Rev 22:1-5 The Throne of God and the Lamb Shall be in It

[Study Aired August 3, 2025]

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.
Rev 22:3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
Rev 22:4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
Rev 22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Introduction

Who is this “River of Life?” Who is this “Tree of Life?” When do we “see the face of God?” We will see in our study today that this River of Life is Christ within you and me at this very moment, if indeed Christ is in us.  We will also learn that if we “see Christ” and “know Christ”, then we see and know His Father. There are no chapter breaks in the original Greek. Therefore this last chapter is simply a continuation of John, signifying each of us, being shown “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”

Rev 21:9  And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

Since chapter 22 is a continuation of  John being shown “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, that means the River of Life and the Tree of life are both in this city, which is “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”

In our last study we saw that it is through this “foursquare” city with her twelve gates, and with the number twelve stamped all over it, that the dead of all time will, “in their own order” through this great city the holy Jerusalem, “be saved and come to a knowledge of The Truth.” This city, the bride, the Lamb’s wife, is the foundation and “the mother of all living” being signified by Eve and Sarah:

Gen 3:20  And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Heb 11:11  Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Heb 11:12  Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

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

Here are the Old Testament verses which proclaims that very same Truth:

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

Isa 60:11 Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.

We have been shown that “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” is “on a great high mountain”; she has a wall great and high, she has the glory of God, she is like a stone most precious, she is “clear as a crystal.” She has twelve gates and twelve foundations. This city, the Lamb’s wife, lies foursquare, and her length is as large as the breadth, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. Her wall is like jasper, clear as glass, her twelve foundations are garnished with all manner of precious stones. Her twelve gates are of twelve pearls, each gate one pearl. She has no temple, no sun nor moon, because God and the Lamb are all of these things within her. The nations of the saved bring their glory into her through her twelve gates. Her twelve gates are never closed by day, and there is no night there. The glory and honor of the nations is brought into “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Nothing that defiles, works an abomination or makes a lie, enters into her; only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

That is why the world hates this woman so much that it wants her dead. She is “pure and clear”… without guile, and she refuses to compromise that purity just to please family and friends and to fit in with society. Here in this final 22nd chapter we learn more about what our Lord thinks of those to whom He has espoused Himself, and it is only Him that we are interested in pleasing.

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.

Being “pure and clear as crystal” is of great importance to our Husband, Christ. He and His Father dwell within us, and because they do, out of His throne and the throne of His Father within us proceeds “a pure river of water life, clear as crystal.”

Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

The timing of this statement by Christ is of great significance. It was “in the last day, the great day of the feast.” This day is also called “the eighth day.”

This river “proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Where is this throne of God? Who makes up this throne? From whom does this “river of water of life” proceed?

Christ has already made clear where His throne is and who is with Him in His Father’s throne.

Mat 5:34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:

Mat 19:28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Mat 23:22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

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 4:6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

“Heaven… is God’s throne… He that swears by heaven swears by the throne of God”, and these four beasts are “in the midst of the throne and round about this throne.” Who are these “four beasts?” As we saw in our study of chapter five, they, too, are just another type of this city. They are just one more symbol of God’s overcoming elect, the Lamb’s wife, and that is what they tell us.

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

God’s throne is in heaven (Mat 5:34). His throne is in this ‘city’, which we are told is the Lamb’s wife. Therefore the Lamb’s wife is ‘heaven’, and that is exactly what Hebrews 9 confirms to us:

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

As always the principle of “the dream is one” is in play throughout this Revelation of Jesus Christ, within us.

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

It is Christ Himself who revealed to us from whom this river of living water proceeds and flows.

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

Since this river of living water flows from the belly of those who believe on Christ, it is therefore not at all adding to what is written to conclude that God’s throne is this city itself. God’s throne is the Lamb’s wife herself. God’s throne has the four beasts in its midst. God’s throne is you and me who have been ‘espoused to Christ, as the Lamb’s wife.’

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

Being the instrument of God through which this “river of water of life” flows, is simply part of being the channel through which life will be given to every man, woman and child who has ever lived. Being the “four beasts in the midst of and round about the throne” from which this “river of water of life” flows is just one more accolade Christ places upon His bride, His wife.

As this city which is Christ’s wife, Christ wants to honor us even more.

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.

Where does God reveal to us this tree of life originated?

Gen 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

We are God’s “house… His temple… His vineyard… His field…” and we are His “garden, His paradise.” They all begin in the earth, or “out of the ground… the tree of life also.” That is why Christ had to “empty Himself” and become a man in a vessel of clay, “out of the ground”, who could identify with and atone for the sins of all men.

Php 2:7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
Php 2:8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Php 2:9 Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; (ASV)

Mat 8:17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.

How do we to get to this “tree of life?”

Gen 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

“The way” of this Tree of Life is only through these Cherubim, and a flaming sword. That sword is of course, the Word of God, and these Cherubim are those in whom that Word dwells. Here is another way of saying all of this:

Col 1:26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
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:

If “Christ is in us”, then we are His sword:

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

If Christ is in us, the “rivers of living waters” flow from our bellies:

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

If Christ is in us, we are these Cherubim who hold the flaming sword which guards the way of the tree of life. If Christ is in us, we are these same Cherubim in the midst of and round about the throne of God. We are the twelve gates to this city. We are the twelve foundations of this city, garnished with many precious stones. We are the pure gold and the pure jasper, out of which the city is composed. We are this city itself.

We are told this ‘tree of life’ is in the midst of the street of this city, and on either side of the river of life.

Rev 22:2  in the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Where else are we told we will find this “tree of life?” Here is where the tree of life is to be found:

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

Rev 22:2 In the midst of the street of it [the New Jerusalem], 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.

Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Here we have it. Here are three verses which tell us where the tree of life is to be found. Revelation 2:7 tells us that the tree of life is “in the midst of the paradise of God” and Revelation 22: 2 and 4 tell us that the tree of life is in the midst of the street of the New Jerusalem and on either side of the river of life which proceeds out of the throne of God in the New Jerusalem. Revelation 22:14 tells us that the tree of life is within the gates of the New Jerusalem.

Rev 22:14  Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.

It should thus be obvious that “the paradise of God” is the third heaven and the New Jerusalem.

Now that we know where the tree of life is located, let’s see who is given to enter therein:

Luk 23:43 And Jesus said unto him [the thief on the cross], Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Here is what Paul tells us about this “paradise”, also called New Jerusalem (Rev 2:7; 22:2, 22:14), where we are told the tree of life is located:

2Co 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
2Co 12:3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
2Co 12:4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Paul is speaking of himself in the third person because he is dealing with the subject of his glorying in his revelations. Here is what he says in verse one:

2Co 12:1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

This is what he says in verse five:

2Co 12:5 Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.
2Co 12:6 For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
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.

Paul is speaking of himself boasting only in the spirit of Christ within him, instead of boasting in his own carnal mind and in his flesh. It was “in the spirit” that he was caught up to this New Jerusalem where “the tree of life is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

Of course Revelation 2:7 tells us that only overcomers are given to enter into this “paradise of God.”

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

So it should be apparent that in scriptural terms “the paradise of God” is “Jerusalem above which is the mother of us all.”

Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Our mother, like our Savior, signifies who we are in relation to those who will come to God through us when we become part of that city. Here is how Paul frames this concept:

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

Obadiah has prophesied of this relationship many years earlier:

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.

Rev 22:3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

“The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it” because she is “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” The honor bestowed on those who first make up this city, which is “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, is the single greatest honor that can be bestowed on any man. Here is what Christ tells us of those who are this city:

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.

It is those who have been through the fire of the Word of God in this age who will be in that “blessed and holy first resurrection”, who will also be the channel for showing God’s goodness and mercy to all the rest of mankind who are not part of that “blessed and holy first resurrection.” While it does not say so in Revelation 20:6, these are the same people who will be comfortably at home “in the everlasting burnings” of the lake of fire, which will cleanse and purify all the rest of mankind who are not part of that blessed and holy first resurrection. It was given to Isaiah to let us know where we would be at that time:

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

If “the throne of God and of the Lamb” is in us, then surely “there shall be no more curse… in it.” Those who “go no more out” are those who will be used by God to bring all men into this “paradise of God”; this “mother of all living, [and] the mother of us all.”

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

As we saw above, “God and the Lamb are the temple of it.” Because they dwell within us, we need no outward temple. We “know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.” That is the very meaning of having the name of our God written upon us.

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

Rev 22:4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

“They shall see His face.” The spiritual meaning of all of this is explained clearly in these words of our Lord to His apostles Thomas and Philip.

Joh 14:2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Joh 14:4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Joh 14:5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
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?

”Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know” was certainly speaking of things that are not as though they were already accomplished. The disciples, at this moment, were just hours away from denying their Lord and forsaking Him and leaving Him to His fate upon the cross. Yet the Lord knew they would repent of that deed and become willing martyrs.

Rom 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

“My Father’s house” is this holy New Jerusalem:

Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

It is in this “bride adorned for her Husband” that the “many mansions” are found.

Rev 22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

We have already seen why “there shall be no night there.”

Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Here is the Concordant Literal Version of these words “for ever and ever.”

Rev 22:5 And night shall be no more, and they have no need of lamplight and sunlight, for the Lord God shall be illuminating them. And they shall be reigning for the eons of the eons. (CLV)

This is Young’s Literal Translation:

Rev 22:5 and night shall not be there, and they have no need of a lamp and light of a sun, because the Lord God doth give them light, and they shall reign– to the ages of the ages.

Because both ‘ages’ are plural, this tells us that all the ages of all men of all time are included in this time of the reign of God’s elect. In other words, “the righteous… will dwell in the everlasting burnings and the devouring flames” of God’s Words in their mouths, and as His elect their time of reigning will extend through the millennium and on into the ages of the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death. We are this city which is the bride, the Lamb’s wife, by which all those who are not in that blessed and holy first resurrection, will be brought to God.

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

This is the harvest at “the end” spoken of in 1Corinthians 15:

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.
1Co 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1Co 15:27 For he [the Father] hath put all things under his [Christ’s] feet. But when he [the Father] saith all things are put under him [Christ], it is manifest that he [the Father] is excepted, which did put all things under him [Christ].
1Co 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him [Christ], then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

“Then comes the end” means “the harvest at the end of the year.”

Exo 23:16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
Exo 34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest [Pentecost in the summer], and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end [the feast of Tabernacles, (Lev 23)].

As long as one soul who has ever been born is still dead, then death is not yet destroyed. Death will be destroyed through this thing called “the second death… the lake of fire” which will bring all in Adam to be made alive in Christ (1Co 15:22).

So we have seen in our study today that this river of life should be flowing out from within you and me at this very moment, if Christ is in us. We have seen that the tree of life is within you and me today, if Christ is in us today. We read where Christ told us that if we “see Christ” and “know Christ”, then we have already seen and already know Him and His Father, here today, spiritually while yet in these “vessels of clay.”

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.

Next week, Lord willing we will cover these verses:

Rev 22:6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Rev 22:8 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.
Rev 22:10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

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The Book of Hosea – Part 4, Hos 4:1-19

[Study Aired May 4, 2024]

Since the sole theme of this study in Hosea, Chapter 4, is our Lord’s direct accusation of His wife, Israel, for her adulterous ways, we won’t repeat the verses as is sometimes customary; rather, we will launch right into them individually.

The Lord Accuses Israel

Hos 4:1-19  Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

Even a Babylonian babe unwittingly worshiping ‘another Jesus’ (2Co 11:4) can easily see the historical account of Old Israel’s sequence of see-sawing obedience, then prostituting disdain for the Commandments of God, severe chastisement and Gomer-like impenetrable heart’s return to her Husband only to do it all over repeatedly. Of course, today, the Lord’s faithful wife looks back upon those historical accounts, knowing fully well that they represent her disappearing spiritual prostitution. Her most humbling knowledge is that all these things, from Genesis to Revelation, are mostly all for her sake. She takes no glory in her figurative 1,000 sisters in Babylon (symbolised by Solomon’s 1,000 wives [1Ki 11:1-6]) and their unwitting spiritual suffering, inclusive of their increasingly horrendous physical suffering. She, the heavenly mother (Jerusalem) of us all, and like any mother in more ethical and moral times past, anguishes over her children’s contempt for their father’s instructions and headship. Subsequently, the lack of truth, mercy and knowledge will make them the basest of men, silly doves (Hos 7:11) taken in their own craftiness. The Lord has a “controversy” with the incipient Bride of Christ and is now showing her that in past times, she didn’t reside in truth, mercy or knowledge. He is revealing to her her skirts above her loins, her nakedness to be covered by His word. All things, both good and evil are hers for her increasingly enthusiastic knowledge and understanding.

1Co 3:18  Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 
1Co 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 
1Co 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 
1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ [and His Christs] is God’s. 

Hos 4:2  By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. 

No greater original “swearing” was there than Old Israel, our Lord’s espoused first wife solemnly agreeing to her marriage vows.

Exo 24:7  And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.
Exo 24:8  And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words. 

Hos 2:19  And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 
Hos 2:20  I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD. 

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

2Co 11:1  I would that you were bearing with me a little in foolishness; but indeed bear with me. 
2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one Man, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

Next, after swearing allegiance to her unwitting inability to keep the espousal agreement, she is full of God-given scheming deceptions (lies) irksomely endemic to her gender. Solomon termed them “inventions”, which are devices of deceit to control her relationship with her husband.

Ecc 7:27  Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:
Ecc 7:28  Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found. 
Ecc 7:29  Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

In the same breath as swearing, stealing, lying, and adultery are “killing” and resultant “blood touching blood”, and the act of killing, symbolising the entire bloody affair.

Blood spiritually is Christ’s word, His very body! Blood, the physical essence of life, prefigures death to the Old Man and life to the New Man. If blood is spilt spiritually, it means the death of the truth or lies. Since the Elect metaphorically kill another person with the fiery sword of God’s word, that action results from them having killed us for our rejection of God’s word, just as we killed Christ physically and spiritually – it all is figuratively spilling blood.

Pro 1:16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

Isa 59:7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. 

Joe 2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 
Joe 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood [Her zealous killing of God’s word] of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Christ’s blood is His spirit, His word that is the truth. When we speak God’s word untruthfully, we kill Christ all over again; we spill His blood or others’ blood by our heresies. In doing so, we steal our Lord’s gold and silver and make them into idols of our own which we diligently serve and thus commit adultery.

Mat 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 
Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Blood must be spilled when sin is found. We must die daily, and we figuratively are killed and our blood spilled. Sin requires death and spilled blood, first, physically in the Old Covenant and then, spiritually in the New. 

Luk 11:50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; [no individual generation, but the generation of whoever reads that verse].
Luk 11:51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation [The incipient Bride of Christ]. 
Luk 11:52 Woe unto you, lawyers! [False Christs; preachers] for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

Hos 4:3  Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. 

Solomon’s 1,000 wives, including Leah, Jacob’s ‘hated wife’, all languish in bewilderment because their husbands do not desire them. Why? because they all want to eat and drink their own bread of self-righteousness and symbolise all the rest of mankind, “the beasts of the field,” giving up since God’s word is given to be too hard to understand. They throw up their arms in Babylonish confusion to blithely gorge themselves in her delights. The result is that they all are “taken away” and seen prefigured by Israel’s exile into Babylon.

Just as mankind was taken away in Noah’s flood, so, too, is every man into Babylon; so, too, are all left after the First Resurrection into the rule with the rod of iron in preparation for the final casting into the Lake of Fire of God’s word.

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our [fleshy] likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul [flesh in God’s image in the process of being made spirit]; 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 [because God is in the process of creating God in man and He begins first with the natural, the flesh to become a new creature of spirit, as He is].

Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Hos 4:4  Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. 

Since all things were preordained before creation, our Lord, by whom all things are created, designed man’s every thought, word, and action by His own will. No man other than the Elect of God, who knows their Lord’s judgments, is able to righteously reprove another man. The churches of the world, all 40,000 + splintered sects, thus strive contentiously with each other, “the priests”. Unknowingly, they are striving with the Priest and His Priests, that is, Christ and His Christs.

