August 2019 – Page 2

August 13, 2019

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

Continuing: the title is speaking of the evil day, when the LORD, for the sake of His elect remnant (as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers: which grow wildly over everything), shortens the days in the consummation determined. The statement is Isaiah 1:7 & 8, which is followed by saying, “Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” This is quoted by Paul in Romans 9:29, just after he quotes Isaiah 10:22 & 23, thereby telling us he is speaking of the kalah charats, the consumption determined, which was discussed in detail in the previous post.

Isaiah 10
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the LORD has performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
13 For he says, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
14 And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathers eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.
15 Shall the ax boast itself against him that hews therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shakes it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.
16 Therefore shall the LORD, the LORD of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer faints.
19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed [charats] shall overflow with righteousness.
23 For the LORD God of hosts shall make a consumption [kalah], even determined [charats], in the midst of all the land.
24 Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, O my people that dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite you with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt.
25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.
26 And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. [these tell of God’s people called to come out against the enemies, to overflow them as the sea did the Egyptians who ignorantly pursued them]
27 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

Isaiah 1
7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? says the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
22 Your silver is become dross, your wine mixed with water:
23 Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loves gifts, and follows after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come unto them.
24 Therefore says the LORD, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
25 And I will turn my hand upon you, and purely purge away your dross, and take away all your tin:
26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning: afterward you shall be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.
27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.
28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.
29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.
30 For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.
31 And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

Friends, these men have chosen their end, their own works testifying that they are the children of God’s wrath, the incorrigibles who’ve refused His word in which only is life and correction.

2 Corinthians 11
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Jude
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.
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, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the LORD comes with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
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.

Romans 9
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shews mercy.
17 For the scripture said unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18 Therefore has he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens.
19 You will say then unto me, Why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who are you that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?
21 Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
24 Even us, whom he has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
25 As he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27 Isaiah also cries concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the LORD make upon the earth.
29 And as Isaiah said before, Except the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone;
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.

Romans 10
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.
5 For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which does those things shall live by them.
6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what says it? The word is nigh you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture says, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same LORD over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, LORD, who has believed our report?
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes truly, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
20 But Isaiah is very bold, and says, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

Romans 11
1 I say then, Has God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot you not what the scripture says of Elijah? how he made intercession to God against Israel saying,
3 LORD, they have killed your prophets, and digged down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what says the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal [to the idols they have raised in God’s place].
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
7 What then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
8 (According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
9 And David says, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always.
11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16 For if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18 Boast not against the branches. But if you boast, you bear not the root, but the root you.
19 You will say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:
21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not you.
22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness: otherwise you also shall be cut off.
23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
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:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
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 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.

Ephesians 6
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the LORD, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Psalms 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 of your countenance, 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.

August 13, 2019

Hear you now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?

Hear you now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?

The title question is from Isaiah 7:13 and begins a statement by the LORD, through Isaiah, giving the full plan in similitudes, which when explored lead us to see their detailed instructions.

(Before giving these instructions a warning: understand these words aren’t something I’ve created, but rather they are my writing what the LORD has already, this moment, led me to see. They are His words and His instructions, and I am duty-bound and dedicated to transmitting them as given. Amen!)

Isaiah 7
10 Moreover the LORD spoke again unto Ahaz, saying,
11 “Ask you a sign of the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.”
13 And he said, “Hear you now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?
14 Therefore the LORD himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that you abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings.
17 The LORD shall bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon your father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.
20 In the same day shall the LORD shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.
24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.
25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.”

The “sign” spoken of above in verses 11 & 14 is the Hebrew word ‘owth, which next appears in Isaiah 8:18, the first detail of Immanuel: God with us, which is the plan unfolded. In the latter, as we’ve many times discussed, Immanuel is explained as “I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs [‘owth] and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion.”

These are the elect remnant, the now present house of Judah, following the Lamb (Revelation 14:1 thru 5), who is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5). This remnant is also the virgin daughter of Zion (2 Kings 19:21 and Isaiah 37:22), who is the woman who brings forth the man child (Revelation 12:5), who is to rule all nation with a rod of iron (strength as the Lion). They together (I and the children) are the tender plant that has now grown from the dead root in the dry ground (Isaiah 53:1 & 2 and Job 14:7), which refers to the house of David, the king line come to life, the breach in the house now restored (Amos 9:11). These are the LORD’s peace returned (Hebrews 12:14), Shiloh, the lawgiver unto whom all God’s people will gather (Genesis 49:10).

Isaiah 7:15 tells of butter and honey (Revelation 10:9 & 10) to describe what nourishes the woman in the wilderness (Revelation 12:14), where she has been carried by the strength of the eagle (Isaiah 40:31), the objective being so she will know to refuse the evil and choose the good (Revelation 14:5). This last aspect gives us the key to the plan, God’s advice was first to tell us what was good and evil, and of the rewards and consequences (blessing and curse) that are inescapably their mates. He also knew we would, in prospering (the rewards of following good, His ideas of peace and security – civilization) we would become complacent, and evil, through men with evil impatient intent, would invent ways to gain power. This is the invaluable experience, the self-evident truth, which deeply ingrains the lesson in the mind of those it afflicts.

We are those now tasked with the restoration, as the experiment has shown itself again, inevitably, reproducible. We must first be witnesses to the fact of this reality, that evil destroys, and we must, therefore, based on this knowledge, choose the good. We must ensure this story is told and vigorously taught to every generation from here into eternity.

