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The Biblical Overview of The Plan of God – Part 3

The Instrument of His Power

Introduction

Review of first study
God does have a plan for all mankind

In the first study in this series on the Biblical overview of the plan of God we saw all the scriptures witnessing to the fact that God does indeed have a plan and a purpose for effectuating the salvation of all men of all time. What we saw was that His immutable intention is to head up all of His creation, in heaven and in earth, in the Christ:

Eph 1:10 For an administration of the fulness of the seasons, to reunite for himself (under one head) the all things in the Christ, the things upon the heavens, and the things upon the earth, in him: (REV)

Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

Everything the Father is doing is being done “by [Christ] and for [Christ]”. God is the author of this plan, and He does not beat around the bush in explaining why He has given Christ the preeminence in all things. He is a God of love, so all He does is out of His love for us, but the reason He gives for placing Christ at the head of His creation is simply this:

Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

So God has revealed to us that He has a purpose and a plan in all He is doing and Christ has been chosen of His Father to be the head of all things, and through Christ the Father is in the process of redeeming to Himself “all things in heaven and in the earth” (Eph 1:10).

Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

That was the essence of our first study.

Second study

The sequence of events in the plan of God

In our second study we saw the sequence of the main events of that plan and purpose. Though we did not include the holy days given to ancient Israel in that study, I want to include them in this study because they have hidden within them the revelation of those who will be in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”, who we are later informed will be the instrument by which Christ will accomplish all His Father sent Him to do. That is the subject of our study today, so I will go back through the Biblical sequence of events, which lead to the salvation of all men of all time, and we will take special note of the revelation of a dual firstfruits, which are later revealed to be that for which all the creation waits in great anticipation.

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.

These holy day festivals reveal the necessary sequence of events in the plan of God. These holy days, which Christ Himself gave to Israel, were actually given “Not unto themselves but… for our admonition” as spiritual shadows of the plan and purpose which God the Father is working out through Christ and for Christ.

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.

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

There we are. We are informed that the law of Moses, of which the holy days and their sacrifices and rituals are an integral part, was given to Israel “for our admonition… having a [mere] shadow of good things to come”, and yet most people have no idea what they were really all about, least of all the masses of the Jews and Christians of this world.

Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

The holy day festivals given to Israel, “with those sacrifices they offered”, typified “good things [which were] to come” to Christ and His anointed, His Christ. They were not in reality, at that time ministering to the people of the Old Testament, because the faith of Christ was not yet available to any of that era. They were all, at the time those holy day festivals were instituted, still under the “law… for the lawless… [the mere] shadow of good things to come… to whom the promise was [in spiritual reality] made”:

Gal 3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

The promise appears to the natural man to have been made only to Abraham and his physical seed, but the festival of Pentecost is also called “the feast… of firstfruits”, and it was on that particular feast that the New Testament church was founded:

Act 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Exo 23:16 And the feast of harvest, the first fruit of thy labours, [The feast of Pentecost] which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering [The feast of tabernacles], 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 first fruits of wheat harvest [Pentecost], and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.

The reason the holy spirit came on the feast of Pentecost was because those who are in Christ, are also “a kind of firstfruits”:

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

This is interesting considering that Christ Himself is called “the firstfruits of them that slept”, and His resurrection is typified by the offering of the wave sheaf of the barley harvest fifty days prior to “the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of [the summer] wheat harvest”.

Lev 23:10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your [barley] harvest unto the priest:
Lev 23:11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Lev 23:12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish [typifying Christ] of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.

The scriptures reveal that the firstfruits of the wheat harvest of the festival of Pentecost typify those in Christ who are now the spiritual ‘firstfruit’ seed of Abraham:

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

Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

It is believed by most Christians that because Abraham and all the Old Testament saints of Hebrews 11 are said to have had faith, therefore they will all be in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”. Is that really what the scriptures teach? The answer is absolutely not! That is the equivalent of using Exodus 16:4 to prove that manna was the true bread from heaven while ignoring the fact that Christ tells us that the “bread from heaven”, which Israel called ‘manna’, was nothing more than a type and shadow of Himself as the true bread from heaven.

