And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

It is obvious that God thinks of these three as a unit. He sees them all as the work of His hand. Each of these three, just like the three festival seasons in the year, are symbolic of the three stages of the process of salvation.

Here, of course, is the true heaven:

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these [the blood of bulls and goats]; but the heavenly things themselves [those in whom Christ dwells] with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us [God dwells in His people (Rev 21:3)]:

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.

Both the earth and the seas are “under the heavens,” and yet they are within, and are a vital part of the heavens as surely as the “waters under the earth” are a part of the earth.

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Gen 1:21  And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.
Gen 1:22  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Exo 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Notice that “the fowl… fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven,” and still we are told that the “fowl multiply in the earth.” So, the “fowl of the heaven” are also the fowl which “multiply in the earth.”

It is Christ Himself who gives us our understanding of the spiritual significance of the fowls that fly in the firmament of the heavens when He tells us it is the fowls who “catch away that which was sown in his heart.”

Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

What was the spiritual type of “the wicked one” in this parable? What was the spiritual type which catches away “that which was sown in his heart?” It was the fowls that fly in the firmament of heaven.

Mat 13:4  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

So “the four winds of the earth,” are the exact same “four winds of heaven,” which blow in the expanse of the firmament of the heavens which are above the earth. Look at how Christ uses this phrase “the four winds.” Notice how they are used in the same verse of both the heaven and the earth.

Mat 24:31  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

If this were all we had to go by, we might not see the intimate connection between the works of God in the heavens and the works of God which are done on earth. This is not the only account of this prophecy. Here is Mark’s account, which adds much to the sum of God’s Word on this subject.

Mar 13:27  And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

Now we should have a deeper appreciation for these Words of our Lord, which demonstrate the symbiotic nature of the heavens and the earth.:

Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be [Greek: esomai,  shall have been] bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be [Greek: esomai, shall have been] loosed in heaven.

When we put the sum of God’s word in Matthew 16:19 together with Luke 17:20, we see that this “kingdom of heaven” also known as “the kingdom of God is within you.”

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

When we put these verses together with Matthew 4:4, we discover that we are all, in due time, given the keys to “the kingdom of God within you.”

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

When we put together the sum of God’s Word concerning “the four winds of the earth,” we find that they are really the same as “the four winds of heaven,” which are the winds which blow in the expanse of “the firmament which is above the earth.”

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

What is so revealing for us about all the scriptures in the Old Testament which contain the phrase “four winds” is that the Hebrew word for ‘winds’ in every case is the Hebrew word ‘ruach‘, which is generally translated ‘spirit.’ Here is the e-sword breakdown of how this word is translated in the King James Version.

So, when we read in Daniel:

Dan 7:2  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.

We now know from all the scriptures we have just seen the spiritual definition and the spiritual meaning of the number four, the spiritual meaning of ‘the earth,’ the spiritual significance of the phrase ‘the four winds,’ and the spiritual meaning of the word ‘sea.’ We now know that God uses His spirit to deal with and to form the vessel that was made of clay upon the Potter’s wheel which we now know to be our own individual physical bodies in this eon, which the scriptures refer as “chronos aonios” (times eonian).

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,

Or, as the Concordant Version puts it:

2Ti 1:9 Who saves us and calls us with a holy calling, not in accord with our acts, but in accord with His own purpose and the grace which is given to us in Christ Jesus before times eonian,

Next week, Lord willing, we will learn what trees are in scripture, and we will discover why the four angels cannot hurt the earth, the sea or the trees until after the servants of our God are sealed in their foreheads.

Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

]]> Exodus 9:1-35  The Lord Shall Sever Between the Cattle of Israel and the Cattle of Egypt https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/exodus-91-35-the-lord-shall-sever-between-the-cattle-of-israel-and-the-cattle-of-egypt/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=exodus-91-35-the-lord-shall-sever-between-the-cattle-of-israel-and-the-cattle-of-egypt Mon, 09 May 2022 15:14:10 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=25704 Exo 9:1-35  The Lord Shall Sever Between the Cattle of Israel and the Cattle of Egypt
[Study Aired May 9, 2022]

Exo 9:1  Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 
Exo 9:2  For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 
Exo 9:3  Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 
Exo 9:4  And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. 
Exo 9:5  And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land. 
Exo 9:6  And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
Exo 9:7  And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
Exo 9:8  And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
Exo 9:9  And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. 
Exo 9:10  And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
Exo 9:11  And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.
Exo 9:12  And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.
Exo 9:13  And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 9:14  For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.
Exo 9:15  For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
Exo 9:16  And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
Exo 9:17  As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?
Exo 9:18  Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
Exo 9:19  Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.
Exo 9:20  He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:
Exo 9:21  And he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.
Exo 9:22  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:23  And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:24  So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exo 9:25  And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. 
Exo 9:26  Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. 
Exo 9:27  And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
Exo 9:28  Intreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.
Exo 9:29  And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’S.
Exo 9:30  But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God.
Exo 9:31  And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.
Exo 9:32  But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up.
Exo 9:33  And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. 
Exo 9:34  And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 
Exo 9:35  And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.

This chapter focuses on the fifth, sixth and the seventh plagues – the death of Egyptian cattle, outbreak of boils and the raining down of hail. All these are part of the Lord’s judgment of the old man or the beast within symbolized by Pharaoh. As we are aware, the Lord’s four sore judgments entail the following:

Eze 14:21  For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?

The mention of four sore judgments means that the whole of the Lord’s judgment involves the sword, famine, noisome beast and pestilence. This means that the judgments we encounter in this life, leading to the death of the old man, are related to the sword, famine, noisome beast or pestilence.

Exo 5:3  And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

As indicated in the previous studies, the turning of the waters of Egypt into blood, the unleashing of frogs, lice and swarms of flies all have to do with the pollution of the word of the Lord by lies and false doctrines propagated by evil agents of the devil. This results in famine of the word of the Lord as indicated by Amos:

Amo 8:11  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 
Amo 8:12  And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

Today’s study has to do with the Lord’s judgment on our old man in relation to the sword (raining down of hail) and pestilence (outbreak of boils and the death of cattle and other animals).  All these judgments are to bring Pharaoh to the point of allowing the people of Israel to be liberated from their Egyptian bondage in order to serve the Lord. This is reiterated by the Lord as He instructed Moses and Aaron to tell Pharaoh as follows:

Exo 9:1  Then the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 

Our Lord’s desire to get rid of the old man (Pharaoh) within us is again stated here in verse 1 where the Lord told Moses to tell Pharaoh to let His people go so they can serve Him. As long as the beast reigns within our members, there is no way we can please or serve the Lord. As we are aware, the Lord had sworn by an oath with our fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) that He would give their descendants the promised land, which is our bodies. Knowing this, we must have confidence that irrespective of our circumstance and where we are spiritually, the Lord will put to death the old man (Pharaoh) in order for us to serve Him acceptably.

Exo 6:8  And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.

Heb 6:13  For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, 
Heb 6:14  Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 
Heb 6:15  And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 
Heb 6:16  For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 
Heb 6:17  Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 
Heb 6:18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 
Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 

Having confidence that the Lord will surely cause us to possess the land (overcome the flesh to possess our bodies), all we have to do is believe in the strong hand (His judgments) of the Lord to accomplish it. The stubbornness of the beast, signified by Pharaoh’s resistance to let the people of Israel go from Egypt, brings us to the fifth plague or judgment by the death of cattle, horses, camels, etc. as follows:

The Plague of the Death of Cattle

Exo 9:2  For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, 
Exo 9:3  Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. 

In the scriptures, cattle, asses, horses, camels, oxen and sheep are symbols of worldly riches as shown in the following examples of Abraham and Job:

Gen 24:35  And the LORD hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses.

Job 1:3  His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

These worldly riches represent the things of this world which are the source of sin – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life which we are admonished not to love.

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 

The plague of the death of the cattle, asses, camel, etc. therefore is judgment of the Lord which brings about the death of the world within us and therefore curtails our quest for mammon. The rich young ruler who came to Jesus wanted to serve the Lord as he came to inquire about the way of salvation. However, the cares of the world and his love for riches disqualified him from becoming a son in this life.

Mat 13:22  He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

Mat 19:16  And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 
Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Mat 19:18  He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Mat 19:19  Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 19:20  The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
Mat 19:21  Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
Mat 19:22  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. 

Jesus telling the rich young ruler that he should go and sell his riches does not mean that Jesus is having against the riches of this world. No!! The blessing of the Lord also includes the riches of this world. However, Jesus is here speaking in a parable, not to the world, but to His elect. What Jesus said is that the way to the kingdom of God is to be spiritually poor. Being spiritually poor is what the Lord meant when he said that the young man should sell his possessions. Again, when Jesus said that it was almost impossible for those who are rich in this life to enter the kingdom of God, He was speaking in parable. What he meant is that it is impossible for those who think they are spiritually rich to enter the kingdom of God.

Mat 19:23  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
Mat 19:24  And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Exo 9:4  And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. 
Exo 9:5  And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land. 
Exo 9:6  And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. 
Exo 9:7  And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go. 

The cattle of Israel stand for spiritual riches as against the cattle of Egypt which represent the love of the world. The cattle of Israel not experiencing death in verse 4 means that spiritual riches are eternal, while the cattle of Egypt, which stand for the things of this world, are temporal or dying.

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Col 2:2  That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; 
Col 2:3  In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 

The cattle of Israel, which signify spiritual riches, entail getting to know the wisdom and knowledge of God which is precious in the Lord’s sight as indicated in the verses above. It is those whose eyes are being opened who value spiritual riches. The flesh, signified by Pharaoh, does not care about spiritual things, and therefore it is no wonder that Pharaoh’s heart became hardened even after seeing the cattle of Israel not affected by the plague, as he did not take it to heart at all.

The Plague of the Outbreak of Boils

Exo 9:8  And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. 
Exo 9:9  And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:10  And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
Exo 9:11  And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.
Exo 9:12  And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.