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

2Co 10:7 Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.

Mat 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Hos 4:5  Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

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 [We, the embryonic Bride of Christ] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 

The Lord’s Bride first falls by the brilliant light of Christ’s fiery word in the day, and upon going to bed, sleep flees her where her sins in revealing thought, cast as dreams in the night, devastatingly destroy her faith in Babylon, her mother. She sees herself as having been deceived by the harlot churches of Babylon with their magic arts.

2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
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 [figuratively an innumerable 200,000,000 of them (Rev 9:16)]: 
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Hos 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

A Biblical quintessential notable forgetting God’s law is Israel’s rejection of Samuel’s representation as their King and Priest who shockingly can represent the Lord’s few chosen to forfeit their inheritance, Christ’s wedding feast. Our Lord’s deliberate design of Israel, representing us in our time, is awfully humiliating to Him for us effectively returning to Babylon to have some Christian priest, a worker of magic arts to rule over us.

1Sa 8:4  Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,
1Sa 8:5  And said unto him, Behold, thou art old [we are sick of Christ’s boring doctrines], and thy sons [Babylonian Christianity] walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
1Sa 8:6  But the thing displeased Samuel [God], when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. 
1Sa 8:7  And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people [and give them the idol of their hearts] in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. 
1Sa 8:8  According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. 
1Sa 8:9  Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them [speak sternly, resolutely with authority], and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. 
1Sa 8:10  And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. 
1Sa 8:11a  And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:…

Here lies precisely what the world is experiencing today: a peaking crescendo of violence of every man’s hand against his neighbor and wars and rumors of wars in response to the ‘kings’ of government we chose with our lovely Democratic Capitalist Bolshevism (Marxists) ruling over us. Samuel goes on to prophesy exactly what will happen.

1Sa 8:11b … He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots [your young men will go to endless wars]. 
1Sa 8:12  And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest [Lord it over other nations], and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
1Sa 8:13  And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries [Ointment-makers, perfumers = haughty harlots with mincing steps; churches deluding the world], and to be cooks [guardsmen of church doctrine], and to be bakers [cooking up doctrinal lies].
1Sa 8:14  And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants [outwardly, the West is being overrun by immigrant’ servants’ whose moral foundations serve other gods and strange doctrines and intermarry those doctrines with Oholibah’s churches]. 
1Sa 8:15  And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 
1Sa 8:16  And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work [Slavery on all fronts!].
1Sa 8:17  He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 
1Sa 8:18  And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.

That account of us wanting our chosen ‘king’ to rule over us is superlative of the current world’s government’s slavery of its citizens. Yet, we know that it all is speaking a precise mirror of ourselves, spiritually. It all revolves back to Hosea 4:5 “Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet [Samuel and the Elect, and the Elect now inwardly] also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother [the Great Whore within and without] 

Hos 4:7  As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. 
Hos 4:8  They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. 
Hos 4:9  And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings. 

If we have unity in a righteous or unrighteous ideology, a church doctrine, the people are in harmony with their priest, just as the Bride is in righteous harmony with her Lord.

Joh 17:16  They [the Bride of Christ] are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 
Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 
Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 
Joh 17:19  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 
Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 
Joh 17:21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 
Joh 17:22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
Joh 17:23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 

Beginning in the one-thousand year rule with the rod of iron, the world will fearfully begin to know that these people ruling over them have a very different spirit from them. An unwavering unity of spirit is forced upon them, thus causing them to grudgingly inconsistently keep Christ’s commands yet without eyes and ears in the same joyful unified spirit.

Psa 2:8  Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 
Psa 2:9  Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. 

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

In the one-thousand year reign, those alive will eat of the Lord’s word and not be filled with understanding, thus not being unified with the spirit of Christ and His Christs. They thus remain unfaithful to His word and remain harlots. Eating and drinking His word will not satiate a hunger that doesn’t exist as they eat their own bread and drink their own water, believing that they were fair virgins, not knowing their harlotry. Of course, the Lord’s Elect know that all these things refer first to her in this age who are given to thirst for Him. 

Amo 8:13  In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. 
Amo 8:14  They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

Hos 4:10  For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.
Hos 4:11  Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

New wine takes away the heart since those without eyes that see and ears that don’t hear do not understand the New Covenant spiritually. Subsequently, they remain jubilant in unwitting whoredoms of false doctrines and another Jesus and don’t increase the fruits of Christ’s commands.

Hos 4:12  My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. 
Hos 4:13  They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery. 
Hos 4:14  I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall. 

Daughters committing whoredoms are lecherous acts deemed too insignificant (depicted as a babe learning truth – a “daughter”), correlating to Israel’s thinking that God wouldn’t be concerned with trifling sins. More damnable are they when committed by her parents. A complementary view of a daughter engaging in whoredoms reflects a juvenile understanding of doctrine by the daughter or her parents.

Verse 14 is a subtle spiritual reference to the one-thousand year reign with the rod of iron since people are punished, yet no change of spirit is given; they thus remain unjust and filthy. For those chosen to have their eyes and ears opened in this age, they are stripped naked of their filthy clothes and given by their Husband the clean white linen of the Saints.

Rev 22:11  He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

Our loving Father chastises every son whom He loves. Upon our suckling stages of learning to walk in Christ’s commands by His faith and strength, we, just like young children, view those relatively light chastisements as deeply hurtful. Subsequent to our adult equivalence of pouting, kicking and screaming, we learn to receive those disciplines joyously since we immutably know that our acknowledgment of sin is quickly followed by a bountiful increase in spiritual growth! As seen previously in Hosea 5:8, They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.

Eating up the sin of my people are people with an appetite for gluttony. To boot, their impenitent hearts are so seared that their sins become an idol of their heart. When Ancient Israel did that to her fullness, she represented us formally in our journey, insisting on keeping pet iniquities.

An incredibly insidious problem will emerge that is likely to land a backsliding Saint in the Lake of Fire because of the spirit of whoredoms, as seen in Hosea 4:12 above! When our Lord blesses us with a figurative 40 years of chastisement, and we become a “backsliding heifer”, it reflects our utter refusal to change, and we will unwittingly find ourselves on the knife edge, maybe seeing too late that we didn’t have a wedding gown of His righteousness; OR, if we are preordained since before the Creation to be an Elect, we will suffer chastisement far more intensely until we do acknowledge our iniquity. Regardless, the statement, “he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still,” portrays the Master Potter creating His vessel in each of us to His precise dimensions at His will to be either filthy, righteous or holy as He pleases in a particular age for His purpose.

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. 
Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: 

Ecc 11:3  If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. 

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

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 

Yet, continuing in this age, ancient Israel’s harlot ways are as a figurative revolving wheel (Gilgal H1537) brightly spiritually mirroring in the Middle East today, their preordained returning to vomit for us to remember to not be ‘filthy still.’ Thus, we, as Judah representing the Priests of God, decreasingly re-offend on our fiery course in becoming His ‘Christs.’ Being given our Lord’s faith, we utterly rely on His strength to not reoffend.

Hos 4:15  Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal [H1537 Definition: Gilgal = a wheel, rolling 1. the first site of an Israelite camp west of the Jordan, east of Jericho], neither go ye up to Bethaven [Beth-aven = house of vanity], nor swear, The LORD liveth.
Hos 4:16  For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place. 

Israel being fed “as a lamb in a large place” depicts the Lake of Fire for predestined humanity, which is a very “large place” that will contain all of mankind since Adam, as numerous as the sand of the seashore or stars of the heavens.

As seen in Part 3 of Hosea, the Jews today who say that they are Jews and have never been given to go forward spiritually to thus “backslide.” That truth is soon possibly reenacted by the sacrifice of their probable ‘red heifer’ for the dedication of their physical temple on Solomon’s original temple mount site in Jerusalem. It will be exciting to see what the Lord has to transpire. Maybe a rebuilding and then destruction. Regardless, it will be destroyed, as will all edifices of Christian worship in the one thousand years.

Lev 26:30  And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. 
Lev 26:31  And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. 
Lev 26:32  And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
Lev 26:33  And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 

Eze 6:13  Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols. 
Eze 6:14  So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

For the time being, it is not given to those not dragged to understand.

Hos 4:17  Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.

Ephraim represents the entirety of Israel, the world of humanity left alone to continue in their sins and remain filthy. It is just that we need to thoroughly fast within to see ourselves spiritually in ALL of these outward examples.

Hos 4:18  Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.
Hos 4:19  The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. 

The spirit of God, the wind, has, for the time being, made ancient Israel faint, as we were within, earthbound, unable to be lifted up on eagle wings and thus made ashamed because of whoredoms and sacrificing haughtily to our Queen Vashti-like idolised selves [2Th 2:1-4].

Isa 40:30  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 
Isa 40:31  But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Ezekiel 15:1-8 and 16:1-20  The Lord’s Useless and Faithless Bride

[Study Aired April 29, 2024]

Introduction

Chapter 15 and 16 of Ezekiel show us Jerusalem as a useless vine and a faithless bride of Christ. Until we are given eyes to see and ears to hear, we are not able to understand that this Jerusalem, referring to the physical churches of this world, of which we were part until Christ came to deliver us, is not the chosen bride of Christ. It is in the spirit that we can understand our spiritual state while we were serving in the churches of this world, which is called Babylon.

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. 

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 

Our reaction when we come to see the depravity of the church system of this world and the fact that we were part of it, is that of wonder, just like what happened to Apostle John when he came to see what Babylon really is.

Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. 
Rev 17:7  And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 

Today, as we look at Jerusalem which is in bondage with her children, we shall come to see the Lord’s concerns about our lives in Babylon which caused Him to intervene in our circumstances. It is through the unbelief of our brothers and sisters in Babylon that the Lord has called and chosen us through His mercy. 

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

The Lord’s People Described as Wood of Vine Tree

Eze 15:1  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 
Eze 15:2  Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? 
Eze 15:3  Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? 
Eze 15:4  Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meet for any work?

In these verses, the Lord is asking whether the wood of a vine tree or its branch surpass any wood of the forest? In other words, wood from any tree is of no use for any work apart from it being used as fuel in a fire. We understand spiritual truth by the things that are made. When a tree is unable to receive its food supply from its roots, it dies and therefore becomes wood, which is used as fuel for burning. Therefore, wood represents the state in our walk with the Lord when we are spiritually dead as we are not able to understand the truth of the word of the Lord which is able to sustain us in Christ. This is affirmed by the following verses in Jeremiah:

Jer 5:11  For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD. 
Jer 5:12  They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: 
Jer 5:13  And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. 
Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. 

Here in these verses in Jeremiah, the people representing the house of Israel and Judah (the Lord’s people) have gone astray as they have done treacherously against the Lord. The reason they had gone astray, or become spiritually dead, was because they did not receive the truth of the word of the Lord but were deceived into thinking that the Lord will not judge them. As a result, the Lord’s people had become wood, and the Lord’s word is the fire that destroys the old man in these people. In this sense, wood represents our old man which serves as the fuel for our judgment. As the new man gains ascendancy within us, our old man (wood) continues to be destroyed through the fire of the word of the Lord.  

Pro 26:20  Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth. 
Pro 26:21  As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife. 

In the previous study on Ezekiel chapter 14, the people had done treacherously against the Lord by setting up idols of their heart, which is the stumbling block of iniquity, as they came to the Lord. These sins of the idols of the heart are like fuel that set us up for the Lord’s judgment. 

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. 
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

Eze 15:5  Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much less shall it be meet yet for any work, when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned? 
Eze 15:6  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 
Eze 15:7  And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them. 
Eze 15:8  And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD. 

As we can see here in these verses, the inhabitants of Jerusalem are the fuel for the fire that the Lord has lighted. In other words, judgment is upon the house of the Lord. In our spiritual poverty, we were of no use to the Lord, just as the wood of a vine tree cannot be used to do any work other than to be used as fuel for burning. We deserve the Lord’s judgment because we have sinned against the Lord as our old man or flesh has dominated us in our walk with the Lord. 

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? 
1Pe 4:19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

The Lord Wants us to Know our Sinful State

Eze 16:1  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 
Eze 16:2  Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, 

A prerequisite in developing an intimate relationship with our Lord is to come to know our sins or abominations. Coming to realize our sins is the beginning of our deliverance from sin. It is when we acknowledge our sins that we can be forgiven. The word of the Lord has a lot to say about us coming to acknowledge our sins.

Isa 58:1  Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. 
Isa 58:2  Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. 

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. 

If we do not understand what causes us to sin, we end up going back to sin even if our sins are forgiven. As we are aware, the flesh or the old man or the beast within us is a factory that produces sin in our lives. Unless our flesh or old man is dealt with, we shall continue sinning. Thus, in the subsequent verses, the Lord is showing us, His people, the root cause for our disloyalty to Him. 

Eze 16:3  And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.
Eze 16:4  And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. 
Eze 16:5  None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.   

In verse 3, the Lord saying that the inhabitants of Jerusalem could trace their lineage to the Amorite and the Hittite is to let us know that, as His elect (Jerusalem), we are not different from the people of the world in the sense that we are all made of the same flesh. Our navel not being cut and not being washed with water or salted or swaddled in verse 4 all affirms the fact that we were just like people of the world who are dominated by the flesh (navel not cut), not given to know the word of the Lord (washed with water), nor tried and tested (not salted), and did not know the love of the Lord (not swaddled). In verse 5, we are made to know more of our spiritual state at the beginning of our lives. Not being pitied by anyone as none showed compassion to us is another way of saying that we did not see the compassion of the Lord concerning us. As a result, we were like those cast out in the open field and hated by everybody. The open field represents the world, and therefore being cast in the open field means that we conform to the standards of this world.  

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 

The Work of the Lord in our Lives

Eze 16:6  And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. 
Eze 16:7  I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. 
Eze 16:8  Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.

The time that the Lord comes to visit us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness is called here in verse 8 as the time of love. That is the time that the Lord came and passed by us and saw us polluted by our own blood, as shown in verse 6. 

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:

Our own blood signifies our life in the flesh. Therefore being polluted by our own blood means being dominated by the flesh as we obey the desires of the flesh. It is in this deplorable state that the Lord came to us and announced to us that we shall live!! That means He will surely destroy the flesh so we can live victoriously in Him.

Lev 17:11  For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

In verse 7, the Lord has promised to multiply us as the bud of the field and that we shall increase and wax great. That is another way of saying that our new man will increase and grow stronger and stronger as our old man decreases. Coming into excellent ornaments means being given to know the truth of the word of the Lord. Our breasts being fashioned signifies that we are able to feed each other through the word of the Lord by what every joint supplies. Our hair growing also shows that we are submitting to the authority of Christ as we represent the bride of Christ whose head must be covered. 

Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. 

1Co 11:4  Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. 
1Co 11:5  But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
1Co 11:6  For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
1Co 11:7  For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. 

Our nakedness in verses 7 and 8 represents our sinful state when we are dominated by the flesh. As we can remember, when Adam and Eve sinned against the Lord, that was when they realized that they were naked and tried to cover their nakedness with their own man-made righteousness. Verse 8 shows us that when the Lord came to us at the time of love, we were found naked, and therefore He spread His skirt over us to cover our nakedness. That is to say that when the Lord came to us with His brightness, He covered our nakedness with His garment of righteousness. This covering of our nakedness is a process which involves the judgment of our old man, resulting in us learning righteousness.

Gen 3:6  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 
Gen 3:7  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Gen 3:8  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 
Gen 3:9  And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 
Gen 3:10  And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 
Gen 3:11  And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Eze 16:9  Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. 
Eze 16:10  I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. 

These verses recount what the Lord has taken us through to become His sons and daughters. In verse 9, washing us with water means being cleansed by the fire of the word of the Lord. As indicated earlier, blood symbolizes our lives of the flesh. Thus, washing away our blood means the destruction of the life of the old man in our lives. In the scriptures, oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. This implies that anointing us with oil signifies being given the Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth of the word of the Lord.

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.