Those who’ve been with me for a while know I sometimes tell of the simplicity of business as constant problem solving, and reduce it to three simple steps. The first is to acknowledge and properly identify (analyze) the problem; second is to develop a solution suited to the problem, and third is to fully implement the solution and be vigilant to ensure it doesn’t reoccur. The problem is evil, the solution is to choose the good, the implementation is to teach and to keep teaching to refuse the evil and choose the good.

Isaiah 7:16 and after, describe the kings (those leading us) abandoning us, and speaks of briers and thorns as those now occupying the seats of leadership. It tells of their thinking and leading as the ideas and ways of Egypt (captivity) and Assyria (degenerate steps into communism), which are as flies and bees infesting the briers and thorns. It is speaking of the seats of power (church and state) as seats of evil, whose ideas and ways, what they teach and broadcast, which are to be refused. What is to be chosen, the good, is outside and away from these seats, depicted as a cow and two sheep, who give an abundance of milk. From that milk comes the butter that nourishes the remnant, the woman who has been carried by the eagle, the elect who have escaped the evil, in whose mouth is no guile, because they have learned to choose the good.

This is the plan spoken of in Isaiah 10 where we are told of this determined time of this consummation, which is also spoken of in Daniel 9 as the same anointing is poured out, as the waters on the dry root, as described in Job 14.

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.
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 [the LORD has broken forth upon His enemies as a breaking forth of His word, as waters], he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon [He has sent His hailstone upon them, His word which He reserved in heaven, frozen there until this time of war], 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 [kalah], even determined [charats] upon the whole earth.

Daniel 9
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
3 And I set my face unto the LORD God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O LORD, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and from your judgments:
6 Neither have we hearkened unto your servants the prophets, which spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7 O LORD, righteousness belongs unto you, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.
8 O LORD, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.
9 To the LORD our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him;
10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed your law, even by departing, that they might not obey your voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
12 And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven has not been done as has been done upon Jerusalem.
13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand your truth.
14 Therefore has the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he does: for we obeyed not his voice.
15 And now, O LORD our God, that have brought your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten you renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16 O LORD, according to all your righteousness, I beseech you, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of your servant, and his supplications, and cause your face to shine upon your sanctuary that is desolate, for the LORD’s sake.
18 O my God, incline your ear, and hear; open your eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by your name: for we do not present our supplications before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies.
19 O LORD, hear; O LORD, forgive; O LORD, hearken and do; defer not, for your own sake, O my God: for your city and your people are called by your name.
20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give you skill and understanding.
23 At the beginning of your supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show you; for you are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined [charats].
27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation [kalah], and that determined [charats] shall be poured upon the desolate.

Job 14
1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.
2 He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow, and continues not.
3 And do you open your eyes upon such an one, and brings me into judgment with you?
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
5 Seeing his days are determined [charats], the number of his months are with you, you have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
6 Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
8 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;
9 Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
10 But man dies, and wastes away: yea, man gives up the ghost, and where is he?
11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decays and dries up:
12 So man lies down, and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
13 O that you would hide me in the grave, that you would keep me secret, until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
15 You shall call, and I will answer you: you will have a desire to the work of your hands.
16 For now you number my steps: do you not watch over my sin?
17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and you sew up mine iniquity.
18 And surely the mountains falling comes to naught, and the rock is removed out of his place.
19 The waters wear the stones: you wash away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and you destroy the hope of man.
20 You prevail for ever against him, and he passes: you change his countenance, and send him away.
21 His sons come to honor, and he knows it not; and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them.
22 But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.

Zephaniah 3
1 Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
2 She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the LORD; she drew not near to her God.
3 Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.
4 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.
5 The just LORD is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning does he bring his judgment to light, he fails not; but the unjust knows no shame.
6 I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passes by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant.
7 I said, Surely you will fear me, you will receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings.
8 Therefore wait you upon me, says the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
9 For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.
10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia [or darkness – ignornace] my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.
11 In that day shall you not be ashamed for all your doings, wherein you have transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of you them that rejoice in your pride, and you shall no more be haughty because of my holy mountain.
12 I will also leave in the midst of you an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD.
13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
15 The LORD has taken away your judgments, he has cast out your enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of you: you shall not see evil any more.
16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear you not: and to Zion, Let not your hands be slack.
17 The LORD your God in the midst of you is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over you with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over you with singing.
18 I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of you, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.
19 Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict you: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.
20 At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, says the LORD.

Psalms 34
1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3 O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps round about them that fear him, and delivers them.
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trust in him.
9 O fear the LORD, you his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
11 Come, you children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is he that desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile.
14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
22 The LORD redeems the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

August 11, 2019

This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

The title, Matthew 15:8 & 9, is the LORD quoting Isaiah 29:13 foretelling the condition of His time, which continues in mass in total. The reality of our time is men, leaders and those who follow them, refuse to be awakened because they must first admit they have been sleeping.

The LORD once told a young man, who was keeping the commandments, he lacked one thing. He then told him to sell all he had and come follow Him. In our time, and getting to the greater point, this one thing is to sell out, abandon all and put everything on the line to follow Him. It’s time for men to rise up with a total commitment and focus on following God – not to be confused with following the teaching of men, which is the cause, not the cure.

Friends, we, God’s people, have been convinced to be silent about Jesus Christ, meaning Jehovah’s salvation manifested in our flesh. We’ve been persuaded (seduced) into separating Him from our government, no longer understanding being a Christian means joining with Him inseparably, meaning He lives in us and acts through us. We have turned this belief into a cliché, never confessing it because we don’t truly believe He lives (is present every moment).

