Month: April 2019

Again, he limits a certain day, saying in [through] David, “To day,” after so long a time; as it is said, “To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

The above is Hebrews 4:7, which speaks of the place of rest reached by those made perfect by correction into righteousness: purified into understanding all things, and thereby undefiled by erroneous teaching. As we saw in the previous post, entering this end state begins with order, accepting the one God sends with His truth, giving understand as the light of the sun rising in darkness, and this the anointing crowns on the person God appoints king, under who all others must subordinate their ideas. This person is the Son of man, who God first perfects, raising the mind of Christ in him, and saying, “You are My son, today have I begotten you.”

We are told of this order in Hebrews: of following the son into the presence of God, as he, the first-born from the dead, leads many children into the same glory. The quote ending the last paragraph is Hebrews 5:5, the following verse telling us it is, “As he says also in another place, ‘You are a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.'”

These passages are describing of the one given the authority God has given me, the one who, in this pattern, is spoken of throughout the book of Hebrews, in whom Christ has first risen. (Friends, I don’t take this lightly, nor do I deny Him. I have done as I ask you to do; subordinate your will to the Most High God, the Father of Spirit who gives life to all who receive Him. Receiving His word as His word; understanding it is truly Him, calling all to be reconciled to Him by correcting our mind into agreement with His.)

This is the pattern, the order, seen in Christ, whose example we are called to follow.

Hebrews 5
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
10 Called of God an high priest after the order [taxis] of Melchisedec.
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing.
12 For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles [stoicheion – elements] of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

As we know, the word stoicheion above, speaking of the foundation principles of God, teaching upon which we base all our reasoning (heart), is referring us to Peter’s use of the word in 2 Peter 3. There they are the elements, the corrupted ideas upon which fallen man bases his decisions, which both cause the fires of hell and melt away in the heat. There Peter tells us these fires end the world they’ve produced, as the defiled works based on them are burned up. He says from this we look for the new heaven and earth, wherein dwells righteousness, which again alludes back to Melchisedec, the king (melek) of righteousness (tsedeq), in whose order we are led into rest.

As we know, the last verse of Hebrews 5 referrer us to the last verse of Job 38, where we are told of those who have wandered away from God, because the imposters in His place have not been able to provide the meat only He can. Job 38 is the LORD telling us of this meat, teaching by which He creates the new heaven and earth: revelation of ideas and mysteries that have become unknown by the ignorance and neglect by corrupting the order. There He tells us these things are what points to Him, speaking and working in and through those He has enlightened. He tells us in verses 12 thru 16 he does this to free us from the hold the wicked now have on all the world: controlling His people through lies: the creations of men, intended to manipulate the masses into doing their self-centered will.

Job 38
12 Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; [have you sent understand that bring the new day, as He has]
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth [that end the age so the new can begin], that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
14 It is turned as clay to the seal [this is God’s signature]; and they stand as a garment [distinctively rising to cover us]
15 And from the wicked their light [understanding] is withheld, and the high arm shall be broken [the hold those in power have over all people, is broken].
16 Have you entered into the springs of the sea [do you understand what has befallen the masses]? or have you walked in the search of the depth [do you understand the deep causes and cures]?

The later verses go on to plainly say these are His works, the order (ordinances) of heaven, which reveal Him.

Job 38
33 Know you the ordinances of heaven? can you set the dominion thereof in the earth?
34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send lightning [understanding], that they may go and say unto you, Here we are?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart?
37 Who can number the clouds [where the word of God as a vapor waits in heaven] in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven [stop the water from being poured on the earth from the cloud where they are held],
38 When the dust grows into hardness [which produces the drought and famine on the earth], and the clods cleave fast together [when the authentic word of God is withheld]?
39 Will you hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait [for this meat]?
41 Who provides for the raven [those covered in blackness – darkness as ignorance of God word] his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

Isaiah 49
7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose you.
8 Thus says the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you: and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
9 That you may say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that has mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.
12 Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim [the second blessing].
13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me, and my LORD has forgotten me.
15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget you.
16 Behold, I have graven you upon the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
17 Your children shall make haste; your destroyers and they that made you waste shall go forth of you.
18 Lift up your eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall surely clothe you with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride does.
19 For your waste and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed you up shall be far away.
20 The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.
21 Then shall you say in your heart, Who has begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?
22 Thus says the LORD God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
23 And kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
25 But thus says the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contends with you, and I will save your children.
26 And I will feed them that oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

When the book of Hebrews describes the “order” of Melchisedec, it uses the Greek word taxis, the same as taktos, which was discussed in the prior post. Taxis appears ten times in scripture, seven of those in Hebrews chapters 5 thru 7, six telling of the order of Melchisedec, and once in saying it replaces the order of Aaron.

This order is speaking of our entering into rest, which is prefaced by chapter 4 saying only those who believe are able to, by faith, enter. The place we enter is what is later described in Hebrews 12, heavenly Jerusalem, by this correction, which comes by the voice of God heard and heeded. This is the same voice Hebrews 1 begin by describing.

Hebrews 1
1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets [speaking His word in portions, without full understanding],
2 Has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory [the understanding that shows His presence], and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:
4 Being made so much better than the angels [more than merely a bearer of a message], as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
5 For unto which of the angels [messengers] said he at any time, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
6 And again, when he brings in the first-begotten into the world, he says, And let all the angels [messengers] of God worship him [subordinate under Him].
7 And of the angels [messengers] he says, Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
8 But unto the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness [a complete correctness and understanding] is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity [straying from God ways and better ideas]; therefore God, even your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.

Subordinating to the Most High, God the Father, and His authority in the son He sends in His name (I Am), is what Hebrews 4 says we must believe, because only in believing do we follow His leading into rest.

Hebrews 4
1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
4 For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
6 Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
7 Again, he limits a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
9 There remains therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 5
1 For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:
2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way [who have strayed from God]; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
3 And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
4 And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
5 So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest; but he that said unto him, You are my Son, to day have I begotten you. [Psalms 2:7]
6 As he says also in another place, You are a priest for ever after the order [taxis] of Melchisedec. [Psalms 110:

Psalms 2
1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD has said unto me, You are my Son; this day have I begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O you kings: be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Psalms 110
1 The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
2 The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule you in the midst of your enemies.
3 Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: you have the dew of your youth.
4 The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The LORD at your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

The willingness is the objective, because it produces the order that follows commandments – such as “Repent” and “Come out from among them.” After the commandments are kept, then we go on into perfection: the blessing and the promise, as we draw near to God.

Hebrews 6
1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this will we do, if God permit.
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
7 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that comes oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shewed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
12 That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men truly swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil;
20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order [taxis] of Melchisedec.

Hebrews 7
1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abides a priest continually.
4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
5 And truly they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:
6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.
7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.
8 And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.
9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who received tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.
10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.
11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order [taxis] of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order [taxi] of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertains to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.
14 For it is evident that our LORD sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.
15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there arises another priest,
16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
17 For he testifies, You are a priest for ever after the order [taxis] of Melchisedec.
18 For there is truly a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and un-profitableness thereof.
19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
20 And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest:
21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The LORD swore and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order [taxis] of Melchisedec:)
22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
24 But this man, because he continues ever, has an unchangeable priesthood.
25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.
26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27 Who needs not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
28 For the law makes men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, makes the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.

The Hebrew word rendered “order,” in Psalms 110:4, is dibrah, which is then rendered taxis when quoting it in Hebrews. Dibrah is used four other time and its appearances we understand the purpose of the order of Melchisedec, which is to raise up and bless those who believe and commit their keeping, their cause, to the LORD’s keeping, to raise up the lowly and to bring down the proud who oppose Him.

The first use comes as Eliphaz (meaning his god is gold/wealth) is speaking what he knows, while being ignorant that, by his own words, he is judging himself and not Job. This is the pattern of our time, those who think they know God, know doctrines and scripture, but are ignorant of their deeper purpose in revealing Christ. They are therefore unable to recognize His voice and word when they see them, because they always think it is correction meant for someone else. This is why the correction always comes from outside the existing orders, where the minds of men are not held captive in corruption.

Eliphaz is telling Job of the correction of God, how it produces good, but he doesn’t understand God sometimes allow the righteous to be tried, to draw out self-righteousness and to expose the ignorance of the powerful.

Job 5
7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
8 I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause [dibrah – he is saying he would order his ways under God – which he did, under his god, his gold]:
9 Which does great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without number:
10 Who gives rain upon the earth, and sends waters upon the fields:
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 taketh the wise in their own craftiness [quoted in 1 Corinthians 3:19]: and the counsel of the froward [those who twist God truth] is carried headlong [carried unknowingly into the consequences of his own folly].
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, 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 [quoted in Hebrews 12:5]: therefore despise not you the chastening of the Almighty:

This last portion is ignorance of God’s ways of accomplishing His plan through the suffering of His saint, and finishing it through the suffering of His son, and the children God has given me, which makes those blessed by it, perfect.

Isaiah 52
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.

Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our report? 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.

Ecclesiastes 8
1 Who is as the wise man? and who knows the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom makes his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
2 I counsel you to keep the king’s commandment, and that in regard [bibrah – order] of the oath of God.
3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he does whatsoever pleases him.
4 Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What do you?
5 Whoso keeps the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment.
6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
7 For he knows not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
8 There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither has he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.

In recent posts, we’ve discussed God’s people at large as those who pierced (and pierce) Him. The title, speaks of this occurring, as His people, thinking they know something about Him, add to or take away from His message, when in fact almost everything they’ve been taught are the creations and manipulations of the men they, or those before them, follow into darkness. So, these busybodies insert themselves into every message, denying its validity and putting themselves in God’s place, unendingly bark out their own corrupt ideas and fables.

The Greek word rendered “busybodies” above, in 2 Thessalonians 3:11, is the one time used word periergazomai. It is compounded from the words peri, meaning through, ergazomai, meaning to engage in work. The word peri is from peiro, meaning to pierce through. Paul is talking about those whose work is to pierce through into other people’s business, to undermine and agitate, to continue arguments and confusion.

Paul describes this undermining as walking “disorderly,” using the twice used word ataktos, which adds the letter a to taktos, reversing its meaning, which is to arrange what is appointed or stated. It tells of it meaning they are altering what is stated by one appointed to the position, with the authority, rank, to speak and lead.