In verse 10, being clothed with broidered work has significance. According to Strong’s Dictionary, broidered work means needlework of diverse colors. If we can remember, Jacob clothed His beloved son Joseph with a coat of many colors. This implies that being clothed with broidered work signifies that we are the beloved of the Lord who are called and chosen from among our brothers and sisters in Babylon.

Gen 37:3  Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. 
Gen 37:4  And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

The Badger (probably antelope) in verse 10 represents Christ, and it is through His sacrificial death that we are found in Him as our covering. As we have shown earlier, being girded with fine linen means being given the ability to walk in righteousness.

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

One of our coverings mentioned in verse 10 is that of silk. Silk is a natural fiber produced by silkworms. Therefore, it is not the work of man. Our covering with silk by the Lord means that our righteousness is not man-made. It is the work of the Lord. 

Pro 31:21  She (the bride of Christ) is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet. 
Pro 31:22  She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. 

Eze 16:11  I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. 
Eze 16:12  And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. 

Being decked with ornaments is another way of saying that we have been given eyes to see and ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven. In addition to being decked with ornaments, the Lord has also put bracelets upon our hands and a chain on our necks. The first time the word ‘bracelet’ is used in the Bible was when the servant Abraham sent to find a wife for his son Isaac put two bracelets on Rebekah’s hand after she had given water to the servant’s camels. The bracelets being two therefore served as a witness that Rebekah shall be married to Isaac. What this implies is that the Lord putting a bracelet on our hands is to assure us that we shall be the bride of Christ at the marriage feast. This assurance comes through His words as we are given to know the mysteries of the kingdom. Thus, the bracelet can be regarded as the truth of the word of the Lord. 

Gen 24:22  And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold; 
Gen 24:23  And said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee: is there room in thy father’s house for us to lodge in?

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 

The chain the Lord puts on our necks marks us out for rulership with the Lord. The first time a chain was put on the neck of someone in the bible was when Pharaoh took Joseph out of prison and made Him a ruler of Egypt.

Gen 41:42  And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
Gen 41:43  And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

The jewel that the Lord puts on our forehead and the earrings in our ears in verse 12 signifies being given understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. 

Pro 20:15  There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

Exo 35:22 And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold: and every man that offered offered an offering of gold unto the LORD.

The beautiful crown upon our heads is an assurance of our rulership in the fullness of time.

Eze 16:13  Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. 
Eze 16:14  And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD. 

Being decked with gold and silver means being given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Our raiment being of fine linen, silk and broidered work implies that our righteousness is not man-made. It is because the Lord has favored us as being the beloved of the Lord. Eating fine flour, honey and oil means being given to understand the truth of His words and walking in this truth. Being beautiful and prospering into a kingdom signifies that the kingdom of heaven has become well established within us, and in the eyes of the Lord, we are beautiful to behold. 

Psa 48:1  A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, 
Psa 48:2  beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. 

Psa 50:2  Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Our renown going forth among the heathen means our light shining forth before men to the glory of the Lord. 

Mat 5:16  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

How we Ended up Playing the Harlot

Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. 
Eze 16:16  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. 
Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

These verses show us how after all that the Lord has done in our lives, we ended up playing the harlot. Our backsliding life started when we trusted in our beauty and therefore played the harlot. In Ezekiel 28:17 we are given more information regarding trusting in our beauty.

Eze 28:17  Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you.

Here we are shown that our beauty made us proud, leading us to corrupt the wisdom the Lord has given to us. This wisdom is the truth of the Lord’s words, which we corrupt with man’s wisdom and tradition, which is a marketable commodity acceptable by many who are perishing. This is affirmed in verse 17 where we took the beautiful jewels of the Lord’s gold and silver and made ourselves images of men. The Lord’s gold and silver refer to the truth of the Lord’s words which we exchange for man’s wisdom and tradition (images of men), thus, playing the whore. As we are aware, a whore wants to please every man she meets. In a bid to become accepted by everybody or become renown, we play the harlot. Jesus demonstrated to us what it means to take the Lord’s gold and silver and make images of men as follows:

Mar 7:8  For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
Mar 7:9  And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 
Mar 7:10  For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 
Mar 7:11  But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
Mar 7:12  And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 
Mar 7:13  Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

In verse 16, we are told that we took our own garments and made ourselves colorful shrines. Our own garments here represent our man-made righteousness. Thus, we used our own righteousness to create another Jesus whom we worship. 

Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Eze 16:18  And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. 
Eze 16:19  My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD. 
Eze 16:20  Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
Eze 16:21  That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

In these verses, the Lord is saying that all the resources He has given to us to become His beloved sons and daughters, we have used to serve another Jesus. As a result, we have slain the Lord’s children by making them pass through the fire. That is to say that we have caused the Lord’s children to become spiritually dead by sacrificing them to another Jesus.

Mat 23:15  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. 

Here in this study, we have seen how we start so well in the Lord and then turn for the worse as we become enchanted with another Jesus. The following verses are to remind us to remain focused on the price of His higher calling:

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. 
Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: 
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. 
Heb 6:9  But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. 
Heb 6:10  For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 
Heb 6:11  And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: 
Heb 6:12  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

May the Lord continue to show mercy to us as we see the day approaching. Amen!!

[Study Aired April 6, 2024]

The presenter’s studies are designed not only for the Elect of God but also for the greater world and the many called and few chosen whom the Lord chooses to draw to himself. The repeated sub-themes by the teachers may seem repetitive, but they serve a purpose, hopefully dispelling the darkness in everyone’s Babylonian eyes.

Let us not dismiss the Lord’s desire for a deep spiritual connection with His people, likened to a husband’s longing for his vibrant and loving wife. This metaphor, though it may seem repetitive, underscores the intensity of the Lord’s love for His Bride’s creation since Egypt to the present day.

Understanding scripture and the identities of Christ and His Bride are rooted in the principle that the ‘natural precedes the spiritual.’ This theme is profoundly illustrated in Micah chapter 7, where we see a significant pattern: greater Israel’s behavior mirrors the individual Elect’s journey as an experience of evil to become the Bride.

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. 

Ecc 1:12  I the Preacher [Solomon in the ‘natural’ representing Christ spiritually] was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 
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. (CLV)

The sequential pattern of our behavior, which is classically depicted and largely concealed in the book of Micah, begins with destruction. This is followed by a troubling phase where the Lord’s very Priests deceive the nation, leading to ongoing chastisement. The hope of rescue emerges, with a King in the ‘natural’ being born as a Savior. Finally, we find salvation in the hope of the First Resurrection, a concept that is vividly expressed in Micah 7.

Christ is the man to have two wives, one beloved and the other hated. His beloved wife is this very day spiritually coquettishly engaging Him with delightful feminine flirtations that only a woman has the superiorly designed advantage to elegantly arouse her ever-willing Husband, Christ. We do not fully engage our Husband intimately until our wedding day; needless to say, our courting spiritual intimacies are singularly identifiable with marriage. This timeframe before the First Resurrection, although espoused and already considered married, is the engagement period where we Shulamite-like brightly and easily bewitch our Husband with our eager anticipation and engagement in His spiritual arousals – the natural comes before the spiritual – 1Co 15:45-49 (With a righteous wink, remember, no Babylonish eye-rolls…).

Son 1:2  Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. 

Son 8:4  I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please [Our marriage, the First Resurrection].

Since HE chose us, our daily naturally inherent flirtations simply by innocently being female spiritually lead to marriage. Only a harlot abuses her once beautiful feminine flirtatious quality specifically designed for ‘one’ man adulterously ~ and exhaustively, the world does!

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

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

Hate H8752 – 1. to hate, oppose oneself to, bear a grudge, retain animosity against, cherish animosity against. Note: Hate to most people has been expressed in their minds as a particularly vicious and venomous expression and not simply opposition and hostility primarily for this cause a wife’s almost universal decline of physical intimacies reflected spiritually in all men and women as seen in the parable of the sower. Nonetheless, “hate” in these last days will manifest more venomously.

A Rebellious (Hated) Son

Deu 21:18  If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 
Deu 21:19  Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 
Deu 21:20  And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 
Deu 21:21  And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. 

Verse 16 of Deuteronomy 21 to an unspiritual eye is dreadfully convoluted. It seems to read that the firstborn is to receive the more significant inheritance over his younger brother, and this is precisely what the Muslim world with violence against Jews and Christians (unwittingly one and the same) is dedicated to believing. Throw into the mix Esau and Jacob’s clashes with Leah and Rachel, and the secular world throws up their hands in confusion to default to simply mutter the ten-second sinner’s prayer and believe that Jesus did it all on the cross for them saved in their sins just as they are.

As the secular world rolls its harlot eyes as we once did, giving up on the preconceived boring nature of spiritual arousal by the prolonged flirtatious research into who are the free woman and the bondwoman. Lord willing, if they prolonged their arousal by genuinely asking Christ for His kisses (Pro 27:6), like the Elect, poetically, they would see a brilliant flash of fingered lightning extending into the clouds of their heavens of understanding. (Of high scientific interest connecting the natural to the spiritual with thunderstorms, a lightning positively charged “leader” (Christ) extends down magnetically to the negatively charged earth, man, and as soon as it touches (a chosen Elect), bam, a lightning flash of spiritual manifests and instantly lights up the multi-forked pattern of neuron connections in his cloudy brain, his heavens, and God speaks as thunder).

“… the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn” is represented by Esau, who abdicated his birthright and afterwards, with bitter tears, tried to re-inherit his status without any hope of success (Gen 25:19-34).

Heb 6:4  For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened [We who know to whom we are espoused], and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy ghost, 
Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 
Heb 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Only to the Bride of Christ is it given to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Lord consistently in scripture ends His chastisements of His Elect with the glorious hope of being that Bride. So, too, does the final chapter of Micah 7 repeat that most potent theme.

Wait for the God of Salvation

Mic 7:1  Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fruit.
Mic 7:2  The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. 

That “me” in verse one represents both Christ and His Elect. Jesus in the ‘natural’ is rejected from man’s Babylonian ‘grape harvest’, the rejected “grape-gleanings”, since He represents no comeliness; he looks like Lazarus, ridden with sores and filthy clothes where (ironically, the “little…) dogs” figuratively tend his sores (Luk 16:19-31, Mat 15:21-28) by experiencing the incredible value of crumbs from the Master’s table.

Isa 53:1  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 
Isa 53:2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 
Isa 53:3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 
Isa 53:4  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 
Isa 53:5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 
Isa 53:6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Christ is that bunch of grapes the hurried pickers quickly see as not worthy of vintage since he physically appears diseased. He, too, is the gleaner of the harvest whose eyes light upon the bright, plump bunches He has tended as the vinedresser as He similarly seeks good figs and not the ‘naughty’ (Jer 23:2).

Pro 3:9  Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 

2Ti 2:6  The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.

Lev 23:39  Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. 

Exo 22:29  Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.

In verse 1 of Micah 7, Christ, the barley harvest, desires the “firstripe fruit”, which parallels the little harvest of souls, the Bride of Christ, from the first planted wheat harvest. He demands the first and the best of every kind of fruit and grain harvest, including the firstborn males in Israel, according to the Mosaic Laws. Of course, those first firstfruits paradoxically forfeit their birthright to the younger; nonetheless, our Lord likewise demands the best spiritual fruit from them, his new and younger ‘first fruit’, His Bride.

Exo 11:4  And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
Exo 11:5  And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts [Even Egypt’s firstborn set the pattern and were sacrificed for Israel’s sake].

Exo 13:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 13:2  Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. 

Christ as “The [first] good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.” Our Lord, by design from before the foundations of the world and Genesis, begins the creation of a wife who will submit to His headship as did Solomon in his heart create the Shulamite in “the Song of Songs which is Solomon’s”! (Song of Solomon).

However, we know that the firstborn Esau, in his great passion for satiating his physical hunger, forfeited his birthright to his younger twin brother, Jacob and set up the God-ordained pattern consistently through scripture that the elder will always serve the younger. That incredibly important pattern of doctrine resolutely points to Old Israel, the Lord’s first wife, abdicating her inheritance to her younger sister, the new covenant Bride of Christ symbolised by Solomon’s Shulamite.

Gen 25:21  And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 
Gen 25:22  And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. 
Gen 25:23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, [Esau and Jacob] and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people [Jacob] shall be stronger than the other people [Esau]; and the elder shall serve the younger. 

Gen 25:29  And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: 
Gen 25:30  And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. 
Gen 25:31  And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. 
Gen 25:32  And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
Gen 25:33  And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. 
Gen 25:34  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright. 

Heb 12:14  Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 
Heb 12:15  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; 
Heb 12:16  Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. 

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 [spiritual] firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 

The church of the firstborn is the “firstripe fruit” Christ’s “soul desires” in Micah 7:1 and the first of the firstfruit who is upright among men in verse 2.

In the meantime, Micah summarises his Book in these first few verses of the coming Bride’s experience of evil he is giving mankind and she, and ALL for her sake. She begins as a whore and becomes the faithful city, the Heavenly Jerusalem above. Again, it all is a paradox and parable designed for her alone to understand and for her elder sisters remaining in Babylon to happily live in the unwitting deluded luxury of self-wisdom and ironic confusion of mixed doctrine. (Babylon H894: Phonetic: baw-bel’- Definition: babel or Babylon = confusion (by mixing) 1. Babel or Babylon, the ancient site and/or capital of Babylonia (modern Hillah) situated on the Euphrates)

1Co 3:18  Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 
1Co 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 
1Co 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 
1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Mic 7:3  That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

Doing evil earnestly with both hands is a double witness against us when in Babylon since both hands know precisely what the other is doing as he flaunts his self-righteousness. He thus semi-consciously judges himself, his conscience condemning him ~ but he doesn’t care about the ‘pricking brier’ (verse 4) since the reward of unjust gain is uppermost in his mind.

Mat 6:1  Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 
Mat 6:2  Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 
Mat 6:3  But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 
Mat 6:4  That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Mic 7:4  The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity. 

Thus, the summary of Micah continues with reflection upon Old Israel’s ways that mirror ours spiritually when our Job-like hedge is taken away when we willfully, by the Lord’s hand, hear the watchman’s trumpet blast and fail to take action upon our sins.

Eze 33:6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.

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.
2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 
2Co 4:9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 
2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 

Mic 7:5  Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. 

No greater echoed act of us lying in a woman’s bosom is there than Sampson with Deliah and we formally in Babylon, our elder sister’s bosom and her lewdly tutoring us in false doctrine. Precisely as the lesson was with Sampson and Deliah and us in Babylon, the Lord sets it up for an occasion against us when our hedge is temporarily pulled down for our indulgence in lusts. However, out of darkness comes light, and our experiences of evil are for our ultimate good to gain dominion over our flesh. Sampson dishonored his father and his mother by going against their supposedly better judgment.

Jdg 14:3  Then his [Sampson’s] father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. 
Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. 

Mic 7:6  For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

The Body of Christ is painfully conversant with their spouses, family members, and friends, effectively being enemies of the cross. Even more fearfully remembered are those brothers who formally ate and drank with us at our Lord’s table.

Joh 13:18  I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. 

1Co 11:19  For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

Mic 7:7  Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 
Mic 7:8  Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me. 

It is a dreadfully sobering occasion our Lord performs by periodically revealing heretics in our midst. We plead with them in tears and prayers, yet, like any ‘occasion’ the Lord has set upon his servant before his birth to be an apostate, we grieve his departing the little flock since he was ordained just like Pharaoh to do the Lord’s will (Eph 1:11-12). Our Lord has given His Elect to rise from the fiery chastisements and become His first fruits.

Lam 3:33  For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. 
Lam 3:34  To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, 
Lam 3:35  To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, 
Lam 3:36  To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. 
Lam 3:37  Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? 
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? 
Lam 3:40  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

Mic 7:9  I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. 
Mic 7:10  Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

We are mightily blessed to see that our worst enemy is us, the man of sin, to see the shame of our nakedness and cry out to Christ to cover us with His righteousness. That understanding washes our clothing from the dung of our many filthy streets of vile scheming within. We are initially worse than our brothers in Babylon since we held the Lord’s truth, yet unrighteously. It is only by our Lord’s choosing that we are separated from our twin brother, Esau and that our supplanting machinations are first beaten out of us to be given headship over him. It is not wise for Esau to gloat over our demise, worse for us to boast over his loss of inheritance.