This has all come to pass as the LORD said it would, as the prince of the world came, rulers, leaders, and teachers, preached their own degenerate form of false Christianity, which excludes the deeper understanding that manifests Christ in us, in and as Spirit and truth.

John 14
12 Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
13 And whatsoever you shall ask in my name [confessing it is Jesus Christ in us doing the work], that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
15 If you love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter [the Holy Spirit, the Father with us and in us producing the Son, unknown {unseen} until He is known {seen}, and thereby reproduces children after His own kind by Christ formed – we live by confessing He lives and we have seen Him], that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you see me: because I live, you shall live also.
20 At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21 He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas [Judah – God’s elect who He has now first raised from their sleep] said unto him, not Iscariot, LORD, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words [this word, Jesus Christ in me, alive and speaking – literally, the one and only God]: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loves me not keeps not my sayings: and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
26 But the Comforter [the Paraclete], which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace [knowing He live and is with us, inseparably in us] I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
28 You have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, you might believe.
30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world comes [who has blinded all men from seeing the LORD], and has nothing in me.

Again, I warn, the churches are the tombs that hold the dead. Many will go there today and never hear one word from God, because the whole lump is corrupted by the leaven of men’s doctrines. (“Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine.”) The LORD tells the referenced parable, recorded in Matthew 13:33, after He told of those who fly to and lodge in the greatest of trees (which has grown from a dry ground). This comes after we are told of the tares, who’ve grown among God’s people, sown there by the enemies of God. They must be first, and now have been, harvested and burned, so those God has sown can be gathered to Him. Again, I say, come out from among them. As we have seen in 2 Thessalonians 2, these men, sitting in place of God and keeping His people from rising to meet Him, must be taken out of the way, so the word of God, by which only do men live, will have free course and be glorified, as it is with you.

As we have seen, this last reference above is Paul referring to what he had earlier written in 1 Thessalonians 2, first telling of those who received his word as the word of God (verse 13) and (in verse 19) saying by this (receiving the word as God’s, it working in them – what has the effect on them) they are in the presence of the LORD at His coming.

1 Thessalonians 2
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 trieth our hearts.
5 For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloke 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 [those who don’t know, haven’t seen, the LORD] 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.
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.

Friends, these men who are spoken of above, the Thessalonians, the tares mixed among those God had sown, who were forbidding the word of God from being preached to those who don’t know Him, are those Paul later describes as the wicked men sitting in God’s place, who refuse the love the truth. These and the others who haven’t heard the word of God are the sleeping and the dead Paul describes in 1 Thessalonians 4.

1 Thessalonians 4
1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the LORD Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.
2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the LORD Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification [separate yourselves from errors and to the LORD’s work], that you should abstain from fornication [interaction with the idols these men put in God’s place]:
4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel [filled by Christ] in sanctification and honor;
5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
6 That no man go beyond and defraud [as these men do with their false doctrines] his brother in any matter: because that the LORD is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
7 For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
8 He therefore that despises, despises not man, but God [who is in us], 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 dead flesh]: but we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more;
11 And that you study [the word of God] 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 [rise before] them which are asleep [until they awaken and realize {see} Jesus Christ is in us, alive and speaking His word to them].
16 For the LORD himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God [calling all to gather to {join with} Him]: 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, to meet the LORD in the air [out of the air that has caused the blindness – quickened as in Ephesians 2:1 & 2, see below]: and so shall we ever be with the LORD.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

No man will see the LORD until he leaves the darkened air, what is breathed out and in, the spirit of error these men preach, twisting and perverting God’s truth.

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, 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 show 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.
18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
19 Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the LORD:
22 In whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

When the LORD quotes Isaiah 29:13 it comes just after he talked about those not honoring their father and their mother, and is followed by His describing what comes out of the mouth as what defiles a man. By this, He is referring to Isaiah 30 and its first verse speaking to the rebellious children, who take counsel but not from Him. He says these are those who by this advice go into the captivity of their own confusion, which is also what is spoken of in the title verses. They honor the LORD with their mouths, and then with the same mouth defile themselves by teaching doctrines of men, and by this leaven the whole lump is corrupted. (“For whosoever eats that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation.” Exodus 12:19)

Isaiah 29, as we’ve discussed in detail, begins with the LORD speaking of Ariel, meaning lion (strength) of God, where we are told David dwelt. The LORD tells of His laying siege against this city, which is now held by enemies, and retaking it. This place of strength returns when the LORD has made the wisdom of men perish and their understanding is seen to be confusion. The rebellious children who seek counsel, but not from the LORD (Isaiah 30:1), are the children of disobedience Paul speaks of in Ephesians 2:2.

Ariel is Mount Zion, where God reigns in our minds, when His thoughts have become our thoughts, and with this understanding (knowing, seeing, Him clearly) we receive His strength, and become the Lion of God. This is what is described of Zion in Hebrews 12, where we are listening to the LORD’s advice, and know it is Him speaking from heaven, shaking heaven and earth.

Hebrews 12
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees [be strengthened];
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 [knowing the LORD is with us and in us] with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD:
15 Looking diligently [seeking Him, to know Him and His word] lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled [by your words, if they are not His sound doctrines];
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, 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 29
1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add you year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
3 And I will camp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with a mount, and I will raise forts against you.
4 And you shall be brought down, and shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust, and your voice shall be, as of one that has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
5 Moreover the multitude of your strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
6 You shall be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
8 It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry you out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the LORD has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers has he covered.
11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I am not learned.
13 Wherefore the LORD said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knows us?
16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:
21 That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught.
22 Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
23 But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.