Boils are a skin disease caused by bacterial infection. In the scriptures, when one has a skin disease, he/she must appear before a priest to give his verdict on the nature of the skin disease whether it is a defiling skin disease or a rash, in which case the person is declared clean.

Lev 13:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying,
Lev 13:2  When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests: 
Lev 13:3  And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean. 
Lev 13:4  If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days: 
Lev 13:5  And the priest shall look on him the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more: 
Lev 13:6  And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day: and, behold, if the plague be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean: it is but a scab: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.

What this means is that through the Lord’s judgment of our flesh (outbreak of boils), we are taken through a humbling experience (judgment of boils) which causes us to depend on our brothers and sisters (Priest). This was what happened to Hezekiah when he got sick and was about to die. Isaiah told him initially that he would die, but after Hezekiah sought the Lord to show mercy to him, he was given an additional fifteen years. Hezekiah was humbled by this near-death experience, and he submitted to Isaiah’s words. In healing Hezekiah, Isaiah took a lump of figs and placed it on Hezekiah’s boil, and he was healed. As we may be aware, figs in the scriptures represent the Lord’s people, so a lump of figs represents the body of the elect through whom healing comes to us when through the Lord’s experience, we are humbled.

2Ki 20:1  In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 
2Ki 20:2  Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 
2Ki 20:3  I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 
2Ki 20:4  And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 
2Ki 20:5  Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 
2Ki 20:6  And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. 
2Ki 20:7  And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

Pharaoh’s stubbornness became evident once again as the Lord hardened his heart and therefore was not willing to let the Israelites go. This is all to show us that dealing with the beast within or the old man is not our work – it is the Lord’s work!! In Romans, we are reminded that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is all part of the Lord’s way to show us how He has been merciful to us and to cause us to trust in Him through the showing forth of His power.

Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

In verse 8, Moses was commanded to take the ashes of the furnace which became transformed to dust and finally led to the plague of boils. We are the ashes in the furnace. We are the ones who are being called out of the furnace of affliction. What this means is that in the fullness of time, the Lord will use us to bring boils or judge the world.

Isa 48:10  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 
Isa 48:11  For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.  

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 

Exo 9:13  And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 
Exo 9:14  For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. 
Exo 9:15  For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
Exo 9:16  And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
Exo 9:17  As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?

As shown earlier, the stubbornness of Pharaoh, or the old man within us, is all the work of the Lord in bringing us to appreciate that being an overcomer is through the power of the Lord and not by anything that we do. This power of the Lord comes to us through the knowledge of His divine word.

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

Mar 12:24  And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?

In verse 15, the Lord stated that He will smite the old man with pestilence and that the old man shall be cut off from the earth. Being cut off from the earth means the old man shall surely be destroyed and therefore will not influence our earthly members. This destruction is through judgment.

The Plague of Hail

Exo 9:18  Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
Exo 9:19  Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.
Exo 9:20  He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:
Exo 9:21  And he that regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.
Exo 9:22  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.

Hail comes down from heaven and is very destructive to things on earth. In verse 19, we are told about the destructive nature of hail. It destroys all our cattle and all that remains in the field. As we are aware, the field is the world.

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

As indicated earlier, all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life – are not of the Lord, and His judgment of hail destroys the love of this world within us.

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 
1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Hail is a kind of rain and therefore represents the truth of the word of God which particularly destroys our false doctrines and lies.

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

Exo 9:23  And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:24  So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exo 9:25  And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.

In verse 23, we are given additional information about the judgment of hail. We are told that the Lord sent thunder, hail and fire that ran on the ground. This is repeated in verse 24 where fire mingled with hail came over the land of Egypt and wreaked havoc. This plague of hail meted out against the land and the people of Egypt is the same as the sounding of the first trumpet by one of the seven angels when the seventh seal was opened.

Rev 8:6  And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
Rev 8:7  The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

As we have indicated, hail refers to the truth of the word of the Lord. Fire also represents the word of the Lord as shown as follows:

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

However, when the word of the Lord is described as fire, it is referring to the ability of the word of the Lord to judge us and in the process destroy that which is not in line with the word of the Lord within us.

Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; 
Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

So, hail mingled with fire, which was unleashed in the land of Egypt, means that getting to know the truth of the word of the Lord comes with the judgment of ‘our earth’ which is represented here as the land of Egypt. In other words, tribulation and persecution come as the result of the word we are receiving. As indicated in verse 25, this judgment results in the destruction of all that is in the field, both man and beast, and every herb and tree in the field. We have already shown that all that is in the field represents the love of the world in us. The reference to all that is in the field, both man and beast, is to let us know the impact of the Lord’s judgment on the beast within us. The scriptures speak in several places of trees representing mankind. We are all trees which do not bring forth good fruit and therefore must be brought down by hail mingled with fire to produce good fruit.

Luk 3:9  And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Luk 6:44  For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.

Herbs in the scriptures signifies spiritual immaturity as used in the following:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 
Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

So, the destruction of herbs by hail mingled with fire is the destruction of our false doctrines and lies which hold us captive to the rudimentary aspect of the word of the Lord.

Exo 9:26  Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. 

As we have indicated, hail represents the truth of the word of the Lord or the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Goshen means ‘drawing near’. The absence of hail where the people of Israel were (Goshen) is another way of saying that as the Lord draws us nearer to Himself through His judgments, the mystery of God (hail) shall be finished.

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

Exo 9:27  And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. 
Exo 9:28  Intreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. 
Exo 9:29  And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the LORD’S. 
Exo 9:30  But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God.

Pharaoh’s admission that indeed he had sinned and that he and his people are wicked in contrast to the Lord’s righteousness is another way of saying that the old man (the heart) is desperately wicked and that the new man after the image of Christ is righteous. In verse 30, Moses made a statement that Pharaoh and his servants (the old man) can never fear the Lord. What Pharaoh said is the same as what Saul told David after David spared Saul’s life when he had the opportunity to kill Saul – that is, David (new man) is more righteous than Saul (old man).

Jer 17:9  The heart (the old man) is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. 

Col 3:9  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Col 3:10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Pharaoh’s request for Moses to entreat the Lord to stop the thunderings and the hail so that he would let the people of Israel go is also the same as Saul’s admission that David would be king. In other words, the Lord’s elect (David) will surely overcome the flesh or the old man (Saul or Pharaoh).

1Sa 24:16  And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.
1Sa 24:17  And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
1Sa 24:18  And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.
1Sa 24:19  For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the LORD reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day.
1Sa 24:20  And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand.

Exo 9:31  And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. 
Exo 9:32  But the wheat and the rie were not smitten: for they were not grown up. 

It is insightful to note that the hail destroyed the flax and barley, the source of food. The coming of hail in our lives, which represents the truth of the word of the Lord, destroys all false doctrines and lies which were our source of food during our time in Babylon. The wheat and the rie, however, were not affected by the hail because they were not grown. In the parable of the weeds, Jesus described the wheat as being the children of the kingdom. The coming of the judgment of hail, therefore, does not destroy the elect in their spiritually immature state.

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed (the wheat) are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

Exo 9:33  And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.
Exo 9:34  And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Exo 9:35  And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.

As we have stated in our previous study, when the Lord grants us relief from our suffering, our flesh or the old man (Pharaoh) has the tendency to go back to its vomit. This is the same as the Israelites claiming back their freed servants when there was relief in the Babylonian siege during the time of king Zedekiah.

Jer 34:8  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them, 
Jer 34:9  that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother. 
Jer 34:10  And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again. They obeyed and set them free. 
Jer 34:11  But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves.

Our prayer today is that may the Lord grant us the grace to continue to submit to His judgment of our old man so that we may be presented faultless and without blame. Amen!!

]]> The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 7:1-17 Part 1 – Pray Not for This People https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-71-17-part-1-pray-not-for-this-people/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-71-17-part-1-pray-not-for-this-people Sun, 11 Apr 2021 01:37:34 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=23377

Jer 7:1-17 Part 1, Pray Not for This People

[Study Aired April 11, 2021]

Jer 7:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 7:2  Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
Jer 7:3  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Jer 7:4  Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
Jer 7:5  For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
Jer 7:6  If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
Jer 7:7  Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
Jer 7:8  Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
Jer 7:9  Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
Jer 7:10  And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
Jer 7:11  Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
Jer 7:12  But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
Jer 7:13  And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;
Jer 7:14  Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
Jer 7:15  And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
Jer 7:16  Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
Jer 7:17  Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

Both John the Baptist and Christ addressed their words directly to those who had no eyes to see or ears to hear:

Mat 3:7  But when he [“John the Baptist” (vs 1)] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Christ repeated this same charge against the religious leaders of His day who had just accused Him of casting out devils “by Beelzebub”:

Mat 12:34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

Mat 23:33  Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

“The damnation of hell” here is not the death of the old man which produces “the resurrection of life”. The Greek word translated as ‘hell’ here in Matthew 23 is G1067 (gehenna) which is, according to Christ, “the resurrection to damnation”:

Joh 5:27  And hath given him [Christ and His Christ] authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation  [G2920: krisis, judgment].

Here in John 5:29 we have the only two resurrections mentioned anywhere in scripture. The first one is to life, and the last one is to judgment.

How can we be sure that “the damnation of hell”, better translated as “the judgment of gehenna”, is “the resurrection of damnation”? We can know this for certain because of what Christ says in:

Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
Mat 25:38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Mat 25:39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Mat 25:42  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
Mat 25:43  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
Mat 25:44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
Mat 25:46  And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

This “separating of the sheep” who are told “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom” takes place at the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Christ as we are told in:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy [“Ye blessed of My Father” (Mat 25:34)] 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.