Paul is speaking of insubordination that undermines order, which is the underlying essence of the trouble and confusion among God’s people. In 2 Thessalonians Paul is describing unreasonable and wicked men, who have usurped God’s seat, abandoned the truth and dispute it when He appears with it, as He now has. Those who follow these men into perdition are those who have become busybodies, inserting themselves into what they don’t understand. They’ve been taught ignorance, are ignorant that it is ignorance, while thinking they are wise. They are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, because those teaching them are equally as ignorant of God’s ways and presence.

I admonish and warn them that their ways, and continuing to follow those they follow, doesn’t end well. Paul says following them leads to shame, which we know means not reaching the end these false prophets and false teachers have promised. Their end is perdition and hell’s fires, and any who refuse to be pulled from this, end there with them.

2 Thessalonians 2
1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first [an apostasy that blinds all God’s people], and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition [the man of sin is the spirit of Satan, rebelling and opposing the LORD, resistance that is the power that now works in the children of disobedience – so who is the man you follow? Is this spirit of wickedness in him? Or does he hear the (this) voice of God and agree with Him?];
4 Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5 Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now you know what withholds [katecho – holding down God’s people in their apostasy, keeping them from His truth and from rising to meet/join Him] that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity does already work: only he who now lets [katecho – holds you down] will let [hold you down], until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked [the work of Satan – entering the sanctuary and setting it on fire – from where the LORD pulls us out – see Psalms 74:4 thru 10 – in the prior post] be revealed, whom the LORD shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness [understanding] of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan [after he has burned the sanctuary] with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion [Isaiah 66:4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.], that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the LORD, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our LORD Jesus Christ.
15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
16 Now our LORD Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
17 Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.

2 Thessalonians 3
1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the LORD may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you [seen as the word of God, which it is]:
2 And that we may be delivered from unreasonable [men who refuse reason and will not change their positions – get out of the way] and wicked men: for all men have not faith [have not been faithful to God’s truth].
3 But the LORD is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil.
4 And we have confidence in the LORD touching you, that you both do and will do the things which we command you.
5 And the LORD direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ [while you work].
6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly [ataktos], and not after the tradition which he received of us.
7 For yourselves know how you ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly [atakteo] among you;
8 Neither did we eat any man’s bread for naught; but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
9 Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly [ataktos], working not at all, but are busybodies [periergazomai – insubordinately undermine the order].
12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our LORD Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
13 But you, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed [not reach his desired end – of undermining].
15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
16 Now the LORD of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The LORD be with you all.
17 The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.
18 The grace of our LORD Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

The proper order Paul describes is the one elsewhere described as when Christ is the archegos, meaning He is the chief leader. The word appears four times, all describing Christ; the first two times as “Prince,” then as “Captain of our salvation,” and last as the “Author” and finisher of our faith (meaning the end of our faith is finding Him, realizing His presence in man, proved by the same mind).

Hebrews 2:10 tells us “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” Acts 3:15 tells of this suffering, and Acts 5:31 say He comes for our Salvation, by repentance and forgiveness, to which we witness. Hebrews 12:2 speaks of this Authorship, His writing, His mind through me/us, to finish, perfect us: what the chapter goes on to tell us is by the correction that takes us as His children into His presence in heavenly Jerusalem: taught and founded on His truth, which produces peace.

Acts 13
12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, You men of Israel, why marvel you at this? or why look you so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Son Jesus; whom you delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
14 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
15 And killed the Prince [archegos] of life, whom God has raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
16 And his name through faith in his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know: yea, the faith which is by him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers.
18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he has so fulfilled.
19 Repent you therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD.
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the LORD your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25 You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in your seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

Acts 5
29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree.
31 Him has God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince [archegos] and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins [errors in judgment].
32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God has given to them that obey him [who are in order].

Hebrews 2
1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
2 For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the LORD, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
5 For unto the angels has he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that you are mindful of him? or the son of man that you visit him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of your hands:
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their Salvation [archegos] perfect through sufferings.
11 For both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
12 Saying, I will declare your name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto you.
13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God has given me.
14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
16 For truly he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
17 Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor [rescue] them that are tempted [them that doubt He has visited, in a man].

Before going on to again paste Hebrews 12, it must be noted, verses 6 thru 8 above are quoted from Psalms 8:4 thru 6. The Psalm is written to commemorate the defeat of Goliath, verse 2 describing what defeats the enemy’s champion; shown as the LORD crowned David with His Glory (presence) after hearing His words. Psalms 8:2 says, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have you ordained [appointed] strength.” The appointment to speak His word in His name is the crown.

Here is what David said, recorded in 1 Samuel 17: “I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day will the LORD deliver you into mine hand; and I will smite you, and take your head from you; and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands.”

We know the LORD quotes Psalms 8:2 in Matthew 21:16, after the people say, “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed be He that comes in the name of the LORD; Hosanna in the highest,” a quote from Psalms 118:25 & 26 We know later, in Matthew 23, the LORD tells of the house that is called by His name, becoming desolate, and not seeing Him again until they say: “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the LORD.” In Psalms 118:25 the word Hosanna is translated as “Save now.” The word rendered “highest,” in Matthew 21, is hupsistos, meaning the Most High, as in archegos.

Hupsistos is the word Stephen (meaning crowned) uses in Acts 7:48 to tell of God not dwelling in temples made by man’s hands, meaning He dwells in human flesh.

Acts 7
48 Howbeit the Most High [hupsistos] dwells not in temples made with hands; as says the prophet,
49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will you build me? says the LORD: or what is the place of my rest?
50 Has not my hand made all these things?
51 You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears [refused to hear the LORD speaking in him], and ran upon him with one accord,
58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, LORD Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, LORD, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep [he became dead, with the LORD in His death].

Verses 49 & 50, quoting Isaiah 66:1 & 2, is Stephen speaking in the name of the LORD, the LORD ordaining, appointing, him to speak His word – the crown only He gives.

2 Timothy 2
1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit you to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
3 You therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.
5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned [stephnoo – only appearing two other times, Hebrews 2:7 & 9 above, speaking of the crown of the Son], except he strive lawfully [in order – subordinating his will to the Most High].
6 The husbandman that labors must be first partaker of the fruits [the chief, first, among leaders].
7 Consider what I say; and the LORD give you understanding in all things.
8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:
9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him [as Stephen], we shall also live with him:
12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
13 If we believe not, yet he abides faithful: he cannot deny himself.

Friends, all those before us died before they received the promise they saw far off and acted on, God having prepared some better thing for us, that they (now) would be made perfect with us, by our faith and faithfulness to the Most High.

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

Hebrews 12
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the Author [archegos] and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening 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, whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate [dogs – unable to stop barking], 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 intreated 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.

Isaiah 66
1 Thus says the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that you build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
2 For all those things has mine hand made, and all those things have been, says the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word.
3 He that kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrifices a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offers an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burns incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations. [In these defiled places “every table is full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.”]
4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
5 Hear the word of the LORD, you that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
6 A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that renders recompense to his enemies.
7 Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child [I Am].
8 Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? says the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? says your God.
10 Rejoice you with [new] Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her:
11 That you may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that you may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.
12 For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall you suck, you shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 And when you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, says the LORD [to all these defiled places that take my name in vain].
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
20 And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the LORD out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD.
21 And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, says the LORD.
22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the LORD.
24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be [in hell – Gehenna – the trash heap outside Jerusalem] an abhorring unto all flesh.

Hebrews 13
7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle [their defiled houses created by the hand of man].

Matthew 23
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees [false prophets, false preachers, and false teachers], hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees [false prophets, false preachers, and false teachers], hypocrites! for you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees [false prophets, false preachers, and false teachers], hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore you be witnesses unto yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill you up then the measure of your fathers.
33 You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Truly I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!
38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
39 For I say unto you, You shall not see me henceforth, till you shall say, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the LORD.

John 5
39 Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40 And you will not come to me, that you might have life.
41 I receive not honor from men.
42 But I know you, that you have not the love of God in you.
43 I am come in my Father’s name, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.
44 How can you believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only?
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust.
46 For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me; for he wrote of me.
47 But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?

Deuteronomy 18
13 You shall be perfect with the LORD your God.
14 For these nations, which you shall possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners [false prophets whose words never come true]: but as for you, the LORD your God has not suffered you so to do.
15 The LORD your God will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, like unto me; unto him you shall hearken;
16 According to all that you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
17 And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
20 But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
21 And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?
22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptuously: you shall not be afraid of him.

Arise, O God, plead your own cause: remember how the foolish man reproaches you daily.

Psalms 74
1 O God, why have you cast us off for ever? why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old; the rod of your inheritance, which you have redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein you have dwelt.
3 Lift up your feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy has done wickedly in the sanctuary.
4 Your enemies roar in the midst of your congregations; they set up their ensigns [false teaching] for signs.
5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees [against the upright].
6 But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.
7 They have cast fire into your sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of your name to the ground.
8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
9 We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knows how long.
10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme your name for ever?
11 Why withdraw you your hand, even your right hand? pluck it out of your bosom.
12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You did divide the sea by your strength: you brake the heads of the dragons [in whose words lurks death, as a crocodile waits for the prey beneath the surface] in the waters.
14 You brake the heads of leviathan in pieces [the false prophets, false priests, and their followers {Babylon – the reign of their confusion} who have pierced the LORD], and gave him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness [God’s elect remnant – outside their corruption].
15 You did cleave the fountain and the flood: you dried up mighty rivers [the words flowing from these men – which have drained the life from His people].
16 The day is your, the night also is your: you have prepared the light [understanding] and the sun [and your church – new Jerusalem].
17 You have set all the borders of the earth: you have made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed your name.
19 O deliver not the soul of your turtledove [those who know this is their destination: in your presence] unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of your poor for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places [the places of ignorance and confusion] of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
21 O let not the oppressed return ashamed [not without their expected end]: let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Arise, O God, plead your own cause: remember how the foolish man reproached you daily.
23 Forget not the voice of your enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against you increases continually.

Isaiah 27
1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day sing you unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Has he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
8 In measure, when it shoots forth, you will debate with it: he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.
10 Yet the defensed city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favor.
12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat [the fruit – His people] off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt [the places where they are held captive by false doctrines that flow from the false prophets and false teachers], and you shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown [do you hear it yet?], and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria [the communists], and the outcasts in the land of Egypt [the places of their captivity], and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

The LORD’s “turtledove,” spoken of in Psalms 74:19 above, is the Hebrew word towr, which is rendered “turtle” in Jeremiah 8:7 where it tells of these as those WHO KNOW THE TIME. It is speaking of the elect remnant knowing it is His coming, but most of His people not realizing it is the judgment.

