Rev 10:1-4, Part 2 – Seven Thunders Utter Their Voices

[Study Aired Sept 8, 2024]

We were in the process of seeking the scriptural meaning of the seven symbols of these four verses:

Rev 10:1  And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Rev 10:2  And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
Rev 10:3  And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Rev 10:4  And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.

By way of reminder and review, those seven symbols were:

1)  Who is this “mighty angel” described in verse one?

2)  What is this “little book” mentioned in verse two?

3)  Why does He “set His right foot on the sea, and His left foot on the earth”?

4)  What is “the sea and the earth”?

5)  Why does this mighty angel “cry with a loud voice, as when a lion roars”?

6)  What is the connection between this “little book” and the seven thunders which are sealed up and not written? What is this all about?

7)  Then we will also need to ask ourselves, What is it that has been “sealed up and are not written”?

We had gotten down to:

4) What is “the sea and the earth”?

The dry land is pushed up out of the sea.

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.

The gathering together of “the waters” is revealed as that which covers the earth and out of which the beast and the dry land appear:

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

The sea, “the waters under the heavens”, is revealed to be the masses of mankind upon whom the great harlot of Babylon sits as the mother of all religions which have rejected their Creator. Those nations are all dominated by false harlot religions know as “Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots and abominations of the earth”.

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 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 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.

Revelation 17:15 reaffirms the meaning of the waters of ‘the sea’:

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.

“The  dry land” which is pushed up out of the sea when “the waters under the heavens are gathered together” is called earth and is revealed to signify the people of God who have turned their backs on their own Creator, and who refuse to hear the word of their Creator.

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.

Jeremiah uses that very moniker to address the Lord’s rebellious, carnal minded people:

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

5) Why does this mighty angel “cry with a loud voice, as when a lion roars”?

Rev 10:3  And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.

God’s dominion over the sea and the earth is revealed to us only through His wrath upon all unrighteousness. His feet being upon the sea and the earth is in accord with His “crying with a loud voice, as when a lion roars”. It is because the great day of His wrath has arrived that we are told:

Pro 19:12  The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour [is] as dew upon the grass.

A lion roars when he has taken his prey:

Amo 3:4  Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?
Amo 3:5  Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin [is] for him? shall [one] take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?
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?

The Lord has both the sea and the earth “under His feet”, and He wants the world to know it.

Isa 45:5  I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
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.

The sea and the earth both are the enemies of God, and are both “the body of this death”. We are by nature that world of “the sea and the earth”, and if He is in us, He will rejoice and “roar” because of His dominion over the sea and the earth, which is “the body of this death” which we call our flesh and which flesh, by nature, “serves the law of sin”.

Psa 107:2  Let the redeemed of the LORD say [so], whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

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.

Christ, as “the lion of the tribe of Judah…, devours his enemy”, our ‘old man’, even as “He redeems us from the hand of [that] enemy… the body of this death.”

1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Hos 13:4  Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for [there is] no saviour beside me.

Hos 13:7  Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe [them]:
Hos 13:8  I will meet them as a bear [that is] bereaved [of her whelps], and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them [our old man] like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

Amo 3:8  The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

Isa 31:4  For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, [he] will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.

6) What is the connection between this “little book” and the seven thunders which are sealed up and not written?

What is this all about? Why are the seven thunders “sealed up and not written”? God has taken His “very elect” into His confidence to a very great extent and has seen fit to reveal to them all “the mysteries of the kingdom of God”. Yet he plainly tells us that there are some things which He has not taken us into His confidence to reveal to us.

Deu 29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

God shows us what He is doing in us only after He has prepared us to receive it (Psa 10:17). It is a process which involves every word that proceeds out of His mouth, and preparing our hearts to endure our trials is a process which is common to all men.

Psa 10:17  LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

Deu 29:2  And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
Deu 29:3  The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:
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.

Witnessing great miracles obviously is not what is required to change one’s heart and turn it toward God. Those things which do change our hearts are His thunders and His wrath upon our sins, and they are revealed only as we can receive them. “Seal them up and write them not” does not mean they will never be revealed, for those are the same words the Lord told Daniel:

Dan 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

So, Moses concludes this prophecy in Deu 29 with the words we quoted earlier:

Deu 29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

The connection between John hearing seven thunders just before being told not to write what he heard is the same as why Daniel was told to “shut up the words and seal the book, even unto the time of the end” In other words, ‘even unto the appointed time’, when we will then be prepared in our hearts to accept what we cannot at this time accept, just as Christ told His disciples:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, [‘seven thunders’] but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Joh 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

 7) What then are the seven thunders which John is told to seal up and write them not?

These “secrets things” are not revealed and are “sealed up and not uttered”, until the Lord prepares our hearts to receive them. The Lord has given us to know the outcome of His plan and of His purpose in all things. He has given us the overview of all He is doing. So, what are “the secret things [which] belong to God”? Here is what the scriptures reveal that we do not know:

Jas 4:14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

The Lord has taken us into His confidence and has revealed exactly what He is in the process of accomplishing, but it is in His great mercy that He has not revealed to us the details of our daily judgment. It is our complete detailed daily judgment which is signified by “seven trumpets”, and it is in the Lord’s mercy that He does not let us know what tomorrow holds for us.

Mat 24:42  Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

Mar 13:32  But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Mar 13:33  Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
Mar 13:34  For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
Mar 13:35  Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:

But “the things which are revealed” are written and uttered to only very few.

Mat 13:9  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

So, the multitudes who come to Christ to hear his parables still, to this very day, think they have eyes that see when in reality “they see not”. They think they have ears that hear, and they believe they can read, but the Truth remains “neither do they understand”. But to His elect He says, “It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to them it is not given.” Yet we are told that John himself was to “seal up what the seven thunders had uttered and write them not” because the Lord knows our frame and He knows that ‘He has many things to tell us which we cannot receive’ until after He has prepared out hearts to do so. He know that it is much better that He uses each daily trial to prepare our heart to endure the next trial.

What is the significance of telling us that there is something that is not revealed? Was not John told to write down all he had seen?

Rev 1:19  Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter;

It was in obedience to this commandment that John begins to write what the seven thunders had uttered. John no doubt thought that this too, would edify and exhort and comfort those who were given to “read, hear and keep the things written therein” (Rev 1:3). After all, we have already been told “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the three trumpets which are yet to sound.”

Our next trumpet is the seventh trumpet, and the seventh trumpet is “the seven last plagues of God’s wrath” which are poured out upon the inhabiters of the earth. What could be in these seven thunders, which is not to be revealed nor written down? The answer to this question can be understood only when we know what is meant by “thunders” and when we notice that John himself heard the voices of the seven thunders, and was about to write them down when he was told not to do so. If we are given to understand who John typifies, and if we know what the number 7 typifies, and if we know what thunder signifies, then we will understand why John was told to “seal up what the seven thunders had uttered and write it not.”

The number 7 signifies completion of whatever is under discussion. Here is an in depth study on the Spiritual Significance of the Number Seven

We must also understand the spiritual significance of the word ‘thunder’, and we must understand the spiritual significance and symbolism of John himself, and we must know what is not revealed, before we can understand why John himself could hear these seven thunders but was not permitted to write down what he had heard.

What is the spiritual significance of the word ‘thunder’?

The first time this word appears in scripture tells us of its spiritual significance.

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 9:27  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.

That is the fruit of God’s thunder in our lives. That is the fruit of God’s wrath upon our sins:

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Vengeance belongs only to the Lord, and His vengeance and His wrath produce righteousness, while our wrath, “the wrath of man”, fails in that regard:

Rom 12:19  Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but [rather] give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance [is] mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

Jas 1:20  For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

This very apostle, John, and his brother, James, were called “sons of thunder” by our Lord.

Mar 3:17  And James the [son] of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:

The reason for this name is revealed in this incident, which is recorded for our edification:

Luk 9:53  And they [the Samaritans] did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
Luk 9:54  And when his disciples James and John saw [this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
Luk 9:55  But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
Luk 9:56  For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

So, thunder signifies God’s wrath, and these seven thunders signify the complete wrath of God, and John was given to hear what those seven thunders uttered, but he was told to seal it up and write it not. So now we need to remember who John signifies and symbolizes.

Who, spiritually, is John?

John makes clear who he is, and who he symbolizes in the first two verses of this 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:
Rev 1:2  Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

There it is. John is the symbol of all who “bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all thing that he saw.” Now let’s see who else has this testimony, and bares record of these words.

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him [The angel who is showing these things to John]. 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.

And this revelation that John himself is signified by the angel that shows him all these things is repeated in chapter 22:

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.

Who is it who shows us all these things?

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand).

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.

Reading and understanding is the same as reading and hearing. It is given to only a few to “read, hear, and keep the things which are written in the words of this prophecy.”

Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

This book is a “two edged sword”, and if we “keep the things written therein,” then we must acknowledge that this means “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, the good with the evil.

Deu 8:3  And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

Lam 3:38  Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
Lam 3:39  Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

How does the Lord humble us?

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

Job 2:10  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

“Job… did not… sin” in attributing “receiving evil… at the hand of God”. Yet the churches of Babylon are blinded to this simple Truth.

We, though, are given eyes which see, and knowing all of this it becomes clear that John, the Lord’s servant who was used of God to convey the message of His judgments upon the kingdom of our old man, signifies, and is the symbol of those who know and understand and live the truth of this verse of scripture:

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.