Isaiah 30
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus saith the LORD God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and you would not.
16 But you said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee: till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: you shall weep no more: he will be very gracious unto you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.
20 And though the LORD give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers:
21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.
22 You shall defile also the covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as a menstruous cloth; you shall say unto it, Get you hence.
23 Then shall he give the rain of your seed, that you shall sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures.
24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 You shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
33 For Tophet [the place of the burning] is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, does kindle it.

Psalms 104
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with honor and majesty.
2 Who covers yourself with light as with a garment: who stretches out the heavens like a curtain:
3 Who lays the beams of his chambers in the waters: who makes the clouds his chariot: who walks upon the wings of the wind:
4 Who makes his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
6 You cover it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled; at the voice of your thunder they hasted away.
8 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which you have founded for them.
9 You have set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.
10 He sends the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
11 They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.
12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.
13 He waters the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your works.
14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
15 And wine that makes glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart.
16 The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted;
17 Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.
19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knows his going down.
20 You make darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.
22 The sun arises, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.
23 Man goes forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening.
24 O LORD, how manifold are your works! in wisdom have you made them all: the earth is full of your riches.
25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom you have made to play therein.
27 These wait all upon you; that you may give them their meat in due season.
28 That you give them they gather: you open your hand, they are filled with good.
29 You hide your face, they are troubled: you take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
30 You send forth your spirit, they are created: and you renew the face of the earth.
31 The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.
32 He looks on the earth, and it trembles: he touches the hills, and they smoke.
33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.
35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless you the LORD, O my soul. Praise you the LORD.

August 10, 2019

And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

The above is the final verse of Isaiah 34, a chapter we know is one of the three places where the Hebrews words tohuw and bohuw appear together. We know they are words specifically used to define the condition the earth became just before the creation. In the other two appearances, it is rendered as “without form, and void,” while in this one they are translated “confusion” and “emptiness” in describing the palaces and those now infesting them. In this context, verse 8 tells us this is “the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion.” We understand this controversy is the question of who is better qualified to rule God’s people and the world: Him, or those who’ve caused the earth, by their confusion and emptiness, to become without form, and void.

The chapter is telling of the LORD measuring this by line, meaning he has evaluated it and rightly divided its meaning: describing the problem and the solution. He tells us it is their words, now a burning darkness (pitch black) flowing from those leading, who we know from earlier in chapter 28 have rejected what He is teaching, “precept upon precept, line upon line.” The “line” of these men, in Isaiah 34:11, is the “line of confusion” upon which they laid “stones of emptiness.” We know from Isaiah 28:16, the LORD’s teaching comes from the foundation stone the He has laid, and those who believe (His report) shall not make haste (not be ashamed – or flee from Him). This chapter also tells us, in this day, the LORD will replace these men, and will Himself rule, outside these corrupted places of leadership (in church and state), which have led His people into a burning hell on earth (even if they are ignorant, of Him, and of where they were before He pulled {harpazo} them out).

Isaiah 28
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.
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 [pulled away from these men’s unclean teaching].
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 [truth, of which they are ignorant – they only understand the language of hell, the lies these men teach in opposing God] will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim [as water, His word, braking forth upon His enemies], he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon [shall rain down great hailstones, His word kept frozen in heaven and reserved for this time, consuming them], 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.

Isaiah 34 tells of the places these men infest, their seats of power, forever being inhabited by men who consume the carcasses of the dead. This is what is spoken of in the final verse of the chapter, which tells us that where the dead are these men will gather to consume them. The dead are those who will not be without their mates, who are those there to consume them. It is speaking of those who follow these men (the dead ) and put their trust in them. These leaders are the peeping wizards mentioned in Isaiah 8, those confederated together in giving the same corrupted advice, popular beliefs, words that have produced and can only produce death.

Friends, the modern church can’t correct anything because they are preaching only what makes people feel good, never warning that they have fallen away and are on the path to destruction. Their churches are filled with people who kill the unborn, or condone it, by ignorance or silence. Those who follow them make themselves their prey. They rob their neighbors and control their lives, all by voting for those promising them these (laws and regulations) will make their lives better or save them from some nonexistent or irrelevant threat. Their preachers never take a stand, and if they do they do it in favor of these evils. They sign songs telling of how God will prosper them and will love them no matter what – while they hate these same people by not correcting, not giving them His word, His love, which will return life to their dead bodies. Their doctrines are the doctrines of devils, which they hide behind weak and empty claims of love. The greater the lies they tell the greater the crowds they attract (and the greater the tithes, which they then steal).

It is because of this, because of their rejection of the love of God’s truth, they and any who follow them, perish. These men are those (incorrectly) described in 2 Thessalonians 2 as a single wicked man, who sit the seats of God opposing Him at His coming to correct His children. This word, Christ in me correcting His people, comes, not from the seats of corrupted power, but from outside them, calling to God’s people, “come out from among them.”

Revelation 18
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 [see Isaiah 34:14 & 15 below].
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 has 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 has filled fill to her double.
7 How much she has 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.

Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11, tells of his boasting, about Christ in Him doing the work. He then tells of these men as Satan’s angels who have transformed themselves into angels of light, meaning they are falsely claiming they are preaching Christ and understanding. He is cutting them off, so they would be found even as we are, meaning there is a spirit in them doing the work. In them, it is seen as the spirit of error as their false doctrines are exposed. (1 Corinthians 11:19 For there must be also heresies [the choice to disunify with God’s truth] among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.) These false doctrines are the product of the “falling away,” the apostasy (standing away – from God’s truth), Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, tells us will (must) occur first, before the LORD comes. These are the same “damnable heresies” Peter speaks of in 2 Peter 2:2, which shall be brought in by false teachers among us. He says because of these the LORD will be denied and the truth He comes with will be evil spoken of.

2 Corinthians 11
1 Would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty [misleading by false doctrine], so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him.
5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things.
7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that you might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.
9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11 Wherefore? because I love you not? God knows.
12 But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we [men, in whom a spirit is working].
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

As we know, these wicked men, who are described as a single man 2 Thessalonians 2, who are a mystery (Babylon – confusion) already at work, which must be taken out of the way so we can rise, are the same “wicked men” he later, in 2 Thessalonians 3:2, says we should pray to be delivered from.

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 [apostasia – apostasy] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition [apoleia];
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 – holds down] that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity does already work: only he who now lets [katecho – holds down] will let [will hold you down], until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the LORD shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan 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, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

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:
2 And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
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.

The “son of perdition [apoleia]” spoken of above is described by Peter as the false teachers (plural) who are now among us, who are opposing the LORD, who deny this is Him speaking in us, as they blaspheme (vilify the work of His Holy Spirit) and speak evil of the truth.

2 Peter 2
1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily [from their own imaginations] shall bring in damnable [apoleia] heresies, even denying the LORD that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction [apoleia].
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways [apoleia]; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation [apoleia] slumbers not.

As we know (because we have followed the LORD as He led us into His truth), in the following chapter Peter first tells of this day and the perdition (apoleia) of ungodly men. He tells us their perdition comes by the word of God, which has been kept in store in heaven, released (as great hailstone upon the enemies opposing God). He completes this thought and description, later saying these men are those who wrestle with the scriptures to their own destruction (apoleia).

2 Peter 3
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition [apoleia] of ungodly men [plural].
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The LORD is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements [stoicheion – the corrupt ideas of corrupted men] shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements [stoicheion – the ideas of men, which have held God’s people down] shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our LORD is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrestle, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction [apoleia].
17 You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

When the title verse ends telling of these places, the seats of power that have become corrupted and end the old world, the first verse of the following chapter tells of our meeting the LORD in the wilderness (see Revelation 12:14). This chapter is speaking of the new heaven and earth, wherein will dwell righteousness and the righteous.

Isaiah 34
1 Come near, you nations, to hear; and hearken, you people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.
2 For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter.
3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea [Edom – Esau, speaking of those who are mixed with their brothers and do them evil, by which they have also sold their birthright], and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah [the sheepfold], and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea [Edom – Esau].
7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
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 thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
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 a habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.
14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
16 Seek you out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it has commanded, and his spirit it has gathered them.
17 And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

Isaiah 35
1 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
2 It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.
3 Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6 Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
8 And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 35:3 is quoted in Hebrews 12:12, which tells us the new world is built by the return of the strength to God’s people, which come to those who listen and are corrected by the LORD. These are the two mountains, the incorrigibles who refuse correction, who’ve sold their birthright to keep their evil ideas and works; the other, wherein dwells righteousness and those who’ve receive the Father’s correction and become his new creations, His children in Zion: New Jerusalem.

Hebrews 12
11 Now no chastening [correction] 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 [God’s ways and ideas of] 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 63
1 Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
2 Wherefore are you red in your apparel, and your garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?
3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.
5 And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.
6 And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.
7 I will mention the lovingkindness of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindness.
8 For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Savior.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?
12 That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?
13 That led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?
14 As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so did you lead your people, to make yourself a glorious name.
15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where is your zeal and your strength, the sounding of your bowels and of your mercies toward me? are they restrained?
16 Doubtless you are our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: you, O LORD, are our father, our redeemer; your name is from everlasting.
17 O LORD, why have you made us to err from your ways, and hardened our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
18 The people of your holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
19 We are yours: you never ruled over them; they were not called by your name.

Psalms 55
1 Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;
3 Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.
4 My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
5 Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.
6 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.
7 Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.
8 I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.
9 Destroy, O LORD, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.
11 Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets.
12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
13 But it was you, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
15 Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.
16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
18 He has delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me.
19 God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abides of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
20 He has put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he has broken his covenant.
21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain you: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
23 But you, O God, shall bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in you.

August 9, 2019

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.

The opening verse is Psalms 122:1, which has a preface that tells us it is “A Song of Degrees of David.” As seen in previous posts, the word “degrees” is the Hebrew word ma`alah, meaning the act of elevation. It describes the elevation (rising) of the sun, in the context of the prior posts, which takes us into the presence of the LORD where we now stand. Do you understand the sun has risen? Or are you still in the darkness, held there by the false teaching of the false prophets?

Malachi 4
1 For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the LORD of hosts.
4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet [who has brought the false prophets to self-destruction] before the coming of the great and dreadful day [because it is a days of darkness and not light – when ignorance of God’s presence covers all the earth, and there is no understanding] of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse [utter destruction – by the stone cut without hand].

Here following is the post from 15 December 2017.

He that Built His Stories in Heaven, Has Founded His Troop in the Earth.

