Do you think these men care about understanding, truth, or evidence? They reject them, because their deeds are evil, meaning they rely on their opposites: confusion, deception, and false accusation without evidence.
Isaiah 28
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 Sheol 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 Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge 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.
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.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
When verses 15 and 18 mentions the scourge these men said wouldn’t overflow them when it came, it is referring to Job 5:21. In Job it is one of His accusers telling of what he knew comes, as these men above are telling Isaiah of what they know will come, but neither understand they are in the midst of it coming against their hypocrisy and arrogance. This is the same scourge the LORD used (John 2:15) when he chased the thieves and robbers (those selling sacrifices) out of the temple, saying, make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise. All of these are the same pattern, men knowing of the LORD’s coming correction and driving out error and corruption, but fail to see it when it comes because of their own opinion of themselves as without need of correction.
Hebrews 12
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening [correction] of the LORD, nor faint when you are rebuked of him:
6 For whom the LORD loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?
8 But if you be without chastisement [correction], whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they truly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
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, 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 [therion – viper] 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 Sion, 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 “friend” of Job who is speaking in Job 5 is Eliphaz, meaning his god is gold, which he has in common with those the LORD chased from the temple, and with the modern false teachers and false prophets. These men do it as a job, and any deviation from the “accepted ” doctrine would put their means of income at risk. So they, as did Esau, choose to sell their birthright, and rejecting the correction that should have been for their welfare, they turn it into a trap (thera) in which they themselves are snared.
Job 5
7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward [as sons trusting in ideas that have set the world on fire].
8 I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:
9 Which does great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without number:
10 Who gives rain [His word from heaven] upon the earth, and sends waters [His word] upon the fields [intervening in the work being done in the world – age]:
11 To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
12 He disappoints the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the forward [those who have twisted and perverted truth] is carried headlong.
14 They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
15 But he saves the poor from the sword, from their mouth [the mouths of these men who see nothing, not even what they have wandered into], and from the hand of the mighty.
16 So the poor has hope, and iniquity stops her mouth.
17 Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects: therefore despise not you the chastening of the Almighty:
18 For he makes sore, and binds up: he wounds, and his hands make whole.
19 He shall deliver you in six troubles [from troubles man is born into, which are caused by the words of the mighty: men who think they are rich and in control]: yea, in seven [when the LORD’s presence and word are revealed] there shall no evil touch you.
20 In famine he shall redeem you from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
21 You shall be hid from the scourge [showt] of the tongue: neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.
22 At destruction and famine you shall laugh: neither shall you be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
23 For you shall be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
24 And you shall know that your tabernacle shall be in peace; and you shall visit your habitation, and shall not sin.
25 You shall know also that your seed shall be great, and your offspring as the grass of the earth.
26 You shall come to your grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn comes in in his season.
27 Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know you it for your good.
What we see above is that the scourge is the tongue, which we saw in the prior post, as what sets the world on fire. We have seen it is the corrupted ideas of men, the chasm (ketos) of the open mouth, which has swallowed up and holds God’s people, all the world, in the fires of Gehenna (Sheol) these ideas themselves have caused.
Here is how Luke describes the same pattern:
Luke 16
19 There was a certain rich man [the mighty who know it all – while never hearing it as God talking to them], which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus [who God will help], which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom [ab-ra’ah-hem: meaning the father in whom appears the true riches; in his bosom {kolpos}]: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in Hades he lifts up his eyes, being in torments, and sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water [God’s word], and cool my tongue [put the fires out – which would come from the word they have refused to hear]; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and you are tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf [chasm – as vacuous mouth spewing words setting the world on fire] fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot [as long as your mouth is open none can come from your place to Abraham’s bosom]; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house:
28 For I have five brethren [he and his brothers, the six troubles spoken of in Job 5:19 above]; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets [the former rain that would have put out the fires coming from their mouths]; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead [as He has, and come with the latter rain that they continue to hear and reject, because their deeds are evil].