John is the symbol of God’s elect, who know their experience is the same as all men, but in God’s grace, “according to His own will” (Eph 1:11) His elect have that experience first. Nevertheless, even His elect must wait until the Lord prepares their hearts to receive the revelation of the full extent of the work of His judgments within our lives:

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

There are a few scriptures which tell us that which God has not revealed. Here is the most explicit verse on that subject:

Jas 4:14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

It is in love and mercy, that we are not given to know the secrets that God knows concerning the details of our future struggles. God does not withhold from us anything that is for our good.

Psa 34:10  The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.

Act 20:27  For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

But he does not take us into His confidence to the extent of revealing to us more of the details of our judgment then we are prepared to accept or receive.

Mat 19:12  For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from [their] mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

It is only given to a few to receive a gospel which, right up front, asks you to be willing to be “hated of all men… crucified with Christ… and [acknowledge that we are all] children of wrath.” But even those few to whom it is given to receive this calling must have their hearts prepared before they can receive and keep the things which are written in the book of this prophecy.

1Ch 29:18  O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:

Psa 10:17  LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

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

Before our hearts are ‘tried toward God’, we are first prepared as sheep for the slaughter.

Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

It is in God’s great mercy that the details of our suffering on “the morrow”, “the voices of the seven thunders”, are not made known in advance, and it is in His mercy that we are not told what the seven thunders of God’s wrath utter. John, as the symbol of our election, hears the thunders when his heart is prepared to receive their judgments.

Here are the words that immediately precede that verse in Deu 29, which informs us that the secret, “sealed up” things belong to God.

Deu 29:24  Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what [meaneth] the heat of this great anger?
Deu 29:25  Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
Deu 29:26  For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and [whom] he had not given unto them:
Deu 29:27  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
Deu 29:28  And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as [it is] this day.
Deu 29:29  The secret things [the “seven thunders” of His judgments] belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Summary

Let’s review what we have seen in the scriptures telling us the spiritual significance of the symbols of these first four verses of Revelation 10:

1) Who is this “mighty angel” described in verse one?

We have seen that is angel with His feet on our sea and our earth, is Christ as the Lord of our lives, who has subdued our every thought to Himself.

2) What is this “little book” mentioned in verse two?

We have seen that this “little book” is the revelation of the judgment of Christ in His Christ. Christ is “the book of the life of the Lamb,” and our lives are the books out of which we are “judged according to our works.” (Rev 20:12)

3) Why does He “set His right foot on the sea, and His left foot on the earth”?

We saw that whatever is under one’s feet is subjected to that person. Christ has been given all power in heaven and in earth. As such He is our King over our lives and over all we do.

4) What is “the sea and the earth”?

We have seen that “the sea and the earth” are that realm which is below the heavens. As such they are the realm of the temporal, and the realm of death. Both are the enemies of Christ.

5) Why does this mighty angel “cry with a loud voice, as when a lion roars”?

A lion roars only when he has taken his prey. The “roar of the lion” and having “the sea and the earth under His feet” are both compatible with Christ’s destruction of His enemy “the body of this death”, the kingdom of our old man.

6) What is the connection between this “little book” and the seven thunders which are sealed up and not written? 

We have seen that this little book, which is “bitter in [our] belly” is introduced to us just before the seven thunders utter their voices, signifying the dregs of the Lord’s wrath. We also saw that John, the type and symbol of God’s elect, heard the voices of the seven thunders and “was about to write” what he had heard. If this little book is Christ and His Words in us, if John is the symbol of Christ in us, and if thunder typifies the wrath of God upon the unrighteousness of those who are to become His elect, then the connection between the revelation of this little book and the seven thunders, is the revelation of the judgment of Christ’s Words upon all that is within us which is contrary to those Words of Christ.

7) What is it that has been “sealed up and are not written”? Exactly what is it that we are not being allowed to know?

Since we are told that we will not be given more than we can bear, it is obvious that what the seven thunders utter is that which we “cannot bear now” (Joh 16:12), and  which we are not, at this moment, able to bear. We also saw the verses of God’s Word which promise to prepare our hearts before we are faced with any trial. It is only after we have been prepared, that  we are given to hear the voices of the seven thunders and we are prepared for what next lies before us.

In our next study, Lord willing, we will continue in chapter 10, which deals with “the days of the seventh angel, when he begins to sound… and the finishing of the mystery of God.”

Rev 10:5  And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
Rev 10:6  And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
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.
Rev 10:8  And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go [and] take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
Rev 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take [it], and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Rev 10:11  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

Rev 10:1-4 – A Mighty Angel and a Little Book-Part 1

[Study Aired Sept 6, 2024]

Rev 10:1  And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow [was] upon his head, and his face [was] as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Rev 10:2  And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and [his] left [foot] on the earth,
Rev 10:3  And cried with a loud voice, as [when] a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Rev 10:4  And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.

Introduction

There are seven symbols which we need to consider in this study of the first four verses of Rev 10. They are:

1)  Who is this “mighty angel” described in verse one?

2)  What is this “little book” mentioned in verse two?

3)  Why does He “set His right foot on the sea, and His left foot on the earth”?

4)  What is “the sea and the earth”?

5)  Why does this mighty angel “cry with a loud voice, as when a lion roars”?

6)  What is the connection between this “little book” and the seven thunders which are sealed up and not written? What is this all about?

7)  Then we will also need to ask ourselves, What is it that has been “sealed up and are not written”?

“Keeping” ignorance, and remaining uninformed, is not that great of a challenge, as I am sure we will all agree. But what do the scriptures reveal concerning the Lord’s ‘thunder’ that we are not given to know? Again we must come to see what the scriptures reveal as being unrevealed and sealed up concerning these “seven thunders”.

We must always supply the verses of God’s word which shed the light on what these symbols mean. Anything else is just personal speculation. If on the other hand the scriptures tell us what these symbols mean then we, with Paul, are speaking “in demonstration of the spirit behind the words of God.

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit [Joh 6:63] and of power:
1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of [the spirit filled words of] God.

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

Since we are told to “seal up those things the seven thunders uttered, and write them not,” we need to remind ourselves once again, that we are admonished to “read… hear… and keep the thing 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.

If we “read… hear… and keep those thing which are written therein” then we must agree that we do not know what the seven thunders uttered. Likewise we must also read, hear, and keep the scripturally revealed meaning of each symbol of this book. Therefore…

1) Who do the scriptures reveal to be this “mighty angel” described in verse one?

Rev 10:1  And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow [was] upon his head, and his face [was] as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

Where else in scripture has this “angel” been described in these same terms?

Eze 1:26  And above the firmament that [was] over their heads [was] the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne [was] the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.
Eze 1:27  And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.
Eze 1:28  As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so [was] the appearance of the brightness round about. This [was] the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw  [it], I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.

“The appearance of a man” in Ezekiel and the “mighty angel” of Rev 10 both have “a rainbow and the appearance of fire” in common. Who is this? The answer is… “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord”.

Now look at what Dan 10 and Rev 1 have in common when describing Christ.

Dan 10:5  Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins [were] girded with fine gold of Uphaz:
Dan 10:6  His body also [was] like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

Rev 1:13  And in the midst of the seven candlesticks [one] like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
Rev 1:14  His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes [were] as a flame of fire;
Rev 1:15  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

Rev 2:18  And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet [are] like fine brass;

The appearance of a rainbow, girded with gold, face as the sun, eyes as lamps of fire, feet as brass in a furnace, are all parts of the description of “the Son of Man”. They are all describing Christ, and Christ is a messenger sent from God. Christ is “God’s angel… the Cloud” who led Israel out of Egypt.

2) What is this “little book”?

What does the Word of God reveal about this little book? Would it not be most instructive if we could know what was written in this “little book”?  We dare not “think above what is written” (1Co 4:6), so we will let the demonstration of the spirit and power of the Word of God tell us what this little book is all about:

Eze 2:1  And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
Eze 2:2  And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spake unto me.
Eze 2:3  And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, [even] unto this very day.
Eze 2:4  For [they are] impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 2:5  And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they [are] a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.
Eze 2:6  And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns [be] with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they [be] a rebellious house.
Eze 2:7  And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they [are] most rebellious.
Eze 2:8  But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.
Eze 2:9  And when I looked, behold, an hand [was] sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book [was] therein;
Eze 2:10  And he spread it before me; and it [was] written within and without: and [there was] written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

Here in Ezekiel this book is called “a roll of a book”, and we are told “it was written within and without with lamentations, and mourning, and woe”. So we have a general idea of what is written in this little book in the hand of this mighty angel. It might seem to our old man that it would be nice if it were written within and without with “smooth things”, but that simply is not the Truth. Instead it is full of “lamentations, mourning, and woe”. But how can we know that this is the same book as the one mentioned in Rev 10:2? Can we really know that this book in the hand of the angel of Rev 10:2 is the same as this book here in Ezekiel 2? Yes, indeed, we can know this because of all the things these two descriptions of this one book have in common, as demonstrated by the instructions given to Ezekiel concerning this same book in Ezekiel 3, the very next chapter:

Eze 3:1  Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.