Jeremiah 8
1 At that time, says the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.
4 Moreover you shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slid back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
6 I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle.
7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle [towr] and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.
8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the LORD.
13 I will surely consume them, says the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defensed cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!
16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan [in the judgment]: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.
17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you [and their venom shall rot you from the inside – turning your mind to confusion], says the LORD.
18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?
20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead [in this heap of testimony]; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

The following chapter tells us there is no healing of God’s people who are following false prophets and false teachers, and by choice follow them into perdition.

Jeremiah 9
1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, says the LORD.
4 Take you heed every one of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders.
5 And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
6 Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says the LORD.
7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lays his wait.
9 Shall I not visit them for these things? says the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.
11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perishes and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through?
13 And the LORD says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim [idols set up in God’s place], which their fathers taught them:
15 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.
17 Thus says the LORD of hosts, Consider you, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:
18 And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.
20 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation.
21 For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.
22 Speak, Thus says the LORD, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.
23 Thus says the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
24 But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.
25 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

Friends, God’s elect remnant who know the time because you have loved a kept His word, His turtledoves, the Father calls us to glory in this, that we understand and know Him, “that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.”

Paul quotes Jeremiah 9:24 in 1 Corinthians 1:31, there again saying we should glory in the understanding He has given us, and by it know His presence is the mind of Christ manifested in us.

1 Corinthians 1
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
23 But we preach Christ crucified [this is speaking of the risen Christ in us, through us again offering Himself – and raised again as He raises us with His rising], unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God [both manifested in our flesh as the risen Christ].
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised [us – I and the children God has given me], has God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are:
29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
30 But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
31 That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the LORD [that he understands and knows Me].

1 Corinthians 2
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified [Christ in us offering Himself to save the world from its darkness and death].
3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught:
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the LORD of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who has known the mind of the LORD, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:9 above is a quote from Isaiah 64:4 which tells of the presence of the LORD the world and God’s sleeping people are now ignorantly experiencing. The following chapter describes the experience (here and now) as His being found by those who don’t know they found Him – because they have been looking in the places the false prophet and false teachers have misled them. These same people have no idea they have been speaking to Him, denying and provoking Him to His face.

Isaiah 64
1 Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence,
2 As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence! [These are words telling of what has occurred and His people have not seen – because they have been misled into darkness and ignorance of Him and His plan.]
3 When you did terrible things which we looked not for [because they were looking elsewhere], you came down, the mountains flowed down at your presence.
4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, beside you, what he has prepared for him that waits for him.
5 You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember you in your ways: behold, you are wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is none that calls upon your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of you: for you have hid your face from us, and have consumed us, because of our iniquities.
8 But now, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.
9 Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech you, we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
12 Will you refrain yourself for these things, O LORD? will you hold your peace, and afflict us very sore?

Isaiah 65
1 I am sought of them that asked not for me [they looked for me and I am right here]; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.
2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketd in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
3 A people that provoked me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense upon altars of brick [the creations of men];
4 Which remain among the graves [refuse to come to the living], and lodge in the monuments [among the dead], which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
5 Which say, Stand by yourself, come not near to me; for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day.
6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
8 Thus says the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
10 And Sharon [my presence in plain sight] shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor [the places that have been troubled and in tribulation] a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
11 But you are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop [the false prophets, the unrepentant, and antichrists], and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.
12 Therefore will I number you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.
13 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed:
14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.
15 And you shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the LORD God shall slay you, and call his servants by another name:
16 That he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.
17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
18 But be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create [new] Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
19 And I will rejoice in [my people, new] Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.
21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust [the ashes of the old earth] shall be the serpent’s [the deceiver’s] meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD.

Psalm 44
1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work you did in their days, in the times of old.
2 How you did drive out the heathen with your hand, and planted them; how you did afflict the people, and cast them out.
3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but your right hand, and your arm, and the light [understanding] of your countenance [presence], because you had a favor unto them.
4 You are my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.
5 Through you will we push down our enemies: through your name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7 But you have saved us from our enemies, and have put them to shame that hated us.
8 In God we boast all the day long, and praise your name for ever. Selah.
9 But you have cast off, and put us to shame; and go not forth with our armies.
10 You make us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.
11 You have given us like sheep appointed for meat; and have scattered us among the heathen.
12 You sell your people for naught, and do not increase your wealth by their price.
13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
14 You make us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me,
16 For the voice of him that reproaches and blasphemes; by reason of the enemy and avenger.
17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten you, neither have we dealt falsely in your covenant.
18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from your way;
19 Though you have sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
21 Shall not God search this out? for he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yea, for your sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleep you, O LORD? arise, cast us not off for ever.
24 Wherefore hide you your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaves unto the earth.
26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for your mercies’ sake.

The reason God’s people are blind to the time and have not seen His coming is the lies of false prophets and false teachers among them – lies such as the rapture.

They know it’s the time, but they do nothing because they are waiting for an event that will never happen. The LORD has come with mercy, first calling the deceivers to repentance and giving them a chance to save themselves from the consequence of their lies. Of course, as we know from the pattern in the prophets, these men have rejected the LORD at His coming, and in refusing Him, forsake their own mercy (Jonah 2:8).

As we understand, by the LORD’s enlightening us, His mercy, coming to pull them from the fires their own ideas have caused, is the event these men have twisted into the rapture deception. We know this event is spoken of using the word harpazo; rendered “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and “pulled” in Jude 23. Both are describing the LORD acting through us, His messengers, as we, by His truth, pull these same men, deceivers and the deceived, from the fires they, by their deceptions, have caused in the earth.

As Peter tells us, these men are the false prophets and false teachers among us, who have brought in damnable heresies, even denying the LORD who has bought them from this same darkness. He says that in this state of ignorant stupor, the way of truth will be evil spoken of. We will see this point manifested into reality as this truth is posted, as the evil spirit in the deceived, the power that now works in the children of disobedience, at the posting spews hate. This itself fulfills the scripture that says, “they hated me without a cause,” and “the reproach of them that reproach the LORD has fallen on us.” In this these people blindly and ignorantly reject the LORD at His coming to rescue them, and hate us for speaking His truth as His will and charity is acted out through us.

Jude
1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only LORD God, and our LORD Jesus Christ.
5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the LORD, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire [see verse 23 below].
8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The LORD rebuke you.
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 [that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. 1 John 3:12], and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward [cursing God’s people], and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots [those who spotted the garments we are pulled {harpazo} from – see verse 23 below] in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water [where the meaning remains as a vapor, unseen, and never turned into water, understanding that will fall as the word of God from heaven to the earth], carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves [swelled with pride] of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars [having lost their fixed positions in heaven and wander away from the LORD’s truth], to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness [ignorance] 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.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaks great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our LORD Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our LORD Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23 And others save with fear, pulling [harpazo] them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. [The event these men have twisted into a rapture – the lie which itself will consume those who remain with it into perdition. It is what is spoken of in Jude’s mentioning Enoch in verse 14, who the LORD first pulled from these same fires].
24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25 To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

The name Enoch is said to mean dedicated, from the Hebrew word chanak, a five times used word, meaning to initiate or discipline; translated three times dedicated, once as dedicate, and once as train up. The description of Enoch is telling of him walking with the LORD, being open to correction and thereby trained up into agreement, and by this pulled from the fires of the earth, which he is quoted describing in Jude 14 & 15 above.

Chanak is used to tell of dedicating a house, and twice of dedicating the house of God, as in initiating it based on this principle. It is the word rendered “train up” in Proverbs 22:6, telling of teaching a child when he is young, and when he is old he will return to what he has learned. It is referring to what is written in 1 Corinthians 13, of a child only partially understanding what he has been taught, until he has learned from life’s experiences; then fully understanding, returning from where he has strayed. It is speaking of man as the child, who has now grown, seen, and should return to God who he walked with when he was younger.

1 Corinthians 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity [If I don’t freely give what has been given to me through these gifts], I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods [material possessions] to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity [if I don’t freely give these true riches, the word that flows from the mouth of God, by which only do men live], it profits me nothing.
4 Charity [God’s character] suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up [is not swelled with pride],
5 Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;
6 Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Charity never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly [in ignorance]; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abides faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity [the character, love, of God acted out through us].

Proverbs 22
1 A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.
2 The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.
3 A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.
4 By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honor, and life.
5 Thorns and snares are in the way of the forward [those who twist and pervert truth]: he that does keep his soul shall be far from them.
6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
8 He that sows iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.
9 He that has a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he gives of his bread to the poor.
10 Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease.
11 He that loves pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.
12 The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, and he overthrows the words of the transgressor.
13 The slothful man says, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
14 The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.
15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
16 He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that gives to the rich, shall surely come to want.
17 Bow down your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart unto my knowledge.
18 For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; they shall withal be fitted in your lips.
19 That your trust may be in the LORD, I have made known to you this day, even to you.
20 Have not I written to you excellent things in counsels and knowledge,
21 That I might make you know the certainty of the words of truth; that you might answer the words of truth to them that send unto you?
22 Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:
23 For the LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.
24 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man you shall not go:
25 Lest you learn his ways, and get a snare to your soul.
26 Be not you one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.
27 If you have nothing to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?
28 Remove not the ancient landmark [understanding the boundaries that should not be crossed – speaking of turning truth into a lie], which your fathers have set.
29 Sees you a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.

The one sentence that initially describes the event is Genesis 5:24, which says, “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” The word here rendered “took,” the Hebrew word laqach, which is rendered “get” in verse 25 above, where it is speaking of the eventual product of what is learned. It is also used in verse 27, translated “take away,” here again speaking of being taken in what a person learns and joins.

Friends, this is how God has taken us, as He took Enoch, out of the corrupt world and its fires, out of the darkness and agitation of ignorance, into heaven where truth and understanding are enthroned. We have walked with Him, learning His word into agreement with His mind, the mind of Christ freely given to us by receiving His word as the word of God, which it truly is.

This is as Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 2, speaking of those who when they “received the word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe.” Paul tells us this is the entrance preached to you, into the kingdom of God, and receiving it you are in the presence of the LORD at His coming. I urge all to do the same.