The Greek word kolpos, above rendered “bosom,” is said to apparently be a primary word. It is actually a word compounded from kolla, meaning to join self; and pos, meaning who or what. It is a word telling of the opposite of what causes the viper (the beast that is confusion) to fasten itself and inject its venom. In the previous posts, we have discussed this as it appears in Acts 28, as Paul gathered and burned the dead wood and the viper leaped from the flames and fastened itself to His words (hand). The bosom is where and what joins us with the LORD, which is what keeps us from confusion and allows us to shake off the beast into the fires when he comes.
The word kolpos is translated one time as “creek” in telling of the place where the unseeing unknowingly trust headlong into (see Job 5:13 above). It is the trap that destroyed their ideas and the institutions that propagate them, while allowing all those in them to reach the shore alive. They, as was Jonah, are vomited from the whale’s (ketos) belly onto the shore where the venomous beasts are attempting to fasten and inject their venom into this word of God. The LORD has shaken them off into the fires.
Acts 27
39 And when it was day, they knew not the land: but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship.
40 And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore.
41 And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast [the first principles – the truth in the pure form it was delivered from God], and remained un-moveable, but the hinder part [what men have fastened to the truth] was broken with the violence of the waves [the pride of men and their confidence in corrupted ideas].
42 And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
43 But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land:
44 And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land. [The institutions as they now exist do not make it through this – they exist only to service themselves and to protect and preserve the institutions in their degenerate form.]
Acts 28
1 And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita [the land of honey, from the word meli – the word rendered honey twice telling of what John ate, and twice in Revelation 10].
2 And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.
3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper [echidna] out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast [therion] hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffers not to live.
5 And he shook off the beast into the fire [therion], and felt no harm.
The word “discovered” used in Acts 27:39 describing how they saw the place to put in, is the Greek word katanoeo, meaning to observe fully. The verse says they saw this when the day came, meaning the light, which we know is understanding returned after the darkness. It is the same word used by the LORD in Matthew 7:3 and Luke 6:41, when He asks why these men, who thought they knew it all and were blindly judging, don’t “consider” or “perceive” the beam in their eye causing them to not see or judge clearly.
The place where the ship is thrust in, from where the forepart will not be moved, is speaking of what is written in Isaiah 33:21, which tells of these ships never again passing by this place. It tells of this as when the fire devours these mighty men, “For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our Lawgiver, the LORD is our King; He will deliver us.” (The Strong’s Concordance says the word rendered “scourge” in Isaiah 28:15 is actually shayit, which is only used one other time, in Isaiah 33:21 as “oar.” My other resources say otherwise. I mention it because it tells what these institutions are propelled by when they can’t raise their sails. Deeper meaning there for those curious enough to look.)
Isaiah 33
1 Woe to you that spoil, and you were not spoiled; and deals treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with you! when you shall cease to spoil, you shall be spoiled; and when you shall make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with you.
2 O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for you: be you their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
3 At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of yourself the nations were scattered.
4 And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.
5 The LORD is exalted; for he dwells on high: he has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.
6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
7 Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases: he has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he regards no man.
9 The earth mourns and languishes: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.
10 Now will I rise, says the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.
11 You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
12 And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.
13 Hear, you that are far off, what I have done; and, you that are near, acknowledge my might.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
15 He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, that shakes his hands from holding of bribes, that stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil;
16 He shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.
17 Your eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.
18 Your heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 You shall not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than you can perceive; of a stammering tongue, that you can not understand.
20 Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
21 But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
23 Your tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.
24 And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.
James 3
1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor lists [leans].
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of Gehenna.
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed of mankind:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
11 Does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
15 This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
James 4
1 From whence come wars and fighting among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not.
3 You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.
4 You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do you think that the scripture say in vain, The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy?
6 But he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the LORD, and he shall lift you up.
11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaks evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law: but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who are you that judges another?
13 Go to now, you that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
15 For that you ought to say, If the LORD will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now you rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
James 5
1 Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the LORD of Sabaoth [LORD of the Armies of heaven].
5 You have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; you have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned and killed the just; and he does not resist you.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the LORD. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be you also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the LORD draws nigh.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest you be condemned: behold, the judge stands before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the LORD, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the LORD; that the LORD is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest you fall into condemnation.
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the LORD:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the LORD shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
17 Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul [mind] from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