Rev 10:8  And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go [and] take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
Rev 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take [it], and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Rev 10:11  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

Why are both Ezekiel and John, told to “eat this roll… eat it up”? What does that mean? Did not Christ also tell us to “eat my body and drink my blood”?

Joh 6:48  I am that bread of life.
Joh 6:49  Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
Joh 6:50  This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
Joh 6:51  I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Joh 6:52  The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us [his] flesh to eat?
Joh 6:53  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Joh 6:54  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
Joh 6:55  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Joh 6:56  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
Joh 6:57  As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
Joh 6:58  This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

These verses here in Joh 6 make clear that eating the bread from heaven is the same as eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood. Both are required to give us life. But Christ, in this same chapter, also informs us that it is His words which are the light and the life.

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life. (ASV)

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Let’s review what we are being told. Christ tells us we must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have life (Joh 6:54). He tells us that He is the true bread which came down from heaven. He tells us that He is the light of the world. Christ tells us that those who eat His flesh and drink His blood “dwell in Christ, and Christ in them.” Finally, Christ tells us that we will be “witnesses of these things”:

Act 1:8  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Now let’s compare all of this to what Ezekiel is told in Eze 2 and 3, and what John is told in Rev 10. When we do this, we find that it is the very same message. That one message is that God’s Word must be within us before we can witness for Him and before we can have life. Both Ezekiel and John are told to “eat this book… it will be sweet in your mouth… I send you to the house of Israel… you must prophesy before many…” Applying the “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little”, key to the kingdom of heaven within us, we see that “It will be bitter in your belly is added here in Revelation,” but even that is explained in Ezekiel’s experience with Israel, as described in Ezekiel 3.

Eze 3:14 So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went [to witness] in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Jehovah was strong upon me.

It is obvious that ‘eating this book’, eating the true bread from heaven and eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ is all one and the same nourishing spiritual diet which strengthens and equips us to “be witnesses unto Christ”. This “little book” is obviously the words of Christ, and when we eat this book, His words are living in and nourishing us. This little book is Christ’s testimony in our lives that we have “eaten His flesh and we have drunk of His blood in the New Testament”. Whoever eats this book is eating Christ’ flesh and drinking Christ’s blood, and Christ says that He “will raise him up at the last day.” This is a “little book” because we are ‘little’ christs.

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

Today is that “day of judgment”. (1Pe 4:17). Let’s demonstrate this truth with scripture.

To whom is this little book addressed?

Who are those who will be raised up in the last day? We have already established in our study of the first chapter of Revelation that this little book, along with all the book of Revelation and all of scripture, is addressed only to those who can “read, hear, and keep the things written therein” and who can understand that “the time is at hand” to do so. Both Ezekiel and Christ tell us that God’s Words, including His words in this little book, are addressed only to “lost sheep of the house of Israel”.

Mat 10:5  These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into [any] city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
Mat 10:6  But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Mat 15:24  But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But who is Israel? Here is who the scriptures teach is an Israelite, and here is who the scriptures teach is a Jew:

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

And here are two different versions of Gal 6:15-16.

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

Gal 6:15  Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do– submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!
Gal 6:16  All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God— his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them! (MSG)

So this little book is addressed to those to whom all scripture is addressed. It is addressed to “the Israel of God” to whom it is given to understand that God “has made of both [Israelites and Gentiles] one new man” who can eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus, and eat this book, and “read, hear, and keep the things written therein, [understanding that] the time is at hand” to do so.

Now let’s go back to see what else Ezekiel 3 reveals to us concerning the connection between this “little book” and the seven thunders which utter their voices at the time this book is introduced to us.

Eze 3:2  So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.
Eze 3:3  And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat [it]; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
Eze 3:4  And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.
Eze 3:5For thou [art] not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, [but] to the house of Israel;

Mat 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Mat 10:23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

Eze 3:6  Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.
Eze 3:7  But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel [are] impudent and hardhearted.
Eze 3:8  Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.

Here is this same message in the book of Revelation:

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.

What is that mystery? We are not left to speculate:

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:

Rev 10:8  And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go [and] take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
Rev 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take [it], and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Rev 10:11  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

Rev 16:9  And men [men who knew God, men of Israel, you and me] were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

 This is our flesh. Were it not for God’s mercy, we would be there with the majority. Remember Job, and remember King David. We are “that man”.

Eze 3:9  As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they [be] a rebellious house.
Eze 3:10  Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.
Eze 3:11  And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
Eze 3:12  Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, [saying], Blessed [be] the glory of the LORD from his place.
Eze 3:13  [I heard] also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.
Eze 3:14  So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.
Eze 3:15  Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.
Eze 3:16  And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 3:17  Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
Eze 3:18  When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked [man] shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Eze 3:19  Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
Eze 3:20  Again, When a righteous [man] doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Eze 3:21  Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous [man], that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

Mat 10:40  He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

Mar 6:11  And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

Eze 3:22  And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.
Eze 3:23  Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.
Eze 3:24  Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house.
Eze 3:25  But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them:
Eze 3:26  And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they [are] a rebellious house.

Here is that same message in the book of Revelation:

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

And in the book of Galatians:

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

Back to the book of Ezekiel:

Eze 3:27  But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they [are] a rebellious house.

“Get thee to them of the captivity” is those who are in Babylon the great. It is each of us who have crucified Christ and His elect, and who have refused their testimony. Who has been “hard hearted” but God’s very own elect?

Isa 42:19  Who [is] blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger [that] I sent? who [is] blind as [he that is] perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?

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

None of us accept “their testimony” when we first hear it. We are all first blind. Which is exactly what Christ taught:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And [some] of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

So “their faces [and] their foreheads” in Ezekiel 3 are the faces and foreheads of the symbolic two hundred million false doctrines within us, which proceed out of the smoke of the bottomless pit to “darken the sun and the air” which are within us. These words are directed to us. They are not addressed to those who cannot “read, hear, or keep the things which are written therein” and who do not even believe that “the time is at hand” to do so.

3) Why does He “set His right foot on the sea, and His left foot on the earth”?

Rev 10:2  And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and [his] left [foot] on the earth,

Both the sea and the earth are pictured as being under the feet of Christ. What is the meaning of being under His feet? The scriptures demonstrate that the concept, and the message of having anything under one’s feet, is the concept of having been given the dominion over that which is placed under the feet.

Jdg 4:10  And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.

1Ki 5:3  Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.

Est 8:3  And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews.

Psa 8:4  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Psa 8:5  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Psa 8:6  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all [things] under his feet:

Dan 7:19  Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth [were of] iron, and his nails [of] brass; [which] devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;

Nah 1:3  The LORD [is] slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit [the wicked]: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds [are] the dust of his feet.

1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under [him, it is] manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.

Eph 1:22  And hath put all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all [things] to the church,

Heb 2:8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing [that is] not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.

So the meaning of the sea and the earth being under Christ’s feet is this:

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

When we are given to understand the truth of Mat 28:18, then we will begin to know that it also applies to us.

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

Is Christ given all power in heaven and in earth? Is He given power over all the powers and principalities and false doctrine in the heavens? We are, too.

 Jer 1:10  See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

Eph 6:12 Because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but, against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world- holders, of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.(REV)

When we see that Christ’s feet are on the sea and on the earth, then we will know that God’s sovereignty extends to everything in the sea and on the earth. When we are granted to truly believe that Christ has both the sea and the earth under His feet, then we will also realize that we really can, through Christ, “do all things”, and we too can conquer everything in both the sea and earth, because Christ’s feet are our feet, and we really are Jesus of Nazareth who is persecuted and despised of all men.

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

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

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

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

We will pause at this point and resume our study with the question…

4) What is “the sea and the earth”?

]]> https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/dan-121-13-o-daniel-shut-up-the-words/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dan-121-13-o-daniel-shut-up-the-words Thu, 13 Jun 2024 22:18:17 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=30120 Audio Download

Dan 12:1-13  O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end

[Study Aired June 13, 2024]

Dan 12:1  And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. 
Dan 12:2  And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 
Dan 12:3  And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. 
Dan 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 
Dan 12:5  Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river. 
Dan 12:6  And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? 
Dan 12:7  And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. 
Dan 12:8  And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
Dan 12:9  And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 
Dan 12:10  Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. 
Dan 12:11  And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. 
Dan 12:12  Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. 
Dan 12:13  But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. 

Daniel, like all the prophets of old, were used by God to “shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end”, and it was for the elect’s sake that God ordained it to be so (1Pe 1:12, 1Co 10:11, 2Co 4:15-16). 

1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 

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 process of judgment upon all the sins of the world that are within us and must be ruled over through Christ (Joh 1:29) in order to fulfill God’s will  (1Jn 2:16-17)] .

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish [1Co 15:31], yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

In order for us to faint not, our outward man must perish and “the inward man is [be] renewed day by day” as we die daily (1Co 15:31). God is accomplishing this in the lives of “every one that shall be found written in the book” (Dan 12:1) by the faith of Christ (Php 2:12-13) which is given to the church that must be tried in fiery trials (Col 1:24, Act 14:22) in order to perfect that faith of Christ within us (Luk 22:32,  1Pe 1:7). We are immeasurably blessed to learn and know that the trials God gives us build up the church and not tear it down as He brings us to our safe haven (Psa 107:30). When we feel sore pressed on every side through judgment, God will intervene and deliver us after we are brought to our wits’ end, and then with the comfort He provides through the trial we will be able to comfort others, building up the body of Christ (Mat 16:18, 2Co 1:4, Joh 8:36, Rom 8:35-39).