Continuing: the title is from Amos 9:6 and refers to the course of the sun through the heavens, and as we know from recent discussions, it is speaking of the plan of God and its times and seasons. The above quoted portion is followed by telling of the LORD calling forth the waters, and pouring them forth upon the earth. The “stories” spoken of are from the Hebrew word ma’alah, only translated as such this one time. All its other uses it is rendered either steps or degrees; steps most often telling of the seven and then eight steps in height going up to the altar of the temple; degree when speaking of the sun’s course through heaven, and of the fifteen (seven + eight) Psalms, 120 thru 134, which are titled, “A Psalm of Degrees.”

Amos 9
5 And the LORD God of hosts is he that touches the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
6 It is he that builds his stories in the heaven, and has founded his troop in the earth; he that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.
7 Are you not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? says the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the LORD God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, says the LORD that does this.
13 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the LORD your God.

As we saw in prior posts, this courses through heaven is first referred to in Amos 5:8, where the LORD is speaking to the men who have turned judgement into wormwood, and have cast down righteousness in the earth. There prior we read of this being what caused the house of Israel to fall, to rise no more, because there is no one to raise her up. It addresses those who have misled her into this condition, speaking of them as/by the places of worship where has been set up idols in God’s place.

This is when the LORD says to all His people, the leader and the led who are worshiping idols they ignorantly think is Him:

8 Seek Him that makes the seven stars and Orion [Pleiades and Orion – see below, referring to Job 38:31 & 32], and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night: that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name: 9 That strengthens the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. 10 They hate him that rebukes in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly. 11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and you take from him burdens of wheat: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine of them. 12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. 13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. 14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken. 15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. 16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD, says thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing. 17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through you, says the LORD. 18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light. 19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? 21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. 22 Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. 23 Take you away from me the noise of your songs; for I will not hear the melody of your viols. 24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. 25 Have you offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26 But you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch [who demands you sacrifice your children into its fire] and Chiun [the scar of the fires witness to it] your images, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves. 27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.

We see when the LORD tells these people to seek Him who makes the churches and the gives them their strength, He also says He is the One who, “turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night: that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth.”

We see these two verses, (Amos 9:6 It is he that builds his stories in the heaven, and has founded his troop in the earth; he that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name. And Amos 5:8 Seek him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night: that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name,) begin telling of the LORD’s plan as the course through heaven, and His way with the His people. We see the process spoken of as the shadow of death being tuned into morning, speaking of the sun rising, after it has been made dark. Both verse go on to tell of this sun rise being as the LORD calls for the waters, and pours them upon the earth.

We understand the darkness is caused by the water not being poured on the earth, in the drought we know is for hearing the word of God. (Amos 8:11 Behold, the days come, says the LORD God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.)
 We also know this course of the sun (when it rises) when spoken of is referring to Job 38:31 & 32, where we read of the waters being frozen, as if in a stone, referring to Exodus 17 and the rock of Horeb. (Where God’s people were untaught the ways learn in captivity.) There we know the people tempted he LORD, and chided against Moses, asking, “Is the LORD among us, or not?” The LORD answered by making waters (His word) flow from the Rock, and as we know that Rock is Christ.

1 Corinthians 10
1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
7 Neither be you idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Job 38
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; 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 dwells? and as for darkness, 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,
23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
24 By what way is the light parted, which scatters the east wind upon the earth?
25 Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
28 Has the rain a father? or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it?
30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
31 Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades [the seven stars – the church], or loose the bands of Orion [renew their strength]?
32 Can you bring forth Mazzaroth [the sun in its course through the sky] in his season? or can you guide Arcturus [the greater sheepfold – meaning the church of all the saints], with his sons?
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, that it 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 in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
38 When the dust grows into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
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?
41 Who provides for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

The Psalms of Degree tell of the course through heaven, starting with our being among those who are attacking with deceitful tongues, being for peace, but when the LORD speaks they are for war. These steps lead to the altar, and ends in unity after the king is crowned (as says Amos 9:11). The final Psalms of the group ends calling on all who have stood with the LORD through the night, to lift up their hands and bless the LORD, as the LORD That made heaven and earth has blessed us from Zion. (37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kills the prophets, and stones 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.)

Psalms 120
1 In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.
2 Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.
3 What shall be given unto you? or what shall be done unto you, you false tongue?
4 Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
6 My soul has long dwelt with him that hates peace.
7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.

Psalms 121
1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help.
2 My help comes from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer your foot to be moved: he that keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your keeper: the LORD is your shade upon your right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall preserve you from all evil: he shall preserve your soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Psalms 122
1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.
2 Our feet shall stand within your gates, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together:
4 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.
5 For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love you.
7 Peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces.
8 For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within you.
9 Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek your good.

Psalms 123
1 Unto you lift I up mine eyes, O you that dwells in the heavens.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.
3 Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.

Psalms 124
1 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;
2 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us:
3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:
4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:
5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.
6 Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth.
7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Psalms 125
1 They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides for ever.
2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.
3 For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.
4 Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts.
5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.

Psalms 126
1 When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD has done great things for them.
3 The LORD has done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
4 Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.
5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
6 He that goes forth and weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Psalms 127
1 Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep.
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
5 Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Psalms 128
1 Blessed is every one that fears the LORD; that walks in his ways.
2 For you shall eat the labor of your hands: happy shall you be, and it shall be well with you.
3 Your wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of your house: your children like olive plants round about your table.
4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.
5 The LORD shall bless you out of Zion: and you shall see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
6 Yea, you shall see your children’s children, and peace upon Israel.