Oba 1:10  Shame shall cover you [Esau] from the violence against your brother Jacob, and you shall be cut off forever [Cut off from the hope of the First Resurrection].
Oba 1:11  On the day of your standing on the other side, on the day that the strangers were capturing his force, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.
Oba 1:12  But you should not have looked on the day of your brother on the day of his alienation; nor should you have rejoiced over the sons of Judah in the day of their ruin; nor should you have enlarged your mouth in the day of distress.
Oba 1:13  You should not have entered into the gate of My people in the day of their calamity; also, you should not have looked on his evil in the day of their calamity. Nor should you have sent out against his force in the day of his calamity.
Oba 1:14  Nor should you have stood on the crossways to cut off those of him who escaped; nor should you have shut up his survivors in the day of distress.

The endlessly repeated theme is our learned joyful recovery from chastisement for Christ to rebuild the walls of the Shulamite Bride we are, the Heavenly Jerusalem, with her embedded breasts in the walls symbolic of her heavenly motherhood.

The Lord’s “decree” in Micah 7:11 (below) is Cyrus’ command that the kingdom worship Daniel’s God with the rebuilding of Old Jerusalem but prophesying the finished walls of the Heavenly Jerusalem, his Bride now a Wife. She, a ruling mother in the One-Thousand Years, doesn’t glory over her children who are not given the spiritual capacity to obey consistently but are forced to obey for fear of her Lord’s ‘rod of iron.’ The impenetrable wall that she is, locks out humanity during the One Thousand Years. Clearly, she is a mother represented by her breasts like towers embedded in her city walls where humanity sees her as a woman, even a disciplining mother wielding an unyielding iron rod.

Gal 4:25  For this Agar [Equivalent to Esau] is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and [Egypt, Assyria, Sodom, Esau, Babylon and Old Jerusalem as one] is in bondage with her children. 
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 

Son 8:10  I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his [Christ’s] eyes as one that found favour. 

Mic 7:11  In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.

‘Are to be Built’

Stem -Qal See [H8851] Qal is the most frequently used verb pattern. It expresses the 

“simple” or “causal” action of the root in the active voice.

Mood -Infinitive See [H8812]

Count-4888

The “decree” is our Lord’s mandate reflecting his rebuilding of Heavenly Jerusalem. Darius, King of Persia, upon finding a role where his predecessor Cyrus had signed off that the walls of Jerusalem should be rebuilt, put into effect the ‘decree’ since it was a law of the Medes that once such a command had been instituted and sealed with the King’s signet ring, it was an ironclad legislation. Even though the subsequent verses speak in an ambiguous tense, notice that the decree is “far removed”, meaning that Micah is speaking of a future event that we know is Christ’s completion of building His Wife. Cyrus represents the physical enactment of rebuilding Jerusalem, and Darius represents the spiritual Heavenly Jerusalem as a future event.

Ezr 6:1  Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. 
Ezr 6:2  And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written: 
Ezr 6:3  In the first year of Cyrus the king the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits; 

Mic 7:12  In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 

How appallingly bright is the delusion of verse 12 today with our spiritual understanding that the literal Old Jerusalem, represented as greater Babylon, symbolised by Zionist Israel AND Esau, both today, viciously fighting for the physical fortress of world domination from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. Unwittingly, the dismal irony is that their plans will remain desolate since our Lord is building a Heavenly Jerusalem, and the kings of the world will have their pitiful image chopped into chaff and blown away in the summer wind (Dan 2:31-45).

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.

People are hills, mountains, nations, kings, kingdoms, etc., and God is bringing chastisement to the world’s nations, and He will do it through His Elect. 

Isa 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

Mic 7:13  Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

However, the world’s dominating kingdoms remain desolate and will shortly be made even more desolate just as our ‘fruit’ has spiritually been desolate while the Lord fulfils His decree in creating His Elect as the Heavenly Jerusalem. In the period between now and the First Resurrection, we are being fed our Lord’s inheritance while outwardly, our brothers in Zion unwittingly await the rod of iron as in the days of old.

Mic 7:14  Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. 

Isa 58:10  And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: 
Isa 58:11  And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. 
Isa 58:12  And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. 
Isa 58:13  If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 
Isa 58:14  Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. 

Mic 7:15  According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things. 
Mic 7:16  The nations shall see and be confounded at all their [the Elect’s…] might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. 

Beginning with the rulership of the world with the rod of iron in the One Thousand Years and culminating in the Resurrection to Judgment, every human conceived since Eve will horrifically come to understand who it is who rules with Christ. The Lord’s Wife is represented as Joseph in the following verses:

Gen 45:1  Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. 
Gen 45:2  And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. 
Gen 45:3  And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. 
Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. 
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me [the Elect] a father [second in command under Christ] to Pharaoh [God], and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt [the World].

Mic 7:17  They [the Jews who say that they are spiritual Jews, and are not inclusive of the World] shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee. 

Licking dust like a serpent is worshiping God at the feet of Christ and His Wife’s feet.

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

Just as earthworms are forced out of the earth by a lot of rain, so, too, will this world’s kingdoms of men, within and without, be forced out of fear to hear the ‘water’ of Christ’s commands. Even though earthworms use exceptionally wet times to mate, similarly in spirit, humanity eating dust will be imbued with the seed of God’s spirit.

God’s Steadfast Love and Compassion

Mic 7:18  Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
Mic 7:19  He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Mic 7:20  Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. 

What a glorious end to the Book of Micah, as do all books of scripture spiritually conclude!

Isa 52:10  The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us [first in his Elect] 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.

Amen!

Song of Solomon, Part 1 – Kisses/Arousal Comes before Desire

[Study Aired October 29, 2022]

In the “Introduction” to the Song of Solomon, we couldn’t clearly identify the name of the Shulamite or her ethnic background. That neutrality is positive since she represents the Bride of Christ and is the mother of the entirety of humanity and her spiritual ethnicity and integrity are what matters. Her physical and spiritual character is utterly opposed to the Great Whore of Revelation. The Bride is not that long past being “treacherous”, having unwittingly called herself a Jew while holding the oracles of God in unrighteousness. 

Jer 3:9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 
Jer 3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD. 
Jer 3:11 And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah. 

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.

Remember the “two armies” in the last part of the Introduction, Hagar and Sarah, Old Jerusalem and the Heavenly Jerusalem above and Israel and Judah ~ the Shulamite represents the spiritual positives of those entities.

Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

It is profane in the Body of Christ for us not to juxtapose the physical with the spiritual. However, it is understandable that discussion on bedroom intimacies can jar some folk’s sensitivities. At our Lord’s hand, those intimacy reviews will be seemly.

For us to now rush through the relatively short book of the Song of Solomon and, looking down, shuffle our feet in shame and dismiss its powerful imagery of physical intimacies is akin to remaining our elder sister, Israel, and her dismissal of her Lord’s tender courtships. The Body of Christ is personally aware that marital intimacies are a shadow of our Lord’s spiritual intimacies (Eph 5:1-5, Eph 5:22-33). As vile and offensive as forced and unwanted intimacy is, it is a shadow of our former selves enthusiastically ingratiating our spiritual food on another. Being intoxicated on the word revolts a possible babe by the foul adulterous spiritual breath and cuts off his ears from receiving any truth. 

The Bride in the Song of Solomon doesn’t half-step or deny her Lord with her physical ardour, nor should we with the reality of our spiritual ardour since we expectantly are she.

2Ti 2:11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: 
2Ti 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
2Ti 2:13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

In the Song of Solomon, the Bride is finished being dragged from her decreasing Babylonian Christian spiritual fickle and flighty temperament, which is usually synonymous with her physical nature in Babylonian marriage. She was the gatekeeper of physical intimacies that reflect her spiritual condition perfectly when in the wilderness. She only desired her Lord when it suited her, mostly when the titillating blessings of courtship flowed. When His inevitable arousal for her became evident, that was too much; she preferred to bathe in the bliss of being perpetually pursued and to pursue affection by any good-looking man without bringing forth righteous fruit. (Eze 23:12-23). She had a multitude of neighbouring tribes who could sustain her insatiable quest to be desired in her timing, reminiscent of Queen Vashti controlling her standing in the eyes of the kingdom of Persia which dramatically backfired on Vashti being dismissed as Queen. Esther, another stunning shadow of the Bride and with superior spiritual poise, was given Vashti’s former status as Queen. (Est 1:1-22)

It is a beautiful thing that women inherently desire to be loved, yet her curse from Eden soundly enables the negative side of her desires. Her Lord designed her that way and patiently waited while she complained and groaned, effectively, for four thousand years.

Even harlots yearn to be loved. In the interim, harlots have very little interest in physical intimacies. Their goal is to be paid monetarily or validly where time is of the essence to accommodate as many customers or suitors as physically able. Not so here in this study of the Song of Solomon. The Bride of Christ awaits the Lord’s good pleasure with enough oil even while asleep and, as is our custom, delights in His word of protracted spiritual arousals. That blessing is a foundational theme of the Bride in the Song of Solomon in delightedly receiving the good seed of the Kingdom of God within, having learned to wait even while painfully barren.

Gen 30:1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. 

Act 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptised: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 

Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Let’s begin with the first verse of the Song of Solomon.

Son 1:1 The Song of songs, which is Solomon’s.

The Bride Confesses Her Love

Son 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

The first verse in the Song of Solomon is called “The song of songs, which is Solomons” (Son 1:1).

Since we know that Solomon and the Shulamite’s intense visionary dreaming of marital intimacies is a shadow of Christ’s spiritual, marital intimacies, the Song is the Bride’s expressive masterpiece ~ a Song of Songs; the grand finale of anticipatory consummation! With the tremendous and glorious knowledge of who she is and what she has been given, no wonder she is trembling with enthusiastic anticipation and can hardly contain herself. Her physical and spiritually animated passion unconsciously prepares her mind and body for marriage.

The remnants of a wife being against her husband in the Shulamite’s mind are gone in utter contempt, for the curse that waxed gross against her husband had done its good work within.

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.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your [the Bride’s] eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

The Shulamite’s former disdain that a man, a husband, should be her “head” and have authority over her is now utterly gone; she is unconditionally at “one” with him!

Unbeknown, and more likely powerfully resisted by her elder sister, in comparison, the Bride knows that a wife’s unreserved submission to a righteous husband is the key to rapidly unlocking her God-given and post-honeymoon phase, her sluggish physical intimacies, the shadow of the spiritual. The honeymoon phase of Israel leaving Egypt was no different. 

Exo 14:8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand. 

Exo 19:4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.
Exo 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 
Exo 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 
Exo 19:7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. 
Exo 19:8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD. 

Inherent with women’s curse on Eve, what relatively righteous woman isn’t extremely cautious for what lustful suitor she gives her mind and body? Apart from her virginity, she has a lot to lose that is not genuine love. Her ultimate happiness in marriage is at stake.

The Shulamite’s implicit belief in her Lord for his exceptional goodwill and plan for her causes her to unhesitatingly respond:

Son 1:2 Let him kiss^H5401 me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. 

God designed deep soft kisses of that nature for any man, especially young men, to become immediately aroused and to burn with passion. To the dismay of most women, men (Babylonian with no regard for the word of God) can lustfully engage or violate pretty much any woman. Scripture and the world are littered with such violence. As scripture profusely paints, men idolise women, and women, with impunity when it suits them with the haughty impudence of Israel, love the attention. Without the word and spirit of God, mankind is but a beast!

Son 7:9 And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak. 

Only a harlot encourages aggressively and tactlessly kissing any male she perceives as momentarily valuable of the type in the above verse unless she is like the Bride and highly esteems the man’s integrity and noble intentions. A little later in the Song of Solomon, those same intimate kisses for a righteous bride are in chaste limitations while engaged and lavished in marriage.

Jer 10:14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

A kiss[H5401] with the nature described in the Song of Solomon is a derivative is H5400 and means:

– Original: נשׂק
– Transliteration: Nasaq
– Phonetic: naw-sak’
– Definition: 

1. to kindle, burn
2. (Niphal) to be kindled 
3. (Hiphil) to make a fire, burn

1Co 7:8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. 
1Co 7:9 But if they [the virgin Shulamite] cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn [G4448 – 1. to burn with fire, to set on fire, kindle]. 

The Shulamite has learned (is learning) not to shy away from any form of burning. The burning of dead works brings forth refined gold and blossoms in burning spiritual passion for the Lord as is expressed in the Song of Solomon.

Her faded memories of harlotry are from the same mouth of soft, gentle kisses.

Jas 3:10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Jas 3:11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? 
Jas 3:12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. 

Rom 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

A kiss can be relatively meaningless or have massive positive or negative consequences.

Spiritually righteous passionate kisses arouse burning desire in a discourse of the word that should expressly result in the consummation of truth and builds permanent bonding.

Unrighteous kisses likewise convey the negative that is always a lie.

As a kid, I can graphically remember shyly, yet with respect, not avoiding the greetings of a few elder female relatives. One aunt, in particular, would, with the accuracy of a puckered-up homing missile, aim for my lips with a deadly and damp explosion smack on target! No matter how finely tuned my momentary weaving and dodging, I always got a mortal blow of bright red lipstick that was just as instantly and cheerily wiped from my lips with her thumb ~ I felt a little violated.

In my late teens, with an attractive girl who had designs for me, she kissed more eloquently, and the difference was out of this world! Though she was a Christian, the Lord gave me excellent control; she didn’t belong to my particular faith, so I considered us unequally yoked. This single relationship afforded the libertine opportunity to all the delights Solomon likewise never toiled with 1,000 plus wives. For a short time, I was breathlessly awakened to the multiple burnings of what a kiss can do. The Biblical thought of hasty romance stabbing me through the liver with a dart severely tempered my ardour; tortuously, the word of God won.

The following scripture speaks about any girl or guy next door or in your group of friends with degrees of passive or aggressive intentions of intimacy and not necessarily a harlot with direct intentions.

Pro 7:13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, 
Pro 7:14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed [H7999] my vows. She is at peace with her Babylonian ways.
Pro 7:15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. 
Pro 7:16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. 
Pro 7:17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Pro 7:18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. 
Pro 7:19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
Pro 7:20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. 
Pro 7:21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. 
Pro 7:22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; 
Pro 7:23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. 
Pro 7:24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. 
Pro 7:25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. 
Pro 7:26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. 
Pro 7:27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. 

Do you recall what the Hebrew for H7999 refers to? Alarmingly, Shulamite^H7759 means “the perfect” or the “peaceful”, and is the derivative of H7999.

– Original: שׁלם
– Transliteration: Shalam
– Phonetic: shaw-lam’
– Definition: 

1. to be in a covenant of peace, be at peace
2. (Qal) 
3. to be at peace 
4. peaceful one (participle) 
5. (Pual) one in covenant of peace (participle) 
6. (Hiphil) 
7. to make peace with 
8. to cause to be at peace 
9. (Hophal) to live in peace

The negative intentions of a “kiss” are the precise opposite of the Shulamite, whose name likewise means “peaceful; a covenant with peace” as does Jerusalem; the “two armies” of the earthy and heavenly Jerusalem. Classically we have Satan parading the intoxicating nature of a beautiful girl’s tender and warm kisses as authentic and peaceful; an unwitting betrayal with no consequences! Christ knew the consequences of Judas’ kiss, that Judas resulted in his literal innards, his liver being thrust through with the dart of a stake rupturing his belly upon his botched suicide.

Mat 26:47 And while he [Jesus] yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
Mat 26:48 Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. 
Mat 26:49 And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him. 

It’s amazing how the seeming simplicity of a kiss can take up an entire study with barely a dent and many more hours of discussion.

This mutual burning of the Shulamite and her Lord is from the immense mindfulness of her future in Him. That knowledge is the best and smoothest wine… “for thy love is better than wine”.