There we have it. There is a “blessed… first resurrection” with the reward of a “glorious… crown of life”, for those who “die in the Lord” in “this present time”. It is only those who first “die in the Lord” in “this present time”, and are being judged at “this present time” (Rom 8:18), who are given that “blessed and holy [reward of] having part in the first resurrection”:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Rev 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

To those who are given eyes that see and ears that hear these verses reveal there are two deaths, two judgments and two resurrections. The first death is a “blessed… death” (Rev 14:13) with a symbolic thousand-year reign dividing the first death from “the second death” (Rev 20:5-6), and there are two resurrections, the one preceding the other, with a symbolic thousand years dividing those two resurrections (Rev 20:5-6). There are two judgments. The first judgment is “[now] on the house of God… [in] this present time”, and the second is the “great white throne… judgment” which takes place “when the thousand years are finished” (Rev 20:5 and 11). These scriptures very clearly say “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord… [and are being judged in] this present time”, and they tell us that the ‘goats’ who die in this present time are “ye cursed” who will be raised up in “the resurrection of judgment” which occurs only “when the thousand years are finished” (Rev 20:5):

Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32  And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33  And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Mat 25:41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920: krisis, judgment].

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

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

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

The separation of two resurrections by a symbolic thousand years is not clearly revealed in the gospels. “The resurrection of life and… the resurrection of judgment” are both named in John 5:29.  The thousand-year reign, separating the two resurrections is revealed in the twentieth chapter of the book of Revelation.

Matthew 25:31-41 does reveal that “the throne of His glory” continues throughout the rewarding of the sheep at the first resurrection. It continues throughout the judgment of the cursed goats in the lake of fire.

Those who are being judged in this present time are raised up in “the first resurrection”. This is the resurrection which Christ called “the resurrection of life” (Joh 5:29, Rev 20:6). It follows that since there are only two resurrections in scripture, and since it is only the ‘sheep’ who are given a kingdom at the first resurrection, which takes place at the beginning of the thousand-year reign, then it must be “the goats”, who consist of any and all the rest of mankind who are not in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”. It is “the goats” who will be raised from the dead in the great white throne judgment, many of whom will be told “depart from me, ye cursed, into eonian fire prepared for the devil and his angels”.

“Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see [the] things which [we] see, and have not seen them” (Mat 13:17):

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

These “prophets and righteous men” will also have to wait until the white throne judgment to see and hear the things we are already privileged to see and hear. We can be sure this is the case because we are told that “he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than… John [the Baptist], and we are told that no Old Testament prophet was greater than John:

Luk 7:28  For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

“He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than [John]”, excludes John from ruling with Christ in His thousand-year reign.

“The word… from the Lord” here in Jeremiah 7 is the same ‘Lord’ with the same message we are given in Matthew 25 concerning the judgment of the same people. Jeremiah was just several hundred years earlier:

Jer 7:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 7:2  Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.

As we will see here is Jeremiah 7, the Lord is separating the sheep from the goats. The “sheep” are the “one from a nation and two from a family” which we read about earlier in this prophecy:

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

Throughout scripture, ‘Zion” typifies the Lord’s elect. It typifies “the sheep” who are separated from the goats, given a kingdom and called “ye blessed of My Father” and who will then become the “saviors” of all the rest of mankind:

Psa 74:2  Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

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

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

On the other hand, we quote Jeremiah 22:29 quite often to demonstrate that the word ‘earth’ symbolizes the Lord’s own people who are estranged from Him through their sins and transgressions. Here is the Lord pleading with His own estranged people:

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

Knowing that the ‘earth’ symbolizes the Lord’s own people who love to wear His name but despise having to wear His apparel or eat His food (Isa 4:1), helps us to understand who the second beast of Revelation 13 is:

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

A beast that appears to be a lamb but speaks as a dragon is the same as a whore who wants her Husband’s name but refuses to wear His apparel or eat His bread, the bread of life:

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

These “seven women” who will not eat the Lord’s bread or wear His apparel are the symbols of the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3. Those seven churches, with all their sins and transgressions, just like the seven women of Isaiah 4, think they are “rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing” (Rev 3:17). The Truth is that they “are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”, and they are the whore in the wilderness of Revelation 17-18.

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

No whore thinks of herself in those terms. This is how you and I, the Lord’s own whoring people, think before we are dragged out of her:

Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

That is a perfect inspired description of how we as the beast that ‘comes up out of the earth… [which looks] like a lamb… [but] speaks as a dragon’ thinks of himself. We are filled with self-righteous pride, and it is all by the Lord’s design and “after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11):

Rev 13:13  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Rev 13:14  And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rev 13:15  And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

This beast that comes up out of the earth is the “earth, earth, earth” of Jeremiah 22:29, and just see to whom this entire chapter is specifically addressed:

Jer 22:1  Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

That is right! The ‘earth’ is the symbol for the Lord’s own special people who are called by His name but will not wear His apparel nor eat His bread. Now let’s put this introduction of chapter 22 right beside the introduction to this seventh chapter:

Jer 7:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 7:2  Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.

The only difference is not really a difference at all. Chapter 22 adds “the king of Judah, that sits upon the throne of David”, but both chapters are addressed to “thy people who enter by these gates”. Inasmuch as “King David” typifies and represents the people over whom the Lord has made Him ruler, these two chapters are addressed to the same people. They are addressed primarily to you and me, and they are also addressed to all who claim to be “in Christ… to take away [their] shame”.

Now notice that the message to us is the same in both chapters:

Jer 7:3  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Jer 7:4  Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.

“The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these” is using the Lord’s name to take away our reproach, while committing blatant adultery and teaching false doctrines which directly contradict the doctrines of our own Husband, but the Lord will always have a remnant who will come out of this world, and will come out of Babylon.

Jer 7:5  For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
Jer 7:6  If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

Compare these words to chapter 22:

Jer 22:3  Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
Jer 22:4  For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

“Executing judgment between a man and his neighbor” here in chapter 7 is the same as “executing judgment and righteousness” in chapter 22.

However, we must also notice the big “For if…” in both chapters. It is always “If ye do this thing… then…” I will bless you:

Jer 7:7  Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

Jer 22:4  For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

Our salvation is not contingent upon our good works, but it is contingent upon the workmanship of Christ who has “created us unto good works”, and that is simply what the scriptures teach:

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

We simply cannot read verses 8-9 and not read the next verse. To do so is “rebellion [which] is as the sin of witchcraft”. To stop here and make a doctrine of ‘no works… Christs did it all for us on the cross’ is exactly what King Saul did when he brought King Agag and the best of the cattle back to offer them to the Lord after the Lord had told him to kill everything that breathed. King Saul cherry picked the Word of God, and he feared the people more than he feared the Lord. Like the seven adulterous women of Isaiah 4:1 he thought he had the right to obey the Lord as He saw fit, and if his way of serving the Lord meant that he would have to ignore some of the Lord’s words, then so be it. That fearful and rebellious spirit cost him the kingdom, and that rebellious spirit will also cost us the kingdom.

Here now is the next verse:

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

We really can tell a tree by its fruits:

Mat 7:16  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Mat 7:20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

All the Lord’s spiritual blessings will be preceded by obedience to His Words. He does not tolerate any spirit of disobedience or rebellion. The only way we will know the Lord is if we seek Him with our whole heart:

Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

To the Lord, making light of His word and disobeying Him by picking for ourselves which of His Words we will keep and obey is nothing less than “rebellion [and it] is as the sin of witchcraft and Idolatry”, and it will rob us of our crown of life. This is what Samuel told King Saul when King Saul attempted to justify his fear of the people and his rebellion against the commandment of the Lord:

1Sa 15:23  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

A prime example of this idolatrous spirit is when we say we are obedient to the Lord even as we blatantly disobey His commandments concerning how we are to keep false teachings and the sins of witchcraft, rebellion, and idolatry out of our midst. The story of how King Saul attempted to twist the Lord’s words to his own liking is the same message the Lord has for us in Ezekiel 14:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;
Eze 14:5  That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Eze 14:6  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8  And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 14:9  And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10  And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;

We have all had idols of our hearts, but that was before we were “enlightened and had tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and had tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come.” If the Lord deceives us after experiencing all those blessings, then these are His words concerning all such men:

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; [They “find no place of repentance” (Heb 12:17)] seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned [in the lake of fire].

We will stop here for now, and next week we will pick up our study of this commandment, “Pray not for this people”. In our next study we will discuss the spiritual significance of why this commandment is repeated three times in this prophecy of Jeremiah.

Here are those three scriptures for your consideration until next week:

Jer 7:16  Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

Jer 11:14  Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

Jer 14:11  Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.

]]> The Book of Jeremiah – Jer 4:10-20 Your Way and Your Doings Have Procured These Things Unto Thee https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-410-20-your-way-and-your-doings-have-procured-these-things-unto-thee/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-book-of-jeremiah-jer-410-20-your-way-and-your-doings-have-procured-these-things-unto-thee Sat, 27 Feb 2021 20:26:10 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=23192 https://www.dropbox.com/s/t4reiij4bkxaley/20210228-Study_Mike-Vinso.m4a?raw=1

Jer 4:10-20 Your Way and Your Doings Have Procured These Things Unto Thee

[Study Aired February 28, 2021]

Jer 4:10  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.
Jer 4:11  At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
Jer 4:12  Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.
Jer 4:13  Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.
Jer 4:14  O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
Jer 4:15  For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.
Jer 4:16  Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
Jer 4:17  As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 4:18  Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.
Jer 4:19  My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Jer 4:20  Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

Our first verse refers to what the Lord said earlier in this chapter:

Jer 4:1  If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
Jer 4:2  And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
Jer 4:3  For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

As we pointed out earlier, these words alone would lead us to believe that if we repent, then we can avoid being judged for our sins. However, ‘the sum of the Lord’s words’ (Psa 119:160 ASV, ESV, etc.) reveals otherwise, and the prophet goes on to reveal that judgment is already on the way:

Jer 4:6  Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
Jer 4:7  The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
Jer 4:8  For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

The sum of the Lord’s Words reveals that as surely as the Lord has ordained that all men must first be made of corruptible dust and clay, He has also ordained that judgment for our corruption must precede our deliverance from these sinful dying bodies. That is what is meant by these very general words which speak to “every man” who has ever or will ever live:

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

We are not at first given to see “the sum” of the Lord’s Word, and thereby the Lord Himself first deceives us, makes us all wicked men for our own ‘day of evil’, and hardens our hearts and makes us to err from His ways:

Eze 14:9  And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10  And they shall bear the punishment [judgment] of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;

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

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

To our flesh these words are as repugnant as anything can get. We just naturally ask, “Why have you made me thus?” In doing so, we are contending with God.

Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

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

Jeremiah was as perplexed as any man and tells the Lord:

Jer 4:10  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.

We cannot help but ask, “Why have you made me thus? Why have you made me wicked for my own day of evil, and then lead me to believe that all I must do is repent, and you will not judge me? Then You send a sword that reaches to the soul?”

In being deceived by the Lord, we are totally unaware that by questioning the Lord we are self-righteously ‘contending with and reproving’ our own Lord. We are disannulling His judgment and condemning our own Maker to make ourselves righteous’:

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 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

The entire book of Job deals with the Lord’s judgment of Job’s insidious sin of self-righteousness, and it is a fiery judgment indeed. However, if the Lord loves us above all others in “this present time” (Rom 8:18), then He will judge us first with His fiery judgments with the promise of a glory to follow which will make our suffering in this time unworthy to be compared to that impending glory.

Jer 4:11  At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
Jer 4:12  Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.
Jer 4:13  Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.

“At that time” refers to this previous verse:

Jer 4:7   The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

“A dry wind” is an unprofitable, destructive ‘wind’ akin to ‘clouds without water’:

Jud 1:12   These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

A “dry wind” withers everything and produces “a famine of the Word”:

Amo 8:11   Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

This ‘famine’ has long been upon all of Babylon, yet the Lord uses this ‘famine’ to try “the daughter of My people”. This is all a prophecy of the coming of Nebuchadnezzar to carry the Lord’s people off into Babylonian captivity where the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water is taken away from Judah and Jerusalem:

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

“Not to fan or to cleanse” was understood by all to mean ‘not to blow away and cleanse away the chaff’ when the wheat or barley are being processed. This ‘wind’ is not being sent from the Lord for that purpose. The ‘fanning and cleansing’ will now be accomplished only through a fiery experience of being carried away into the bondage of Babylon, where we will spend a symbolic “seventy years” serving our Babylonian masters:

Jer 25:11   And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

Seventy years completes the time of our total deception. After a symbolic ‘seventy years’ we begin to be given eyes that see and ears that hear the things of the spirit.

“This wind”, this evil ‘ruach’ (spirit), refers outwardly to Nebuchadnezzar who is called a destroying lion in this verse:

Jer 4:7   The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

Inwardly this ‘wind’ which destroys our cities and our land and our entire kingdom, typifies the many false doctrines which we have formulated from our youth. They are who we are. Our doctrines are our children. They make up our cities and our villages and become our whole land. Every one of them must be destroyed and burned up by the word of God in the mouths of His prophets:

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

It is “written in [our] book” to be spoiled by Babylon for a symbolic seventy years. It is “seventy years” because ‘seven’ signifies ‘completion’, and its multiple, ten times seven, simply intensifies the message of the necessity of enduring the Lord’s fiery judgments right down to the last dregs of the seven bowls which “fill up the wrath of God” upon the kingdom of our rebellious old man. That ‘fiery judgment’ is the invincible Word of God which is in the process of judging the works of every man of what sort they are:

1Co 3:13   Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Rev 15:2   And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Rev 15:3   And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
Rev 15:4   Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
Rev 15:5   And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: [His “judgments are made manifest”]
Rev 15:6   And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
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.

Jeremiah and all the prophets of Israel typify and foreshadow both this ‘beast’ who gives the seven angels the seven bowls of the Lord’s wrath, as well as the seven angels themselves. Both are types of you and me if we are His redeemed in this present time. Just look at what both symbols reveal about themselves and about who it is they symbolize:

Rev 5:8   And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 5:10   And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

These four beasts represent the Lord’s redeemed who will reign with Him a thousand years prior to the rebellion which precedes “the resurrection of judgment… the great white throne… judgment”.

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

The seven angels also tell us who they symbolize:

Rev 17:1   And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

Rev 19:9   And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
Rev 19:10   And I fell at his feet to worship him [“The angel that showed (John) these things” (Rev 22:8)]. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Lest we fail to believe what we have read here, it is repeated for us in:

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

The Lord’s call for our repentance does not nullify His justice or His judgments. “The fire shall [still] try every man’s works” (1Co 3:13), and “no man can enter the temple till the seven plagues [of the wrath of God] of the seven angels is fulfilled” (Rev 15:17).

As Jeremiah said earlier:

Jer 2:22   For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD. [Until the seven plagues of the seven angels us fulfilled in our lives].

The judgments pronounced by the Lord’s prophets must be fulfilled in the lives of every man who is blessed to enter the temple of God. It is only through the pain which the Lord’s words inflict upon the kingdom of our old man, signified by the word ‘fire’, that any of us come to know our God who “is a consuming fire”:

Heb 12:27  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken [the things of the spirit of God] may remain.
Heb 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
Heb 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.

It is through His fiery words that He pleads with us as His children whom He loves:

Jer 4:14  O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

Our “vain thoughts lodge with [us]… till the seven plagues of the seven angels have been fulfilled”:

Jer 4:15  For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.
Jer 4:16  Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

This may sound like Nebuchadnezzar has sent Rabshakeh to tell us to surrender to him (2Ki 18:28-32), but the phrase “far country” is also used to indicate the heavens from which the Lord speaks through His prophets:

Mat 25:14   For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

Luk 19:12   He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.

This same message of judgment “against Jerusalem” is found in the New Testament:

1Pe 4:12   Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

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

Jer 2:22   For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD. [Until the seven plagues of the seven angels us fulfilled in our lives].

1 Peter 4:12 and Jeremiah 2:22 inform us of our imminent unavoidable judgment:

Jer 4:17   As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 4:18   Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.

These words are common to all men of all time. The wickedness of every man “is bitter, because it reaches unto [our] heart”. Corruption is our very DNA:

Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

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

The following three sins are common to all men and there is no one, other than Christ, who has not succumbed to these three sins:

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

The only difference between the Lord’s Israel, His Judah and Jerusalem, and all the rest of mankind is “the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17). That judgment is indeed a fiery judgment which is so severe that it makes us cry out:

Jer 4:19   My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Jer 4:20   Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

Our wicked, bitter ways and doings are the work of our flesh, which is a work of our Lord. The sound of the trumpet that makes us afraid of the impending war we are facing is also “of the Lord”:

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

Jeremiah 4:19-20 are addressed to the Lord’s harlot wife, Judah and Jerusalem:

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

Here is the New Testament version of these two verses:

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.
Rev 18:5   For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6   Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7   How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
Rev 18:8   Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10   Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

The destruction of this great harlot is first accomplished within us. “[This] is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God and who have the faith of Jesus” (Rev 14:8-12).

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

Then we are told what her destruction is inwardly within us back in Revelation 14:

Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
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. [What does this accomplish?]
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

There is much more to be revealed here in the prophecy of Jeremiah about our judgment in this present time. The Truth is that we just naturally do not have any faith of our own in the Lord, and we certainly do not want to hear what is facing us in our certain judgment. This instead is our natural response when anyone begins to tell us where our ways are leading 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.

Those verses are speaking of each of us. We ask the Lord what we should do. We have seen it time and again when we are asked, “What does the Lord say?” Then the person asking rejects what the Lord reveals to be His mind on the question at hand. The reason is always the same. We want the Lord’s name, but we do not want to eat His food or wear His apparel:

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

That is the same as telling the Lord, “I want to be associated with your powerful name, but don’t think for one moment that I am willing to give up my own will or my own opinions and doctrines just because a few of the Lord’s counselors agree together that what I think or what I have said is wrong.” It is the same we have witnessed time after time. An individual or a group of individuals comes to the elders in the Lord’s body, seeking their input, and then they ignore the counsel they sought and do the exact opposite. We want to have the Lord’s name, but we have no use for His righteousness, His apparel, or for His food… His doctrines and His way of thinking.

Jeremiah had this very experience when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and let Jeremiah and a remnant of the Jews remain in Judah. Nebuchadnezzar placed a man named Gedaliah as governor over those who were left in Judah (Jer 40:5). Another man named Ishmael, who was of royal descent, was sent by the king of Ammon to kill Gedaliah. Gedaliah was informed of this plot by a man named Johanan who had learned of this plot and warned Gedaliah that the king of Amon had plotted with Ishmael to take his life. The governor, Gedelaliah, ignored Johanan’s warning, and he lost his life at the hand of Ishmael. Ishmael then killed all the men at the governor’s house and took the women and children to return to Amon, before the Babylonians returned to settle the score.

Word immediately got to Johanan and his men about what Ishmael had done, and Johanan and his men rescued those who were kidnapped and brought them back to a place called Chimham near Bethlehem. They went there in preparation of fleeing into Egypt for fear of a Babylonian reprisal for what Ishmael had done:

Jer 41:15  But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites.
Jer 41:16  Then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after that he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, even mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought again from Gibeon:
Jer 41:17  And they departed, and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt,
Jer 41:18  Because of the Chaldeans: for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land.

Before leaving for Egypt, they actually sought word from the Lord concerning what they should do. The truth was that they had already made up their minds to go to Egypt. This is what is within each of us:

Jer 42:1   Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near,
Jer 42:2   And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us)
Jer 42:3   That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.
Jer 42:4   Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the LORD your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.
Jer 42:5   Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us.
Jer 42:6   Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.
Jer 42:7   And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah.
Jer 42:8   Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
Jer 42:9   And said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him;
Jer 42:10   If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.
Jer 42:11   Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
Jer 42:12   And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.
Jer 42:13   But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God,
Jer 42:14   Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:
Jer 42:15   And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;
Jer 42:16   Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.
Jer 42:17   So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
Jer 42:18   For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.
Jer 42:19   The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day.
Jer 42:20   For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.
Jer 42:21   And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.
Jer 42:22   Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.

