Today will be one of those posts where if you haven’t been reading along you may find it difficult to keep up with the pace. To being there are two questions to be asked of the “experts” who have disparaged these posts, and both are asked in the form of allusions to other writings and their coincidental relevance. The first, how many times must I pull the sword from the stone? The second, what will you do when realizing yourself out of oil?
In yesterday’s post We added the bracketed phrase to Revelation 19, [which only he knew]. This is a reference to the prior verse and further enlightens us to the meaning of the statement just prior to the addition.
Revelation 19
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God [which only he knows].
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Verse 12 tells of the authority and character (onoma – name), which was written to remove all doubt in that he is the only one knowing it. The following verse tells specifically that the defining traits (name) are the Word of God – the sword of the Spirit. The “vesture” here are the same “garments” that were parted at the LORD’s death, now restored. Remember, these are His righteousness, which men have taken and now sell as if it were theirs to do with as they will. The righteousness is the character of God, and His righteousness only He places upon us.
This takes us to a passage in Job spanning from chapter 27, verse 11 through the end of chapter 28. It is said to be Zophar’s third address to Job. This is a misunderstanding based on the seeming diversion from Job’s surrounding address. It doesn’t give the name of who is speaking, as in most cases when the speaker changes and it would if that were the situation. The passage should be seen as parenthetical, the Spirit directing Job to make the statement in a ways that would hold its true meaning until now and for us to hear.
In the passage it tells of the wisdom in the Word of God being held and found in a place where man is unable find it. We are told these are the things of the highest value and can’t be bought at any price. They are the things answering the skeptics, and bringing them to the point that they must make a decision.
Job 27
(11 I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.
12 Behold, all you yourselves have seen it; why then are you thus altogether vain?
13 This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.
14 If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
15 Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep.
16 Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay;
17 He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.
18 He builds his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper makes.
19 The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he opens his eyes, and he is not.
20 Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest steals him away in the night.
21 The east wind carries him away, and he departs: and as a storm hurls him out of his place.
22 For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.
23 Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.
Job 28
1 Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.
2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.
3 He sets an end to darkness, and searches out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.
4 The flood breaks out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men.
5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.
6 The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it has dust of gold.
7 There is a path which no fowl knows, and which the vulture’s eye has not seen:
8 The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.
9 He puts forth his hand upon the rock; he overturns the mountains by the roots.
10 He cuts out rivers among the rocks; and his eye sees every precious thing.
11 He binds the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid brings he forth to light.
12 But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
13 Man knows not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
14 The depth says, “It is not in me:” and the sea says, “It is not with me.”
15 It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
17 The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
18 No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
20 Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?
21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
22 Destruction and death say, “We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.”
23 God understands the way thereof, and he knows the place thereof.
24 For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole heaven;
25 To make the weight for the winds; and he weighs the waters by measure.
26 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:
27 Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.)
Ezekiel 27 addresses Tryus, the rock that isn’t our Rock, the city that isn’t our City. The chapter points to their bringing things from/by the sea and the depths of the waters, and by this merchandise becoming rich. The context is again telling of the false house and therein parting the garments (merchandise) and selling them for self-elevation and self-enrichment.
Ezekiel 27
27 Your riches, and your fairs, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your calkers, and the occupiers of your merchandise, and all your men of war, that are in you, and in all your company which is in the midst of you, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of your ruin.
28 The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of your pilots.
29 And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land;
30 And shall cause their voice to be heard against you, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
31 And they shall make themselves utterly bald for you, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for you with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.
32 And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for you, and lament over you, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?
33 When your wares went forth out of the seas, you filled many people; you didst enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of your riches and of your merchandise.
34 In the time when you shall be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters your merchandise and all your company in the midst of you shall fall.
35 All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at you, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance.
36 The merchants among the people shall hiss at you; you shall be a terror, and never shall be any more.
Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, O you heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe you greatness unto our God.
4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
5 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Do you thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he your father that has bought you? has he not made you, and established you?
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 For the LORD’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wings:
12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and you didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
15 But Jeshurun [The Upright One – the nation in its intended form] waxed fat, and kicked: you art waxen fat, you art grown thick, you art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
18 Of the Rock that begat you you art unmindful, and have forgotten God that formed you.
19 And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very degenerate [fallen away] generation, children in whom is no faith.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest Sheol [the habitation of the dead], and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
25 The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
26 I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:
27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD has not done all this.
28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
35 To me belongs vengeance and repayment; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
36 For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
37 And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
38 Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
41 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
42 I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
43 Rejoice, O you nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.
Psalms 120
1 In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.
2 Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.
3 What shall be given unto you? or what shall be done unto you, you false tongue?
4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech [those continually deferring the decision], that I dwell in the tents of Kedar [those choosing to remain in darkness]!
6 My soul has long dwelt with him that hates peace.
7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
