Today a deeper look at yesterday’s mentioning the “scattering” of God’s people after Christ’s death, and its fuller perspective of our return from this being the second gathering of God’s people as foretold in Isaiah 11:11. Yesterday’s post uncovered this aspect when we saw what was heard in Ephratah, and the literal meaning in the name being second fruit. We saw that confusion caused by seeing and hearing with eyes and ears trained in the ways of the world is what we overcome by our perception being recalibrated as we are enlightened and separated from the world.
One of the prior post’s referenced passages was John 16: 32 & 33, “Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that you shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
The Greek word translated “scattered” is the five times used skorpizo. Here is the Strong’s Greek Dictionary Definition: Strong’s #4650: skorpizo (pronounced skor-pid’-zo) apparently from the same as 4651 (through the idea of penetrating); to dissipate, i.e. (figuratively) put to flight, waste, be liberal:–disperse abroad, scatter (abroad).
It is almost identical to the word skorpios (Strong’s #4651), meaning scorpion. The root meaning of the word is to pierce.
When the LORD uses the word skorpizo in John 10:12 to tell of the sheep being “scatters” there is a much deeper meaning. We know the subject is actually speaking of those coming against God’s people, who are part of His flock. The idea as translated is, when the wolf attacks the sheep it kills one sheep at a time often killing many. In the LORD’s description the shepherd has run away leaving the sheep defenseless and the wolf able to kill as many as its lust desires.
The deeper aspect is seen in John’s choice of the word written to describe it (actually the LORD, via His Spirit, directing John’s hand). The idea of piercing the victim, as does the scorpion, is telling of venom being injected that rots the victim inside. This is what happens to God’s flock as their shepherds abandon them, leaving them to be devoured by the wolfs, wolfs being the pop culture elites, academia, political parties and self-centered politicians, self-enriching false preachers and false prophets, the media elites that project the poison and manipulate people into living and acting out self-destruction. These are those that have injected their poison into the flock and cause the inner man to rot, and the best of the shepherds has given up, and gives as the only hope to fly away when some worse monster comes along. And sheep are devoured as they in safety watch from afar, not knowing they have already fled from the attack they are obligated to stand against.
This is the condition of confusion by poisoning we are told of in Revelation 9 when it speaks of scorpions only attacking those men who don’t have the seal of the God’s in their forehead. As we know from our recent studies this “seal” is both a mark of ownership and a seal that preserves from corruption. It is in the heads, protected by their minds having been enlightened and become immune to the technique (as if looking to the fiery serpent lifted on high).
In Revelation 9 we are told of those as serpents coming after the scorpions, and we are again told in these later verses the venom is what “issue out of their mouths.” These attackers described are those same men previously mentioned here as devouring the unprotected flock. If they are reading they should see themselves and repent.
Revelation 9
1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he strikes a man.
6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon [destroying messenger – rebel angel], but in the Greek tongue has his name Apollyon [false sun – the false light of the world].
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
We see the scorpions only tormented men, shaking their foundational principles upon which reasoning depends, almost to death; and this is followed (in their tails) by death as these attacks by words continue and the unsealed men seeing it refuse to repent. It is all self-inflected torment by refusing the remedy. The word used and translated “torment” is the Greek basanismos, apparently coming from the words basis and seismos, meaning foundation and agitation. And once their unsound foundation is shaken the total collapse is inevitable.
The numbers in Revelation 9 are interesting. There is an army of two hundred million attacking and killing another one-third they are among. That would indicate a population of three hundred million, and if you add to this ten percent that are the “sealed” remnant, we are talking about a place with a population of about three hundred and thirty million people.
Revelation 10 follows telling of seeing another angel coming down from heaven, in a cloud, and a rainbow upon his head. The rainbow is what God put in the cloud after the deluge as a sign that He would never again allow the world to be totally destroyed by a deluge – such as has proceeded from the mouths of these attackers. This is why the deliverance comes as we see as one whose face is as if the sun [with as it were rays (qeren) shooting from it], and his feet as pillars of fire. This is the same pillar of fire that stood and kept separation between God’s people and Pharaoh’s army. These are the same pillars of cloud and fire by which the LORD both protected and led His people.
Exodus 13
21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
In Revelation 10:2 we see the little book opened in the hand of the angel as he steps onto the earth. The “little book” is the Greek word bibliaridion, which actually appears to have a much deeper meaning. It is made up of three words, biblos, meaning book; ara, a shortened form of airo, meaning to keep in suspense; and idios, meaning pertaining to one’s own self. This is the context we see as this angel’s voice is heard as thunder. (If you remember this is the way the validating voice of the Father was heard, written in John 12:29, “The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spoke to him.”) Here in Revelation John is told not to write what he has heard [because it is kept in suspension for the personal use of (the angel speaking with the voice of) God].
We later read in verse 6 of a pronouncement of the time of the suspense being ended, and in the next verse we read this is a time when the mysteries of God are finished (teleo – reach their conclusion). What follows is the book being placed in the hand of a man, and closing by telling the man, “You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”
Revelation 10
1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roared: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
6 And swore by him that lives for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he has declared to his servants the prophets.
8 And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which stands upon the sea and upon the earth.
9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make your belly bitter, but it shall be in your mouth sweet as honey.
10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
11 And he said unto me, You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
I tell you now, all these things have already happened, and what we see in Revelation 10 is their being revealed – or seen by revelation. The remnant mentioned is back in Revelation 7 and are those spoken of in Isaiah 11.
I tell you TODAY IS THE DAY! Psalms 95
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if you will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
11 Unto whom I swore in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
Isaiah 11
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod.
16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
Revelation 7
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nephthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.
8 Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.
9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
14 And I said unto him, Sir, you know. 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.
15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sits on the throne shall dwell among them.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Psalms 103
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases;
4 Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The LORD executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
10 He has not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 Like as a father pities his children, so the LORD pities them that fear him.
14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16 For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;
18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
19 The LORD has prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the LORD, you his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
21 Bless you the LORD, all you his hosts; you ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
22 Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.