Wine figures 137 times in scripture, and we all know the result of its use and abuse, especially from our sometimes reckless youth. The righteous use of wine can vastly brighten alertness for spiritual understanding, yet when lingered upon, it dulls wise spiritual counsel of the mind, that still small voice that says, ‘… don’t kiss!… and definitely not amorously’.

The harlot and the Shulamite know precisely where the seemingly innocuous act of a kiss can and does rapidly lead a man ~ to unrighteous or righteous lust that wine amplifies.

Jas 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 
Jas 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 

2Co 13:11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace [G1515 – peace; tranquillity] shall be with you.
2Co 13:12 Greet one another with an holy kiss. [G40 of G53 – 1.

exciting reverence, venerable, sacred

2. pure 
3. pure from carnality, chaste, modest 
4. pure from every fault, immaculate 
5. clean

H6942

1. to consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified, be separate 
2. (Qal) 
3. to be set apart, be consecrated 
4. to be hallowed 
5. consecrated, tabooed.

The Lord designed all violence in nature or mankind for our spiritual learning. Every woman, and especially wives, knows the power of her kiss. As stated earlier, lustful male Babylonian Beasts disgustingly have no discretion when at war or in the field or city simply follow their inherent nature to mindlessly violate any woman. Man is but a Beast.

The Shulamite is smitten by her Lord with the intoxicating knowledge of him patiently waiting in love for her until she is a mature young woman.

She is the “Is, Was and Will Be” apple of His eye before the foundations of the Earth. Her very opening phrase of devotion in the Song of Solomon is with her kisses. She knows her God-given power to arouse her Man with bright-eyed enthusiasm that, in turn, blesses her with the spiritual magnificence of “wine” for which she righteously lusts. She no longer desires milk but the taste of smooth wine, spiritual truth directly from the roof of His mouth; the marital form of a “holy kiss”. Her wounds from his chastisements are long ago healed, and those reproofs are no longer felt as loveless fiery trials but are within a burning of truth in passion from the roof of his mouth with the blessed metaphor of wine.

Pro 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. 

Deceitful lips and kisses are from the former works of iniquity she learned from her first father, the Devil. She knows too well that she was like her brothers and sisters in Jerusalem who unwittingly remained to shed their blood, the metaphoric wine of her Lord.

Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
Rom 3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 
Rom 3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 
Rom 3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 
Rom 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 
Rom 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known: 
Rom 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 
Rom 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 
Rom 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

Why are her Lord’s kisses and love “better than wine”?

The Shulamite is poetically juxtaposing the laws that bring death, covered by his wine, Christ’s blood, which He first spilled for her. For us, it is profoundly understood by her Lord’s kisses. His kisses are “better than wine” since the “wine” for her has completed its good work once and forever; now she is about to enter the consummate glory of being perfectly yoked in him, and he in her ~ that staggering spiritual knowledge that kisses convey “is better than wine”. For her, Christ’s work is finished. She is about to drink the new spiritual wine in His Kingdom with her Lord, her husband.

Jesus, having turned six stone pots of water into wine, is covertly declaring the end from the beginning with His first miracle and recorded marriage feast pointing to His marriage.

Joh 2:10 And [Jesus] saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. 

The Shulamite in the Song of Solomon looks forward to drinking that wine in the Kingdom of eternal life. Her inferior old wine that the flesh thinks is good wine is gone!

Luk 5:37 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. 
Luk 5:38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. 
Luk 5:39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better. 

Mar 14:24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
Mar 14:25 Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

Luk 22:20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for 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.

The Shulamite’s narrative in the Song of Solomon sensationally anticipates that “last day” without having a say in being chosen as the Bride. She was given to die daily and thus spiritually shed her old wine (blood) and drink the new wine in her Lord in their marriage following the First Resurrection. She knows that she has been “no better than they” (Rom 3:9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin) and weeps for her brothers and sisters yet to be trodden in the winepress of Babylon, as Christ wept for what was to happen with the imminent sacking of Jerusalem.

Rev 14:8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Rev 14:20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. ~ and is synonymous with six jars of wine.

“Kisses ~ Arousal Comes before Desire”

From Adam until the Shulamite, the world, besotted by every sensuality that Solomon likewise exhausted, desires to return to the Garden to live the imagined esoteric purity of nakedness.

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. 

In the very opening sentence of the Song of Solomon, the Shulamite (and Solomon) knows that a wife, the Church, as opposed to the husband’s speedy intimacy arousal, is deliberately designed to be much slower. The Shulamite needs more tender nurturing and expressions of love than her sister in the wilderness. Yet, in the night and the brightening dawn of her arousal and desire for her husband, she sees her future more brightly.

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. 

2Sa 23:4 And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. 

It can be a hotly contested point, yet most people think that desire comes before arousal in women. Men can be relatively unattractive, as was Jesus to most women and men. However, suppose an average-looking guy ticks all the boxes of charm, leadership, relative masculinity, cleanliness, work ethics and moral integrity, to name a few priority needs. In that case, she is slowly aroused to desire him. We don’t need to be told that men are infinitely more visually aroused, which just as swiftly induces desire.

If women were as easily aroused as men, lovemaking in marriage would be a dreary affair. The world would have been overpopulated in the first one thousand years.

Speaking of Jesus, the Christ, to come:

Isa 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 
Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 
Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

To most beautiful young women seeking their equal in an attractive, dashing, brave, powerful and respected man in the gates of her city, Jesus was not her type! However, the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon was slowly (figuratively) for two thousand years, becoming spiritually aroused and agape for what was being presented to her. She is in the love-induced dreamy submission that good wine cajoles her to fantasize about her arousal and his for her. Righteous lust, that is, desire, follows arousal as she achingly yet chastely contains her passion. 

Son 8:3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. 
Son 8:4  I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

The Lord designed women to be aroused differently from men. In a recent study in Canada that would reflect the Western World, and no doubt the entire world, astonishingly, women spent significantly more on dreamy novels and all kinds of romantic theatre than men on sexually explicit visuals.

Spiritual kisses and dwelling spiritually on the word of God slowly produce arousal and then escalates desire that is in keeping with the “natural” that comes first.

Continuing with the Song of Solomon, the Shulamite substantiates those erotically driven differences.

Gospels in Harmony – Mat 19:1-12 and Mar 10:1-12, Part 1

Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

[Study Aired October 13, 2020]

Mat 19:1-15 [Scriptures from Mark are in brackets] And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there [Mark 10:1 and taught them]. The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, [Mark 10:3 What did Moses Command you?] Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses [Mark 10:5 wrote this precept] because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. [Mar 10:10-11 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them,] And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given . 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.

“He that is able to receive it, let him receive it” is another way to say, “he that has ears to hear and eyes to see, let them hear and see”. As with all of Christ’s words “they are spirit and they are life”.

In this study we will explore the meaning of Christ’s answer to the Pharisees and his disciples. Christ came to change the law. Moses said any reason was acceptable for putting away your wife. Christ says there is only one reason you can put away your wife and that is “except it be for fornication”.

Mat 5:31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

The law of Moses is for the unrighteous and we must be changed in order to become righteous.

1Ti 1:3-11 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

The law was changed so that we can move on to “perfection”.

Heb 7:11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

The Pharisees tempt Christ by questioning His understanding of the law of Moses.

Mat 19:3  The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

Christ answers them by questioning their understanding.

Mar 10:3 What did Moses command you? 

Deu 24:1-4  When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Mat 19:4-6 Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Here is what the fathers of old and the Pharisees’ understanding of the law of Moses got them. This is also speaking to the elect of God telling us what we must guard against lest our understanding be corrupted.

Mal 2:1-16 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it. And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law. Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts. And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

The ‘wife of our youth’ is Christ, our “first love”, yet we ‘put Him away’. This is the process we must experience in order to eat of the “tree of life”. First the “tree of life” is placed in the midst of the garden, the Kingdom of God is within us, and we are caused to eat of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” therefore “putting away” our “first love”.

Gen 2:9  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

This is what we are caused to do.

Mal 2:11 an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

The “daughter of a strange god” are the doctrines of men given to us by our father the devil. This is an evil experience we must all endure, which God is working in us for good.

Gen 3:1-7 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

Gen 3:22-24  And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

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.

Rev 2:1-7 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Who is our wife we cannot put away?

Mat 19:4-6 Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

In the beginning God created man to become like him. God is One.

Gen 1:27 So God created [Qal Tense, is creating] man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 

Gen 2:21-24 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Gen 5:2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Why did create them to be one?

Mal 2:15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

(ERV) Mal 2:15 God wants husbands and wives to become one body and one spirit. Why? So that they would have holy children and protect that spiritual unity. Don’t cheat on your wife. She has been your wife from the time you were young.

What is the spiritual significance of this mystery?

Eph 5:30-32 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Christ’s answer to the Pharisees is not speaking of the first Adam as they think. He is talking to us, the elect of God, about the second Adam. We must cleave to Christ, as the shadow of Adam and Eve demonstrates, so that we can live.

Deu 4:1-4 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you. Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you. But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day.

How do we cleave to our husband the Lord?

Deu 4:5-10 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart [lose our first love] from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons; Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, [our time in the wilderness] when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

This whole experience is so we can become teachers, in other words become the kings and priests unto God and his Father.

Rev 1:4-6 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; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Rev 5:9-10 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And <hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Deu 10:12-22 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the LORD had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.

Deu 11:22-23 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.

The wife that will not be put away is the elect of God, the true church.

Next study will answer the question, who is the wife that can be put away?

“As He is so are we”

September 6, 2020

News alert! You are sin and were made in sin!?!

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

Rom 7:25 KJV  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.

Rom 8:3 KJV  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Do you doubt this?

Well, here we are in our sin, so what do we do with our time? For this moment, we participate in fellowship that might get us thinking a little more about our Lord and His Kingdom.

Other times, we might just be living in our lives, in the world not of the world, while adhering to the principles of the things we learn to be like in the bible.

For example, we are learning to be as He is IN THIS WORLD.

As He is ….. ========== > AS HE IS ………so are we  … in THIS WORLD.

Said another way, and combined as Husband and wife, the Head and the body.

The H stands alone. He is the Head and the H of the body. He is the Head and we are the ead, we are the body. That is why I capitalize the H in He and Head.

He, Jesus, was the bridge of the Father to making everything through Jesus Christ, and now we have everything else in creation. Likewise, Jesus’ inheritance, is to the world, what Jesus was to the world. We are a gift given to now spread Jesus Christ.

But, that doesn’t always show itself up the in the ways you might be thinking.

In our study today, we are going to cover the second book in Judges.

We are going to attempt, once again in this study and the others like it, to connect our flesh with the spiritual message given in the study, so that the new man in us can learn to cope with the old man that we are.

While living in this flesh, we must contend with it. Our spiritual mind is battling the mind of that old serpent, the serpent which preys on … and EATS dust, for that is his lot.

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

That old serpent, goes too and fro, seeking whom he may devour…. slithering along on the earth…. seeing what flesh he can temp into becoming his dinner.

More on that later.

In this second book of Judges, we find ourselves serving others gods again, even after being told my Joshua that we cannot serve the Lord…. because we serve other gods. Yet, whatever we are doing, we refuse to acknowledge who it is that we are.

Jdg 2:1 KJV  And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
Jdg 2:2 KJV  And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
Jdg 2:3 KJV  Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.
Jdg 2:4 KJV  And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
Jdg 2:5 KJV  And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD.

What did we just witness? What we just witnessed is what everyone one of us, down to the last person, do to the Lord even after He redeems us while we were slaves in Egypt.

I mentioned that the old serpent is roaming too and fro seeking whom he may devour, but notice where it is that he is doing this.

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

Job 1:6 KJV  Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
Job 1:7 KJV  And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:8 KJV  And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9 KJV  Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?

Does anyone find it interesting that the Lord tells us not to tempt Him, but you find satan border line tempting the Lord of Job’s fear of the Lord not being real….by saying “Does Job fear you for no reason at all, what has Job ever had to fear you for?” … in my own words

That old serpent does this while “going to and fro in the earth…walking up and down in it.

You heard it here first, satan is near unto you … seeking you day and night.

The snares that early Israel had to endure are the same snares we have to endure today.

Jdg 2:2 KJV  And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
Jdg 2:3 KJV  Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you.

That is why we weep/wept, because this walk can get pretty hard depending on your perspective and individual trials.

“gods” are a snare unto us… snares are anchored somewhere… and in this case, we are snared to the earth, earth, earth.

Have you ever noticed that that majority of “other gods” are “earthen” bound gods. They have something to do with our flesh. Fertility, health, wealth, crops, cattle, etc. We very much want to succeed in the flesh, as well as in the spirit. That is the law working in us every single day.

We want to feed our belly… the same belly that is crawled on when that oil serpent feeds on the dust that we are.

However, even the “sky” gods, are really like gods for sunshine, rain, etc. Physical weather related. Regardless of all of that, we have the One True God, but we don’t always focus on Him our His mind.

We tend to focus on the other because it screams the loudest, and the squeaky wheel gets the oil until the Lord forcibly steps back in .

The devil tempts God, and satan gets his mandate. A mandate satan the serpent cannot break.

Job 1:10 KJV  Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11 KJV  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12 KJV  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

So, that old serpent is given a job to do but he is still a hired pit bull, completely in the control of the Lord.

Jdg 2:6 KJV  And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.
Jdg 2:7 KJV  And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.
Jdg 2:8 KJV  And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
Jdg 2:9 KJV  And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
Jdg 2:10 KJV  And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

Peace was known while Joshua, and the elders that outlived Joshua ruled, but as soon as they died (there is a type and shadow here, I know you can almost “see” it), Israel turns their back on serving the Lord.

Jdg 2:11 KJV  And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:
Jdg 2:12 KJV  And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.
Jdg 2:13 KJV  And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
Jdg 2:14 KJV  And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
Jdg 2:15 KJV  Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.

Now, we have Israel with the very hand of the Lord raised against His own people because they are not serving Him.

If you are only seeing physical Israel in this, then you are missing it. This is us.

Whenever we are serving other gods, we are going to be having the hand of the Lord against our flesh.

And if that is too heavy of a topic for some of you, let me introduce a new section to my studies called, “Stupid Jesus Jokes”.

Actually, I just made that up, but I do have a funny little joke I think to myself sometimes which would fall under this category.

I have always wondered why we don’t see too many miracles workers, much like social workers, but not to be confused with them, going around doing miracles we can see?

Then I thought to myself, what would be the qualifications for such a gig? I assume you’d have to be like super holy or something, and I already fail that.

Why do I fail at that? Cats. Yep, cats.

If it were left up to my “free will” I would fail the Jesus test right away because cats. I couldn’t be like Jesus left to my own devices, but for the glory of God go I into the world, because He is my Head with His mind in it.

If I had Jesus miracle powers, they would be revoked on day one or upon meeting the first cat I didn’t like. Why? Because poof, that’s why. I’d get my first round of cat-itude, and poof, no longer here. Poof into a floating hairball, then my Jesus miracle powers would be revoked and I think humanity would have been doomed. Cats can be cool once you figure out their personalities, which takes some deep medication or meditation sometimes, but once you get on the good side of a cat you might be okay.

But yeah, cats would end my Jesus powers because my fleshly carnal minded self would poof a cat because I can’t stand their cat-itudes, and because I think that would be a sin somehow, and you laughed at some of that joke too, making you a partaker of my sin, you now are proven to be a sinner.

Boom.

All because of a cat.

But seriously, our thoughts can at times become rampant, and we must get them back into submission and obedience to Jesus Christ. This isn’t some super holy test you have to undertake, but it is simply a mindset we must possess, so that we can counter the darts and wiles of the devil – which are spiritual in nature – taking place in the heavens.

We do this by judging our thoughts against biblical measurements (the Word of God), and then seeing what happens with that.

