And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Continuing: in the prior post we discussed those forbidding (from the Greek word koluo) the free course of this true Gospel, and saw it documented in 1 Thessalonians 2 as well as in several other of the many places it appears. We have seen that keeping the word of God from not just being heard but from being expanded into understanding, is what kept God’s people from rising from their sleep and death, which is what Paul is explaining in both letters to the Thessalonians.
In the mentioned passage (in 1 Thessalonians 2) Paul describes the opposition encountered by those in whom the LORD was already present and working, to further educate and purify them and those who would eventually hear them, and by it be enlightened. Paul earlier defined this as occurring by receiving the words heard as the words of God, and it, Him, now the power that worked in them, and Who would eventually break through as the glory of God seen working through them. (Hearing the report, and believing it is the glory.)
Preventing the glory from being seen is the objective of those forbidding the word to be spoken to those who don’t know God, who without this light (receiving the understanding) are unable to recognize Him (hear His voice) when they see the glory. Those forbidding the word from having free course, so it isn’t seen as the word of God, are the wicked spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2. It says they are “withholding” and “letting,” both from the word katecho, meaning to hold down. Katecho describes what those sitting in God’s place are doing: by opposing Him and His truth. Paul says they are those who will hold God’s people down until taken out of the way. He says to these believers, in 2 Thessalonians 3, to pray the gospel would have free course and be seen as God’s glory, and that we would be delivered from unreasonable (atopos – unwilling to be reasoned with) and wicked men.
These men are those resisting the LORD’s presence and truth, as we are told of them in 2 Thessalonians 2, saying, “whose coming is after the working of Satan [resisting God] with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Paul is describing these men resisting the LORD at His coming, as we saw in the prior post described in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 2 Thessalonians 2.
These are the patterns we see in the event we are now encountering.
In the prior post, we discussed Paul’s first encounter with the LORD, when the understanding (as light) caused him to realize his blindness. We saw this understanding described by Paul in Acts 22 as light that all those with him saw, while only he heard it as the voice of the LORD. He described still not understanding it was the glory (actual presence) of God, due to then still remaining in the blindness of his old understanding (as in the blindness defined in 2 Corinthian s 4:3 and surrounding context).
Acts 22
6 And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.
7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecute you me?
8 And I answered, Who are you, LORD? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.
9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spoke to me.
10 And I said, What shall I do, LORD? And the LORD said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told you of all things which are appointed for you to do.
11 And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus.
12 And one Ananias [Hananiah – God has favoured], a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there,
13 Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him.
14 And he said, The God of our fathers has chosen you, that you should know his will, and see that Just One, and should hear the voice of his mouth.
15 For you shall be his witness unto all men of what you have seen and heard.
2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the LORD; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
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.
11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death works in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the LORD Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
Friends, I now, by the power of the LORD Jesus in me as Christ, reveal to you a great mystery. These men resisting this Gospel are the sleeping I have been sent to raise up, in the pattern of Saul, so they can become like Paul, a vessel of honor, prepared and used for the LORD’s work.
These are the wars and rumors of wars the LORD speaks of in the title verse (Matthew 24:6), which He later says are the beginning of sorrows. We saw in the prior post, Paul was on his way to Damascus when He first received understanding. Then, after realizing his blindness, he continued on to his destination where he received his sight. There he came to understand it was Christ in him, and Damascus was just the beginning of his suffering, (sacrificing) in the name of the LORD and for the sake of those who by it would receive life.
2 Corinthians 4
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to [all men seeing and understanding it is] the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
In the previous post, we again saw the meaning of Damascus (silence and sorrows) in the words from which it is derived. It alludes to the wars to overcome silence, to overcome those who resist (satan) the word of God, and the suffering of both those who teach and those from whom this teaching is withheld.
This is my war, my charge, to fight this good fight of faith, “In meekness [not using the power of God to destroy men’s lives, but to pull them from the fires] instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” (2 Timothy 2:25 & 26)
The reality is, even when this word of God is given free course, there will be many who will reject it, mostly among those who define themselves as the “true believers.” These are those Jude describes as twice dead, not knowing the LORD previously and now refusing to recognise Him.
Jude
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the LORD comes with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
In the record of Paul’s final assignment before his martyrdom, both in Rome, a onetime used Greek word appears, akolutos, as the last word of Acts, rendered, “no man forbidding him.”
Acts 28
20 For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.
21 And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning you, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spoke any harm of you.
22 But we desire to hear of you what you think: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against.
23 And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.
24 And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.
25 And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word [this one passage], “Well spoke the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers,
26 Saying, ‘Go unto this people, and say, Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and not perceive:
27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.’
28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.”
29 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves.
30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,
31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the LORD Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him [akolutos].
The above is the pattern the LORD describes in Matthew 24, which Paul understood, as a wheel within a wheel, which we see as a pattern within the pattern we now recognise as ours. We understand from previous conversations, these are the four wheels Ezekiel understood, and by this same sight, we are as he was, given a vision of God (see Ezekiel 7:26 below).