Exo 16:4 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

Was that Old Testament manna the real “bread from heaven” or was it just a shadow of this Truth?

Joh 6:31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Joh 6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
Joh 6:33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
Joh 6:34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
Joh 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

The “bread from heaven” of the Old Testament was “not… the true bread from heaven”. It was nothing more than a spiritual type and shadow of the true bread from heaven, which “true bread” was Christ. Likewise the faith of Abraham was not the true saving faith of Christ, but was a mere type and shadow of that true faith:

Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed.

Did Abraham’s faith secure for Him the promises? What do the scriptures teach us?

Heb 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
Heb 11:40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

If they obtained a good report “through faith”, why did they “receive not the promise”? The answer is that their Old Testament ‘faith’ was not “the true” faith any more than “the bread from heaven” of the Old Testament” was “the true bread from heaven”. Both were mere spiritual types of the True, which is Christ, and which was available to no one “till the seed [Christ] should come, to whom the promise was made”. Until that time “We were kept under the law shut up onto the faith which should afterwards be revealed”:

Joh 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Gal 3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

Abraham did not have “the faith which should afterward be revealed”. The faith of Christ teaches us to ‘love our enemies, and if they take your goods ask them not again’, while the faith of Abraham told him to destroy the kings who had taken Lot and the plunder of Sodom and take the plundered goods back.

Gen 14:14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
Gen 14:15 And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
Gen 14:16 And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Luk 6:30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.

The holy spirit revealed this same Truth to the apostle Peter who goes so far as to tell us that the Old Testament saints “ministered… not unto themselves, but unto us…”

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

Did the Old Testament saints receive saving grace? Absolutely not! They “prophesied of the grace that should come unto [us]… not unto themselves, but unto us…” Did the glory that comes with obedience to the faith of Christ come to the Old Testament saints? No, it did not! Rather it was “the glory that should follow… the sufferings of Christ”. Did all those things that happened to the Old Testament saints happen to them for their own admonition? No, absolutely not! “Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister“.

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.

With all of this in mind, let’s go back and consider what is revealed to us about the purpose and plan of God in the annual holy day festivals that were given to Israel “for our admonition”.

The passover

Those festivals begin with the passover, symbolizing the sacrifice of Christ as our sacrificial passover Lamb. That ‘passover’ sacrifice was foreshadowed in the Garden of Eden when Christ Himself killed an animal to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve after they were made aware of their nakedness by their predestined disobedience to Christ’s commandment that they were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

1Co 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

The days of unleavened bread

The passover festival is followed immediately with the days of unleavened bread, showing us that when we are granted to accept the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood for our sins the consequential affect is that we begin immediately to put sin out of our lives. The days of unleavened bread symbolize the same thing the flood of Noah symbolized. They both foreshadow the doctrine of baptisms, the doctrine of having sin burned out of our lives and being washed clean of our sins by the blood of the Lamb:

Rev 7:13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
Rev 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

The sacrifice of the life of our Savior and the purging of sin from our lives are the first two steps of the plan of God for the lives of all men of all time. Whether our judgment is now or in the great white throne judgment, the lake of fire, the same steps must be taken in the same order as it is laid out in the holy day festivals God gave to ancient Israel.

The feast of Pentecost

What the holy day festivals reveal, and what the New Testament also reveals, is that our initial acceptance of Christ as our Savior at the passover festival, and the purging of sin from our lives which the days of unleavened bread signify at that point are an early baptism which is youthful, immature and outward in nature. Our passover and days of unleavened bread conversion precedes the trials of the wilderness where we all rebel against the trials of obeying our Lord’s commandments. We may well have witnessed all the miracles God has performed on our behalf against our enemies while still in Egypt. We have witnessed the death of the firstborn of Egypt for our sakes. We may have ‘come out of Egypt’, we may even have witnessed the power of God to part the Red Sea on our behalf, but all of those miracles are outward gifts which cannot yet change our hearts to the point that the holy spirit can take up its residence within us.

The fact that our knowledge of God is through His outward works on our behalf and not through the trials of the wilderness, which try our faith, is the significance of the “seven sabbaths until the morrow after the seventh sabbath”, before the festival of Pentecost at which holy day the holy spirit was given to the church.