Jdg 2:16 KJV  Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
Jdg 2:17 KJV  And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so.
Jdg 2:18 KJV  And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.
Jdg 2:19 KJV  And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.
Jdg 2:20 KJV  And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice;
Jdg 2:21 KJV  I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:
Jdg 2:22 KJV  That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.
Jdg 2:23 KJV  Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.

The Lord is always giving us trials in our flesh, but of which are spiritual in nature. That is one way we are in the world, but not of it. Our mindset is on heavenly things, where the war is at, but we still must contend with whatever the Lord has us contending with while in this flesh.

We are always being tempted to give in to all that is in the world, (lust of the flesh and eyes and the pride of life).

I will give some examples so that isn’t just such a blanket statement.

In the bible, the Lord is always changing the names of His people. Abram and Abraham, Sarai and Sarah, Jacob and Israel, etc.

All my life, I have been known as Stevie to my family. To most others I am known as Steve. Some people call me by my name Steven. Some people known me from before, some people know me from recent history, but in all of this God has me realizing more and more that He just has been in this like as a bridge to Him.

I am being trained as bridge to Him. Jesus Is, was and will be a bridge to God the Father, but also, Jesus is Jesus the Christ. We are the Christ of the Christ!

We are a part of this process.

Therefore, people from my past are bridged to people of my future, but mainly to God who is all in all in the future.

See, I am the blind man who is the bridge to Jesus. Jesus uses me as a bridge to other people because they can see themselves in me, and if I am me (and they can see themselves in my a little bit) then they can see Jesus COME out of ME, thereby infected them with Jesus during social distancing…. Thank you very much.

My testimony in me, of who I use to be, can be verified by others, and then I find Jesus I get healed, because Jesus finds me one day with a gaping hole ion my face to be filled.

Jesus bends down and grabs some earth, and instead of ingesting it, Jesus SPITS on it, giving it LIFE via the water from His mouth, and He places that lump of life into my dead and blind sockets of darkness.

I can now see, and as I live my life, I live in such a way as to try to bring others to the truths of the gospel as easily and as painless as possible, depending on what the Lord’s plans are.

I get to live my life now as the chosen elect, hopefully being given the gift of FAITH, given that gift UNTO TO THE END, so that I can have it around the throne when I need to be called, chosen and faithful.

We are called to live in this flesh, with the knowledge we have, by contending with whatever the Lord challenges us with in flesh as a PAYMENT for being given this understanding now. Our payment is LIPS of THANKSGIVING while serving the Lord in sincerity and Truth.

However, that is only a portion of our calling as well, because there are people who will rise up spiritually after us, whether in this life or not, who will need guidance.

Let me paint a picture for you. For MANY MANY years, most humans have not know the secrets of the Kingdomg of God nor the fact that when they physically die the next stop is not heaven or hell.

Most Christians are going to rise to a very different situation than what they were planning. We will be there as spiritual stewardesses guiding people to their proper destinations while having the power of God ourselves.

I say this to say that just like in Judges, our flesh … which we are, is always being pulled at. The carnal mind is a tool used against our flesh to temp our flesh to give into sin.

At the same time, as Paul says, we have a law in our members (flesh) that battles the law of his mind that is in him.

Rom 7:22 KJV  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 KJV  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 KJV  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 KJV  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.

So, then in the mind I MYSELF SERVE THE LAW OF GOD. In my mind of the inward man, I serve the law of God. However, there is an opposite to the inward man, That man also has a mind that we must not serve, or we will be serving other gods just like the Israelites did when the elders and Joshua died. We do not want to go back to old ways and the old ways of the old man.

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The Husband is The Head of The Wife

[Study Aired and Posted June 15, 2020]

This study is addressed to believing wives to whom the word of God is supreme. As I said in yesterday’s address to believing husbands, it is critical that a Godly couple “be of the same mind”. Nevertheless, the Lord has given some people among us unbelieving mates, and it is critical that those who have unbelieving mates know it is not their place to change that mate, and this is why:

Joh 6:41  The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
Joh 6:42  And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?
Joh 6:43  Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: helkuo, to drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:44 applies to our believing mates as much as it applies to the unbelieving spouse. It is not our place to change each other even if we claim to be “of the same mind”. It is the spirit, and the spirit alone, which will change, mature and make new the old man within all of us. You, as a wife, are not able and are not given the commission of growing your husband into the Christ you envision him to become. These words are addressed specifically to women within the body of Christ who are married to unbelievers, but these words apply to your relationship with your believing husband also:

1Pe 3:1  Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
1Pe 3:2  While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
1Pe 3:3  Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
1Pe 3:4  But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
1Pe 3:5  For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

Being a wife myself I am well aware of how my own flesh despises the words “wives be in subjection to your own husband”. You might say, “Mike, you are a man with a wife. How can you know anything about what it is like to be a wife?” Here is how I know all about what it is like to be a wife:

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

That verse is addressed to the whole church at Corinth, both the men and the women. It is every bit as hard on the flesh of a man to be obedient to and subject to Christ as it is for a woman to be subject to her husband. Being a proper head and a Godly leader is just as demanding as being an obedient wife who is subject to her husband.

A Godly husband sets an example for his wife. He does not say one thing and then turn around and act contrary to what he tells his wife he believes. What that means is that he does not attempt to remake his wife into what he wants her to be. When he attempts to do that, he is denying that Christ is working all things after the counsel of His own will, and when you as a wife begin listening to a spirit which is telling you that because your husband is not being obedient to Christ therefore you are justified in ignoring your husband then you, too, are being disobedient to Christ.

Ephesians 5:25 does not say, “Husbands love your wives if they are obedient to Christ.” What it does say is:

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

As part of “His body, which is the church” (Col 1:24), I can tell you without any hesitation that Christ has been supernaturally patient and kind to me as I shed crocodile tears over the ways I mistreated the wife of my youth for literally years. It was not deliberate. It was not blatant rebellion, but it was weakness, and it was the natural rebellion of the carnal mind of the wild beast which is within all of us.

This brings us to what wives just naturally are while attempting to “be subject to [their] husbands, as unto Christ”. Why do such words even need to be written down or uttered? This is why the Lord commands “wives [to] be subject to their husbands as unto the Lord”:

Gen 3:16  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [H413: el] thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

“In sorrow shall you bring forth children” is indeed a curse. “Your desire shall be to your husband” almost sounds, in modern English, like a blessing, telling Eve that she will just naturally desire to please her husband. However, a proper translation of the Hebrew word ‘el’, translated as ‘to’ here in Genesis 3:16 changes the meaning completely.

Let’s go to the next chapter to see how this Hebrew word ‘el’ here in Gen 3:16 should be translated:

Gen 4:8  And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against [H413: el, against] Abel his brother, and slew him.

So, Eve’s, and every wife’s, desire is just naturally to be “against” being obedient to their husband’s headship and leadership, as is the carnal mind in every man. This is the lot of every wife, and this is the default lot of every man:

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

“The carnal mind…cannot please God”, and since we are all just naturally carnally minded, it requires a supernatural miracle to please God, and to fight against and overcome our rebellious carnal mind. The point being made in today’s study is that the Lord has cursed all wives with the carnal desire to please themselves and to be against their husbands… “Your desire shall be against your husband”. Notice closely the similarity between what the Lord says of Cain’s fate and what He says of Eve’s ultimate fate. It is very good news for all of mankind:

Gen 3:16  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall [ultimately] rule over thee.

Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt [ultimately] rule over him.

These words are spirit, and they are life to everyone who has ever lived, and here they are right here at the beginning of the Bible. This is not a promise that every wife will be subject to her husband in this age, but it is a promise that Christ will be the head of His church, His body, His bride, and it is a promise that every wife will ultimately be ruled by her husband… “He shall rule over you”.  It is not a promise that everyone will rule over sin in this age, but it is a promise that everyone will ultimately be given dominion over sin in their lives… “You shall rule over him [sin]”.

The fact is that the promise of these words will not be realized by the masses of mankind in this age. The Lord ordained “before the world began” (2Ti 1:9) that He would bring all of mankind to Himself through two judgments. The first is at this moment upon “the house of God” within His elect who are being judged at this very moment:

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,

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?

“Judgment must… first… begin at the house of God”. “The house of God” is “His body which is the church” which is “espoused to one husband”. It must first begin “at us”. Christ tells us that if we are given to submit to Christ as our husband in “this present time” (Rom 8:18), that fiery judgment is now upon us. It will be few indeed that will be subject to their husbands in this age. There will not be one married woman in the first resurrection who was not given in this age to overcome her rebellious carnal mind which just naturally pits her “against [her] husband” and has not submitted herself to her husband in every way possible without disobeying the words of our Lord.

“Your desire shall be against your husband” tells you, as a wife, that you will by default, as a vessel of clay which is “marred in the Potter’s hand”, strive to be the head, to take the lead, to make the call instead of being patient with where the Lord has your husband and encouraging him to be the head and to take the lead and to make the call that has to be made.

As we saw in yesterday’s study, two cannot spiritually walk together if they do not agree.

Amo 3:3  Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

No couple can have two heads, or two leaders. It is not possible as a couple or as a family to go to the right and to the left at the same time. No normal healthy body has two heads. Every healthy body has a single head, and if properly nourished in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that one head will have a very submissive healthy body under that spiritually healthy head. If you as a wife simply will not submit to your husband, then you are in effect attempting to be his head. If your husband has a backbone and refuses to be led by his wife, then the fruit of a stubborn and rebellious spirit is all that can come of such a tormented relationship. That fruit will be either daily torment or the death of your marriage relationship or both. Do not continue, as a physical wife, claiming to know and obey Christ while refusing to submit to your husband in any way which does not require you to disobey the Lord’s commandments. When you do so you are actually blaspheming His name:

Tit 2:3  The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
Tit 2:4  That they [“the aged women] may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Tit 2:5  To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

When you as a wife, claiming to be a  part of the very body of Christ, the church, the household of God, the pillar and ground of The Truth… refuse to submit to your husband, you are blaspheming the Word of God, and the name of God is blasphemed through you:

Rom 2:21  Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
Rom 2:22  Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
Rom 2:23  Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
Rom 2:24  For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.

Nothing blasphemes the Word of God or His name more than hypocrisy. You say you believe God is working all things after the counsel of His own will:

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:

You say that you believe the Lord when He tells you:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Indeed, the Lord cannot lie, and all things really do work together for good to them that love Him, but the love of God is obedience to God. The love of God is not hollow words:

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

You say you believe it is God who is doing all of this for your good, but when your husband pushes your buttons that all goes out the window, and you find yourself stubbing up “against your husband”. You simply cannot help it because you don’t really believe or appreciate what the Lord is doing at all. What you really believe is that your husband is an evil man who must be resisted at all cost, and in so thinking and acting, you are “blaspheming” the Word of God, and you are blaspheming the name of God.

What to do??? There is only one thing you as a Godly wife must do:

1Pe 5:6  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

You are not commissioned to change your husband. You are commissioned and commanded to “humble yourself…” Your husband is nowhere near as formidable an enemy to you as the wild beast you see in the mirror every day. Submit to your husband. In so doing you are submitting to Christ, and “a meek and quiet spirit” is of great value to Him:

1Pe 3:1  Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
1Pe 3:2  While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
1Pe 3:3  Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
1Pe 3:4  But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
1Pe 3:5  For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:
1Pe 3:6  Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.

Or as the NET bible version has it:

1Pe 3:6  like Sarah who obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You become her children when you do what is good and have no fear in doing so.

The feminazis have had so much influence on our society that most women are literally fearful of saying things like… ‘I’m a stay-at-home mother’ or ‘My husband is the head of our home’. Don’t any of you daughters of Christ ever be afraid of acknowledging that you fear God and keep His commandments. To do so is nothing less than denying Him.

Now ask yourselves honestly, do you look upon your husband as your ‘lord’?

I looked up the Greek for the word ‘Lord’ in verse 6, and this is what I found:

G2962
κύριος
kurios
koo’-ree-os

From κῦρος kuros (supremacy); supreme in authority, that is, (as noun) controller; by implication Mr. (as a respectful title): – God, Lord, master, Sir.

This is the same word in these verses:

Joh 13:13 Ye call me Master and Lord [G2962]: and ye say well; for so I am.
Joh 13:14  If I then, your Lord [G2962] and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.

The book of Revelation ends with these words:

Rev 22:21  The grace of our Lord [G2962: kurios] Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen.

Also, when the name ‘Yahweh’ is translated into the Greek in the New Testament, it is translated as G2962, ‘kurios’.

Psa 110:1  A Psalm of David. The LORD [H3068: Yahweh] said unto my Lord, [H113: adon], Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Mar 12:36  For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD [G2962: kurios] said to my Lord [G1962: kurios], Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Why would the holy spirit call Christ, ‘Kurios’, and why would the holy spirit inspire both Hebrew words, ‘Yahweh’ and ‘adon’, to be translated with the single Greek word ‘kurios’? The answer is that Christ is the ‘Yahweh’ of the Old Testament, and that is the same word used to tell you wives how you should honor your husband.

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord [G2962, Kurios].
Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

As I pointed out when speaking to the husbands, “You cannot change your wife. You must be patient with her as the Lord has been patient and has tolerated your rebellious ways for so long.” The same is true for you wives. You cannot change your husband and make him the patient, loving, merciful leader you want Him to be. However, you can obey the Lord and submit to your husband, and notice what the Lord says:

1Pe 3:1  Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
1Pe 3:2  While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
1Pe 3:3  Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
1Pe 3:4  But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
1Pe 3:5  For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

Notice the words, “without the word”. What the holy spirit is telling you wives is that it is not your place to attempt to change your husband by preaching to him verbally. All your preaching to your husband is to be the same as the preaching of the church to this lost world which shows no sign or hint of being dragged to Christ. You are to be a light to your husband. We are all called “the light of the world”. We are not called ‘the bull horn of the world’.

Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

The word ‘conversation’ in 1 Peter 3:1 is an old English word for your way of life. Here is this section of scripture in the CEV:

1Pe 3:1  If you are a wife, you must put your husband first. Even if he opposes our message, you will win him over by what you do. No one else will have to say anything to him,
1Pe 3:2  because he will see how you honor God and live a pure life.
1Pe 3:3  Don’t depend on things like fancy hairdos or gold jewelry or expensive clothes to make you look beautiful.
1Pe 3:4  Be beautiful in your heart by being gentle and quiet. This kind of beauty will last, and God considers it very special. (CEV)

What hope is there for a marriage where both of you are so stubborn that neither of you fear the Lord enough to do what He says to do? Christ is insulted and blasphemed when we are that stubborn.

Luk 6:46  Why do you keep on saying that I am your Lord, when you refuse to do what I say? (CEV)

This chapter begins with the Greek word, G3668, ‘homoios’, and this is what that word means:

As I told the men, the only solution to an unhappy and dysfunctional marriage is to “be of one mind… the same mind… the mind of Christ”.

Now let’s read just a little further here in 1 Peter 3:

G3668
ὁμοίως
homoiōs
hom-oy’-oce

Adverb from G3664; similarly: – likewise, so.
Total KJV occurrences: 30

This word is an adverb meaning “similarly, likewise, so. Then what is similar to the subject of this chapter is the subject of the previous chapter which deals with how servants are to serve their masters:

1Pe 2:18  Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
1Pe 2:19  For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
1Pe 2:20  For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
1Pe 2:21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
1Pe 2:22  Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
1Pe 2:23  Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
1Pe 2:24  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
1Pe 2:25  For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

That is the ‘wherefore’ of verse one of chapter three. “Even hereunto [we are] called…”. Christ does not just talk. “[He set] us an example, that we should follow His steps.” We are called to be subject to evil rulers, to be subject to froward bosses, and for you wives, to be subject to angry and disobedient husbands while setting them a Christ-like example.

If you say, “I just cannot do it” then I will certainly agree. It is more than is humanly possible to obey a husband who says he believes in the sovereignty of God, while he holds you responsible for your weaknesses and faults and is talking down to you and talking down about you to others. That is the very definition of treachery. Do not let yourself as a wife ever be guilty of being treacherous to your husband. Neither can I do such things as He requires of me. I simply cannot, of myself, be obedient to Christ’s words which command me to “resist not evil”.