2Co 1:4  Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

It is through Christ and Christ alone that those seals of judgment can be opened and endured by those who are called to this narrow and strait way (Mat 7:13-14) that brings with it the strength of Christ (Php 4:13) and the promises of God that tell us we won’t faint in the day of adversity (Pro 24:10, Php 4:13), because God is faithful to hear and deliver His people (Luk 18:1, Luk 18:8, 1Pe 4:19, Rev 5:5, Php 1:6).

Mat 7:13  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it [Mat 22:14].

Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof [Php 2:12-13].

God wants us to focus on all these exceedingly great and precious promises that He’s given us which speak of our hope of glory within (Col 1:27, Rom 8:24). Christ is making a way for us to obtain the extra oil of God’s word, supplied through the church, through the trials of our faith, through the adversities of life God has promised will not prevail against the church, but rather will be the means (Rom 8:28) by which we will be able to go onto perfection on the third day (Luk 13:32, Luk 7:22, Heb 6:1, Mat 17:23).

Being confident of these promises and the work of grace through faith we’re experiencing through Christ unto salvation (Eph 2:8) is very much what this last chapter of Daniel is all about, starting with the first verse that sets the stage for these final prophecies of Daniel that are filled with  promise and hope for the body of Christ.

Dan 12:1  And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. 

Michael standing up (Psa 24:3, Mal 3:2, Rev 6:17) represents the angels or messengers of God who experience God being mindful of them (Psa 8:3-4, Psa 111:5, Heb 2:6) by way of the holy spirit, the comforter that will strengthen them and see them through “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time” (Mat 24:20-22). Michael therefore represents our hope of glory within Jesus Christ (Col 1:27, Rom 8:9).

Mal 3:2  But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:

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

Psa 8:3  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 
Psa 8:4  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  

We are being told “there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered“, and this thought parallels Christ’s own words in Matthew 24:20-22. It is simply because God is mindful of His children that they will be able to endure through whatever God has ordained for them to endure through in this life (Mat 20:23, 1Co 10:13).

Mat 24:20  But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
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.

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

It is because God is mindful of His workmanship (Eph 2:10), the church, the little flock, that “at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (Rev 20:12, Rev 20:4-6).

Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened the books. And another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by the things having been written in the books, according to their works.

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

Dan 12:2  And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

All men will hear His voice in the order which God has ordained (1Co 15:22-25), and it can only be in one of two resurrections; “unto the resurrection of life” or “unto the resurrection of damnation.” This is precisely what, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt”  is a prophecy of.

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.

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.

Figuratively speaking, we are Christ’s feet that are first washed (Eph 5:30, Joh 13:8-10, 1Co 15:22-25) before the rest of the world, and so we read, “he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet” (1Co 15:25). This is the order of how all men will be saved, Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming, Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power [during the thousand year reign of the saints and right into the lake of fire, great white throne judgment] For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet [His feet being “the general assembly and church of the firstborn” who will be God’s threshing tool (Heb 12:23-24, Isa 41:14-16)].

Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 

Joh 13:8  Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. [the elect are washed first so we can have a part in God’s plan of salvation (Oba 1:21)]
Joh 13:9  Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. 
Joh 13:10  Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. 
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

Isa 41:14  Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 41:15  Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
Isa 41:16  Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.

Dan 12:3  And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

It is those who were granted to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour (2Pe 3:18) who will shine “as the brightness of the firmament.” The firmament represents the mind of Christ we have now within our hearts and minds, because of our heavens being cleansed (1Co 2:16, Joh 17:17, Heb 9:23). With that mind of Christ we will be able to save ourselves and those who hear us (1Ti 4:16).

2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. 

1Co 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 

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

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

1Ti 4:16  Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

In time, all mankind will hear the manifest knowledge of God made known through the church who are likened to “the stars for ever and ever” (Rev 1:20) who will be used to “turn many to righteousness“, meaning all of humanity to righteousness (Oba 1:21).

Rev 1:20  The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. 

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. 

Dan 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 

Daniel is not given to know the truth of these prophecies, and so his book is closed as opposed to, “and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” of Danil 12:1. The seals of the book are open now for God’s elect which describe the detailed process of judgment God’s people must go through in order to make the bride ready (Act 14:22, Rev 21:2, Rev 19:7).

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

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

“Thy people are delivered” because God will send His word and heal the elect in this age, so that we in turn will be sent as Christ was sent to us to heal the nations (Psa 107:20-22, Joh 20:21-22, Joh 3:16-17, Oba 1:21).

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. 

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

Joh 20:22  And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

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. 

The “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” represents the many called (Mat 22:14), ever searching but not able to come to the knowledge of the truth (2Ti 3:7). Part of the increase of physical knowledge is the increase in understanding historical events of history via the anti-types of Christ. However, by not connecting that reality of the spiritual anti-types to the spiritual type in Christ, leaves the searcher of truth ever searching and not able to come to the knowledge of truth (2Ti 2:24-26). This is a key to the kingdom that keeps the masses that are searching for Christ, blinded (Act 26:15-18), and as Christ said, it’s not that the many called don’t want to know these truths, it’s simply that it has not been given to them to know the truth, but it is given to God’s children whose eyes and ears have been blessed to be opened first (Mat 13:17-19).

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

2Ti 3:7  Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [Mat 13:13].

2Ti 2:24  And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, 
2Ti 2:25  In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; [Joh 6:44]
2Ti 2:26  And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, [Daniel in particular as we’re learning] and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
Mat 13:18  Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
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.

Dan 12:5  Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river. 
Dan 12:6  And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? 
Dan 12:7  And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
Dan 12:8  And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
Dan 12:9  And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 

Daniel then sees two men standing on either side of the river and a man clothed in linen upon the waters. The “man clothed in linen” represents Christ who is in our midst as we live and move and have our being within Him (Act 17:28). The word one is not in the original text of Daniel 12:6 so it is Daniel who asks the question, “And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?” The two men on either side of the bank of the river represent the two witnesses who represent the elect, and the man on the water typifies Christ being clothed in linen, and His answer to Daniel about the wonders he is seeing describes for God’s elect who have ears to hear, that it is by Christ’s relationship with our Father, and our relationship with them both, that these wonders can be understood (Joh 14:20). The man on the water “held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever” because it is Christ who must intercede for us to be able to then fulfill what is said next “that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.” This “time, times, and an half” is the time of our ministry on this earth which is Christ’s ministry being performed through the elect (Rev 11:1-3, Php 2:12-13). Daniel heard the words, but he did not understand, “And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?” Again we are reminded of how blessed we are to have eyes that see and ears that hear what Christ is saying in the midst of the church (Eph 3:10). Daniel’s time will come when he will know and understand, but at this point he was prophesying for us and was told “Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.“

Dan 12:10  Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. 

Dan 12:10  Till a number are tested and make themselves clean; and the evil-doers will do evil; for not one of the evil-doers will have knowledge; but all will be made clear to those who are wise. (BBE)

‘Many’ can both be seen as a larger or smaller number of people. We know there is an innumerable multitude spoken of in the book of Revelation, and that would be “many”, but the symbolic number of 144,000 which can be numbered, and represents the elect, is still ‘many’ throughout the ages who have been called and chosen and remained faithful to the end. In other words, “Till a number are tested” (Dan 12:10 BBE) or “many shall be purified” (Rev 17:14).

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

Going through a process of judgment in order to “be purified, and made white, and tried” is what those who are “called, and chosen, and faithful” of Revelation 17:14 will experience in this life. It is those trials that will help us learn obedience in this life and help us understand the will of God that transforms our thinking and brings our thoughts into subjection to Christ (2Ti 2:12, Tit 2:12). Those who despise God’s chastening are spoken of with these words, “but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand.“

2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: 

Tit 2:12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; [Heb 12:6]

Dan 12:11  And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. 
Dan 12:12  Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. 

The abomination of desolation being set up in the temple of God for 1290 days represents the man of perdition or beast on the throne of every man’s heart, and the number 12 represents our fleshly foundation in this case, which must be judged (9). The way this judgment is accomplished is by God’s hand (1), and our flesh is made manifest and witnessed against for what it is (2), through His judgment (9), the knowledge of sin being made known by the law that judges us (Rom 3:20).

Those who endure to the end will be saved in this life (Mat 24:13) and what we must be blessed to endure is the complete judgment of God’s wrath poured out upon us (Rev 15:8). Enduring through His wrath against our old man is symbolized by those who “waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” These are those who not only fall on the stone and are broken but also, “on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” of Matthew 21:44.

Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Mat 21:44  And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

The 45 days beyond 1290 days that take us to 1335 reveals symbolic numbers that herald back to the point that God’s elect must go through a process of judgment, in order to “be purified, and made white, and tried.” Starting with number 45, we see it is the whole (4) of the elect who will be saved by grace through faith (5) and the numbers 4+5 add up to 9 which is the number that represents the judgment which we must endure to the end. 

These judgments are what are needed to form the patience and faith of the saints, by which we can possess our souls (Luk 21:19). The number 1335 represents the means by which God’s workmanship will be completed within those who have been predestined to that work in this life. The (1) represents God who is doing the work in us through Christ, the two (3)’s are a witness that it is Christ who is carrying out the process of judgment within us (Php 2:12-13) that will enable us to be saved by grace through faith, the number (5).