Psalms 129
1 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:
2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.
4 The LORD is righteous: he has cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.
6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers afore it grows up:
7 Wherewith the mower fills not his hand; nor he that binds sheaves his bosom.
8 Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD.

Psalms 130
1 Out of the depths have I cried unto you, O LORD.
2 LORD, hear my voice: let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
3 If you, LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, who shall stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in his word do I hope.
6 My soul waits for the LORD more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.
7 Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Psalms 131
1 LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.
2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.
3 Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.

Psalms 132
1 LORD, remember David, and all his afflictions:
2 How he swore unto the LORD, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob;
3 Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed;
4 I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids,
5 Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.
6 Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood.
7 We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.
8 Arise, O LORD, into your rest; you, and the ark of your strength.
9 Let your priests be clothed with righteousness; and let your saints shout for joy.
10 For your servant David’s sake turn not away the face of your anointed.
11 The LORD has sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of your body will I set upon your throne.
12 If your children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon your throne for evermore.
13 For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation.
14 This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
15 I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread.
16 I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
17 There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed.
18 His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.

Psalms 133
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;
3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

Psalms 134
1 Behold, bless you the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.
2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.
3 The LORD that made heaven and earth bless you out of Zion.

I close with this addition: Are you as the raven, covered in darkness? Or have you received this needed meat at the LORD’s hand, and come into the light?

Matthew 10
17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues [churches];
18 And you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles [those who are ignorant of God’s presence among us].
19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
20 For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.
21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endures to the end shall be saved.
23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.
28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

August 8, 2019August 11, 2019

And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

The above is Daniel 2:43 and comes in a series of chapters, ending in chapter 7, which in combination describe this moment and the end of confusion. Here it is described as the end of Nebuchadnezzar, his name telling of when the lies of the false prophets, which cause confusion to rule over all the world, have produced the desolation of God’s people. The end is depicted as when the degeneration has produced a fourth kingdom, confusion’s culmination in the ideas (stoicheion – elements) upon which man now stands. The feet of this image are depicted as clay mixed with iron, meaning the strength (iron) that has produced this nation, now mixed with the ideas (mire), the captivity of primitive (ignorant) lusts we escaped, and the mixture removing the strength of God’s people.

Three times in chapter 2 we are told of this degeneration of the fourth kingdom of iron, which falls into what is described in the title verse. Twice we are told of what ends and replaces this last kingdom, which (last kingdom) we will later see is Babylon. In the first case, we are told of the LORD’s coming as a stone cut without hand, against the feet made of iron mixed with clay and breaking to pieces everything that made the image. We are told of the stone that smote this image (the progressive degenerate creation made by hands: the ideas and works of man) becoming a great mountain (which is Zion, as described in Hebrews 12). In the latter description, we are told this mountain is the kingdom God sets up, which shall consume all these (now described as the horns of Babylon) kings, and shall stand forever.

Before going on, the question; Do you believe this? Or are you still held down by Nebuchadnezzar (the lies of the false prophets, the abominations in the place of the holy, which have caused the desolation of God people)?

Daniel 2 begins by telling of the sleep of (caused by) Nebuchadnezzar, and of none of the “magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans,” understanding the interpretation. Daniel is the only one who understands, giving us the underlying principle: only with God’s judgment (the meaning of Daniel’s name) does understanding come and restore strength; separating truth from the mire, the pure waters above from the creations of the earth. This is what brings in the everlasting kingdom of God: when we believe these are the words of God, sent to us by the stone He cut, who, with us, is raised to become a great mountain upon which He reigns.

Daniel 2
20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:
21 And he changes the times and the seasons: he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
22 He reveals the deep and secret things: he knows what is in the darkness [ignorance], and the light [understanding] dwells with him.
23 I thank you, and praise you, O you God of my fathers, who have given me wisdom and might, and have made known unto me now what we desired of you: for you have now made known unto us the king’s matter.
24 Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch [like a loin – with the strength of God {as in Ariel}], whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation.
25 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.
26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar [who opens the secret treasures – which is the judgment of God], Are you able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?
27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king has demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king;
28 But there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, are these;
29 As for you, O king, your thoughts came into your mind upon your bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that reveals secrets makes known to you what shall come to pass.
30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that you might know the thoughts of your heart [speaking to the false prophets, who claim they know something, when all they know is how to blind men from seeing the truth and God’s presence].
31 You, O king, saw, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and the form thereof was terrible.
32 This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
34 You saw [these without understanding them] till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay [the strength of God’s people, brought to desolation by the mire these men have stirred with their feet and mixed into HIS PURE WATERS], and brake them to pieces.
35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
37 You, O king, are a king of kings: for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
38 And where-so-ever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven has he given into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold.
39 And after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you [speaking of the degeneration of understand – as the prophets added their own ideas to God’s pure meaning, and thereby turned themselves into false prophets telling lies in God’s name], and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things: and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
41 And whereas you saw the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay [clay that is formed by the hands of men], and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
43 And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another [the division we now see in the nation], even as iron is not mixed with clay.
44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
45 Forasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter [in the last days of the age, and beginning the new]: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odors unto him.
47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a LORD of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing you could reveal this secret [by His Spirit in me doing the work].