This story is telling us what is within us. It is we who seek the mind of the Lord and then spit in His face and disobey His words which He has given us. Here is what the next prophet calls such actions:

Eze 14:1   Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. [Just as with Jeremiah]
Eze 14:2   And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3   Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity [Their own righteousness, their own opinions and doctrines] before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; [You want to go to battle against Ramothgilead, go ahead and go to battle (1Kg 22:14-15); You want to go down to Egypt, go down to Egypt (Jer 42:15); You think I am a hard man, then I will show Myself a hard man towards you (Mat 25:26); etc.]
Eze 14:5   That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Eze 14:6   Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7   For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8   And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 14:9   And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10   And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;
Eze 14:11   That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 33:13   When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

When we become self-righteous and place “[our] own righteousness” and our own doctrines above that which is written, and above the counsel of those whom the Lord has given us as our counselors, then the Lord “will stretch out [His] hand upon [us], and will destroy [us] from the midst of [His] people Israel.”

We are all full of self-righteous iniquity, and we all trust in our own self-righteous iniquity in our own time. Let us all pray that the Lord judges us and destroys our self-righteous old man in “this present time” (Rom 8:18).

That is our study for today, and here are our verses for next week:

Jer 4:21   How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet.
Jer 4:22   For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Jer 4:23   I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Jer 4:24   I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Jer 4:25   I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Jer 4:26   I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
Jer 4:27   For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
Jer 4:28   For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
Jer 4:29   The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
Jer 4:30   And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
Jer 4:31   For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers?

]]> Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 43:20-28 For My Own Sake I Will Blot Out your Transgressions and Will Not Remember Your Sins https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-4320-28-for-my-own-sake-i-will-blot-out-your-transgressions-and-will-not-remember-your-sins/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-4320-28-for-my-own-sake-i-will-blot-out-your-transgressions-and-will-not-remember-your-sins Sun, 23 Jun 2019 03:55:49 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=19004
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Isa 43:20-28 For My Own Sake I Will Blot Out your Transgressions and Will Not Remember Your Sins - Discussion

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Isa 43:20-28- For My Own Sake I Will Blot Out Your Transgressions and Will Not Remember Your Sins

Isa 43:20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Isa 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
Isa 43:22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
Isa 43:23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
Isa 43:24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
Isa 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
Isa 43:26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.
Isa 43:27 Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.
Isa 43:28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

In our last study we quoted many verses of scripture declaring in various ways that the Lord makes us first as wicked men for the day of our own  evil (Pro 16:4), and He makes peace and creates evil (Isa 45:7), and He is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11). We saw there is nothing, from the sparrows falling to the ground to the hairs of our heads being numbered (Luk 12:7), which can take place without His hand and His foreknowledge making it all happen (Act 4:26-28).

Today’s study continues to drive this point home. The Lord is our Savior, and we are the work of His hands. Whether we are good or evil, we are “His workmanship”. As His elect we are created unto good works which He has before ordained that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10). That is the plain message of our first two verses:

Isa 43:20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Isa 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.

Even our old man, “the beast of the field”, in His daily dying is honoring the Lord. It is the Lord who has “formed [us] for [Him]self”, and the New Testament accords with these words of Isaiah 43:

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

It is “The beasts of the field… the dragons and the owls”, all unclean animals and fowls, which “shall honor [the Lord] because [He] gives waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert”. These unclean beasts typify “my people, my chosen” who are given to drink the waters of life:

Isa 43:20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.

Now notice how the holy spirit, with no segue, goes from speaking “the beast of the field”, our old man and those who are not His elect of this age, to the Lord’s elect, “my  people, my  chosen”, and then back to our carnal-minded old man:

Here is the very next verse:

Isa 43:22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.

These words have an application, each in his own time, to every man who has ever lived. We all become “weary of [the Lord]”. The very fact that we do indeed all become “weary in well doing” is why we are twice admonished:

Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

2Th 3:13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.

“Well doing” is the same as dying daily and being crucified with Christ. Our old man does become weary in dying daily (1Co 15:31) and being crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20) and offering himself up daily as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1).

Notice what we are told right in the very middle of this admonition against the ways of our old man. Look at why we are told our old man is what he is:

Isa 43:23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
Isa 43:24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.

Why do we become “weary in well doing”? why do we “not… serve” the Lord? Here is why we become weary and refuse to serve the Lord with an offering and with incense. It is because: “I have not caused you to serve with an offering…”

This “cause” is repeated in:

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

Our natural reaction upon being made aware of this extent of the Lord’s sovereignty is to say:

Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will? (ASV)

We do not like the fact that God causes us to resist Him and then punishes us for our resistance.What do we just naturally do then? We deny that the Lord “lead[s] us into temptation” (Mat 6:13). We deny that He ‘makes the wicked for the day of evil’ (Pro 16:4). And we simply deny that He “makes peace and creates evil”. However, our ignorance robs God of none of His sovereign power. The clearly stated truth is that the Lord Himself blinds us from knowing that we are all withstanding the Lord and His Christ, and through that ignorance we are all guilty of His blood and of His stripes:

Rom 11:8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

Deu 29:4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

Isa 29:10 For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

“The Lord” is working all things after the counsel of His own will, and we simply do not like the way He makes us to sin against Him and then punishes us for our sins. He could not judge our old man any other way, and it is He who is the only sovereign God, who can do such things and not be guilty of any sins simply because sin is defined as disobedience to His commandments and His laws:

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

We have “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”:

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The wages, the price, for sinning is death:

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

However, “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”, which is the message given us even in the Old Testament:

Isa 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

Everything the Lord does “is for himself”:

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

When the Lord spared Israel at Moses’ request, He did so “for His own sake… for Himself”.

Deu 9:13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
Deu 9:14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.

Deu 9:18  And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
Deu 9:19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.

“The Lord listened to me at that time also” is taken by our old man to mean that Moses changed the Lord’s mind and persuaded the Lord not to destroy Israel.

The truth is we can all make our petitions known to the Lord and at the same time acknowledge that our very thoughts and words are “of the Lord” as the scriptures actually teach:

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

The Lord knew in advance exactly what Moses’ reaction would be when He threatened to destroy Israel. “The answer of [Moses’] tongue was “from the Lord”. The Lord knew in advance that Judas would betray Him because as Judas’ heart prepared to betray the Lord and as Judas spoke the words negotiating that betrayal, “The answer of [Judas’] tongue was “From the Lord”. We know this is true because that is what we are told… “the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord”.

We are also twice told:

Psa 94:11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

1Co 3:20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

Our thoughts are vain because, by the Lord’s own design, we are born with a “carnal mind [which] is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be”:

Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Being carnally minded, we believe we are capable of thoughts which are our own, independent of any influence from our Creator. The Truth is that even our vain thoughts “are from the Lord”, so He can judge us and show us just how powerful He is:

Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

You and I are blessed to know that Pharaoh is not the exception, rather, he is typical of how the Lord deals with all men. What the Lord did to Pharaoh is what He does with each of us:

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

Pharaoh typifies our old man who must be judged and begin dying daily as Christ in us, our ‘new’, man is being formed within us and as our old man begins dying and we begin to be “conformed to the image of His Son”:

Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Both Paul and Isaiah contrast the physically “firstborn” with the spiritual “firstborn among many brothers”:

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.

This is the physical right of the physical ‘firstborn’:

Deu 21:15 If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:
Deu 21:16 Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn:
Deu 21:17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

As Paul makes clear, “not that which is spiritual is first but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual” (1Co 15:46). So ‘the law of the firstborn’ was fulfilled physically in the “carnal commandment[s]” of the law of Moses.

Again, that law has a blessing that comes with it:

Deu 21:17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

The firstborn was acknowledged “by giving him a double portion of all He has”. The holy spirit has seen fit to make a point of how this law must be applied even to the son of the wife who is hated for this reason:

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

Mat 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

Mar 13:13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Luk 21:17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

This is the law which is being acknowledged in the parables of the workers in the vineyard, the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of Lazarus and the rich man and the parable of the prodigal son, all being types of the Lord’s spiritual firstborn, who are given much greater honor and glory than those who were hired first, the ninety and nine who needed no repentance and the elder son who had never been a prodigal son.

But there is a practical reason for giving the firstborn “a double portion [of the inheritance] of all he has”, and that practical reason is: “He is the beginning of His strength; the right of the firstborn is His.” The firstborn was expected to help with the later born, and to be his Father’s strength in helping with the upbringing of the rest of the family.

The firstborn was not selfish and self-centered. He used his position to strengthen the entire family, just as Christ uses His firstborn to grow His family.

This is what Christ is doing with His “firstfruits… firstborn… unto God and the Lamb” (Jas 1:18 and Rev 14:4):

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

Jas 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Because Reuben, “for he was the [physical] firstborn”, had defiled his own father’s wife, “the birthright was Joseph’s”, and Joseph became the type of the Lord’s spiritual firstborn. It was through Joseph, the type of the spiritual firstborn, that the Lord saved the entire known world of Egypt and Canaan:

1Ch 5:1 Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.
1Ch 5:2 For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's)

It is our own “old… man of sin” who “defiles his Father’s bed” when he sits in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God”:

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

The parables of the ‘the lost sheep… the workers in the Lord’s vineyard… and the prodigal son’ are all types of the Lord’s spiritually “firstborn” who replace our old man, the Lord’s physical firstborn.

We are specifically called the Lord’s ‘firstborn’ with all the blessings of that calling in these verses:

Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

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

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

Heb 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

As the Lord’s spiritual firstborn we will be used by Christ, our Father (Isa 9:6), to bring all men to His Father and to save all men:

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Contrary to many of the doctrines of Babylon’s many harlot churches, we are not raised up in the resurrection in physical bodies of flesh and blood. The fact that Christ said:

Luk 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

That verse does not prove that He was not “raised a spiritual body” (1Co 15:44). Luke 24:39 does not prove that we will be raised up in bodies of “immortal flesh” as is taught by many. All this verse proves is that our Lord “appeared” as “flesh and bone” because of the lack of faith inHis unbelieving disciples. ‘His unbelieving disciples’ includes you and me. Christ’s resurrection from the dead had to be witnessed by many and be beyond having any way for the Jews to deny there was no body in His tomb. As we are told, Christ not only appeared to His eleven apostles, He also appeared to “above five hundred at once”:

1Co 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1Co 15:5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
1Co 15:6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
1Co 15:7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
1Co 15:8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

Not one of the apostles believed Christ had been raised from the dead until they saw Him with their own eyes. We are told that He “appeared in another form” to two disciples on the road to Emmaus:

Mar 16:12 After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.