Dan 12:13  But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

Daniel had to be a patient man (Jas 5:10) being given all this knowledge and wisdom and prophecy and yet was told  “go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.“

Jas 5:10  Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

To “stand in thy lot at the end of the days” is coming up in the second resurrection, great white throne judgment. The prophets patiently enduring through so many trials in this life is the reason why they will have fewer stripes in the lake of fire, but every man’s works, including Daniel’s and John the baptist’s, and all of humanity, must be tried with fire (1Co 3:13-15, Mar 9:49-50)

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.

Mar 9:49  For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
Mar 9:50  Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.

Rev 7:1-3 Part 2 – Sealing The 144,000

[Study Aired May 24, 2024]

Rev 7:1  And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
Rev 7:2  And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
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.

In our last study of the sealing of the 144,000 here in Revelation 7 we learned that there are two groups mentioned in this chapter and that these two groups are inclusive of all men of all time – past, present and future. We discussed the meaning of the number four. We discussed the meaning of the word ‘corners’ which we discovered is best translated as quarters, and we discussed the meaning of the word ‘wind.’

We begin today’s study by looking at who the scriptures reveal to be these ‘angels’ who are “holding the four winds of the earth” not allowing them to “hurt the earth… the sea… nor the trees, till we  have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads”.

What are angels?

We have covered this subject already in depth while considering these verses in chapter 1.

Rev 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance [was] as the sun shineth in his strength.

Rev 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Angels are signified by stars, and stars are signified by angels. What is it these stars and angels do? What are these “four angels which stand on the four corners of the earth and hold the four winds of the earth?” If we can remember that scripturally the number four means the whole of the subject under consideration, then we know that whatever these ‘angels’ are, and whatever they are doing, we are concerned with the whole of it. So whatever these four  angels do, the whole of what they do is now being considered?

To answer this question we need, as is usually the case, to look at a few very revealing verses in the Old Testament.

Num 20:14 And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:
Num 20:15 How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers:
Num 20:16 And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:

The same word is earlier translated as both ‘angel’ and then as ‘messenger’ in:

Gen 32:1  And Jacob went on his way, and the angels [H4397: malak, messenger] of God met him.
Gen 32:2  And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
Gen 32:3  And Jacob sent messengers [H4397: malak] before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

Jacob “met… the angels of God” and then “sent messengers” to Esau. Moses sent ‘messengers’ from Kadesh to the king of Edom, telling the king of Edom that the Lord had sent ‘an angel’ to bring Israel out of Egypt. What is so revealing about both of these stories is that the word ‘messengers’ in both stories is the same Hebrew word translated ‘angel’ in both stories.

Here is how Strong defines this Hebrew word:

H4397
mal’a k
mal- awk’
From an unused root meaning to despatch as a deputy; a messenger; specifically of God, that is, an angel (also a prophet, priest or teacher): – ambassador, angel, king, messenger.

So the word ‘angel’ can be either a physical messenger, such as Jacob sent to Esau, and as Moses sent to the king of Edom, or it can be a spirit such as the host of angels who met Jacob and the angel God sent to bring Israel up out of Egypt. Which are the angels here in this revelation of Jesus Christ? What does the revelation of Jesus Christ say about this? Here is the answer to that question:

Rev 21:17  And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

So the angel of each of the seven churches is “a man” or ‘the men’ whom the Lord sends as His ‘messengers.’ The seven angels of the seven churches are Christ and His complete gospel within us, His ‘messengers.’  Since the number seven has been established as scripturally meaning that which is complete, then the seven angels which are sent to the seven churches are the complete message of the messengers sent to the complete church down through all the generations of the church since Christ. We saw earlier (Rev 1:20) that the seven angels with their complete message to the complete church are in Christ’s right hand.

Rev 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

By whom are words as “a sharp twoedged sword… out of His mouth” delivered to the complete church?

Rev 1:20  The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels [messengers] of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Then in chapter 5 we learned that there is a book in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne:

Both the complete and the whole message is within the book:

Rev 5:1  And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.

Who is sitting on the throne? Is this Christ, or is this His Father? In scriptural terms, He that is sitting on the throne in chapter 5 is the same person and same throne we saw in chapter 4:

Rev 4:8  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
Rev 4:9  And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
Rev 4:10  The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Rev 4:11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Revelation 1 makes it clear that this is Christ who is sitting “with His Father in His Father’s throne.”

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Colossians 1 makes it clear that it was Christ who “created all things” and that “all things were created for His pleasure.”

Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all [things] he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

So it is Christ, by and for whom all things were created, who is sitting on the throne with His Father with the book in His right hand. He is at this very moment “in His Father” sitting “with His Father in His Father’s throne”:

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Who then is “the lion of the tribe of Judah” who appears as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world to whom Christ hands the book that is in His right hand? As presumptuous and blasphemous as it may sound, that lion which appears as a lamb is scripturally those also who are in that ‘Lion who appears as a Lamb’:

Mat 10:40  He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

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

It is those who are the very body of Christ and who, we are told, are slain with Him so as to be “seated with Him in His Father’s throne.” It is Christ Himself who informs us exactly who we are in His eyes, the only ‘eyes’ that matter:

Act 22:7  And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

It is Christ whom God the Father has seen fit even to give the titles of both “the everlasting God and “the Almighty.”

Rev 1:7  Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him. Even so, Amen.
Rev 1:8  I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

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, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Who is this “slain lamb?” Of course it is Christ. Didn’t we just show that Christ is “the Mighty God, the everlasting Father” and “the Almighty” who is sitting with His Father in His Father’s throne? How then can this Lion, who appears as a slain lamb, at the same time be Christ? Here is how Christ is both sitting with His Father in His Father’s throne, and is at the same time receiving the book out of His own right hand;

Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Here is what Christ Himself tells us:

Joh 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Joh 14:8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

There are very few, to this very day, who believe these words of our Lord. It is not adding to that which is written to say that those who are in Christ are that lamb which was slain from the foundation of the world. Here are the verses which make this clear:

Lev 16:21  And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
Lev 16:22  And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

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;

What is it that “according to His own purpose… was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began?” Here it is:

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

Surely this doesn’t mean that it is given to us to be slain with Him, does it? What do the scriptures teach?

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

Is that really how God wants us to think of ourselves? Yes, it definitely is! That is exactly how the scriptures want us to think of ourselves:

Act 5:41  And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

We are expected to identify with our Lord in all of His sufferings. Here is how God’s elect are to see themselves:

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

If there is any truth to those words, then why would we not also be Christ’s lambs slain from “before the world began”; “slain from the foundation of the world?” Indeed, are we not commanded to live by the book of life of the lamb 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.

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

Are we not Christ’s lambs? Of course, we are.

Joh 21:15  So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

Paul goes so far as to tell us that the afflictions of the Christ are “behind” and are not “filled up” and are not finished until they are filled up in and through our bodies, which are, of course “His body, the church.”

Col 1:24 Now, am I rejoicing in the sufferings on your behalf, and am filling up the things that lack of the tribulations of the Christ, in my flesh, in behalf of his body, which is the assembly, (REV)

Here is this same verse in both the King James and in the Contemporary English Versions.

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: (KJV)

Col 1:24  I am glad that I can suffer for you. I am pleased also that in my own body I can continue the suffering of Christ for his body, the church. (CEV)

There it is. We “are crucified with Christ” and as such we, too, are that lamb “as it had been slain… before the world began”, and it is each of us to whom Christ hands the book with seven seals, and it is Christ in us who looses those seven seals to reveal to us the revelation of Jesus Christ within us through the judgments of the seven trumpets and through His wrath on all our ungodliness and unrightousness.

Who are these four angels?

What an incredible calling! In the revelation of Jesus Christ we are not only Christ’s complete seven messengers, but we are given His whole message. We are His body, we are His church; we are His temple in which He dwells and we are His messengers, and we are His lambs who, in Christ, are still in the process of being slain with Him from the foundation of the world.”

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Christ is His Father’s messenger, and we are His messengers. Those are His very own  words to His disciples immediately after His resurrection. These four angels, like all others Biblical symbols, are in some way Christ and His Christ. They are Christ’s messengers seen as their whole. In other words, these four angels, just like the seven angels, are you and me as the whole of Christ’s messengers.

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

So we are Christ’s seven complete messengers, and as such we receive the whole message signified by these four angels on the four corners of the whole earth which ‘earth’ we will cover in more depth next week.

The four angels signify the whole chastening work of God upon the whole earth within us, with all of its complete seven kings and seven kingdoms. Being ‘the earth’, we are dealt with and are affected by “the four winds of the earth.” Both the four winds and the seven spirits are concerned with “all the earth.”

Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

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

We live by every word, and we keep these things which are written therein inasmuch as what is said will happen is exactly what will happen to us. It is all the revelation of Jesus Christ within us.

Summary

We have seen many scriptures which demonstrate that the number four, wherever we find it within the Word of God, is concerned with the whole of whatever is under consideration.
We have seen that in this seventh chapter of Revelation the whole is concerned with “the earth,” and while we are yet to see the scriptures, next week, Lord willing, we will find that “the earth” in scripture signifies our bodies of flesh and blood, through which Christ is, at this time, doing His work within our lives.