1 Thessalonians 2
1 For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain:
2 But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.
3 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:
4 But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which tries our hearts.
5 For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness:
6 Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.
7 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children:
8 So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us.
9 For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and un-blamably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:
11 As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his children,
12 That you would walk worthy of God, who has called you unto his kingdom and glory.
13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe.
14 For you, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for you also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
15 Who both killed the LORD Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
17 But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.
18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us [the spirit that worked in these unreasonable and wicked men, and is the power that now effectually works in the children of disobedience].
19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence of our LORD Jesus Christ at his coming?
20 For you are our glory and joy.

We have often discussed the LORD’s way in the depths, His deep thoughts, which He reveals in a time of His choosing, to those He chooses, and from the wicked, this light is withheld. Here are such words from the Book of Enoch, when He speaks of this day and the LORD’s coming as He HAS.

Enoch 1
1 The word of the blessing of Enoch, how he blessed the elect and the righteous, who were to exist in the time of trouble; rejecting all the wicked and ungodly. Enoch, a righteous man, who was (1) with God, answered and spoke, while his eyes were open, and while he saw a holy vision in the heavens. This the angels showed me.
2 From them I heard all things, and understood what I saw; that which will not take place in this generation, but in a generation which is to succeed at a distant period, on account of the elect.
3 Upon their account I spoke and conversed with him, who will go forth from his habitation, the Holy and Mighty One, the God of the world:
4 Who will hereafter tread upon Mount Sinai; appear with his hosts; and be manifested in the strength of his power from heaven.
5 All shall be afraid, and the Watchers be terrified.
6 Great fear and trembling shall seize them, even to the ends of the earth. The lofty mountains shall be troubled, and the exalted hills depressed, melting like a honeycomb in the flame. The earth shall be immerged, and all things which are in it perish; while judgment shall come upon all, even upon all the righteous:
7 But to them shall he give peace: he shall preserve the elect, and towards them exercise clemency.
8 Then shall all belong to God; be happy and blessed; and the splendor of the Godhead shall illuminate them.

Enoch 2
1 Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him. [Quoted in Jude 14 & 15]

Here are a few of the later chapters that come in a series of three parables.

Enoch 38
1. Parable the first. When the congregation of the righteous shall be manifested; and sinners be judged for their crimes, and be troubled in the sight of the world;
2. When righteousness shall be manifested in the presence of the righteous themselves, who will be elected for their good works duly weighed by the LORD of spirits; and when the light of the righteous and the elect, who dwell on earth, shall be manifested; where will the habitation of sinners be? and where the place of rest for those who have rejected the LORD of spirits? It would have been better for them, had they never been born.
3. When, too, the secrets of the righteous shall be revealed, then shall sinners be judged; and impious men shall be afflicted in the presence of the righteous and the elect.
4. From that period those who possess the earth shall cease to be powerful and exalted. Neither shall they be capable of beholding the countenances of the holy; for the light of the countenances of the holy, the righteous, and the elect, has been seen by the LORD of spirits.
5. Yet shall not the mighty kings of that period be destroyed; but be delivered into the hands of the righteous and the holy.
6. Nor thenceforwards shall any obtain commiseration from the LORD of spirits, because their lives in this world will have been completed.

Enoch 39
1. In those days shall the elect and holy race descend from the upper heavens, and their seed shall then be with the sons of men. Enoch received books of indignation and wrath, and books of hurry and agitation.
2. Never shall they obtain mercy, saith the LORD of spirits.
3. A cloud then snatched me up, and the wind raised me above the surface of the earth, placing me at the extremity of the heavens.
4. There I saw another vision; I saw the habitations and couches of the saints. There my eyes beheld their habitations with the angels, and their couches with the holy ones. They were entreating, supplicating, and praying for the sons of men; while righteousness like water flowed before them, and mercy like dew was scattered over the earth. And thus shall it be with them for ever and for ever.
5. At that time my eyes beheld the dwelling of the elect, of truth, faith, and righteousness.
6. Countless shall be the number of the holy and the elect, in the presence of God for ever and for ever.
7. Their residence I beheld under the wings of the LORD of spirits. All the holy and the elect sung before him, in appearance like a blaze of fire; their mouths being full of blessings, and their lips glorifying the name of the LORD of spirits. And righteousness incessantly dwelt before him,
8. There was I desirous of remaining, and my soul longed for that habitation. There was my antecedent inheritance; for thus had I prevailed before the LORD of spirits.
9. At that time I glorified and extolled the name of the LORD of spirits with blessing and with praise; for he has established it with blessing and with praise, according to his own good pleasure.
10. That place long did my eyes contemplate. I blessed and said, Blessed be he, blessed from the beginning for ever. In the beginning, before the world was created, and without end is his knowledge.
11. What is this world? Of every existing generation those shall bless you who do not sleep in the dust, but stand before your glory, blessing, glorifying, exalting you, and saying, The holy, holy, LORD of spirits, fills the whole world of spirits.
12. There my eyes beheld all who, without sleeping, stand before him and bless him, saying, Blessed be you, and blessed be the name of God for ever and for ever. Then my countenance became changed, until I was incapable of seeing.

Enoch 48 (1)
1. In that place I beheld a fountain of righteousness, which never failed, encircled by many springs of wisdom. Of these all the thirsty drank, and were filled with wisdom, having their habitation with the righteous, the elect, and the holy.
2. In that hour was this Son of man invoked before the LORD of spirits, and his name in the presence of the Ancient of days.
3. Before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of heaven were formed, his name was invoked in the presence of the LORD of spirits. A support shall he be for the righteous and the holy to lean upon, without falling; and he shall be the light of nations.
4. He shall be the hope of those whose hearts are troubled. All, who dwell on earth, shall fall down and worship before him; shall bless and glorify him, and sing praises to the name of the LORD of spirits.
5. Therefore the Elect and the Concealed One existed in his presence, before the world was created, and for ever.
6. In his presence he existed, and has revealed to the saints and to the righteous the wisdom of the LORD of spirits; for he has preserved the lot of the righteous, because they have hated and rejected this world of iniquity, and have detested all its works and ways, in the name of the LORD of spirits.
7. For in his name shall they be preserved; and his will shall be their life. In those days shall the kings of the earth and the mighty men, who have gained the world by their achievements, become humble in countenance.
8. For in the day of their anxiety and trouble their souls shall not be saved; and they shall be in subjection to those whom I have chosen.
9. I will cast them like hay into the fire, and like lead into the water. Thus shall they burn in the presence of the righteous, and sink in the presence of the holy; nor shall a tenth part of them be found.
10. But in the day of their trouble, the world shall obtain tranquility.
11. In his presence shall they fall, and not be raised up again; nor shall there be any one to take them out of his hands, and to lift them up: for they have denied the LORD of spirits, and his Messiah. The name of the LORD of spirits shall be blessed.

Enoch 48 (2)
1. Wisdom is poured forth like water, and glory fails not before him for ever and ever; for potent is he in all the secrets of righteousness.
2. But iniquity passes away like a shadow, and possesses not a fixed station: for the Elect One stands before the LORD of spirits; and his glory is for ever and ever; and his power from generation to generation.
3. With him dwells the spirit of intellectual wisdom, the spirit of instruction and of power, and the spirit of those who sleep in righteousness; he shall judge secret things.
4. Nor shall any be able to utter a single word before him; for the Elect One is in the presence of the LORD of spirits, according to his own pleasure.

Enoch 49
1. In those days the saints and the chosen shall undergo a change. The light of day shall rest upon them; and the splendor and glory of the saints shall be changed.
2. In the day of trouble evil shall be heaped up upon sinners; but the righteous shall triumph in the name of the LORD of spirits.
3. Others shall be made to see, that they must repent, and forsake the works of their hands; and that glory awaits them not in the presence of the LORD of spirits; yet that by his name they may be saved. The LORD of spirits will have compassion on them: for great is his mercy; and righteousness is in his judgment, and in the presence of his glory; nor in his judgment shall iniquity stand. He who repents not before him shall perish.
4. Henceforward I will not have mercy on them, says the LORD of spirits.

The Hebrew word laqach is used in Isaiah 28:19 to tell of being “taken” by the LORD, by His teaching, and the only vexation is to understand this report.

Isaiah 28
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 shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take [laqach – as I took Enoch] 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 [as a breaking forth of great waters – His word], he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon [as great hailstones from heaven – water that have been frozen, so they couldn’t be understood until this time of heat and melting], that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the LORD God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
23 Give you ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.

When Enoch, in Enoch 1:5, speaks of the “Watchers” they are the wicked Jeremiah describes in Jeremiah 4:16, whose ways and ideas have made the earth become without form and void. They are the wicked, false prophets and false teachers among us as fallen angels – messengers of darkness, leading into death and hell.

Jeremiah 4
1 If you will return, O Israel, says the LORD, return unto me: and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight, then shall you not remove.
2 And you shall swear, The LORD lives, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
5 Declare you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow you the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defensed cities.
6 Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
9 And it shall come to pass at that day, says the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.
10 Then said I, Ah, LORD God! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches unto the soul.
11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
12 Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.
13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.
14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes affliction from mount Ephraim.
16 Make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
17 As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she has been rebellious against me, says the LORD.
18 Your way and your doings have procured these things unto you; this is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reaches unto your heart.
19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.
21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
27 For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

Psalms 102
13 You shall arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come.
14 For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof.
15 So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth your glory.
16 When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
18 This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.
19 For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;
20 To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
21 To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
22 When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
23 He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: your years are throughout all generations.
25 Of old have you laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They shall perish, but you shall endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shall you change them, and they shall be changed:
27 But you are the same, and your years shall have no end.
28 The children of your servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before you.

Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds [phule – tribes] of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

Today’s title is Revelation 1:7, which tells of the appearing of the LORD spoken of in Isaiah 52:10, and in Matthew 24:30 where the word phule is rendered “tribes.” We are told by the LORD in Luke 22:30 this is in the judgement, and the mourning results as the elect are sitting on the judgment seats judging all the tribes, and they, the tribes, see they are those who have pierced the LORD.

This is what is spoken of in Jeremiah 4, in which, as we saw in the previous post and many before, the world is said to have become without form and void, the pattern also described in Genesis 1 and Isaiah 34:11. Jeremiah goes on to tell of this same event as the desolation of Jerusalem: the desolation of the teaching that flowed from God, which is the only foundation of peace and safety; and the realization by God’s people that they are its cause.