Lev 23:16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Fifty is a multiple of five and indicates the work of chastening grace and faith which begins upon the arrival of the holy spirit within us when we are brought to the day of Pentecost. Until we have been brought to Christ in a more mature stage, having repented of being “carnal… babes in Christ”, we cannot be given the indwelling of the holy spirit. In other words, babes in Christ are indeed “yet carnal” and without the holy spirit dwelling within in a way that begins the chastening and scourging which is experienced by a more mature child who is no longer an immature babe, but has progressed to the point of being capable of receiving the chastening, scourging and tribulations which must be endured by “every [mature] son who [is] received [of the] Lord”.

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son [G5207, uihos, maturing son] whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons [uihos]; for what son [uihos] is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards [“carnal… babe[s] in Christ”], and not sons [uihos].

No parent chastens a baby, but any good parent does chasten children who are mature enough to benefit from the pain of a scourging which will make them think twice about disobeying their loving parent. It is of utmost importance for us to know that the Greek word for ‘babes’ in 1Co 3:1-4 is nepios, while the word for ‘son’ and ‘sons’ in Heb 12:6-8 is uihos, meaning a son who is now much more mature and is in need of being chastened and scourged for the purpose of giving him loving rebuking and correction.

This is the Pentecost stage of the plan of God within our lives, and within the plan of God for all men. It is the beginning of the day of judgment in the lives of all who will be part of that “firstfuits of [His] harvest”:

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.

“Christ the firstfruits” is the resurrected Christ, the anti-type of that wave sheaf of the barley harvest during the days of unleavened bread. Christ’s resurrection immediately followed the passover sacrifice of Himself.

Christ’s resurrection was on the morrow after the sabbath during the days of unleavened bread.

“They that are Christ’s at His coming” is speaking of those who have the kingdom of God “within [them]” (Luk 17:19-20), and who have “died in Christ” since His death and resurrection, continuing up to the time of His coming to establish His kingdom over the kingdoms of this world for the symbolic “thousand years”.

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

The feast of trumpets

The events which lead up to the rulership of “this world” by the elect of God are pictured within and without by the feast of trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, in the Fall.

Lev 23:23 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
Lev 23:25 Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Every holy day symbolizes a great work of God with each of us. Outwardly and dispensationally these holy days symbolize a step forward in the plan of God for all men, and yet every holy day is a sabbath because God wants us to know that He is working all things after the counsel of His own plan, purpose, and will, and not because of anything that we do:

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:

Every step of God’s plan for mankind is to be taken only with “a sacrifice made with fire unto the Lord”. The fire of God’s chastening and scourging does indeed entail torment, but it is a ‘fire’ which burns up and consumes all that can be destroyed by that fire. That which is not consumed and destroyed is purified in that fire. The torment, like the fire itself, has a purpose and an end, and that purpose and end is the cleansing and purifying “every man”. ‘Every man… shall suffer [the] loss” of all the wood, hay and stubble, in his life, “but he himself shall [in the end] be saved, yet so as by fire” (1Co 3:15).

Joseph is a type of Christ, our judge, and the way he dealt with his brothers, who sold him into slavery in Egypt, demonstrates how the fire of the Word of God works in our own lives. It demonstrates how we are judged by the Words of our own mouth and how we reap what we have sown:

Gen 42:21 And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
Gen 42:22 And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
Gen 42:23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
Gen 42:24 And he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.

It is an emotional thing to have to witness our own brothers and sisters being brought to true and deep repentance through the torment which their own words bring upon them. But we, too, must endure this very same “godly repentance” in our own lives before we will be granted to cause our brothers and sisters to be brought to that same place and time in their lives. Joseph could easily have said, “Hi boys, it’s me, Joseph, your little brother who you sold into slavery. Hey, don’t worry about anything, I have died for you in a sense by spending thirteen years as a slave in Egypt, and now all you have to do is to accept my generous sacrifice for all you did to me.” But that is not what Joseph did, that is not what Christ did for you and me, and that is not what we will do for those in the lake of fire. That fire is the word of God, and this is what that word teaches us about who we are and what we will do:

Eze 14:4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

Luk 19:22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

That is exactly what Joseph’s brothers thought of Him, and it tormented them for many long years. They really believed that when Jacob died, Joseph would get his revenge upon them all for what they had done to him:

Gen 50:15 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

It was their own unforgiving heart that caused them to suffer in fear all those years, and so the scriptures were fulfilled which said:

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Contrary to the smooth teaching of the false doctrine of “the substitutionary death of Christ”, Christ is not in the process of saving us with “coffee and doughnuts”. Rather “he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire”. It is much easier to be forgiven and at the same time refuse to forgive those who have trespassed and sinned against us. It would also have been much easier for Joseph to have revealed Himself to his brothers to begin with than for him to have restrained himself from doing so while he tormented them as he did. But these things happened to them, and they are written for our admonition upon whom these very same “ends of the world have come”. That is right, these events are the events that come upon us all in “the ends of the age”, both inwardly and dispensationally and outwardly.

As the apostle warned us, and as our Lord Himself taught us, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap [by] the tormentors… till the debt is paid”:

Mat 18:32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Mat 18:33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mat 18:34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Mat 18:35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

All of these lessons are learned first by those who are pictured as the firstfruits of the feast of Pentecost. From Pentecost to the feast of trumpets is the time from the summer to the fall. It is during this extended time that we are being matured through fiery judgments which “begin at the house of God”. Those fiery words apply to us first, and we are the first to be judged out of our own mouths, according to the idols of our own hearts” (Eze 14:1-9).

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?

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked [the first man Adam, the beast, the man of sin within all of us] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

“That wicked… shall [be] consume[d] with the spirit of His mouth”. In other words, “that wicked” is consumed by the fiery words of Christ in the mouths of His firstfruit witnesses.

Exo 34:22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.

Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

“The feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest” is the feast of Pentecost, and “the feast of ingathering at the year’s end” is the double festival of tabernacles and the last great day.

This festival, “the blowing of trumpets”, is only nine days before the day of atonement, indicating that these two festivals are closely associated with each other. That association is the fact that our sins cannot be covered without first drinking the cup Christ drank and being baptized with the baptism He was baptized with, which are both typified by the trumpet judgments of Revelation 16 within our lives. This judgment is even now taking place within the lives of those who are “the house of God” and are acknowledged as such at the feast of trumpets (1Pe 4:17).

As the seven priests with the seven trumpets circling Jericho demonstrate, the festival of trumpets acknowledges that the day of judgment “begins at the house of God”, and has been taking place since that house was established within us. But judgment is accomplished in all men “each in his own order”. In time God’s trumpet judgments will include “all [who are] in Adam”, but at this time judgment is being administered by the “seven priests” who are also called the seven angels of the seven churches, which angels we are also told blow the seven trumpets and pour out the seven vials of the wrath of God which are essential to “consume [the man of sin} with the spirit of [their] mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming”.

Jos 6:13 And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked [the first man Adam, the beast, the man of sin within all of us] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.

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

Rev 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.

Who is this angel and this beast? Here is the angel’s own answer to that question:

Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him [the angel of Rev 17:1]. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

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

It is through the blowing of the seven trumpets by the seven priests that Jericho’s walls, typifying the walls and fortifications of the kingdom of the beast within us, are destroyed. As we showed earlier it all “begins at the house of God”:

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?

“Begin” does not mean that this is the end of God’s judgments. It is just the beginning, and it begins within His own “house”, His firstfruits, His “body which is His church”. This is how Paul describes this judgment which “begins at the house of God”:

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

This verse reveals a great truth which many who have been deceived by the false doctrine of a “substitutionary death”, will and do consider to be blasphemy. Nevertheless Paul very clearly states here that his own sufferings are for “[Christ’s] body’s sake, which is the church”. He even states that this suffering in his body is “the afflictions of Christ in my body… which are behind [Greek: lacking] of the afflictions of Christ”. It is all a work of God and not of us, but it is being done through us “for His body’s sake, which is the church” as we will discuss in our study next week, if the Lord wills.

The next holy day is the day of atonement, only nine days after the feast of trumpets. It is followed five days later by the feast of tabernacles and the last great day, which we will get to next week, Lord willing.

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