We have seen that angels and stars both signify God’s messengers, whether men or spirit beings. We have seen that in this book of revelation, these angels are God’s messengers in the form of “a man” – the man in whom Christ dwells, and by whom He is making known this revelation of Jesus Christ.

We have seen that through the work of “the four winds of the earth”, the work of these “four angels” affect both groups – the numbered and the innumerable, the whole of mankind with whom this chapter is concerned. The whole message and the whole work of the revelation of Jesus Christ is the subject of this 7^th chapter of Revelation.

We have seen that the man sitting on the throne in Revelation 4 is Christ sitting there with His Father, and He is handing the book to His Christ – His elect who will now blow seven trumpets of judgment upon our earth and the seventh of those trumpets will be the pouring out of the seven vials which “fill up the wrath of God”:

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.

Notice that the holy spirit tells us that the four angels of chapter 7 and the seven angels with the seven trumpets and the seven vials are given to “hurt the earth.” The four angels are four angels because they are concerned with the whole work of God, both the numbered and the innumerable.  The “seven angels which have the seven trumpets and the seven vials” identify themselves as “they who keep the sayings of this book… your fellow servant.”

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am [I “signify” (Rev 1:1)] thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Rev 22:8  And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9  Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am [I “signify” (Rev 1:1)] thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
Rev 22:10  And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

“They which keep the sayings of this book” are those of the seven churches of chapters 2 and 3 to whom are given ears to hear what the spirit says to the overcomers of the seven churches. That is those to whom this entire book is addressed:

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Rev 2:7  He that hath [been given (Mat 13:10)] an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Next week, Lord willing, we will compare the spiritual significance of the four horses of Zechariah 1 and Zechariah 6, with the spiritual significance of the four horsemen of Revelation 6:1-8, and the four winds of heaven which are in the hands of the four angels who stand on the four quarters of the earth here in Revelation 7:1. Comparing the spiritual significance of the things of the Old Testament, with the spiritual significance of the things of the New Testament, we will demonstrate the meaning of ‘the earth’ and the scriptural meaning of “the four winds of the earth.”

DANIEL 12:1-13 For the Words are Sealed and Closed up Till the Time of the End!!

[Study Aired February 28, 2022]

Dan 12:1  And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. 
Dan 12:2  And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 
Dan 12:3  And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. 
Dan 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. 
Dan 12:5  Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river. 
Dan 12:6  And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? 
Dan 12:7  And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. 
Dan 12:8  And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? 
Dan 12:9  And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Dan 12:10  Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Dan 12:11  And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Dan 12:12  Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
Dan 12:13  But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

Chapter 12 starts with the statement “At that time shall Michael stand up”. The question is what time is being referred to here? To understand what time is being referred to, we need to go back to chapter 10 of Daniel which is the introduction to the prophecy of both Daniel chapter 11 and 12 regarding what will happen to the elect in the latter days. We, the elect, are the ones of whom the ends of our world are coming.

Dan 10:14  Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.

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.

So, we, the elect, are the ones to whom this prophecy in chapter 12 is applicable.

Dan 12:1  And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

As we indicated in a previous review, the name Michael means “Who is like God?”. It is Jesus who is like God. He is the great prince who stands for the children of His people. The statement “the great prince who stands for the children of thy people” means that Jesus Christ dwells within His people as the word “standeth” means to abide or dwell according to Strong’s Dictionary.

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

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 coming of Jesus into our lives to dwell in us is herald by His judgment which is the time of trouble mentioned in verse 1.

Mal 3:1  “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.
Mal 3:2  But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.
Mal 3:3  He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.
Mal 3:4  Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.
Mal 3:5  Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.

This time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation is the period of the judgment that we, the elect, must go through to learn righteousness.

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.

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.

The time of trouble or judgment begins when we see the abomination of desolation in our temple which is our bodies. This abomination of desolation is that man of sin or the old man occupying the throne of our hearts and minds.

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.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

The statement in verse 1 of Daniel 12 that everyone found written in the Book at that time shall be delivered, is to let us know that it is through judgment that we, the elect, whose names are written in the Book of Life, are saved. It is the elect that must first go through judgment here on earth before the rest of humanity.

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?
1Pe 4:18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

This time of trouble is also described vividly in Isaiah where the Lord destroys His vineyard which represents the elect. God’s way of salvation is through the destruction of the old man through judgment.

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

Dan 12:2  And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

This verse is talking about the resurrection from death. As we know in the Book of Revelation, there are two resurrections – the first and the second resurrection. The first resurrection is for God’s elect which will take place just at the time the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. That is the resurrection to everlasting life for the elect.  After a period of a figurative thousand years comes the second resurrection which is the resurrection to shame and everlasting contempt which is the lot of all humanity except the elect.

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

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

Dan 12:3  And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. 

They that “be wise” are the Lord’s elect. They will shine as the brightness of the firmament. The word “shine” here means to admonish or teach according to Strong. Thus, it is referring to the role of the elect in teaching all humanity to know Christ. This teaching is likened to the brightness of the firmament which means that everyone will come to understand the word of Christ just as the brightness of the firmament is obvious to all. That period is the lake of the fire age when the whole of humanity will come to understand the words of Christ. That is the time that we, the elect, described as desolate in this life, shall give birth to many as all humanity (many) shall turn to righteousness. The righteousness, here being likened to the stars in verse 3, means that all humanity will be clothed in the righteousness of Christ just as we see the stars reflecting the light of the sun which represents Christ.

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.

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

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 7:10  And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Rev 7:11  And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 7:12  Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
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.
Rev 7:16  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
Rev 7:17  For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Dan 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

This verse is to let us know that Daniel, representing the prophets of the Old Testament, was not meant to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven. What these prophets spoke and saw were all for us, the elect, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

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

According to verse 4, the time of the end is characterized by an increase in knowledge. The time of the end started with the disciples of Jesus, and it was during their lives that knowledge of the kingdom of Heaven increased as they understood the kingdom’s mysteries. We, His elect, are following in the footsteps of all the Lord’s disciples ahead of us as our eyes are being opened and our ears are hearing!!

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

Mat 13:16  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.

Contrary to this exponential increase in the knowledge of the Lord, many shall not be given this privilege of knowing the mysteries of the kingdom of God. The statement in verse 4 of Daniel chapter 12, that many shall run to and fro, is referring to all humanity (except the elect) who will wander throughout the earth but shall not find the truth of the word of Christ.

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.

Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Dan 12:5  Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.

The two other persons Daniel saw who were standing on the opposite sides of the river’s bank are there to let us know that what Daniel saw is firmly established and shall surely come to pass in the life of every elect of every generation.

Gen 41:32  And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

The river here is the water of life or the word of Christ. The two standing on either side of the river shows us a principle that helps us understand the truth of the word of Christ. That is, by two or three witnesses every word is established. This implies that we do not stand on one account of the word of Christ to make a doctrine. We must at least have a second witness to establish a scriptural truth or doctrine.

Rev 22:1  And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Rev 22:2  In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

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

Dan 12:6  And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
Dan 12:7  And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

The man clothed in linen is Christ, and He is the one who is upon the waters of the river. The word “upon” used here can mean “a part of” or “from” or “out of” according to Strong’s Dictionary (H4482). What this means is that Christ is the word.

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The question was posed to our Lord Jesus Christ regarding the time that this time of trouble will end in our lives. In verse 7, our Lord provides us with the time frame regarding this time of trouble. He says that this time of trouble will last until the power of the holy people is destroyed. The holy people here refer to the elect, and the power of the holy people is the strength of the beast or the old man within us. The destruction of the old man is the end of this time of trouble, which is signified by a time, times and a half. What we need to understand is that symbolic times do not signify the date or duration of actual times, but rather that the period, whenever it may be and whatever it may be in actual years, is within the knowledge and authority of God to determine. Prophetic days, weeks, months, and years are not a code from which to calculate real time periods, but rather a symbol to stand in place of real time periods which are not for men to know in advance. This is what our Lord says about this matter:

Act 1:7  And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority.

The time, times and half certainly has meaning. The “time” represents a period of trouble in our lives. The “times” signifies the doubling of our trouble. In other words, our trouble is intensified or prolonged. The “half” means the cutting short of our tribulation. Our Lord Jesus told us that the period of tribulation will be cut short for the sake of us, the elect.

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.

Dan 12:8  And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
Dan 12:9  And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

As we indicated in verse 4, Daniel represents the prophets of the Old Testament who were not meant to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven. What they spoke and saw was all for us, the elect, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

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

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.

Dan 12:10  Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

The many here refers to the elect who, through the time of trouble will be purified as they learn righteousness. On the other hand, the wicked will continue to grow worse.

2Ti 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

The statement that the wicked shall not understand means that it is not given to people of the world and our brothers and sisters in Babylon to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. It is only the few, called and chosen, who are privileged to know these mysteries.

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Dan 12:11  And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Dan 12:12  Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

A symbolic period such as the 1,290 days or 1335 days as given in verses 11 and 12 indicates that this is a time or season “which the Father has fixed by his own authority” and it is not for us to know (Acts 1:7). The symbol certainly has meaning, nevertheless it is not a code for date setting. The number 1,290 gives us indication of the period in our lives that through our union with Christ (1 means unity), we come to witness the beast within, sitting in the temple of our hearts and mind (the number 2 stands for a witness) and are judged by  the Lord (9 is the number of God’s judgment) with the brightness of His coming.