The ignorance resulting from this famine is what God’s people to this day refuse to acknowledge and repent from; instead, their preachers tell them they are righteous and everyone else is who the LORD’s wrath comes against. They are rejoicing when they should be in mourning and repenting for and away from their abominations: the idols they have created and put in God’s place. These abominations, the ignorance of the knowledge of God, are the ideas in the minds of men, in church and state, which causes judgment to become clouded, meaning the understanding of the word of God to leave the earth as a vapor and become like a cloud in heaven. The LORD is in the cloud, turning the vapor again into water, to be rained down on the earth as understanding, removing the cloud so the light (understanding) can again be on the earth lighting its darkness. (But men choose darkness because their deeds are evil.)

Jeremiah 4
1 If you will return, O Israel, says the LORD, return unto me: and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight, then shall you not remove.
2 And you shall swear, The LORD lives, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
5 Declare you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow you the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defensed cities.
6 Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
9 And it shall come to pass at that day, says the LORD, that the heart [reason – understanding from a well-founded sound mind] of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.
10 Then said I, Ah, LORD God! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches unto the soul.
11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
12 Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.
13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.
14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan [this seat of judgment], and publishes affliction from mount Ephraim [as this second blessing to God’s people in the latter generation].
16 Make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
17 As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, says the LORD.
18 Your way and your doings have procured these things unto you; this is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reaches unto your heart.
19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.
21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish [stupefied] children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form [tohuw], and void [bohuw]; and the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
30 And when you are spoiled, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you rent your face with painting, in vain shall you make yourself fair; your lovers will despise you, they will seek your life.
31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewails herself, that spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

When the LORD, in Matthew 24:30, tells of the sign in the clouds of heaven, when the son of man comes in them, it is speaking of the place Genesis 1 tells us is where the waters, this word of God, are rightly divided. There it says the water, the word of God and the words created by man, are divided, separated and seen as such.

Friends, the word of God, in Isaiah 28:8, doesn’t say in vain that LORD comes, teaching knowledge, because, “all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.” The same men, the corrupters of truth, who now stand on their corruption to protect it from the LORD’s truth, now want to skip repentance and purification and enter with their abomination. “Truly I say unto you, I know you not.”

(Some wonder why the LORD repeats himself – it is because these men still haven’t listened, their pride causing their self-righteous eyes and ears to fail. “Blessed are the pure in heart [those who have cleansed their minds from what has defiled them]: for they shall see God.”)

Isaiah 28
2 Behold, the LORD hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looks upon it sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate [where these men are trying to enter].
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? 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 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 [these men to whom this correction has come, are saying they are the righteous and the correction is coming for everyone except them]: 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 [this word of God, frozen and sent from heaven – that its meaning is not seen by the wicked {Job 38:15}, in fact they wrestle with it to their own destruction {2 Peter 3:15 & 16} – as barking dogs unable to stop their mouths] 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 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.

Matthew 24
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened [the church is without understanding], and the moon shall not give her light [no understanding in the civil government], and the stars shall fall from heaven [all God’s people no longer holding a fixed position in heaven: lacking a firm understanding], and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: [these are all blinded by the gods of this world {2 Corinthians 4:4}, by the power, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience {Ephesians 2:2}]
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh: [when you see life coming after a long time when everything has been dead]
33 So likewise you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Truly I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
36 But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Luke 22
25 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority [exousiazo – control every aspect of their lives] upon them are called benefactors [euergretes – workers of good].
26 But you shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that does serve.
27 For whether is greater, he that sits at meat, or he that serves? is not he that sits at meat? but I am among you as he that serves.
28 You are they which have continued with me in my temptations [while all men denied that God was/is present in me].
29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
30 That you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes [phule] of Israel.

Revelation 1
3 Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
4 John [Jehovah’s grace] to the seven churches which are in Asia [all the church who’ve been without the LORD’s word]: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
7 Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the LORD, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

These men, those controlling God people, teaching them their own words claiming they are God’s, think these are merely vain words, as are theirs. These are the commandments of God, and men should more carefully consider what they have to this point rejected. They claim they are waiting for what has now come, which they are unable to see because they are blinded by their own false doctrines. They are the abomination that have caused the desolation of Jerusalem: God’s people, the city in which He will dwell.

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, 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.

In the LORD describing this day, in Matthew 24:30, He first quotes Zechariah 12:12 telling of the mourning that comes to those who have been separated from those who have led them into corruption and kept them from being joined to the LORD – as is spoken of in Isaiah 52:11 above. He then, in the same verse, quotes from Daniel 7:13, which describes the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven. In reading these, those who have read along, been with me from the beginning and through the temptation, will more fully understand their deep meaning.

Zechariah 12
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, says the LORD, which stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, says the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
7 The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon [the appointed time of our rendezvous].
12 And the land shall mourn, every family [tribe] apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei [the famous and renowned] apart, and their wives apart;
14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

Daniel 7
9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spoke: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.
12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
15 I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.
16 I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.
17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.
18 But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
19 Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast [Babylon – the confusion that now rules over all the earth], which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet;
20 And of the ten horns [all the governments of the world] that were in his head [of the same confused mind], and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.
21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;
22 Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.
25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time [events past] and times [the time between] and the dividing of time [now when the past events are seen, and, by understanding them, we understand our time].
26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
28 Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.

The “Ancient of days” is speaking of the word of God, which the LORD has provided and protected for this time, the wheel within the wheel, the recorded events we understand, which tell us of our time and provide us with His good counsel. These are the “durable clothing” spoken of in Isaiah 23:18, which demonstrate the LORD’s provision.

Isaiah 23
1 The burden of Tyre [false rock – the false church in which all God’s people vainly trust]. Howl, you ships of Tarshish [which flee from your vows]; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim [their desolation] it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, you inhabitants of the isle; you whom the merchants of Zidon [who have hunted God’s people], that pass over the sea, have replenished.
3 And by great waters the seed of Sihor [darkness – ignorance], the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.
4 Be you ashamed, O Zidon [hunters]: for the sea hath spoken [witnesses against you and your ways], even the strength of the sea [God’s people at large – all the tribes of the earth], saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.
5 As at the report concerning Egypt [the captivity], so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
6 Pass you over to Tarshish; howl, you inhabitants of the isle [the dry places – without God’s word].
7 Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
8 Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre [the counterfeit church], the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?
9 The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
10 Pass through your land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish [who have fled from your vows and been unfaithful to God]: there is no more strength.
11 He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD hath given a commandment against the merchant city [who sell the carcasses of dead men as their merchandise], to destroy the strong holds thereof.
12 And he said, You shall no more rejoice, O you oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon [of the hunter]: arise, pass over to Chittim [the desolation]; there also shall you have no rest.
13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans [those who have used lies, as spells to control and manipulate]; this people was not, till the Assyrian [the degeneration into godless communism] founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.
14 Howl, you ships of Tarshish [the unfaithful]: for your strength is laid waste.
15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre [the false rock] shall be forgotten seventy years [the time that produced the now total desolation of God’s people], according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre [the false church in which men trust] sing as an harlot.
16 Take an harp, go about the city, you harlot [now Babylon – the confusion that rules over all this world age] that has been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.
17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years [the desolation by these abominations], that the LORD will visit Tyre [the false church], and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
18 And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

Revelation 16
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon [the appointed time, the rendezvous].
17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Revelation 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 you the judgment of the great whore that sits upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.
6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue a short space.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition.
12 And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is LORD of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
15 And he said unto me, The waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
16 And the ten horns which you saw upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which you saw is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.

Revelation 18
1And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the LORD God who judges her.
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is your judgment come.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buys their merchandise any more:
12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
13 And cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
14 And the fruits that your soul lusted after are departed from you, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from you, and you shall find them no more at all.
15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
16 And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to naught. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
20 Rejoice over her, you heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in you; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in you; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in you;
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in you; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in you: for your merchants were the great men of the earth; for by your sorceries were all nations deceived.
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

O LORD, how great are your works! and your thoughts are very deep.

The above is Psalms 92:5, which follows verses telling how those of us who’ve seen them should respond to the LORD’s works, with gratitude and thanks giving. Our response is in verse 3 described as “a solemn sound,” one of the four uses of higgaion, the word discussed in the prior post. The Psalm goes on to describe those who have no understanding, and therefore choose a path that leads to their destruction. This brings us to Romans 11:33 and the deep thoughts of the LORD spoken of there, where the LORD has concluded all are in unbelief, so He can show mercy to all who will come to understanding and receive Him. This last aspect then refers us back to Jonah 2:8 where Jonah, as he comes to understanding and from the belly of hell, says, “Those that observe lying vanities [false words of no value] forsake their own mercy.”

Psalms 92
1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto your name, O Most High:
2 To shew forth your lovingkindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night,
3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound [higgaion].
4 For you, LORD, have made me glad through your work: I will triumph in the works of your hands.
5 O LORD, how great are your works! and your thoughts are very deep.
6 A brutish man knows not; neither does a fool understand this.
7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
8 But you, LORD, are most high for evermore.
9 For, lo, your enemies, O LORD, for, lo, your enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
10 But my horn shall you exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
11 Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.
12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
15 To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Friends, as we have learned, Romans 11 is written in a manner where events in their time are seen as patterns, precisely described, divinely engineered, to describe events in our time. We know these are Ezekiel’s wheel within a wheel, a circuit of events within a time, understood and recorded, to be seen as they describe events in our time, and in understanding them is found God’s counsel, words of life in a time when all have forgotten and become dead. Romans 11 is speaking of and to all those who say they believe; Christian and Jew: all Israel.

Romans 11
25 For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob [those who unknowingly wrestle with God]:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins [remove, by correcting their errors: lying vanities].
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as you in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God has concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
33 O the depth [the deep thoughts of God] of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who has known the mind of the LORD? or who has been his counselor?
35 Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Jonah 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and you heard my voice.
3 For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all your billows and your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
10 And the LORD spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Now is the time when we have been raised from death, the first pulled from the fires of hell by the grace of God: His favoring us, that through us His mercy and grace, His unsearchable depths (therefore only coming as a gift from Him), can be shined as understanding on all.

When Paul speaks on Mars’ Hill, Acts 17, he is describing those who ignorantly worshiped God. He tells of this Judgment, the time God winked at (overlooked and thereby blotted out the time of error) and now, as Jonah, through us calls all men everywhere to repentance and correction. Be it known to all, it is for this reason we have been raised to life among the dead, to bring many children to the same glory.

Acts 17
…Whom therefore you ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is LORD of heaven and earth, dwell not in temples made with hands [but rather He dwells in man, earthen vessels, as do we in resurrection – Selah];
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he gives to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And has made of one blood all nations of men [believers and unbelievers] for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should [now] seek the LORD, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us [because He is in those who come to life by receiving Him]:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men every where to repent:
31 Because he has appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.