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

Fortunately, nothing depends upon us. Our books have already been written, and what the Lord has written is what is happening around us every day. One thing we do know is written in the book of every man who has ever lived is that we will all be brought, by the Lord Himself, to our wits’ end;

Psa 107:25  For [the Lord] commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.

Your trials with your husband are not your husband’s doings. He is the workmanship of the Lord, good or evil:

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

The Lord has not given any of us to see what He has written in our books, and He tells us it is so:

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.
Jas 4:15  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

Since you don’t know what the Lord has in store for yourself or your husband, the Lord tells you to cry out to Him to deliver you and your husband from the wild beast and from the dragon who gives the wild beast his throne and his power. In spite of the fact that you, as a wife, simply cannot of yourself overcome the beast within, the Lord has faithfully provided a way of escape that you might be able to bear this trial.

As I pointed out to all of the husbands who have wives in the last study, this is also your own only way of escape:

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

Now let’s get a little of “the sum of [the Lord’s] word” (Psa 119:160) together on this subject. When Christ tells us to “turn… the other… cheek” He is not telling us to just stand there and get beat up if we can flee. The exact opposite is true:

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.

You wives are not required to endure physical abuse day in and day out. But “as much as lies within you” be patient with your husband if he is not physically abusing you. Wash him with the word of God if he will let you do so [Eph 5:26]. Above all be obedient to the Lord, and be a quiet light before your husband. Seek to “be of the same… one mind… the mind of Christ” with your husband. As you are given to do so “quietly, gently” encourage your husband to lead his family both spiritually and physically. Do not ever talk down to your husband, and never talk negatively about him to strangers. Always be solicitous of the man whom the Lord has made your head in this present time. Whether he ever overcomes the beast of pride in this age is not yours to decide. Whether you ever overcome that same beast of pride in this life is not his to decide. It is one thing to seek counsel with both of you present seeking to find out how to better your marriage relationship. That is as commendable as the Corinthians seeking Paul’s counsel. However, it is an entirely different spirit which will have you to speak evil of your husband behind his back:

Tit 3:1  Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,
Tit 3:2  To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
Tit 3:3  For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
Tit 3:4  But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,[within you!]

I can tell you from personal experience, it is a lot more fulfilling and rewarding to look for the good in your wife and “to think on [those] things”, than it is to stew over her rebellious ways. There can be no doubt that it will work the same for you wives. Seek the counsel of the older women in our fellowship who have lived through everything I have mentioned, ‘yet they [remained] the companion of their husbands and the wife of their husband’s youth’ (Mal 2:14), and as hard as that may have been at times, the Lord blessed and is blessing all who have been faithful to His Words and have endured the hardships which that obedience promises us with the rewards that come along with those hardships.

Pro 31:10  Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
Pro 31:11  The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
Pro 31:12  She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

There is always so much more which can be said to both our husbands and to our wives, but it is my hope that all these scriptures will inspire you wives to seek to be what you just naturally do not want to be, and to submit yourselves to your husbands as unto the Lord… that you will from this moment forward speak only good things about your husband to others, will encourage him to take the lead in your marriage and that you will willingly accept Him as the head of your home and as your head.

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Eph 5:25 – Husbands Love Your Wives

[Study Aired June 14, 2020]

Our study today is being given because it has been requested by more than one person. Today’s subject will be addressed to us men as husbands, and tomorrow night’s study will be addressed to all of our wives. We are admonished to ‘love our wives’ because we just naturally fail to do so, as we are told in:

Mal 2:11  Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
Mal 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
Mal 2:13  And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
Mal 2:15  And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Mal 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
Mal 2:17  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

It is foolish to even suggest that one sex is just naturally more righteous than the other when the scriptures teach clearly that “they… that… compare themselves among themselves are not wise [and that] all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”:

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

2Co 10:12  For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

Lord willing, we will never make the mistake of the feminists of this world who actually believe that women are just naturally superior to men. Women certainly are different from men, but men do not have a corner on sin, rebellion, or disobedience to the words of the Lord. Indeed “…all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.

One other point that must be made before we begin this study is that it is so critical that a couple “be of the same mind” – that mind being “the mind of Christ”, that marriage outside of the mind of Christ is forbidden if you are a single believer.

1Co 7:39  The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

Those with unbelieving spouses are given specific instructions on how to deal with that situation, but our talk today is addressed to husbands who are believers, with the understanding that a wife who has no use for scripture is an issue for another study.

Let’s begin our study by analyzing these first two verses:

Mal 2:11  Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
Mal 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.

Of course, these words apply to us all, but today we are going to concentrate on their application to us as husbands of our physical wives whose physical treatment given to them by us as physical husbands actually reflects our spiritual treatment of Christ.

Ephesians 5 is called ‘the marriage chapter’, and most of Ephesians 5 is directed to us as husbands because we as husbands ought to be leaders and the one in the marriage to set the proper example  for our wives to follow:

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Just for the record, no man has proper Godly love for his own wife unless he is being faithful to these words:

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God [including and especially our physical wives], when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments [including Eph 5:28] are not grievous.

We will return to these verses of Ephesians 5, but here in Malachi 2 we are told that Judah, who is married to the Lord, stands accused of the “abomination… of… having married the daughter of a strange god.”

The Lord tells us He simply will not tolerate such abominable behavior and warns us that He will “cut off the man that does this. Inwardly we have all perpetrated this abomination by being joined to the great whore for so many years of our lives.

1Co 6:15  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
1Co 6:16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

This study concerns another application of this indictment which is both inward and outward. As we continue to analyze the message in these verses of Malachi, we will be given some essential instructions for keeping our physical marriages intact and free from any abominable actions against our physical wives. In so doing we will be given the blessings of both the physical and the spiritual realms. We cannot be the spiritual bride of Christ while we are being unfaithful to our physical wives.

Christ made it abundantly clear that marital fidelity involves the spirit of our minds much more than just our physical actions. The two are inseparable because we are clearly told:

Mat 5:28  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

This verse applies to our outward physical marriages as much as it applies within concerning our sins against Christ and His Father, and these verses here in Malachi will make that very clear:

Mal 2:13  And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.

The Lord is not accusing Judah of physical adultery here any more than Christ accused the scribes and Pharisees of physical adultery when they accused before Him the woman caught in physical adultery.

Joh 8:5  Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
Joh 8:6  This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
Joh 8:7  So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
Joh 8:8  And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
Joh 8:9  And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
Joh 8:9  And Jesus bending back up, and having seen no one but the woman, He said to her, Woman, where are those, the accusers of you? Did not one give judgment against you?
Joh 8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

I am not giving this admonition today because anyone in our fellowship is physically cheating on his wife. I am hoping, however, that before this study is over, we husbands, myself included, will “be convicted by [our] own conscience” to be aware of how we have mistreated the ‘wife of [our] youth’.  We all know that “through Jesus Christ” we can do much better than what we have done in the past.

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

Now let’s continue here in Malachi 2, and I will repeat verse 13 to give verse 14 context:

Mal 2:13  And this have ye done again [dealt treacherously with our wives], covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

Physical adultery is not the only way to deal treacherously with our wives. A spirit of pride can drive the beast, which we are, to very coldly ignore the wife of our youth instead of humbling ourselves and seeking to talk about this evil spirit bound up in both sexes The Lord has sent that evil spirit to come between us and our wives to show us how carnal we husbands still are.

Speaking from personal, childish, carnal-babe-in-Christ experience, I would at one time have divorced my own faithful “wife of my youth” before I would have admitted that I had anything to do with our problems. She was at fault, and I was going to retain my integrity with my dying breath. I was Job personified, and at that time I had no clue why the Lord was treating a man who “loved God and eschewed evil” in the manner he was treating Job. I was, without realizing it, in such deep dark ignorance of my own self-righteousness that my self-righteousness reigned supreme. Had the Lord not been merciful and given my dear wife the humility to apologize for her little sins, which were nothing compared to my own self-righteousness, our marriage would not have survived.

Looking back over the first two years of our marriage it is a miracle the Lord kept us together. What strikes me looking back is how our worst conflicts as a couple were over the smallest matters. She would make a little insignificant decision without seeking my counsel, fail to be perfectly punctual, spend a little bit more on groceries than I thought prudent, fail to do exactly what I had asked… etc. etc.

Add to that dictatorial spirit, a totally unprovoked jealous spirit given me by the Lord, stemming from my own broken home as a 8-year-old third grader, and I must confess that I was indeed a treacherous husband whose works brought nothing to the table but condemnation and the certain need for the seven plagues of the wrath of God to wake me up from among the spiritually dead.

Now I want to share a personal experience which I pray will be used of the Lord to give you husbands some much-needed humility and wisdom. The one really memorable part of our various conflicts was the ‘making up’ when the Lord mercifully broke the ice and brought us back together. All married couples know exactly what I mean by that statement. Those memorable events in my case must be credited to my poor abused wife, because my own pride simply could not at that time be humbled. Any attempt at reconciliation from my wife was ignored day and night. I remember one time when not one word was exchanged between the two of us for three days. Such a spirit is in direct rebellion to this verse of scripture:

Eph 4:26  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

According to the word of God, a couple especially should never let the sun go down upon their wrath with each other. ‘Making up’ is not only extremely enjoyable, it is also pleasing to the Lord for this reason:

1Co 7:1  Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
1Co 7:2  Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
1Co 7:3  Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
1Co 7:4  The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
1Co 7:5  Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

These words were inspired by the holy spirit. These things happened to the church in Corinth as types of us, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come:

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

We are not given the exact “things written unto [the apostle Paul]”, but we are given his ideal answer, as well as his practical answer, both of which make clear that “the things [they] wrote [to Paul] concerned sexual relations within the marriage union.

Paul had been gifted to remain celibate, and he makes that clear with these words… “It is good for a man not to touch a woman… [and] …For I would that all men were even as I myself…” However, Paul knew that the gift he had been given was not given to the average member of the Lord’s body. Therefore, he acknowledges… “But every man has his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another after that”. When the apostle Paul says “every man has his proper gift… he was well aware that most men and most women were never intended of their Maker to remain celibate. Now look at one of the reasons he gives for marriage within the body of Christ:

1Co 7:2  Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

This verse is in complete accord with verse 5:

1Co 7:5  Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

Many marriages have been destroyed by Satan tempting a couple for their “incontinency”. The intervening verses provide the solution:

1Co 7:3  Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
1Co 7:4  The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.

If we husbands fail to acknowledge the Truth of those words, and we withhold ourselves from our wives sexually, we are inviting certain disaster, and the adversary, Satan, is having us for his lunch:

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

This is how the word ‘belly’ is used in the New Testament:

Rom 16:17  Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Rom 16:18  For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

The adversary thrives on divisions. He “goes… upon [his] belly”, meaning he does what pleases him, and what pleases him most is being an adversary to every word of God. When we refuse to talk it out with our wives, we are “going upon [our] belly”, just as Peter who insisted that Christ did not need to die on the cross. Christ had just told Peter how blessed he was to be learning from the holy spirit:

Mat 16:15  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Mat 16:16  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Mat 16:17  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Just like Peter we, too, can go so quickly from being taught of the holy spirit to being “of [our] father the devil” (Joh 8:44) and begin treating our wives with no respect at all. These are the Lord’s very next recorded words to this same ‘Simon Barjona’:

Mat 16:21  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Mat 16:22  Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
Mat 16:23  But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

‘Savoring the things that be of men” is another way of telling us that we are ‘going upon our belly and eating the cursed dust’ of the serpent’s lunch. In three short verses, Peter went from acknowledging Christ as the Son of God, to attempting to call the shots and attempting to be the head of the man he had just acknowledged as “the Christ the Son of the living God”. Peter could not get past the words ‘be killed’. In effect He could not hear the words, “…and be raised again the third day”. The words, “…be killed” made him lose all his respect for ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God’.

Yes, Peter is a physical male, but we are all spiritual females in our relationship to Christ. In spirit every one of us, male and female, are being presented as a chaste virgin to one Husband, Christ. How we treat our wives is a direct reflection of how we are treating Christ, who tells us:

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

Surely we should be considering our own spouse as more than “one of the least of these my brothers”. Yet it is expedient that the Lord must command us:

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

These words are expedient because it is as natural as breathing to take our wives for granted and to disrespect the wife of our youth.

I remember fondly dating my wife and thinking at the time that I simply could never take her for granted. What a disappointment I was to myself and no doubt to her also. It was an embarrassingly short time before I was guilty of treating the wife of my youth treacherously and giving her a cold shoulder for the least infraction. Now when any of us as husbands gets upset with our wives, I want every one of you husbands to ask yourself, “Who is it that I am really upset with??” Answer that question within yourself in a manner which accords with the Word of God. With whom are we really upset when we are disappointed with our wives??

When we acknowledge that it is the Lord who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will, and that all things work together for good to them who love God and are the called according to His [own] purpose”, it becomes obvious and indisputable that it is the Lord Himself we are dealing with, even if our wife is a treacherous wife (Rom 8:28, Eph 1:11). “All things” means “all things”; the good and righteous, as well as the wicked and evil:

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

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

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?

Now let’s look at the very next verse here in Amos 3:

Amo 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

What does that mean? The holy spirit goes on to tell us what that means, and it concludes with these words:

Amo 3:13  Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts,
Amo 3:14  That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground.
Amo 3:15  And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD.

What does all of this have to do with how we as husbands are dealing treacherously with our wives? It has everything in the world to do with how we treat our wives. Notice how similar these words to the Lord’s treacherous wife are to His words to us as treacherous husbands:

Mal 2:11  Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
Mal 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
Mal 2:13  And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
Mal 2:15  And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Mal 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
Mal 2:17  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

I look back on how merciless I was to the most wonderful wife in the world, and it is humiliating just to remember those days. I have been guilty of covering violence with my garments of self-righteousness, by treating others with more respect than my own wife. You will have done the same every time you disrespect your wife. Every time you uncover her nakedness before others by talking down to her, or about her, and giving her a cold shoulder in the daytime and turning your back on her in bed, you have dealt treacherously with your wife.

When the Lord does make our wives to be against us (Gen 3:20, the word ‘to’ should be ‘against’), it is for the very purpose  of demonstrating to us just how self-righteous we are and how we rob Him of His glory and disobey His words to us telling us:

Mal 2:11  Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
Mal 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
Mal 2:13  And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

It is we who are treacherous husbands who “cover the altar  of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out” to the point that the Lord doesn’t even regard our crocodile tears or our hollow words because at this point He has sent to us the spirit of stubbornness and rebellion against the idea of having to submit to the fact that He is working all things, including our wives being against us (Gen 3:16), after the counsel of His own will, and that He has done so for the good of those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. We put all our wife’s shortcomings upon her, and we leave God’s hand completely out of our thinking, and He will have no part of anyone denying that He makes all things for Himself, yes, even our own wickedness and the fact that it is He who has made our wives to be against us. He will have no part in us denying that it is He who “creates evil” and makes us and our wives to err from His ways and hardens our hearts from His fear:

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

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

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

When we say we believe those words and still speak evil of and mistreat our wives, we are covering the altar of God with crocodile tears and fooling no one but ourselves. If we really believe that God Himself has made us to err from His ways and has hardened our hearts from His fear, then we will not act as if it is up to us or to our wives to change themselves.

It’s not the husband’s job to force his wife to change. We are all “His workmanship”, male or female, husband or wife (Ep 2:10). Christ sees what we will be and says “…yet she is [His] companion, and the wife of [His] Covenant”. Like our Lord we should seek to beautify our bride, always speak well of her and never uncover her nakedness before others.

Pro 10:12  Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.

Pro 17:9  He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Of all the people in the world to whom those two verses of scripture should apply, our wives should be first and foremost. Shame on us when we ever speak evil of our own flesh, our own wives.

