Today a new phase, an assignment, to examine the name Bethany as it appears in the New Testament.

Today a new phase, an assignment, to examine the name Bethany as it appears in the New Testament. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, one of its meanings is the house, or family, of misery. It appears eleven times; Matthew 21:17, & 26:6, Mark 11:1, 11 & 12, &14:3, Luke 19:29, & 24:50, and John 11:1, & 18, &12:1.

Some items to note: in Matthew 21 the LORD had just entered Jerusalem, the place thought and founded on ideas that flowed from God. There He as recognized by the people, and then leaving, He enters the house of misery. Bethany is said to be the town at the mount of Olives, which we know is from where flows the oil: the ideas taught, which bring health: peace to those in misery.

Remember, these words of God, given through four different inspired (inspirited) writers are a harmony, heard as one song. Examine what they all say; understand the names used, and the stories associated with the people mentioned. Look at the translations of the name; more deeply research them if needed or led.

Remember our previous conversation, and know that Bethany is a town on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho: where the wall fell. Remember the surrounding context; pay deeper attention to the peripheral and seemingly meaningless aspects mentioned. See the unseen, and hear the voice of God speaking. Think: meditate on these things.

Amen!

Psalms 88

1 O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you: 2 Let my prayer come before you: incline your ear unto my cry; 3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draws nigh unto the grave. 4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that has no strength: 5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom you remembers no more: and they are cut off from your hand. 6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. 7 Your wrath lies hard upon me, and you have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah. 8 You have put away mine acquaintance far from me; you have made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. 9 Mine eye mourn by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon you, I have stretched out my hands unto you. 10 Will you show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise you? Selah. 11 Shall your loving-kindness be declared in the grave? or your faithfulness in destruction? 12 Shall your wonders be known in the dark? and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13 But unto you have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent you. 14 LORD, why caste you off my soul? why hide you your face from me? 15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer your terrors I am distracted. 16 Your fierce wrath [this word of correction] goes over me; your terrors have cut me off. 17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together. 18 Lover and friend have you put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness [in ignorance, without understanding I am alive and preaching life].

Isaiah 24

1 Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants thereof. [and I saw, “2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.] 2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. 3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD has spoken this word. 4 The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. 5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. 7 The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted do sigh. 8 The mirth of tabrets ceases, the noise of them that rejoice ends, the joy of the harp ceases. 9 They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. 10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in. 11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. 12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction. 13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done. 14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea. 15 Wherefore glorify you the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea. 16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. 17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. 18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. 19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. 20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise agai 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. 22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. 23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

Isaiah 25

1 O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things; your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. 2 For you have made of a city a heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built. 3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify you, the city of the terrible nations shall fear you. 4 For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. 5 You shall bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low. 6 And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. 7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the LORD God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD has spoken it. 9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. 10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab [the gates of hell – holding men in the belly of the earth] shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill. 11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swims spreads forth his hands to swim [parting and rightly dividing the waters – the word of God]: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. 12 And the fortress of the high fort of your walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.