Isaiah 55
1 Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk [these words that have the power to change your mind and nourish you into life] without money and without price.
2 Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread [which is not the word from God’s mouth, by which only does man come to life]? and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David [see the reference below in 2 Samuel 22:51].
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you know not, and nations that knew not you shall run unto you because of the LORD your God [see Roman 11 above, which speaks of this event], and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.
6 Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call you upon him while he is near [see Acts 17:27 above].
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him [repent and] return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

2 Samuel 22
29 For you are my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.
30 For by you I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall.
31 As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.
32 For who is God, save the LORD? and who is a rock, save our God?
33 God is my strength and power: and he makes my way perfect.
34 He makes my feet like hinds’ feet [my stand immovable]: and set me upon my high places.
35 He teaches my hands to war [by the revelation of His good counsel and well ordered sound mind]; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.
36 You have also given me the shield of your salvation: and your gentleness has made me great.
37 You have enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did not slip.
38 I have pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them; and turned not again until I had consumed them.
39 And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they could not arise: yea, they are fallen under my feet.
40 For you have girded me with strength to battle: them that rose up against me have you subdued under me.
41 You have also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me.
42 They looked, but there was none to save; even unto the LORD, but he answered them not.
43 Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad.
44 You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people, you have kept me to be head of the heathen: a people which I knew not shall serve me.
45 Strangers shall submit themselves unto me: as soon as they hear, they shall be obedient unto me.
46 Strangers shall fade away, and they shall be afraid out of their close places.
47 The LORD lives; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation.
48 It is God that avenges me, and that brings down the people under me.
49 And that brings me forth from mine enemies: you also have lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me: you have delivered me from the violent man.
50 Therefore I will give thanks unto you, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto your name.
51 He is the tower of salvation for his king: and shows mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed for evermore.

2 Samuel 23
1 Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said,
2 The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue.
3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, He that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
4 And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.
5 Although my house be not so with God; yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he makes it not to grow.
6 But the sons of Belial [that follow idols: ideas far from God, and by teaching them lead people away from Him and His peace] shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands:
7 But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place.

Isaiah 40
1 Comfort you, comfort you my people, says your God.
2 Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
3 The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass withers, the flower fades: because the spirit of the LORD blows upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9 O Zion, that brings good tidings, get you up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
10 Behold, the LORD God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his ccounselorhas taught him?
14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
18 To whom then will you liken God? or what likeness will you compare unto him?
19 The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains.
20 He that is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.
21 Have you not known? have you not heard? has it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:
23 That brings the princes to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25 To whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that brings out their host by number: he calls them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one fails.
27 Why say you, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28 Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 41
1 Keep silence before me, O islands [places that haven’t heard the word of God – Jonah’s dry land]; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.
3 He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.
4 Who has wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.
5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.
6 They helped every one his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.
7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smooths with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
8 But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.
9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called you from the chief men thereof, and said unto you, You are my servant; I have chosen you, and not cast you away.
10 Fear you not; for I am with you: be not dismayed; for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yea, I will help you; yea, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against you shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with you shall perish.
12 You shall seek them, and shall not find them, even them that contended with you: they that war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught.
13 For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not; I will help you.
14 Fear not, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I will help you, says the LORD, and your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15 Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: you shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shall make the hills as chaff.
16 You shall fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and you shall rejoice in the LORD, and shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue fails for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:
20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
21 Produce your cause, says the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.
23 Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
24 Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of naught: an abomination is he that chooses you.
25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treads clay.
26 Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that shows, yea, there is none that declares, yea, there is none that hears your words.
27 The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that brings good tidings.
28 For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counselor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.
29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.

The Hebrew word here rendered “confusion” is tohuw, which we know appears in Genesis 1:2 in describing the condition of the earth, “without form,” when darkness (ignorance) was upon the face of the deep, until the Spirit of the LORD moved upon the face of the water and light (understanding) appeared in the darkness. We know from our many discussion on the topic, in Genesis the other word telling of this condition is bohuw, translated “void,” and these two words only appear together two other times. They are in Isaiah 34:11 rendered confusion and emptiness in describe the foundation and building of the palaces and kingdom of those who have become without understanding. In Jeremiah 4:23 they are rendered exactly as they are in Genesis 1, again here describing God’s people without knowledge, ignorant of Him and His ways.

Isaiah 34
8 For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.
9 And the streams [the word that flows from them] thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch [darkness].
10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion [tohuw], and the stones of emptiness [bohuw].
12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons [where death lurks beneath the surface, in their words], and a court for owls [screeching out sounds that pierce the ears].

Jeremiah 4
21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form [tohuw], and void [bohuw]; and the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
27 For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

Psalms 2
1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD has said unto me, You are my Son; this day have I begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O you kings: be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

I will praise you, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will show forth all your marvelous works.

The above is one (David) who has seen the presence of the LORD, believing and speaking of His mighty works, the strange acts He is working, in and through His children.

Who among you will reign with God? Who will declare He is in our midst working? I tell you, if you keep silent the very rocks will cry out. As for me and my house, the children God has given me, we will praise the LORD with our whole heart, showing His marvelous works, judging the world whose ways are wickedness and destruction.

Psalms 9
1 I will praise you, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all your marvelous works.
2 I will be glad and rejoice in you: I will sing praise to your name, O you most High.
3 When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at your presence.
4 For you have maintained my right and my cause; you sat in the throne judging right.
5 You have rebuked the heathen, you have destroyed the wicked, you have put out their name for ever and ever.
6 O you enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and you have destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.
7 But the LORD shall endure for ever: he has prepared his throne for judgment.
8 And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.
9 The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
10 And they that know your name will put their trust in you: for you, LORD, have not forsaken them that seek you.
11 Sing praises to the LORD, which dwells in Zion: declare among the people his doings.
12 When he makes inquisition for blood, he remembers them: he forgets not the cry of the humble.
13 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, you that lifts me up from the gates of death:
14 That I may shew forth all your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in your salvation.
15 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.
16 The LORD is known by the judgment which he executes: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.
19 Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in your sight.
20 Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.

When verse 16 above, after describing the wicked snared in the words of their mouths, says “Higgaion,” it’s not only describing this event (work, act), but also referring us to the other three times the word is used. These are devices, the creations of the mind, the ideas upon which depends all their reasoning. As we know, the word following, “Selah,” is telling us to think about these ideas, to ourselves find the deeper understanding the LORD has therein embedded.

Higgaion appears in Psalms 19:14, rendered “meditations,” of the heart: the deep seat, foundation of, the throne of our mind where sits the thoughts/ideas that reign over us, our words and actions. The Psalm describes the revelation of heaven: the word of God rightly divided at the LORD’s appearing as the light, giving us His knowledge and understanding: the ideas and ways that bring us out of ignorance and darkness.

Psalm 19
1 The heavens declare the glory [presence] of God; and the firmament shows his handy-work [the work of His hand].
2 Day unto day uttering speech, and night unto night showing knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them has he set a tabernacle for the sun [the light rising that brings the new day],
5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber [to join those His Father has chosen and arranged], and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.
6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it [all the events of history have been engineered to culminate in this time]: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof [and all ignorance that has hidden this fact melt away in the moment].
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening [giving understanding to] the eyes.
9 The fear of the LORD is clean [with pure intention: to make pure], enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11 Moreover by them is your servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
12 Who can understand his [own] errors? cleanse you me from secret faults [which I know not].
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me [let them not sit on the throne of my mind]: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation [higgaion] of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

The “great transgression” is describing the higgaion of the wicked, which lead them into ignorance and into ignorance of their ignorance, with no idea what they have fallen into; the words by which they are now judged, that display and prove the darkness in them. They are unable to stop speaking them, as dogs pointlessly barking at sounds in the night, their pride in their devices keeping them from praying for wisdom, as prescribed in the preceding verses of Psalms 19.

The Hebrew word used to tell of this “transgression” is pesha’, meaning revolt, here against God and His preeminent ideas. The LORD’s response to this rebellion is judgment, making know his authentic, quantifiable, intellectual superiority, which is His marvelous works: acts strange to man, blindly, primitively, consuming himself by his own ignorance and rejection of these better ways. “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalms 107:8

The places we must see to show us this point, where pasha’ appears, are Job 36:9, Proverbs 29:6 & 16, and Isaiah 44:22. These all depict how the LORD send His correction, though men He chooses, to enlighten and bring man back from the brink of self-destruction where he now stands.

Job 36
1 Elihu [He is God – in him speaking] also proceeded, and said,
2 Suffer me a little, and I will shew you that I have yet to speak on God’s behalf.
3 I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
4 For truly my words shall not be false: he that is perfect in knowledge is with you.
5 Behold, God is mighty, and despises not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom.
6 He preserves not the life of the wicked: but gives right to the poor.
7 He withdraws not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he does establish them for ever, and they are exalted.
8 And if they be bound in fetters, and be held in cords of affliction;
9 Then he shows them their work, and their transgressions [pesha’ – revolt – the sins they are ignorant of] that they have exceeded.
10 He opens also their ear to discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.
11 If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
12 But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.
13 But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry [shava’ – ask for His help] not when he binds them.
14 They die in youth, and their life is among the unclean [who refuse to be made pure – by receiving His correction].
15 He delivers the poor in his affliction, and opens their ears in oppression.
16 Even so would he have removed you out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness [His ways of truth, wherein there is true liberty, true freedom and peace]; and that which should be set on your table should be full of fatness.
17 But you have fulfilled the judgment of the wicked: judgment and justice take hold on you.
18 Because there is wrath, beware lest he take you away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver you.
19 Will he esteem your riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.
20 Desire not the night [darkness], when people are cut off in their place.
21 Take heed, regard not iniquity: for this have you chosen rather than affliction.
22 Behold, God exalts by his power: who teaches like him?
23 Who has enjoined him his way? or who can say, You have wrought iniquity?
24 Remember that you magnify his work, which men behold.
25 Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off.
26 Behold, God is great, and we know him not [are ignorant of Him and therefore don’t acknowledge His marvelous works], neither can the number of his years be searched out.
27 For he makes small the drops of water: they pour down rain [His word] according to the vapor thereof:
28 Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.
29 Also can any understand the spreading of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle [His voice we now hear]?
30 Behold, he spreads his light [understanding] upon it, and covers the bottom of the sea [sent to what man considers low place].
31 For by them judges he the people; he gives meat in abundance.
32 With clouds he covers the light; and commands it not to shine by the cloud that comes betwixt.
33 The noise thereof shows concerning it, the cattle also concerning the vapor.