The New Testament reaffirms this principle. Christ calls His wife “a glorious church”:

Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

That is how we should present our wives before others. We should never, ever talk down to or about our wives. We should always seek to cover their nakedness, as the Lord covers our sins:

Jas 5:20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

1Pe 4:8  And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves [especially husbands towards their wives]: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Why would the Lord accuse us as husbands of shedding crocodile tears over the way we have treated the wife of our youth? It is because we can hide nothing from Him even to this extent:

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

Now we can understand why King David said:

Psa 139:4  Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

What now should all of us who have wives get from knowing all this incredible knowledge? We should all repent of holding our wives responsible for their sins. Not one of us is responsible for anything in this life. We are accountable for nothing we do in this life, much less for what our spouse does in this life.

Yet the Lord can, and He will, cause every one of us to “give an accounting” for our deeds in our flesh:

Luk 16:2  And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

2Co 5:10  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

1Pe 4:4  Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:
1Pe 4:5  Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

An accountant “gives an account”, but an accountant is not accountable for the account he gives. So it is with us because “we are His workmanship” (Eph 2:10).

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

If we truly believe that we are all what we are “not of ourselves… for we are His workmanship” then we will begin to stop condemning our wives for their sins, and start asking, “What is the Lord telling me about myself?”

I had a very Godly sister tell me just this week that she was on the verge of divorcing her husband when she prayed and asked the Lord to please change her husband and give him a love of the Truth. Then she said she realized her husband was just as much a work of the hand of the Lord as she was, and that she did not need a new husband as much as her husband needed a new wife.

Those words struck me as very profound, but it was only after we had finished our conversation that I realized why those words were so powerful to me. The reason was that it was exactly my own experience. After years of attempting to make my wife into what I wanted her to be, the Lord was merciful and actually brought me to see that what my wife needed was a new husband, a new repentant me who, Lord willing, will never again be a treacherous husband.

Marriage, Part 3 - Wives, Submit Yourselves To Your Own Husbands, As Unto The Lord - Part B - Discussion

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Marriage, Part 3 - Wives, Submit Yourselves To Your Own Husbands, As Unto The Lord - Part B

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 
Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

We are continuing our examination of what makes a wife whom the Lord calls "a good thing [whose] price is far above rubies". What we saw in our last study was that the words of Paul instructing us in what makes for a successful marriage in Ephesians 5 also apply here in Proverbs 31 concerning what makes "a good... wife". What we came to see in our last discussion was that anything in the scriptures which concerns marriage is really speaking concerning "Christ and the church", male and female, husband and wives. After giving us all the instructions to help guide us in our physical marriages, this is what the holy spirit had Paul to reveal to us:

Revelation 2-3 addresses "the seven churches of Asia", but after each individual address we find these words:

Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches...

So what the spirit said to each church was actually being addressed to all the churches, "He that hath an ear..."

In the same manner, after giving us all the instructions to help guide us in our physical marriages, this is what the holy spirit had the apostle Paul to reveal to us:

Eph 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Therefore every instruction Paul gave to wives in Ephesians 5 was actually being addressed to both husbands and wives, and every word spoken to the husbands was actually being given to the wives in "the church". "But I speak concerning Christ and the church."

Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

If everything Paul says about marriage "concerns Christ and the church" in Ephesians 5, then that same principle applies to everything said concerning the man who finds a good wife here in Proverbs 31, where we read:

Pro 31:10  Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
Pro 31:11  The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
Pro 31:12  She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

This is a great mystery, but we are really speaking concerning Christ and the church while we are examining the qualities which make all of us, male and female, a good wife unto our Head, Christ, because if Christ really is the head of His church, then He is the husband of the entire church, male and female. And that is exactly what we are told is the case:

Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

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

So we are one and all, male and female, being "present[ed]... as a chaste virgin to Christ" by the spirit of His Word, and as such we will continue to see what makes for a good wife, whose price is far above rubies and in whom the heart of our Lord can safely trust to do Him good and not evil all the days of our lives.

Last week's study brought us to:

Pro 31:21  She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
Pro 31:22  She makes for herself carpets of tapestry. Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Pro 31:23  Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

"Her household... are clothed with scarlet", because the Lord's wife is not a gossip. She covers the sins of others "with scarlet", because 'scarlet', or 'red' in its positive application, means the covering for our sins: http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/why-three-different-hebrew-words-for-the-color-red/

Exo 36:19  And he made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins above that.

Pro 11:13  A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.

Pro 17:9  He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Jas 5:20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

There are three different words for the color red in this verse, but following "the dream is one" principle (Gen 41:25-26), they all mean the same thing.

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

Our sins are typified by the color red, and yet they are also covered and made white by the red blood of "the Lamb". That is one of the functions of a "good... wife":

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.

"Her clothing is fine linen" tells those with eyes that see, who it is who really is this Proverbs 31 wife:

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

And what is the context of Revelation 19:8?

Rev 19:6  And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

The context is the "blessed... [who] are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb", unto His wife in whom His heart can safely trust to do Him good and not evil, all the days of her life.

The point being that we must learn to stop complaining about how our husband, Christ, is going about doing the work His Father has given Him, and to get behind him and speak well of Him, and not speak evil of Him at all times, even when it appears that he is leading us into physical, financial ruin. While all the daughters of Babylon are rebelling against "the voice of The Shepherd", His true wife is making linen garments to cover the nakedness of her husband and her children, and others also, knowing that even when we provide for our families, it is really Christ who is doing so:

Pro 31:24  She makes linen garments and sells them, and delivers girdles to the merchant.

"Her husband" is Christ, and this "virtuous woman is "His Christ", His wife, His church. Therefore her provisions are really Christ providing for His household:

Mat 6:28  And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
Mat 6:29  And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mat 6:30  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

This sounds so physical, and you wives may think that you are being instructed to become physical entrepreneuers, but that is not the point being made here. This is what is really being taught to all of us as the "chaste virgin... bride" of Christ concerning how we are to serve our Lord, our Head, our husbands and our families:

Tit 2:3  The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;
Tit 2:4  That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Tit 2:5  To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

This same 31st chapter of Proverbs demonstrates very clearly that "keepers at home" does not mean that she never goes out of the house. However, she does provide for her family and her home, and she is not giving her time and efforts to others ahead of her own family.

Gal 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. [Your household comes first.]

Pro 31:16  She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

"Not false accusers" is addressed to wives in particular, but we are all the wife of Christ, and we all falsely accuse our Lord every time we forget the spiritual Truth that 'It is not I that do it but sin that dwells within me', and we forget that 'it was not you that sold me into Egypt, but God'. You as wives and we as husbands falsely accuse our own husband of adultery, fornication, neglect, oppression, or any other of the "works of the flesh", when we blame our husband (Christ) for what we think are the unjust things he is doing to us. You wives deny that your husbands' evil actions are a work of God for your good when you take it upon yourselves to withstand and attempt on your own strength to change your husband. Your attempts at assuming the headship, your attempts at manipulation, and your loud protestations against his leadership are all nothing less than a protest against the way Christ is ruling this world. All of us as the wife of Christ, are denying that it is God who is "work[ing] all things after the counsel of His own will" when we attempt to right the wrongs of this world, and we become guilty of rebelling against His work in our lives.

This is what the Lord tells us concerning the "basest of men", and how He uses us in this age:

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

I said 'us' because Daniel 4:17 is just the Old Testament way of saying what Romans 7 also teaches, which is that it is indeed 'us' who are being typified by Nebuchadnezzar as the rebellious old man within every man and woman who has ever lived. But that rebellion is really "not I", and when we act as if our sins are really our sins, then we are still that rebellious old man ourselves. Read it and believe it as it applies to your own husband, and as it applies to you:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

No one is advocating that this sad condition should be encouraged. I am certainly not telling any wife to encourage her husband to continue in sin. Absolutely not, but we are all told:

Rom 12:18  If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

If you truly believe that your husband is a weaker brother than you are, then act according to how we are instructed to treat a brother who is "weak in the faith". Bear with that weakness all the while refusing to become weak yourself.

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

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Rom 15:2  Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
Rom 15:3  For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
Rom 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Rom 15:5  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:

The subtlety and gentleness with which you deal with your husband and the godly example you set for him will win your husband much quicker than any attempt to manipulate, argue with or attempt to usurp the headship that God ordained to be your husband's headship. If your husband wants junk food and junk drinks, and he insists on eating an unhealthy diet, do not attempt to force him to live with a healthy diet. Shop for yourself and your children and shop for your husband, and give him what he insists upon eating. It is not your place to take it upon yourself to change your husband. If he is on meds, give him his meds. If he refuses to take his medicine, let him learn his own way because Christ is teaching you to wait on Him. We know that the Lord works even the evil in this world through "the law of sin which is in our members", and you wives know that the evil in your husband is also being worked in him by "the law of sin which is in [His] members.

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.

We know that God works all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), and now we are informed that we are all compelled to sin by "the law of sin... in [our] members". And who sustains that "law of sin"?

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest [your husband]?

Have we not all cried out to our heavenly Father the same prayer Paul cried out to God?

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

It is this knowledge that God is working all things, the good and the evil, and it is the strength to apply this knowledge which is the righteousness of Christ in you wives which clothes the wife who does her husband good all the days of her life. It is the sharing of this knowledge with the younger women and the example set by the older women which is the wisdom of her mouth and the kindness that is on her tongue.

Pro 31:23  Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

Christ is known in this world only by what the world sees of His wife, which 'wife' each of us is (Mat 5:14-16, and 2Co 11:2) of whom Christ, "the light of the world" in John tells us:

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

But then He turns right around and tells us:

Mat 5:14  Ye [Christ in us] are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

A wife who dishonors her husband is not the "light of the world". Instead she dishonors Christ and blasphemes His Word (Tit 2:5).

Pro 31:25  Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.
Pro 31:26  She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the law of kindness is on her tongue.
Pro 31:27  She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.

This woman, who fears God, wants to serve her husband and please him, and she wants to be a Godly, God-fearing example to her children. The wife of Christ has been given to want to serve her physical and her spiritual husband enough to go to bed early enough to get her needed rest and to be able to get out of bed and prepare breakfast for her husband.

A Godly wife looks well to the ways of her household by being an example to her children and to all who know her. She considers it a blessing to be given that opportunity to feed her family. She tells her husband how much she appreciates his tireless efforts to keep her and their children fed and clothed and sheltered. She makes sure she is home to meet her husband with a loving kiss of gratitude when he gets home from a hard day's work. She does all of this without regard for how her husband treats her because 'the wisdom of her mouth' teaches her that she is to return good for evil and that her husband can trust her to strive to obey the Lord, whether she can or cannot trust him to do the same. She does all of this out of both the love she has for her husband and because she fears God who tells her to submit herself to her husband as unto the Lord. How you, as a wife, serve your husband is a direct reflection of how you are serving your Lord. If you blame your husband for his faults, you are blaming Christ Himself, because you know that Christ is working all things after the counsel of His own will.

Look again at verses 26 and 27, and consider how closely associated are those two verses.

Pro 31:26  She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the law of kindness is on her tongue.
Pro 31:27  She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.

When a Godly wife "opens her mouth with wisdom" she is looking well to the ways of her household by never ever bringing up the past sins or faults of her husband, regardless of how her husband treats her. A Godly wife "opens her mouth with wisdom" which instructs her to return good for evil, and to "cover a multitude of sins", which instructions must especially be applied to her own husband, her "first love". In doing so she is acting in accordance with her knowledge that her husband's faults and sins are not his sins, but they are the Lord's work in her own life. It is only by applying all this knowledge that you as a wife will "look well to the ways of [your] household".

Pro 31:28  Her sons rise up, and call her blessed. Her husband [also], and he praises her.

Your children and your husband will call you blessed because you did not revile when you were reviled. You submitted yourself to your head, even under adverse circumstances.  Doing what Christ says to do is to be greatly admired, greatly valued and greatly praised by all.

Pro 31:29  Many daughters have done worthily, but thou excel them all.
Pro 31:30  Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, [but] a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
Pro 31:31  Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

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

No newly married couple starts out as a mature husband and a mature wife. Only Christ within you can be submissive while you are feeling abused by your husband. It takes "Christ in you" to endure the time of adjustment needed to adjust to putting your husband ahead of all else, and it takes Christ in your husband to begin to put you, his wife above all else in this world. Your husband and your children will praise you as a wife who is submissive to Christ even when being abused for a time, because you really do "fear the Lord" enough that you obey the Lord's commandments even when your husband does not. You are obedient under such trying circumstances because you "fear the Lord", and a wife and mother who fears the Lord "shall be praised". This "good... wife" loves her Lord even more than she loves her husband and her children, and because she is willing to lose her entire family, she will be given her family in the Lord's time:

Act 16:30  And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

1Co 7:16  For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

A Godly husband is not a domineering tyrant who gives no consideration or responsibilities to His wife. A Godly husband will leave the affairs of the home in the care of his God-fearing wife whom he knows He can trust and who will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. But that does not mean that the husband forfeits his proper place as the head of his wife and the head of his family to a domineering wife. That simply will not produce the fruits of the spirit of God.

Being subject to your husband as unto Christ is the goal of every Godly wife. A God-fearing wife wants to be subject to her own husband in everything, as unto the Lord, and as the church is subject unto Christ. This is what any Godly wife aspires to do if she has even just a cursory knowledge of her place within a Godly family. Without this subjection to her husband there is no Godly order, and there can be no peace of Christ because every properly functioning 'body' has a head which instructs that body and leads every member of that body to do that which is for the good and the health of that body, "even as Christ gives Himself for the church."

Now, since I am speaking to the wife in this study, let's read Ephesians 5 from that perspective, substituting the word 'women' for 'men' and the word 'husband' for the word 'wife':

Eph 5:28  So ought [wo]men to love their [husband]s as their own bodies. [S]he that loveth h[er] [husband] loveth h[er]self.

Remember, we are informed that the entire church is the bride of Christ:

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

Rev 19:6  And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

When we read "blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb", we are speaking of the same blessing pronounced upon those who are granted to be a part of the "blessed and holy... first resurrection":

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

"The marriage supper of the Lamb [is] the blessed and holy... first resurrection." There will not be one wife in the first resurrection who has continued to complain about her husband's faults and shortcomings. If you want to be in that blessed and holy first resurrection, which is the marriage supper of the Lamb and His bride, then stop deriding your husband and start right now "doing him good and not evil as long as [you] live." The only wife who will be part of that bride of Christ in the first resurrection will be that wife who has repented of being resentful of the trials the Lord has given her.

The wife of the first resurrection will, like Job, have overcome that great sin against herself and against her husband and against her friends and her children and her family of 'contending with, reproving and condemning her husband'. Every wife in the first resurrection will have repented of condemning God for giving her a husband whose shortcomings have only served to manifest her own self-righteousness in condemning God while thinking she is condemning her husband. All the wives who are given to be in this wedding supper of Christ and His bride will be those men and women who have learned to really mean it when they pray, "Not my will but thine be done."

Any wife will just naturally ask, "But shouldn't men seek to please their wives? Should not men be considerate of their wives?" Of course they should, but not at the expense of letting "the neck turn the head", as the wife of a world famous mega minister told the 60 Minutes TV news magazine some years ago.

When "the neck turns the head" becomes acceptable household philosophy, this is the fruit of that family, and in time it becomes the fruit of the entire nation:

Isa 3:12  As for my [apostate] people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

We will stop here for now and resume this discussion next week. In that third part of this discussion we will see that it is as natural for a wife to ignore the Words of Christ and to want to lead her husband, her head, as it is for our rebellious, sinful, old man, to ignore the clear instructions Christ gives to him, and to want to usurp the headship of Christ.

These words apply equally to both husbands and wives, because in the spirit both are the wife of Christ, and both just naturally want to be the head of Christ, and both deal treacherously with their Head:

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

Mal 2:10  Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Mal 2:11  Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
Mal 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
Mal 2:13  And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.
Mal 2:14  Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
Mal 2:15  And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Mal 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
Mal 2:17  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

We must, and in time we will, learn never to reprove, contend with or condemn the Lord who is working every trial in our lives for our good.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

So what are we to do when we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
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.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[The next part of this marriage series can be found here.]