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

The number of 1335 days also shows us the period of our lives that in union with Christ, we see the chastening grace of the Lord through faith as part of the process of our spiritual completion. Remember that the number 1 stands for union, the number 3 represents the process of spiritual completion through judgment and the number 5 means grace through faith. As verse 12 stated, it is indeed a blessing to go through this process of our spiritual completion through judgment as we come to understand the Lord’s grace through faith. This is what has happened to all the elect who had gone before us – they were perfected through suffering as they put their faith in Him who is able to keep them from falling and to preserve them faultless until that day!! For example, Paul came to realize that God’s grace is sufficient for him in spite of what he was going through!!

2Co 12:7  And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Dan 12:13  But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. 

The statement “But go thou thy way till the end be” is to remind us that Daniel, like the Old Testament prophets, was not meant to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven and that they were actually serving us on whom the ends of the world are coming.

1Pe 1:10  Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,
1Pe 1:11  inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
1Pe 1:12  It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

The statement “Thou shall rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days” is to let us know the fate of Daniel, who represents the Old Testament prophets, at the end of the days. According to the scriptures, this is the lot of Daniel at the end of the days:

Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

Heb 11:40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

It is through us that Daniel and all the Old Testament prophets shall be made perfect!! What a wonderful plan of the Lord for us, His elect!!

May the Lord who has started this good work in us, surely bring it to completion!! Amen!! This brings us to the end of the review of the Book of Daniel.

In our next study, we shall start reviewing the Book of Exodus!!

Jer 32:1-22  Houses and Fields and Vineyards Shall be Possessed Again in this Land.

[Study Aired February 27, 2022]

Jer 32:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.
Jer 32:2  For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house.
Jer 32:3  For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;
Jer 32:4  And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes;
Jer 32:5  And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the LORD: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper.
Jer 32:6  And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 32:7  Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.
Jer 32:8  So Hanameel mine uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Jer 32:9  And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
Jer 32:10  And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.
Jer 32:11  So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open:
Jer 32:12  And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
Jer 32:13  And I charged Baruch before them, saying,
Jer 32:14  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
Jer 32:15  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
Jer 32:16  Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the LORD, saying,
Jer 32:17  Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
Jer 32:18  Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name,
Jer 32:19  Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
Jer 32:20  Which hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and hast made thee a name, as at this day;
Jer 32:21  And hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror;
Jer 32:22  And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

The Lord knows our frame because He is our framer and Maker. He knows that we are mere frail clay which requires encouragement to endure the trials He has written in our books. That is why all through this prophecy of Jeremiah He is constantly reminding us that even though His plan for us includes the process of being dragged to Him as a spiritual infant then falling away because of the trials of life, it also includes repenting of our apostate days in Babylonian captivity and being dragged back to Him and enduring to the end the many fiery trials of that process.

There is not one person anywhere in scripture who has not betrayed their Lord.

Psa 53:3  Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

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

From “the first man”, Adam, to the first resurrection, every single human being, including all the apostles and followers of Christ then and now, will all be made ashamed of the frailty of their own strength, and made to acknowledge that it is Christ who works in them, both to will and to do of His good pleasure, and that part of “His… pleasure” is for every man to first be made wicked before being purified with fire and being made righteous in Christ, Who is that ‘fire”.

1Co 15:43  It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
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.

Our hearts are just naturally hardened against the Lord and His ways because we are, by His design, “first… of the earth, earthy. We default to making idols of our own imaginations, and it is by the Lord’s design. Graven images and idols symbolize the false doctrines with their “strong delusion” which gives them their undeserved, lying credibility, which causes us to “believe a lie”:

2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

This is the extent of the pleasure we have in unrighteousness when we are in that phase of the process the Lord is working in us:

Isa 44:9  They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.
Isa 44:10  Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?
Isa 44:11  Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together.
Isa 44:12  The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint.
Isa 44:13  The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.

When we are under the Lord’s “strong delusion” we are our ‘own witness’. We reject the counsel of our leaders who have proven their dedication to the Lord and His Word, and we establish all of our lies by telling even more lies and establishing even more false doctrines. We work very hard “in the coals”, and we sacrifice our time and our energies to establish the delusions to which the Lord has given us.

Doing “many wonderful works in [the Lord’s name] and sacrificing our time and energies to be seen of men does not please the Lord at all. What does please Him is when we “tremble at His Word” and do the things He says for us to do:

Isa 66:1  Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
Isa 66:3  He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
Isa 66:4  I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.

When we “choose our own ways” and delight in our own false doctrines, all our sacrifices to the Lord become nothing short of blaspheming His name.

Rom 2:24  For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.

Christ is indeed “working all things after the counsel of His own will”, but it is His will to destroy our old man and his kingdom and all of his ways. Therefore, the Lord poses this question to us at that stage of our judgment:

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

The Lord always answers His own questions for us:

Psa 90:3  Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

That is the message the Lord gives us in this chapter of Jeremiah. It is a continuation of the very same message which permeates the prophecy of Isaiah:

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

To make this point, the Lord had Jeremiah purchase a field from his first cousin, Hanameel. It all happened just so He could demonstrate for us that after He puts us through the process of “making us to err from His ways, and hardening our hearts from His fear” then He will also proceed to drag us out of Babylon and back to Himself:

Jer 32:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.

Jerusalem withstood the siege of Babylon for a year and a half.  So “the tenth year of Zedekiah” is one year into and during the middle of the siege of Jerusalem:

Jer 39:1  In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
Jer 39:2  And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.

So the town of Anathoth was in the hand of the Babylonians at that time.

Jer 32:2  For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house.
Jer 32:3  For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

Recall that it was six years earlier, “in the fourth year… of the reign of Zedekiah”, that Hananiah the false prophet had gotten the ear of King Zedekiah with his false prophecy of a short time of captivity for the Lord’s people:

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:3  Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:

The spirit of Hananiah appeals to our flesh and tells us that Christ did everything for us, and we need not die daily or be crucified with Him. That is what King Zedekiah wanted to hear, and that is what he believed, preferring the smooth words of a lie over the Truth, as Jeremiah pointed out:

Jer 28:15  Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.

Jeremiah has been prophesying of Judah’s judgment since the days of King Josiah. He had accurately prophesied the fate of Josiah’s sons, Shallum, and Jehoiakim, and Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin. The prophecy of the yoke of Babylon had been given to Jeremiah six years earlier than the events of this 32^nd chapter “in the fourth year of Zedekiah”:

Jer 28:1  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
Jer 28:2  Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

At that time, six years before the events of this 32^nd chapter, the Lord had even told Jeremiah that Hananiah the false prophet would die for leading Judah to believe a lie:

Jer 28:12  Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 28:13  Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.
Jer 28:14  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
Jer 28:15  Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
Jer 28:16  Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.
Jer 28:17  So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

In this 32^nd chapter, six years after Hananiah’s failed prophecy and resulting death, Jeremiah is speaking the same truthful words. The lying prophecy of Hananiah were proven to be lies, but that lie was still ringing in the ears of King Zedekiah who still refused to listen to the words of the Lord from Jeremiah, the Lord’s proven prophet. Hananiah had prophesied that the Lord would break the yoke of Babylon and that Jehoiachin and all the vessels of the temple would be returned to Jerusalem within two years. Jeremiah had been told to tell Hananiah that he would die that same year, and that was exactly what happened. Jeremiah continued to remain faithful to the word of the Lord. The Lord had not only proven that Hananiah was a false prophet, but Hananiah’s death that same year proved that Jeremiah was a true prophet of God, and Zedekiah knew that Jeremiah’s prophecies were the words of God Himself. However, like King Saul many years earlier, Zedekiah feared the people more than he feared God or God’s prophet.

Nevertheless, Jeremiah, like all true prophets of God, remained faithful to and repeated the words of the Lord, and they definitely were not “smooth words”:

Jer 32:4  And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes;
Jer 32:5  And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the LORD: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper.

In this story Judah and Jerusalem, with their King Zedekiah, symbolize the great whore who has turned her back on her husband, Christ, and this unfaithful wife is fighting against wicked men who are the Lord’s own sword:

Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
Psa 17:14  From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure:  they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

Here is the Lord Himself telling us from His perspective who the great whore is:

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Isa 1:5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Isa 1:6  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Isa 1:7  Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

It is the Lord’s own apostate people who are the great whore of scripture, and those are the Lord’s own words He uses to describe His apostate, unfaithful wife:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isa 1:22  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:

Rev 18:24  And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

In actual practice, it is Judah and Jerusalem and their King Zedekiah who are “Babylon the great… harlot”, and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is the secular king who is called ‘the beast’ who will “burn her with fire”, which is exactly what Nebuchadnezzar actually did:

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 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

There is a sense in which the beast within each of us will “burn her with fire”. As we come to see the Truth, that Truth becomes ‘fire’ in the mouths of the Lord’s true 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.

Being burned up with fire is very painful indeed, but it is the best thing that will ever happen to us because it is what the Lord requires to turn the curse of our naturally self-righteous, rebellious, “earthen” flesh into a temporary tabernacle of compliant clay as a home for the throne of our Lord:

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Our study today assures and encourages us of the certainty of that promised outcome simply because it is “of God and not of us”:

Jer 32:6  And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 32:7  Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.
Jer 32:8  So Hanameel mine uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Jer 32:9  And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
Jer 32:10  And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.
Jer 32:11  So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open:
Jer 32:12  And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
Jer 32:13  And I charged Baruch before them, saying,
Jer 32:14  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
Jer 32:15  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.