The cloud and the vapor are speaking of the word of God, man’s understanding of it leaving as a vapor ascending into heaven, becoming as clouds covering the light/understanding, where they have first turned again into water and return to earth, as understanding to His flock, His cattle, as lightning, whose voice is as thunder.

Proverbs 29
1 He, that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked bears rule, the people mourn.
3 Whoso loves wisdom rejoices his father: but he that keeps company with harlots spends his substance.
4 The king by judgment establishes the land: but he that receives gifts overthrows it.
5 A man that flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.
6 In the transgression [pesha’ – revolt] of an evil man there is a snare: but the righteous does sing and rejoice.
7 The righteous considers the cause of the poor: but the wicked regards not to know it.
8 Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise men turn away wrath.
9 If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest [the argument is endless because the foolish aren’t looking for understanding – because he doesn’t like the conclusions that become self-evident. They are a threat to the existence of his ignorance, which is used to cover his intentional evil].
10 The bloodthirsty hate the upright: but the just seek his soul [to pull him from the fires of his own making].
11 A fool utters all his mind: but a wise man keeps it in till afterward [the snare].
12 If a ruler hearkens to lies [Selah – think about who this obviously implicates], all his servants are wicked.
13 The poor and the deceitful man meet together: the LORD lightens both their eyes [gives understanding to both].
14 The king that faithfully judges the poor, his throne shall be established for ever.
15 The rod and reproof gives wisdom: but a child left to himself brings his mother to shame.
16 When the wicked are multiplied, transgression [pesha’ – revolt] increases: but the righteous shall see their fall [see the blind lead the blind into the pit of hell].
17 Correct your son, and he shall give you rest; yea, he shall give delight unto your soul.
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he.
19 A [wicked] servant will not be corrected by words: for though he understand he will not answer [they will never acknowledge they have done any wrong – Selah].
20 See you a man that is hasty in his words [who doesn’t think or understand the effect of his words]? there is more hope of a fool than of him.
21 He that delicately brings up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length.
22 An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man abounds in transgression.
23 A man’s pride shall bring him low [because he refuses to acknowledge his errors]: but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit [the honorable know they must humbly acknowledge their errors – because in the truth is freedom and peace].
24 Whoso is partner with a thief [TV preachers, false prophets, MSM, corrupt politicians, crony capitalists, and cultural elites] hates his own soul: he hears cursing, and rebukes it not [sells his soul by silence and agreement with their revolt – pesha’].
25 The fear of [these men] man brings a snare: but whoso puts his trust in the LORD shall be safe.
26 Many seek the ruler’s favor; but every man’s judgment comes from the LORD.
27 An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

When pesha’ appears in Isaiah 44:22 it is telling of when the and where the LORD meets us, the living and the dead, in the cloud, as we’re told of in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. In Isaiah, it also tells of this cloud, in the air of understanding that reveals the LORD, obedience freeing us from the ignorance of rebellion: the power, and spirit, now works in the children of disobedience. It says in this cloud the LORD, by understanding, blots out our sin, which we know from 1 Corinthians 15, is the victory over death, from where only the LORD can quicken.

Isaiah 44
1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:
2 Thus says the LORD that made you, and formed you from the womb, which will help you; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and you, Jesurun [those who’ve prospered under my rule], whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring:
4 And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.
5 One shall say, I am the LORD’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel.
6 Thus says the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
7 And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.
8 Fear you not, neither be afraid: have not I told you from that time, and have declared it? you are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.
9 They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.
10 Who has formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?
11 Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together.
12 The smith with the tongs both works in the coals, and fashioned it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength fails: he drinks no water, and is faint.
13 The carpenter stretches out his rule; he marks it out with a line; he fits it with planes, and he marks it out with the compass, and makes it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.
14 He hews him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengthens for himself among the trees of the forest: he plants an ash, and the rain does nourish it.
15 Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindles it, and bakes bread; yea, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it a graven image, and falls down thereto.
16 He burns part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eats flesh; he roasts roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warms himself, and says, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire:
17 And the residue thereof he makes a god, even his graven image: he falls down unto it, and worships it, and prays unto it, and says, Deliver me; for you are my god.
18 They have not known nor understood: for he has shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
19 And none considers in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?
20 He feeds on ashes: a deceived heart has turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
21 Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant: I have formed you; you are my servant: O Israel, you shall not be forgotten of me.
22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions [pesha’], and, as a cloud, your sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed you.
23 Sing, O you heavens; for the LORD has done it: shout [see 1 Thessalonians 4:16 below], you lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.
24 Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, and he that formed you from the womb, I am the LORD that makes all things; that stretches forth the heavens alone; that spreads abroad the earth by myself;
25 That frustrates the tokens of the liars, and makes diviners mad; that turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;
26 That confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; that says to Jerusalem, You shall be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, You shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:
27 That says to the deep, Be dry [so what is in you is seen], and I will dry up your rivers [quieting that which has flowed corruption]:
28 That says of Cyrus [the refiner in the furnace – who God has chosen], He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built; and to the temple, Your foundation shall be laid.

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.

Ephesians 2
1 And you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [aer], the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;)
6 And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
11 Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

1 Thessalonians 4
7 For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
8 He therefore that despises, despises not man, but God, who has also given unto us his holy Spirit.
9 But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write unto you: for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
10 And indeed you do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia [the houses of the dead – sleeping]: but we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more;
11 And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
12 That you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing.
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the LORD, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the LORD shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the LORD himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds [what once blotted out the light and now blots out, takes away, our errors/sins], to meet the LORD in the air [aer – breathing in and out His understanding]: and so shall we ever be with the LORD.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 5
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the LORD so comes as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our LORD Jesus Christ,
10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify [educate] one another, even as also you do.

1 Corinthians 15
12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
24 Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27 For he has put all things under his feet. But when he says all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead [baptized into Christ’s death – Romans 6:3 Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?], if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our LORD, I die daily.
32 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantages it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.
33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
36 You fool, that which you sows is not quickened, except it die:
37 And that which you sows, you sows not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
38 But God gives it a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body [human bodies, one without and one with God’s Spirit].
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the LORD from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our LORD Jesus Christ [see Isaiah 44:22 above].
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the LORD, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the LORD.

Friends, these are the marvelous works of the LORD, his strange acts. Will you proclaim them?

Isaiah 28
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 [breaking forth upon the enemies as a breath forth of great waters – this word], he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon [which come as great hailstones from heaven, waters there frozen, reserved for this battle in this time of war by good judgment], that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22 Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the LORD God of hosts a consumption [this day of the culmination of the events throughout all history – the appointed time of the rendezvous – in this battle in Meggidon – Armageddon], even determined upon the whole earth.
23 Give you ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.

Matthew 25
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him.
7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go you rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, LORD, LORD, open to us.
12 But he answered and said, Truly I say unto you, I know you not.
13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man comes.

I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; Knowing that He which raised up the LORD Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus.

The above is speaking of the gospel, believed and spoken, which is the LORD rising in us as we are raised by His presence manifested in our flesh. This is the context plainly written in 2 Corinthian 4, the title from verses 13 & 14, which are preceded by a fuller description of what they summarize.

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.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to 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.

Friends, I ask you to consider what I have considered, and urge you to realize what I have realized: we are in the presence of the LORD at appearing and His kingdom.

Isaiah 28
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 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.

Isaiah 52
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.

The title tells of this realization: when we see the reality of the unseen, and seeing face to face we speak the same gospel, preaching the same good tidings and publishing, publicizing, the same peace: knowing the LORD Himself is this light appearing in darkness, understanding eliminating ignorance.

When 2 Corinthians 4:13 says, “I believed, and therefore have I spoken” it is referring us to Psalms 116:10, which is illuminating how and when we come to believe. The writer speaks of, in his haste, saying all men are liars, which itself refers is to Exodus 19:9 where the LORD tells us how He lets us know He is actually the one speaking, in and through those He chooses and sends.

Exodus 19
4 You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. [See Revelation 12:14 – describing this time, when we unlearn corruption and overcome the misleading of the deceivers, the seed of the serpent.]
5 Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
6 And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak unto the children of Israel.
7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.
8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD has spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.
9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.
10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes [be purified from the corruption that has defiled them],
11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day [today is the acceptable time, when the LORD heard us and manifested His presence for our rescue] the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai [the place of thorns].
12 And you shall set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that you go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever touches the mount shall be surely put to death:
13 There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet sounds long, they shall come up to the mount.
14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified [separate them from their corruption] the people; and they washed their clothes.
15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives [See the previous post – Zechariah 12:12 thru 14, the separation to the LORD that comes at the Judgment in Megiddon – the appointed time of the rendezvous].
16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightning, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that were in the camp trembled.
17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.
20 And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.

Psalms 116 describes when we call on the LORD, from the despair of our own limitations, and hearing us, at the appointed time manifests His presence. He comes to the mountain of thorns as fire burning up the element (ideas) that these men have created and made their foundation, piercing Christ and man, and yielding fruit of confusion and delusion. (See Zechariah 12:10)

Psalms116
1 I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.
2 Because he has inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
3 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.
4 Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech you, deliver my soul.
5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
6 The LORD preserves the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.
7 Return unto your rest, O my soul; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
10 I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:
11 I said in my haste, All men are liars.
12 What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.
14 I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
16 O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, and the son of your handmaid: you have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.
19 In the courts of the LORD’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise you the LORD.

Zechariah 12
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, says the LORD, which stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, says the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
7 The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon [the rendezvous – the appointed time – see 2 Chronicles 35:22 for the reference].
12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart [the body is separated by men who have led them apart – from whom they must now be separated from and joined as one to the LORD]; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei [the famous and renowned] apart, and their wives apart;
14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

Friends of God, we are told in Hebrew 12 of heavenly Jerusalem, where we have arrived. It says we have not come to Sinai because we are not thorns to be burned, but rather the LORD’s children by receiving His correction and health. As we know, the chapter ends by telling of the voice of the LORD heard, spoken by the son of man, which is shaking heaven and earth, so from it, the wicked will be shaken.