In the title (Matthew 24:6) the word rendered “rumor” is the Greek word akoe, as shortened form of the word akolutos. Akoe is the word translated “Hearing” in Acts 28:26 above as Paul quotes Isaiah 6:9 & 10. We know Isaiah concludes this by telling us of the total desolation that comes (has now come), by what the LORD describes in Matthew 24:15 as the “abomination” that is set in place of God. We understand these abominations are the ideas of men, their creations, with which they replaced God’s truth and have misled His people into total desolation.
The LORD tells us this is the abomination spoken of by Daniel, which is mentioned in Daniel 9:27, 11:31, and 12:11. In all these appearances the same Hebrew word, shiqquwts, is used.
Here is the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary Definition of shiqquwts: #8251: shiqquwts (pronounced shik-koots’) or shiqquts {shik-koots’}; from 8262 [: shaqats – pollute]; disgusting, i.e. filthy; especially idolatrous or (concretely) an idol:– abominable filth (idol, -ation), detestable (thing).
These false teachers, who have created idols, damnable heresies, if it were possible, would deceive even the very elect into looking everywhere for antichrists, except where he is, in their pulpits leading them to hell.
These men are those described in Hebrews 12 as refusing to be healed, instead, as Esau, choose to keep their abominations and thereby have sold their birthright. These are those who choose, instead of mount Zion, to come to the mountain that burns with consuming fire, because they refuse the word spoken to them and demanded it be silenced.
Hebrews 10
11 Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD:
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;
16 Lest there be any fornicator [having interaction with idols], or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For you 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.
18 For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
The “root of bitterness” spoken of in verse 15 above, (coming when men fail the grace sent to them: these words, and by it become defiled) is mentioned to refer us to Deuteronomy 29:18. There in verse 17 the word shiqquwts appears for the first time, its only time in Deuteronomy, and describes idols as the “abominations” (that when fully worked in defile the whole lump). The passage also describes the “covenant” Daniel tells us is broken by the same one who set up the abomination and removes the daily sacrifice. (The sacrifice is the necessary suffering Paul understood before receiving his sight – standing through the suffering is essential to delivering truth, which now almost all have abandoned.)
Deuteronomy 29
9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
10 You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
11 Your little ones, your wives, and your stranger that is in your camp, from the hewer of your wood unto the drawer of your water:
12 That you should enter into covenant with the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you this day:
13 That he may establish you to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto you a God, as he has said unto you, and as he has sworn unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
15 But with him that stands here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day [including us]:
16 (For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which you passed by;
17 And you have seen their abominations [shiqquwts], and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood [bitterness];
19 And it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: [Remember the passage from 1 Thessalonians 5, which we looked at in the prior post, verse 3, “when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes,” and verse 7, “For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.” These are speaking of knowing “the times and the seasons” we are in.]
20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
Friends, the men of the world, the “experts” and “wise men” of this corrupt age, are hell bent and leading headlong into it. These are those the LORD speaks of in Isaiah 28, where he also defines the “rumor,” the Hebrew word shmuw`ah, which as akoe, means a report, as in an announcement. It isn’t a rumor; it’s a declaration that isn’t believed and therefore isn’t passed on, to become public knowledge, as it should be. It is the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God, the call to the battle that men are blind to while being ignorant of their own ignorance. This is the same call that only Paul heard, even though all saw the same thing.
Shmuw’ah is the word rendered “doctrine” in Isaiah 28:9 and “report” in verse 19; the first asking who shall the LORD teach “doctrine,” the second telling of the only vexation being to understand the “report.” We know from prior studies, the “report” is the same “report” Isaiah, in Isaiah 53:1, asks who has believed, and to whom thereby is the arm (work) of the LORD revealed?
Isaiah 28
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine [shmuw’ah]? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue [words that are not understood even though plainly declared] will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge [discipline] shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report [shmuw’ah].
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
Isaiah 52
1 Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bands of your neck [the idols that hold your head – the ideas, creations of men that control you], O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says the LORD, You have sold yourselves for naught; and you shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus says the LORD God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what have I here, says the LORD, that my people is taken away for naught? they that rule over them make them to howl, says the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that does speak: behold, it is I.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that says unto Zion, Your God reigns!
8 Your watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has 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.
11 Depart you, depart you, go you out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12 For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your reward.
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astonished at you; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider [what had been a rumor will be known as fact].
Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our report [shmuw’ah]? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
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.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
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.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opens not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 7:26, used the word shmuw’ah twice, rendered “rumor” as we are told why what is plainly announced isn’t reported as it should be. It says it is because, “Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.” The Hebrew word hovah, meaning ruin or desolation, only used here and one other time, is the word translated “mischief.”
Ezekiel 7
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity.
20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.
21 And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.
22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.
23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
24 Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen [as it now is], and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.
25 Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor [shmuw’ah] shall be upon rumor [shmuw’ah]; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.
27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