That very same evening these same two men returned to Jerusalem to relate to the other disciples how Christ had appeared to them, and Christ appeared as Himself with all His wounds still in His body.

Here is how He revealed Himself to these two disciples on the road to Emmaus:

Luk 24:30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
Luk 24:31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
Luk 24:32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
Luk 24:33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,
Luk 24:34 Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
Luk 24:35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
Luk 24:36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
Luk 24:37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
Luk 24:38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Luk 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
Luk 24:40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.

So, in one day Christ appears “in another form” to these two disciples, and later the same evening He appears to those same disciples, plus the other disciples, as Himself. He had earlier that day appeared as a gardener to Mary, and some days later He appeared to some of His apostles by the sea of Galilee in a form which elicits John to say:

Joh 21:12 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

What these four various appearances tell us is that Christ wants us to know that He is in all His disciples, and that therefore we must consider all men as “the least of these my brothers”:

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

The message of this chapter of Isaiah is that we, the Lord’s elect, have done nothing to earn our election, and those who are not His elect are not responsible for the fact that they are less favored.

Let’s review the preceding verses:

Isa 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.

Isa 43:22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
Isa 43:23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
Isa 43:24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
Isa 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

We have all “made [the Lord] to serve with our sins [and we] have wearied [Him] our iniquities”, and still the Lord has blotted out our transgressions “for [His] own sake”.

The Truth is that whether we transgress or obey, both are the Lord working in our lives “both to will and to do of His good pleasure”. When we err against our Lord, it is He who made us to do so, and when we humble ourselves and tremble at His word, and are obedient to His commandments, it is always and in every situation a work of the Lord working out His own plan and His own purpose in His creatures. So says the Lord’s own inspired words:

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

Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

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

In that same sovereign will in which He admonishes us to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, He also encourages us to:

Isa 43:26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.

He encourages us to do this immediately after telling us, “thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities” (vs 24).

Is it true we weary the Lord with our iniquities and make Him serve with our sins? He is the one who says we do, so yes, we do weary Him with our iniquities and make Him serve with our sins, but why do we do this to Him?

The answer to this question was given many years earlier in the book of Proverbs:

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

Lest we miss the point of this verse we are also told just a few chapters later:

Pro 20:24 Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

We are told many times in this prophecy of Isaiah that everything the Lord does is done for His own name’s sake after the counsel of His own will and not because we deserve either His favor or his wrath by our own will.

Notice that message in these verses:

Isa 37:35 For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

Isa 48:9 For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.

Isa 48:11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.

If our sins, transgressions and iniquities were our own and done in our own power, then the Lord would not be sovereign at all, because “the whole world lieth in wickedness”, and if that “wickedness” is not His sovereign work, then His sovereignty would extend over very little and over very few indeed:

1Jn 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

To put the Lord’s sovereign power over all things beyond any doubt, we are told explicitly:

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

Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

We are even told that it is through “evil spirits from the Lord” (1Sa 16:14-15), and through “the law of sin… in my members” (Rom 7:17-23) that the Lord “makes us to err from [His] ways”:

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15 And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

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

All of this being true, “[our] first father and [our] teachers have transgressed against [the Lord]” because He “made [them] to err and hardened [their] hearts from [His] fear” (Isa 63:17) simply to give the Lord the occasion He is seeking to judge us “in this present time” (Luk 18:30), so we can “judge [this] world [and] angels… in the ages to come”:

Isa 43:27 Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.
Isa 43:28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

“The curse” is the fiery work of the Word of God which will judge our works and burn up all that will burn in the works of “every man”:

1Co 3:13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

This “fire” is the Word of God which judges “every man’s work of what sort it is”:

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

Our “first father” is our old man and “[His] father the devil” (Joh 8:44), and our new father (Isa 9:6) is our “second man… the Lord from heaven”:

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

It is the Lord Himself who ‘profanes the princes of the sanctuary and has given Jacob to the curse’. He does so just to “seek an occasion against” [our] old man and his works, all typified by the uncircumcised Philistines, in the story of Samson:

Isa 43:28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

Jdg 14:4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

“The Philistines” are in the promised land without the benefit of circumcision. In that way they typify our old man who is not circumcised of heart and must therefore be judged by the fiery words of God and removed from the Lord’s house. That is why these verses are so profound and such very good news, meaning this is “the gospel” for all men:

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

Here are the verses for our next study, and once again we will see that the Lord’s words of judgment are words of comfort to His elect whom He is judging in “this present time” (Rom 8:18-19) to be His witnesses and His judges in the coming ages (Eph 2:7).

Isa 44:1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:
Isa 44:2 Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.
Isa 44:3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:
Isa 44:4 And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.
Isa 44:5 One shall say, I am the LORD'S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD and surname himself by the name of Israel.
Isa 44:6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
Isa 44:7 And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.
Isa 44:8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.

]]> Awesome Hands – Part 145: “Seek not after their gods” https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/awesome-hands-part-145-seek-not-after-their-gods/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=awesome-hands-part-145-seek-not-after-their-gods Thu, 13 Dec 2018 00:54:59 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=17783

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Awesome Hands – part 145

“Seek not after their gods”

December 12, 2018

 

Deuteronomy 12 is a famous chapter for those that know what it contains. It is one of the earliest examples in scripture, of not following the example of the nations, which God has driven out of their lands, on behalf of the people of God.

I could almost end the study with that paragraph, but in order to add supporting evidence to this statement, we will continue the study 😊.

As with all of this series, we are going to read the context surrounding the mentioning of the word hand in Deuteronomy. In this chapter, we have 5 different verses which contain the word hand or hands, so it should become apparent that the Lord wants “our work” to reflect His mindset.

In fact, this is how the chapter starts off:

Deu 12:1  These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth.

We should all know by now that the land spoken of here is not a parcel of physical land in Israel for that “Jew which is one inwardly” (Rom 2:29). The land spoken of spiritually is the land we possess, but rather than think of it as our physical flesh, we must learn to think of this land us where it is our heart and minds dwell.

Just as verse 1 says, we live “upon the earth”; therefore, we who live upon and in this dust must possess it, while observing to do “in the land”, whatsoever the Lord commands via His statutes and judgments.

This chapter does not pull any punches in letting us know exactly what the Lord expects from us when we take over the land that He has prepared for us and which is freely given to us.

Deu 12:2  Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:
Deu 12:3  And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

Deu 12:4  Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.

It sounds to me like the Lord wants us to do something to the places, high mountains, hills, “under every green tree”, altars, pillars, groves, graven images and the very names of their gods which the nations served.
The word “served” tells us something about the nations and about those who do not hearken unto the warning of these words. If we do not do these things, we too will SERVE other gods. We will be subject unto them. We will be their servants for their glory.

Instead, we need to listen to the words we just read and make sure to destroy the things mentioned while also making sure to NOT serve the LORD your God in the same way.

No, we must serve Him differently and I can assure you He does NOT want to be called by the name of any other false god.

Here is how we serve our God:

Deu 12:5  But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:

Deu 12:6  And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks:

Deu 12:7  And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.

It can seem tempting to just bypass these verses because we do not offer physical offerings today of burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, heave offerings of our hands.

We don’t make vows, offer free will offerings or the firstlings of the herds and flocks physically either, but we do know that all of these examples do have spiritual applications.

Instead of bypassing these verses in our hearts and minds, or trying to figure out what each and every spiritual type and shadow is, we simply need to realize that whatsoever the Lord tells us to do in order to serve Him is what we should do we all of our heart, soul, strength and mind. All that we do, do to the glory of God.

In fact, trying to define things on our own or trying to define the terms of how it is we will serve our Lord, is what gets us in trouble the quickest.

Deu 12:8  Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.

Deu 12:9  For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you.

In case that is not easily understood when reading it from the King James translation, I am including another translation.

(ESV) Deu 12:8  “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,

Deu 12:9  for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

In other words, when the Lord gives you rest and brings you into His inheritance, you must serve Him according to how He defines services to Him. Otherwise, it is all in lip service calling the Lord, Lord, but not keeping His commandments.

Look at the context of where it is Jesus tells us we desire to call Him, “Lord, Lord”:

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.

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

Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:

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

Instead of doing what the Lord says to do, we decide we want to remain as children. The painful truth is though, that when the Lord brings us into His rest, we can no longer be of an ignorant mindset and pretend to ignore what He clearly says are His commandments.

1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

1Co 13:13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

The greatest of these is a “love feast”, charity. We have a love feast with our Lord when we keep His commandments.

What we are not permitted to do is plead ignorant to the rules, statues and judgments of the Lord.

“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes”.

Serving the Lord does NOT include serving the Lord in the capacity which makes us feel most comfortable. When the Lord gives us Faith that something is True or not, it is that Truth that we must adhere to.

Why is it I keep emphasizing these points? It is because the Lord specifically tells us how to serve Him as the one True God. We cannot serve in our own understanding, according to how it is “we” see it is good to serve the Lord.

I remember literally, and pridefully saying to many folks back in the day, that me and the Lord have an understanding. “He knows me and how I think”, was the justification I used to do whatever it is I wanted to do in service to Him because He was God and I was a mere man.

This reasoning allowed me to escape all judgment of the Lord because with that reasoning I am able to avoid doing whatever it is I don’t want to do “because me and God have an understanding”.

The problem is that God gives us His understanding and it sounds nothing like my reasonings.