As we have learned, the book of Hebrews was written as a letter of introduction, introducing and explaining Timothy’s appointment as a Bishop. He was outside the Hebrew order, which is explained by describing Melchisedec, and the new mountain of God, Zion, where Christ in us is speaking God’s word, reigning, through the sons of man. It is written in a manner only the LORD himself could engineer, as is all scripture, preserved and protected to be revealed now, giving understanding by describing our time and the event of our day.

Hebrews 11 tells of those before us, who by their faith, belief and speaking, saw the unseen, this day, the culmination of the plan, now revealed to His saints. Colossians 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet [has appropriately prepared us] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 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: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 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.

Hebrews 11
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they [all who’ve come before us] without us should not be made perfect.

Hebrews 12
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses [who have seen the same unseen now manifested among us], let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
4 You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the LORD, nor faint when you are rebuked of him:
6 For whom the LORD loves he chastens [corrects], 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, 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 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 [see Isaiah 52:15 for the sprinkling that shuts men’s mouths and causes them to consider what they had refused to consider], 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.

Hebrews 13
1 Let brotherly love continue.
2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. [the two previous verses are speaking of philo, “love” as accepting in kindness, brothers and those outside this sphere, again speaking of accepting Timothy as a messenger of God.]
3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
4 Marriage [joining in bonds] is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers [those who have made merchandise of men] and adulterers [those who have left God for idols] God will judge.
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as you have: for he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
6 So that we may boldly say, The LORD is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. [the LORD, Jehovah’s Salvation, manifested in the flesh of man]
9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. [See Psalms 116:16 thru 18 above – when we see, believe, and speak.]
17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
18 Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.
19 But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our LORD Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
22 And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words.
23 Know you that our brother Timothy is set at liberty [apoluo – loosed, as in Psalms 116:16 “O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, and the son of your handmaid: you have loosed my bonds.”]; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.
24 Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you.
25 Grace be with you all. Amen.

The “bonds” spoken of in Psalms 116:16 is the Hebrew word mowcer, and eleven times used word literally meaning chastisement. It is speaking of ignorance as what binds us, as the swaddling bands of darkness, holding us in correction until we have learned to control ourselves. They are the bands spoken of in Psalms 107:14.

Job 38
4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding.
5 Who has laid the measures thereof, if you know? or who has stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it,
10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
11 And said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed?
12 Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
14 It is turned as clay to the seal [it is the signature of God]; and they stand as a garment.
15 And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the high arm shall be broken.
16 Have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in the search of the depth?
17 Have the gates of death been opened unto you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
18 Have you perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if you know it all.
19 Where is the way where light [understanding] dwells? and as for darkness [ignorance], where is the place thereof,
20 That you should take it to the bound thereof, and that you should know the paths to the house thereof?
21 Know you it, because you were then born? or because the number of your days is great?
22 Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? or have you seen the treasures of the hail [the waters, the word of God frozen in heaven, reserved to be released at this appointed time],
23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

Psalms 107
1 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
9 For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.
10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:
12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands [mowcer] in sunder.
15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
16 For he has broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.
17 Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
18 Their soul abhors all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.
19 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saves them out of their distresses.
20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.
23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
24 These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
25 For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves thereof.
26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.
28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distresses.
29 He makes the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he brings them unto their desired haven.
31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
33 He turns rivers into a wilderness, and the water-springs into dry ground;
34 A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
35 He turns the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water-springs.
36 And there he makes the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation;
37 And sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.
38 He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly; and suffers not their cattle to decrease.
39 Again, they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow.
40 He pours contempt upon princes, and causes them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way.
41 Yet sets he the poor on high from affliction, and makes him families like a flock.
42 The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.
43 Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.

Do you hear His voice speaking from heaven?

1 John 4
1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2 Hereby know you the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world hears them.
6 We are of God: he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God hears not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God.
8 He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

I have heard you in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored you: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Psalms 20 (modified into the present tense)
1 The LORD hears us in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defends us;
2 Sends us help from the sanctuary, and strengthens us out of Zion;
3 Remembers all our offerings, and accepts our burnt sacrifice; Selah.
4 Grants us according to our own heart, and fulfills all our counsel.
5 We rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we set up our banners: the LORD fulfills all our petitions.
6 Now know I that the LORD saves his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we remember the name of the LORD our God.
8 They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.
9 Save, LORD: the king hears us when we call.


Friends, the title is 2 Corinthians 6:2 and is telling of the ministry of Christ in us, sending us to rescue the world from itself by reconciling it/us to God. The point in this and earlier chapters is that we put on Christ and He is in this way raised in us, awakening us from the dead as He rises. The title verse is quoted from Isaiah 49:8, which speaks of this same succoring (rescue), and is the event, the LORD appearing, that is the hope of the church, when we appear with Him.

I now plainly, as is my mission, announce this is the coming of the LORD as the son of man. I am the firstborn from the dead, sent to bring many sons (children) to glory, Christ in us as signs and wonders to His people. Declaring, confessing, Christ is risen in our dead bodies, come for the salvation of the world, is the one and only hope and rescue.

Hebrews 2
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the LORD, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
5 For unto the angels has he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that you are mindful of him? or the son of man that you visit him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of your hands:
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11 For both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
12 Saying, I will declare your name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto you.
13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God has given me.
14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
16 For truly he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
17 Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor [rescue] them that are tempted.

Isaiah 49
1 Listen, O isles [dry places of the earth, where this word of God wasn’t, and is now, heard and understood to be His authentic voice], unto me; and hearken, you people, from far; The LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name.
2 And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand has he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he hid me;
3 And said unto me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
4 Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.
5 And now, says the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.
6 And he said, It is a light thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose you.
8 Thus says the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you: and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
9 That you may say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness [this good news hidden in their ignorance, to be now revealed in them as of the LORD’s presence manifested], Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that has mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water [this word of God] shall he guide them.
11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.
12 Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim [the second blessing].
13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me, and my LORD has forgotten me.
15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget you.
16 Behold, I have graven you upon the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
17 Your children shall make haste; your destroyers and they that made you waste shall go forth of you.
18 Lift up your eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall surely clothe you with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride does.
19 For your waste and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed you up shall be far away.
20 The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.
21 Then shall you say in your heart, Who has begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?
22 Thus says the LORD God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
23 And kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
25 But thus says the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contends with you, and I will save your children.
26 And I will feed them that oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

2 Corinthians 3
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excels.
11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious.
12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end [Christ in us, our hope and glory] of that which is abolished [the law that says we must remain dead]:
14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the LORD, the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now the LORD is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open [uncovered] face beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD [in us], are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.

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 worketh 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.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to 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.

2 Corinthians 5
1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
5 Now he that has wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the LORD:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the LORD.
9 Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the LORD, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.
13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
14 For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be you reconciled to God.
21 For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2 Corinthians 6
1 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain.
2 (For he says, I have heard you in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored you: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
3 Giving no offense in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:
4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watching, in fasting;
6 By pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
8 By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;
9 As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;
10 As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
11 O you Corinthians [you who have been filled to satisfaction], our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
12 You are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in your own bowels [this preaching has not at all restricted or lessened you, but your ignorance is what has].
13 Now for a recompense in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be you also enlarged [be set free and increased by accepting and acting upon what you have learned and now believe – properly and firmly founded upon Christ].
14 Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what concord has Christ with Belial [the word of ignorance and emptiness]? or what part has he that believes with an infidel [those who’ve been unfaithful to God and His truth]?
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? for you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate, says the LORD, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
18 And will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty.

These last verses, first verse 16, quote Leviticus 26:12, then verse 17 Isaiah 52:11, and lastly verse 18, in the context of the prior post, quotes 2 Samuel 7:14.

Leviticus 26
1 You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.
2 You shall keep my Sabbaths [when I interrupt you for correction – as now], and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
3 If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6 And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7 And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8 And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
10 And you shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
11 And I set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people.
13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

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, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says the LORD, You have sold yourselves for nught; 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.

The name Nathan means given and is the word used in Isaiah 8:18 to describe the children God has “given” me, who, as I have been a sign to them, shall, in the way described in 2 Samuel 7, be a sign to all His people, which will be wondered at – and the only vexation will be to understand the report, as it has been with those who’ve come out from the darkness: the ignorance taught by the now totally corrupted world.

2 Samuel 7
4 And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying,
5 Go and tell my servant David [see Zechariah 12 below – the house of David], Thus says the LORD, Shall you build me an house for me to dwell in?
6 Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.
7 In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spoke I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build you not me an house of cedar?
8 Now therefore so shall you say unto my servant David, Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel:
9 And I was with you whithersoever you wentest, and have cut off all your enemies out of your sight, and have made you a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.
10 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime,
11 And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the LORD tells you that he will make you an house.
12 And when your days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.
16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established for ever before you: your throne shall be established for ever.
17 According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
18 Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD, and he said, Who am I, O LORD God? and what is my house, that you have brought me hitherto?
19 And this was yet a small thing in your sight, O LORD God; but you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O LORD God?
20 And what can David say more unto you? for you, LORD God, knowest your servant.
21 For your word’s sake, and according to your own heart, have you done all these great things, to make your servant know them.
22 Wherefore you are great, O LORD God: for there is none like you, neither is there any God beside you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
23 And what one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for your land, before your people, which you redeemed to you from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?
24 For you have confirmed to yourself your people Israel to be a people unto you for ever: and you, LORD, are become their God.
25 And now, O LORD God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as you have said.
26 And let your name be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is the God over Israel: and let the house of your servant David be established before you.
27 For you, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, I will build you an house: therefore has your servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto you.
28 And now, O LORD God, you are that God, and your words be true, and you have promised this goodness unto your servant:
29 Therefore now let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue for ever before you: for you, O LORD God, have spoken it: and with your blessing let the house of your servant be blessed for ever.

Zechariah 12
1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, says the LORD, which stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
4 In that day, says the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.
6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
7 The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon [the rendezvous – the appointed time – see 2 Chronicles 35 below for the reference].
12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart [the body is separated by men who have led them apart – from whom they must now be separated and joined as one to the LORD]; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei [the famous and renowned] apart, and their wives apart;
14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

2 Chronicles 35 [Be warned!]
21 But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? I come not against you this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear you from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy you not.
22 Nevertheless Josiah [he who Jehovah would have healed] would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho [he who had been lame and was now healed] from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo [the appointed time].
23 And the archers [see 2 Samuel 22:15 below] shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.
24 His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchers of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.

2 Samuel 22
8 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.
9 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.
11 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.
12 And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.
13 Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled.
14 The LORD thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice.
15 And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them.
16 And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
17 He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters;
18 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.
19 They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.
20 He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me.