Here is the spiritual significance of this entire transaction “in demonstration of the spirit and of power” (1Co 2:4):

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance [“evidence of the purchase” (Jer 32:14)] until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Anathoth was in the hands of the Babylonians at the time of this transaction, but Jeremiah had faith it would not always be so.

Jer 32:16  Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the LORD, saying,
Jer 32:17  Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
Jer 32:18  Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name,
Jer 32:19  Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
Jer 32:20  Which hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and hast made thee a name, as at this day;
Jer 32:21  And hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror;
Jer 32:22  And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; [“The purchased possession… the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:14)]

The name ‘Hanameel’ means “God is gracious”, and the Lord certainly is gracious to His elect, typified here by Jeremiah who, like Jacob, is buying his cousin’s birthright, who in type is being sacrificed for Jeremiah and for our sakes. His “uncle’s son” is his own flesh and his own family who we all must be willing to forsake for Christ’s sake:

Mat 10:34  Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36  And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

The name ‘Ishmael’ means “God will hear”, and the Lord does indeed hear the prayers of His elect when they cry out to Him for His deliverance from their iniquities and sins. Like the name ‘Hanameel’, it has a positive meaning even though both are attached to the symbols of our own dying flesh.

In conclusion:

There are three messages being revealed in this story of Jeremiah redeeming the field of his “uncle’s son”, his ‘first cousin’ as we would express this relationship in modern terms. The first message in this story is that Jeremiah tried the spirits to see if they were of God:

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.

Jeremiah applied this principle just as we must:

Jer 32:6  And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 32:7  Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.
Jer 32:8  So Hanameel mine uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

How did the Lord normally speak to His prophets? Let’s let Him answer that question:

Num 12:6  And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.

Hanameel appearing and asking Jeremiah to buy his field was a ‘second witness’. It was the Lord confirming to Jeremiah that what he had heard “was [indeed] the word of the Lord”.

The second and most encouraging message for us is that the purchase of Hanameel’s field assures us, in type, that after the Lord “makes us to err from His ways, and hardens our hearts from his fear”, He will then “return… the tribes of His inheritance”, meaning He will raise up His elect first and give to them “the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:14):

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 32:21  And hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror;
Jer 32:22  And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance [“evidence of the purchase” (Jer 32:14)] until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The third and more sobering message in this story is that the Lord is sacrificing “[our] own household” for our sakes. That is the meaning of Jeremiah’s “uncle’s son”, his first cousin, selling his field, his own birthright, his inheritance, to Jeremiah for very little, just as Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of pottage:

“…even seventeen shekels of silver; which, reckoning a shekel at half a crown, were no more than two pounds, two shillings, and sixpence; a small sum of money to make a purchase of a field with;” (End Quote, John Gill Commentary)

We are not told why he felt that he needed to sell his inheritance. We are simply informed that he was brought to the point he felt that he had to do so. This “tenth year” is at the mid-point of the siege of Jerusalem so it isn’t something Jeremiah particularly needed. What it is though is a symbol of the certainty of our deliverance out of Babylonian captivity.

Jer 32:6  And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 32:7  Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.
Jer 32:8  So Hanameel mine uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

It may seem strange to us today, but this was the law in ancient Israel:

Num 36:9  Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.

The command to raise up seed to a dead brother by marrying your brother’s widow had been a law since the days of the patriarchs, and long before Moses, as the story of Judah and Tamar demonstrates:

Gen 38:6  And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.
Gen 38:7  And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.
Gen 38:8  And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
Gen 38:9  And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.

In the book of Ruth, the kinsmen redeemer of Elimelech’s widow, Naomi, did not want to marry Ruth and raise up seed to Ruth’s dead husband, Mahlon, the son of Elimelech. The reason he gave was “Lest I mar my own inheritance”. Boaz, as a type of Christ, was more than willing to do so:

Rth 4:1  Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.
Rth 4:2  And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, Sit ye down here. And they sat down.
Rth 4:3  And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s:
Rth 4:4  And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.
Rth 4:5  Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
Rth 4:6  And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.
Rth 4:7  Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour: and this was a testimony in Israel.
Rth 4:8  Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe.

By contrast, Boaz had no problem at all with raising up seed to his brother, Elimelech:

Rth 4:9  And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, of the hand of Naomi.
Rth 4:10  Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.

The mindset and spirit of Boaz in this matter typifies the selfless mind of Christ who is our ‘kinsman… redeemer’. He has purchased for us a possession in His kingdom where we will sit with Him on His throne and rule the kingdoms of this world, and He has given us the evidence of “the redemption of the purchased possession”:

Jer 32:14  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
Jer 32:15  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.

In buying his cousin’s field amid being besieged by Babylon, Jeremiah is typically purchasing salvation for the Lord’s elect who are also besieged by spiritual Babylon. The fact that this evidence is both sealed and open signifies how our own inheritance is sealed until the Lord opens our eyes to see and our ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of our inheritance:

Dan 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

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.

“Shut up the words” is in the Qal stem, and “seal the book” is also in the Qal stem. Both are always in the process of being fulfilled. “Are written” and “are come” are both in the Greek aorist tense and are a process that is always taking place. See what is also now taking place within those who are “in Christ”:

Rev 22:10  And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

“Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book” is in the Greek aorist tense, and the phrase “for the time is at hand” is in the Greek present tense. What this tells us is that the mysteries of the kingdom of God were simply not being revealed before the days of Christ on this earth, and since that time those mysteries are being unsealed and revealed to all to whom the Lord is revealing Himself:

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Here in Ephesians 1 is the spiritual significance of this entire story:

Eph 1:11  In whom also [Christ, our ‘kinsmen redeemer’] we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed [ín an earthen vessel” (Jer 32:14)] with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The name ‘Hanameel’ means “God is gracious”, and the Lord certainly is gracious to His elect, typified here by Jeremiah who, like Jacob with Esau, is buying his cousin’s birthright, who in type is being sacrificed for Jeremiah and for our sakes because spiritual Israel is a special people to whom it is given to be the first to trust in Him to the praise of His glory:

Deu 7:6  For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

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

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

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

That concludes our study, and these are the verses for our next study:

Jer 32:23  They entered and took possession of it. However, they refused to obey you or to follow your teachings. They didn’t do anything you commanded them to do, so you brought all this disaster on them.
Jer 32:24  “‘See how the dirt ramps have been built up around the city to capture it! Because of wars, famines, and plagues, the city will be handed over to the Babylonians who are attacking it. What you have threatened to do has happened, as you can see.
Jer 32:25  Yet you, Almighty LORD, told me to buy a field with money and get witnesses to confirm it, although the city was handed over to the Babylonians.'”
Jer 32:26  The LORD spoke his word to Jeremiah. He said,
Jer 32:27  “I am the LORD God of all humanity. Nothing is too hard for me.
Jer 32:28  This is what the LORD says: I’m going to hand this city over to the Babylonians and King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. They will capture it.
Jer 32:29  “The Babylonians who are attacking this city will break in, set this city on fire, and burn it down. They will burn down the houses of people who made me furious by going up to the roofs to burn incense to Baal and to pour out wine offerings to other gods.
Jer 32:30  Ever since they were young, the people of Israel and Judah have done what I consider evil. The people of Israel have made me furious by what they’ve done,” declares the LORD.
Jer 32:31  “The people in this city have made me so angry and furious from the day they built it to this day. So now I must remove this city from my presence.
Jer 32:32  “The people of Israel and Judah have made me furious because they are evil. The people, their kings and officials, their priests and prophets, and the Judeans and those who live in Jerusalem
Jer 32:33  have turned their backs, not their faces to me. I taught them again and again, but they refused to listen and learn.
Jer 32:34  They set up their detestable idols in the temple that is called by my name, and they dishonored it.
Jer 32:36  “You have said this about the city, ‘Because of wars, famines, and plagues it will be handed over to the king of Babylon.’ Now this is what the LORD God of Israel says:
Jer 32:37  I am going to gather the people from all the lands where I scattered them in my anger, fury, and terrifying wrath. I will bring them back to this place and make them live here securely.
Jer 32:38  They will be my people, and I will be their God.
Jer 32:39  I will give them the same attitude and the same purpose so that they will fear me as long as they live. This will be for their own good and for the good of their children.
Jer 32:40  I will make an eternal promise to them that I will never stop blessing them. I will make them fear me so that they will never turn away from me.
Jer 32:41  I will enjoy blessing them. With all my heart and soul I will faithfully plant them in this land.
Jer 32:42  “This is what the LORD says: As I brought all these disasters on these people, so I will bring on them all these blessings that I have promised them.
Jer 32:43  You have said that this land is a wasteland, without people or animals living in it. You have also said that it has been handed over to the Babylonians. But people will once again buy fields in this land.
Jer 32:44  They will buy fields for money, sign deeds, seal them, and have people witness the signing of the deeds. This will happen in the territory of Benjamin, in the region of Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities on the mountains, in the hill country, and in the Negev because I will bring them back from their captivity,” declares the LORD.