Deu 12:10  But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety;

In other words, when the Lord does all the work and delivers you from all enemies, including the #1 enemy of yourself, then He gets to make the rules!

Deu 12:11  Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD:

Deu 12:12  And ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you.

And again we are warned to NOT do things the way we see fit to do them. The Lord builds in, for lack of a better phrase, fail safes for situations that He knows He will cause us to be in.

He “allows” for these situations because He knows that there will be times when we will not be able to do things the way they have always been done i.e. maybe we cannot travel to the place the Lord has placed His name at, so we are able to “eat in the gates”. You are permitted to eat these things in your own towns or cities in other words.

The real focus here is on doing what the Lord commands versus just doing things willy-nilly and calling it serving the Lord.

Deu 12:13  Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest:

Deu 12:14  But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.

“Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see” is a command that is stated because the Lord wants us to know that doing whatever we think is okay is not acceptable to Him.

There is a place and time for all things under the sun and the Lord wants us to take this admonition seriously. I know this because He states these same orders over and over with different topics or subjects being discussed.

Deu 12:15  Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.

Deu 12:16  Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.

Deu 12:17  Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering of thine hand:

Deu 12:18  But thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.

Deu 12:19  Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth.

Again, there is much repeating in what is being told to us, but it is for good reason. 1) We will not get it right away and must be told over and over that something is serious enough for the Lord to repeat it multiple times. 2) The Lord is bringing us ultimately bringing us to the commandment of not serving other gods, but we will see that at the end of the chapter.

Remember, the Levite is there is serve, but has not inheritance “with you”. Therefore, we must not forsake nor forget that the Levite has been placed as a Levite for the benefit of God’s people.

Deu 12:20  When the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

Deu 12:21  If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.

Deu 12:22  Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike.

Deu 12:23  Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh.

Deu 12:24  Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water.

The Lord is clear in His commandments about what we are able to do and not do. We are able to eat the meat we crave, but we are not permitted to partake of the blood. The blood is the life, but notice in this type and shadow a person eating meat does not necessarily partake of life.

1Co 8:7  Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

1Co 8:8  But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.

1Co 8:9  But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

1Co 8:10  For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

1Co 8:11  And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?

1Co 8:12  But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

1Co 8:13  Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.

We are not looking toward the outward appearance of things, but we are looking toward the inward meat of the spirit. But, we also must be castioned in how we THINK about things.

1Co 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

1Co 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

1Co 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat;

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

1Co 10:5  But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

1Co 10:6  Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

1Co 10:7  Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Meat is being mentioned in the same breath as idol worship. In the context of Deuteronomy 12, we must be very careful with doing what the Lord says versus allowing ourselves to do what we want and then claiming that it is serving the Lord.

This time of year is an example of a time where we must be prudent in our thinking. We must war against idolatry in high places and realize what spiritual idolatry is.

Deu 12:28  Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God.

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;

Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

“(ESV)  take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.”

If the Lord looked on these nations and their god worship, and then destroyed them for it, why would He treat us any differently? In fact, because we are His people and have been told His commandments, we will be held to a higher bar.

Luk 12:46  The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

Luk 12:47  And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

Luk 12:48  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

The thing that should be screaming out to us all is how it is we can worship idols. Idols aren’t ONLY going to be something that we shape with our hands and place on a mantel to worship.

Far more insidious are those idols of the heart which we worship in ourselves and in OTHERS.

Notice, we are told several times in this chapter about idol worship and also about “eating meat”.

Where else are we told about “eating an idol”? This is the ESV translation.

1Co 10:26  For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

1Co 10:27  If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

1Co 10:28  But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience—

1Co 10:29  I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience?

1Co 10:30  If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

1Co 10:31  So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

This has been offered to idols is not something that I have ever heard someone say. I would be a bit surprised to ever hear this come from anyone alive today.

However, when we know idols are of the heart, then we can know what we are being told spiritually.

Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

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

(BBE)  Son of man, these men have taken their false gods into their hearts and put before their faces the sin which is the cause of their fall: am I to give ear when they come to me for directions?

If this can happen to the elders of Israel, it can happen to anyone. Holidays are but one way we worship “the gods of the nations destroyed before us”.

Much more hidden in our hearts and minds, for the people of God who desire to serve the Lord, is worshipping the idols of others.

As we talked about in our last study, Jesus asks us all, “Isn’t it written that you are gods?”

Joh 10:34  Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

So, it is easy to conclude that the gods we want to worship are ourselves and others around us. We want everyone’s approval and acceptance naturally. There is much danger in serving these gods and their idols.

We must always be cautious because even when we are convinced that we are going to go one way, the devil will use subtle ways to speak through others so that we turn away from the way we were going.

This happens many times during our lives, but as we see in Deuteronomy 12, we are warned of the Lord not to do these things.

Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

]]> Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 25:1-12 Death is Swallowed up in Victory https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-251-12-death-is-swallowed-up-in-victory/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-251-12-death-is-swallowed-up-in-victory Sun, 17 Jun 2018 02:25:25 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=16511
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Isa 25:1-12 Death is Swallowed up in Victory - Discussion

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Isa 25:1-12 Death Is Swallowed Up In Victory

Isa 25:1  O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
Isa 25:2  For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
Isa 25:3  Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
Isa 25:4  For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
Isa 25:5  Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
Isa 25:6  And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
Isa 25:7  And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
Isa 25:8  He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
Isa 25:9  And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Isa 25:10  For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.
Isa 25:11  And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
Isa 25:12  And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

Verse 8 of our study today says, "He will swallow up death in victory", and this verse is quoted in 1 Corinthians 15:

1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
1Co 15:55  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Testifying to the certainty of this Truth, we begin with this statement:

Isa 25:1  O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

"[The Lord's] counsels of old are faithfulness and Truth." If the holy spirit tells us, both here in Isaiah 25 and again in I Corinthians 15, that "death is swallowed up in victory", then that is what "of old" has been proven to be true, and that is what will happen. His counsels have never yet failed to be "faithful and true". How, then, is it that the great harlot and her daughters almost all claim either that death will instead send most people to an eternal lake of literal fire to be tormented for all eternity, or else they will be annihilated in that "lake of fire". Annihilation IS death, and eternal torment can hardly be called "death [being] swallowed up in victory". That blasphemous doctrine of eternal torment at the hands of a loving heavenly Father is rather more like telling us that 'peaceful rest in death is swallowed up of a monstrous hate-filled father who enjoys the spectacle of unending torment for the sake of torment, with no lesson to be learned and with no hope and no end in sight.'

We all know that the scriptures actually teach what we see here in this chapter and in 1 Corinthians 15. Death really will be swallowed up in victory, and death will not have so much as one victim over whom it can claim victory because we are told by the same holy spirit that "AS in Adam all [men] die, EVEN SO in Christ shall [that same] all [men] be made alive" and given victory over death.

1Co 15:21  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Here, and in many dozens of other scriptures, we are assured that in the end, Christ does not will that anyone should perish in death, but that instead it is His will that all should come to a knowledge of the Truth and be saved:

1Ti 2:3  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (KJV)

Most translations use the words 'wants all men to be saved... wishes... or desires all men to be saved'. The Bible In Basic English (BBE) is typical of most translations:

1Ti 2:4  Whose desire is that all men may have salvation and come to the knowledge of what is true. (BBE)

The Greek word translated here variously as 'will, desire, want, and wishes' is the Greek word 'G2309 theleo', and all of those English words are worthy and acceptable translations of that Greek word. However, what you and I need to realize is that the sum of the Truth is revealed to us in this verse of scripture and many others like it, which declare very plainly to us:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him. (KJV)

What we are being told is that our Creator is not quite like you and me. His wishes and desires are not in question of being fulfilled. "What His soul desires, even that [very thing] He does [because] He performs the thing that [He has] appointed for me." Also, we just happen to know that "[His] desire is that all men may be saved and come to the knowledge of what is true" (BBE).

Now here are these same two verses in Job 23 from the BBE translation:

Job 23:13  But his purpose is fixed and there is no changing it; and he gives effect to the desire of his soul.
Job 23:14  For what has been ordered for me by him will be gone through to the end: and his mind is full of such designs. (BBE)

"By Him will be... He performs the thing that is appointed for me... what has been ordered for me by Him..." These words all sound very much like that doctrine which the Lord's word really does teach us from Genesis 1:1 to Rev 22:21, which is:

Psa 139:16  Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all [my] days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began. (NWT)

Just out of curiosity I checked to see what Greek word the ABP+ had chosen to translate the Hebrew into the Greek here in Job 23:13, and low and behold:

Job 23:13  But if evenG1499.1 heG1473 judgedG2919 thus,G3779 whoG5100 isG1510.2.3 the oneG3588 contradictingG471 him;G1473 G3739 forG1063 heG1473 wantedG2309 andG2532 did.G4160

Yes, that's right, there it is! They chose the Greek word 'theleoG2309'. So while they may be blinded to what they have revealed to themselves, the Truth remains, "What His soul desires, that He does [in] all things!"

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

Isaiah 25 is a brief summary of 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 17-22, as we will demonstrate as we proceed through the twelve verses of this chapter, beginning with:

Isa 25:1  O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

This is just one more verse which verifies that:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

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

As proof of His sovereignty over "all things" we are told:

Isa 25:2  For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.

The city under consideration has not changed. It is the same as the one just mentioned in this same narrative:

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

"The city of confusion" isn't even aware of the fact it is so confused and conflicted. This is our prized and most valued 'city' within us. Our old man defends this 'city' to the death. Yet "confusion" is the very definition of Babylon. Babel was so named because that was where the Lord confused the languages of mankind and from whence the Lord scattered men around the globe:

Gen 11:5  And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
Gen 11:6  And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Gen 11:7  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
Gen 11:8  So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Gen 11:9  Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The book which gives us the Revelation of Jesus Christ within ourselves tells us this about ourselves as we are made to partake of the doctrines of "the city of confusion":

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
Rev 17:7  And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

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

Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

So this 'woman' is not a literal 'woman' at all. The 'waters' are not literal, and the 'great city' is not a literal city. This 'woman' is called "that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth". We know from the scriptures the 'earth' symbolizes those to whom the Lord is speaking through His words:

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

The words "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord" are addressed to the great city of the capital of our 'earth' which is "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children" within us. When Christ comes into our hearts and delivers us from this 'woman', we are no longer under her dominion, and we come to see just how confused we were while we were under the influence of "the bondwoman":

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.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Not one minister in a million, much less all those who are led by their ministers, has been given eyes that see that "Mount Sinai in Arabia... answers to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children". Neither can they see the plain and simple Truth, which is "the son of the bondwoman shall NOT be heir with the son of the free woman". For that reason Paul, under the inspiration of the holy spirit, concludes, "So then, brothers, we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free." It is these 'children of the freewoman' who are here in Isaiah 25 called "the strong people", and the son of the bondwoman are here called the "city of the terrible nations":

Isa 25:3  Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.

"The city of the terrible nations" is "the city of confusion", which is being destroyed within us, and we are told that city, too, will come to "fear [the Lord]". However, that blessed state of mind comes only through fiery judgment upon "the city of confusion", which simply cannot receive the things of the spirit because they are foolishness to us at that time in our walk.

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.

"The things of the spirit" are understood only by those who are "poor in spirit" but are "rich in faith":

Jas 2:5  Listen, my beloved brothers, did not God choose the poor of the world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him?

We are the "heirs of the kingdom", and as such we are hated of "the son of the bondwoman", also called "the terrible ones":

Isa 25:4  For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

This is "the fiery trials" which are the "judgment [which is now on] the house of God" (1Pe 4:12 and 17). It comes to us through the 'great harlot, the terrible ones, the son of the bondwoman'. "The dream is one" (Gen 41:25-26). These are all symbols of the very religious, very self-righteous children of the bondwoman, who are the religions of this world. Only by coming to see ourselves as first being "the terrible ones" do we ever overcome that cursed spiritual affliction of hating those who are "born after the spirit".

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

But we are assured that the Lord's loving, chastening and scourging will come to "all in Adam", and we are told that it will come to them "by the church", through those who have been given to triumph over the beast and his image and the number of his name and over "the terrible ones" who we all are in our original marred condition:

Rev 15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

"The beast" is the "terrible ones" of our next verse.

Isa 25:5  Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.

Satan does not usher in his own imprisonment. That task is given to "an angel... from heaven" who has the key to the bottomless pit. It will be those of us in Christ who will place Satan in that abyss for "a thousand years":

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

"Judgment was given... to them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus." It is given to "them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus" to judge both this world and angels like Satan:

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

When we "try the spirits to see whether they are of God", we are already "judg[ing] angels" in preparation for placing Satan and all of his angels under the house arrest of the abyss of the flesh of mankind for a symbolic thousand years, before he is to be released to again deceive this world. All of this must first take place within us as Satan was restrained within us by the law of Moses, only to be released again to give the Lord the "occasion" He is seeking to destroy forever the kingdom of our rebellious old man. When we are given to "try the spirits to see whether they are of God" and to  be able to say with our Lord:

Joh 8:28  Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

And with the apostle John:

1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Then, and only then, will we be positioned and qualified to spread out a feast for all those whom the Lord will drag to that feast:

Isa 25:6  And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
Isa 25:7  And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.

"Wine on the lees" is the saving of the 'best until last' (Joh 2:10), and we know that "wine" is "my blood" of the New Testament.

Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

That kingdom is within us, and we are drinking that wine with Christ at this very moment (Luk 17:20-21).

This feast is given and presented only by those whose faces have had "the vail that is spread over all the nations... destroyed, [and] the face of the covering cast over all people" will then be destroyed, and we can then feast upon the "fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined... [of] the things of the spirit" (1Co 2:13-15).

But this will only be accomplished "in this mountain". We will see this phrase again in verse 10, and there we will learn when and where "this mountain" must appear, and when He "will destroy... the face of the covering cast over all people and spread over all nations".

Isa 25:8  He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.

These words are repeated in the revelation of Jesus Christ, for us to keep and observe (Rev 1:3), before we can be qualified to feed others:

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.
Rev 21:5  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

No more tears and no more death! "He shall swallow up death in victory, and the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces", and the rebuke of His people he will take away from off all the earth, not because of anything we do, but simply because: "the Lord has spoken it."

We all, like Simon the Pharisee (Luk 7:36-40), invite Christ into our home, and we want to feed Him and curry His favor and claim His name. Nevertheless we are still the son of the bondwoman with the name of Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children written on our forehead. When Christ puts the name of His city, the New Jerusalem, on our forehead, then we can minister to Him as His true bride, as symbolized for all generations by Mary the sister of Lazarus whom Christ raised from the dead when she did for Christ what Simon the Pharisee simply could not yet do:

Luk 7:44  And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

At that very moment Mary was spreading a feast for Simon and for you and for me, if we are granted in this age to partake of that feast:

Isa 25:9  And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

It is not natural to wait on the Lord, but those who are given to do so are greatly rewarded:

Psa 37:9  For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

Isa 40:28  Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
Isa 40:29  He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Isa 40:30  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Isa 40:31  But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Waiting on the Lord is the same as "the trial of [our] faith". It is a fiery trial, and none of us can avoid the pain of that 'fiery' trial because our "fiery trials" are the "chastening [and] scourging" of the Lord, of which we are told:

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

"Chastening and scourging" are included in the "fiery trials" we are admonished to expect as we become more and more attuned to the mind of Christ and less and less attuned to the mind of our old man. This is the process of the daily dying of our flesh and the loss of the kingdom of our old man with all of his fear of men and all the idols of his heart:

Psa 107:17  Fools [you and I] because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
Psa 107:18  Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
Psa 107:19  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
Psa 107:21  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22  And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:23  They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Do the words "because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities" in any way contradict the scriptures which declare the Lord's sovereignty over our sins? Absolutely not! The two are not mutually exclusive; rather they are both true, because the Lord has ordained that light would come out of darkness, good would come out of evil, and obedience would only follow disobedience. "Then [we] cry unto the Lord... then are [we] glad" can come to us only after our iniquities and transgressions have been fulfilled (Gen 15:16), and after we "are at [our] wits' end", as Job so graphically illustrates:

Job 34:5  For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.

We take it upon ourselves to critique the Lord's ways, and we must be judged for that before we can see our own self-righteousness. We question the Lord's judgments as we are being judged by the Lord. It is this part of "sin in our members" which precipitates the Lord's fiery judgments upon our own self-righteousness:

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

It is revealed to us that the whole process, from beginning to the end, "is of the Lord":

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

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

Pro 20:24  Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

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

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

We, as the Lord's clay vessels, are "marred in [His] hand", and He never makes a mistake. He made us with "sin in [our] members", and He made us subject to "the law of sin... in [our] members". This is the simple truth of why the Lord has ordained His judgments upon His own Creation:

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

James tells us:

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

The devil does not uphold the law of sin in our members. That law was placed there and is sustained by the Lord Himself to give Himself the occasion He is seeking to judge us and to teach us through that judgment by His righteousness.

I repeat what is the most ignored part of the gospel and of confessing  who is Jesus Christ:

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

"The hand of the Lord" is His judgment upon the kingdom of our old man, variously defined by the names of all the peoples round about His people, "the Israel of God". In these verses, our old man is called 'Moab':

Isa 25:10  For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.
Isa 25:11  And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
Isa 25:12  And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

Here in verse ten we again for the third time see the phase "in this mountain", and now we are being told that not only will "the vail... upon all nations [be] destroyed", but we are now also being informed that "Moab shall be trodden down under Him... and He shall bring down their pride... to the ground, even to the dust".

"This mountain" which is referenced three times in these few verses is:

Mic 4:1  But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

You and I are that mountain because a 'mountain' in scripture symbolizes a kingdom, and we all already know this doctrine of our Lord:

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

This mountain, "the kingdom of God is within you" and you will "trod down... Moab [your old man] under [you]... and bring down [his] pride [within you], because "the vail that is cast over all nations [is being] taken away" from your heart, and you and I are being given liberty and "are changed into the same image [of Christ] from glory to glory".

Now let's put verse seven together with 2 Corinthians 3:14-18, and see what, when, and where this mountain is and all that takes place within it:

Isa 25:7  And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.

2Co 3:14  But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
2Co 3:15  But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
2Co 3:16  Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

You will say to me: 'It said this vail will be removed from "all people and all nations", and I will say to you, Amen!, but just like the judgment that will come upon all men, the removing of this vail must "begin at the house of God", and "the manifold wisdom of God" will be made known to all men "by the church", which is "the body of Christ":

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

Eph 3:9  And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

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:

So "this mountain" comes to be within us "in that day", and that day is "the time [which] is come that judgment must begin at the house of God... this generation will not pass away till all these things shall be fulfilled" within the lives of those who read and understand (Mat 24:15 and 34-35).

Knowing of the Lord's judgments upon the kingdom of our old man, what are we to do? This is what we are admonished to do:

Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Our next study will include the verses about the fruit of the Lord's judgments in our lives which I have already quoted so  many times:

Isa 26:1  In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Isa 26:2  Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
Isa 26:3  Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Isa 26:4  Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
Isa 26:5  For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.
Isa 26:6  The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
Isa 26:7  The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.
Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Isa 26:10  Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
Isa 26:11  LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

]]> Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 24:1-12 The Lord Makes The Earth Empty https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-241-12-the-lord-makes-the-earth-empty/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-241-12-the-lord-makes-the-earth-empty Sat, 26 May 2018 17:26:51 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=16364

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are Christ’s words relating to that time:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isaiah 24:7-9 are a repetition of:

Isa 9:8  The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.
Isa 9:9  And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
Isa 9:10  The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
Isa 9:11  Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
Isa 9:12  The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 9:13  For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.
Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
Isa 9:17  Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 9:18  For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
Isa 9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
Isa 9:20  And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
Isa 9:21  Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

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

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

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

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

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

Only then will our predestinated change come upon us:

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

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

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

 

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