The end of the false prophets, the end of the rule of confusion over the world, is described in Daniel 7, which begins by telling of Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar, also asleep and not understanding. Belshazzar’s name means the idol (the lies of the false prophets) protect their rule (king and kingdom). The king, what now rules over all the civil government of the world, the little horn, is the strong delusion that has now replaced confusion of which it is a product. The fourth kingdom spoken of in Daniel 2, is here in Daniel 7 spoken of as the fourth beast, who has ten horns (representing all the civil governments of the world), the description we know from our discussions of Revelation 12, 13, and 17.

Daniel, in Daniel 3, gives us one of the identifying characteristics of these horns, and the one who is diverse from all the other horns. The Chaldean (Aramaic or Syriack) word rendered “horn” in Daniel 7 is qeren. It is used fourteen times, appearing 9 times in Daniel 7, where it is “horn,” and four times in Daniel 3 where it is “cornet.” In Daniel 3 it’s the sound that calls ALL people to worship the image Nebuchadnezzar has set up, this aspect is why John, in Revelation 12, 13 and 17, to the description of the beast (Babylon) adds seven heads. It is because now this is as true with the church as it is with all the civil governments of the world. Changing laws and times are what Daniel tells us of the little horn, which is the delusion that now rules over church and state, where they both alike are following, falling and worshipping, the lies of Nebuchadnezzar. As we understand, the horn that is different from all before it is not only these men’s new ideas, which are causing the fire of hell to burn in the world but also the new means of sounding the horn, which is broadcasting. And, just as in Daniel 3, any who refuse to worship the images they’ve created are thrown into the fires they create to destroy any opposing their decrees.

Daniel 3
19 Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.
20 And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
21 Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
22 Therefore because the king’s commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flames of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spoke, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

Daniel 7
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
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 spake: 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, 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 that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake 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 and times and the dividing of 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.

In Daniel 8 Daniel begins to write in Hebrew (before it was Chaldean – the language of confusion learned before he found the books, specifically Jeremiah, which he refers to in Daniel 9:2).

Daniel 8 is describing when the stone cut “without hand” breaks pieces the kingdom and the king, the little horn, the delusion that now rules over all the world. When our original language is again heard and understood, which is referring to the truth.

Daniel 8
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom [the end of this age of darkness], when the transgressors are come to the full [when corruption has been fully worked in and the whole is corrupted], a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences [understand the way to change men, in this case, by the power of deception], shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft [deception] to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself [swell with pride] in his heart, and by [false claims of] peace shall destroy many [remember 1 Thessalonians 5:3, when they say peace and safety, sudden destruction comes upon them]: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true [telling the truth is the daily sacrifice that was ended]: wherefore shut you up the vision; for it shall be for many days.
27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.

Daniel then, in Daniel 9, tells of understanding the desolation and its end, and says it (understanding) came from books the number of years (of Abram’s sleep), whereof the LORD came to Jeremiah telling him of the seventy years in accomplishing the desolation of Jerusalem. What Daniel understood was what Jeremiah speaks of in Jeremiah 25:11 & 29:10, of when the LORD would destroy Babylon, which Daniel understood was the confusion that would, and now does, rule all the world, including God’s people. This is apparent as Daniel continues in Daniel 9 with a prayer of repentance, which ends with understanding the steps leading to anointing the king God has chosen.

Jeremiah 25
9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the LORD, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon [the lies of the false prophets that bring total desolation, which rules over all the world], my servant, and will bring them against this land [because they set up idols in God’s place], and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
12 And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
13 And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.
14 For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.

Jeremiah 29
1 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets [Daniel is one of these people], and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
2 (After that Jeconiah [Coniah – who Jehovah will establish] the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;)
3 By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan [which God has created and hidden in the Rock], and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah [which God has perfected – to be found as the inheritance of Jehovah], (whom Zedekiah [Jehovah’s righteousness – truth] king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,
4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
5 Build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
6 Take you wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that you may be increased there, and not diminished.
7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall you have peace [not the false peace promised by the false prophets – which they say comes by bowing when they broadcast their creations].
8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.
9 For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.
10 For thus says the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.
14 And I will be found of you, says the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, says the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
15 Because you have said, The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon;
16 Know that thus says the LORD of the king that sits upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwell in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity;
17 Thus says the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
18 And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them:
19 Because they have not hearkened to my words, says the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear, says the LORD.
20 Hear you therefore the word of the LORD, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon:
21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah [who said he was the voice of Jehovah], and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah [who said he was doing the work of God], which prophesy a lie unto you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he [their own lies and confusion] shall slay them before your eyes;
22 And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire [their own lies have caused];
23 Because they have committed villainy in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, says the LORD.

This is the context, understanding the state of confusion and repenting, meaning admitting it, turning from it, and returning to the LORD. This is the trouble with the current crop of vile figs: their preachers tell them everything they preach is God’s word, while God is loudly and clearly saying REPENT, and come out of your confusion in Babylon.

Revelation 18
1 And 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.

Daniel 9
1 In the first year of Darius [also called Cyrus] the son of Ahasuerus [and Esther], of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
3 And I set my face unto the LORD God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O LORD, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and from your judgments:
6 Neither have we hearkened unto your servants the prophets, which spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7 O LORD, righteousness belongs unto you, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.
8 O LORD, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.
9 To the LORD our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him;
10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed your law, even by departing, that they might not obey your voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
12 And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven has not been done as has been done upon Jerusalem.
13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand your truth.
14 Therefore has the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he does: for we obeyed not his voice.
15 And now, O LORD our God, that have brought your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten you renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16 O LORD, according to all your righteousness, I beseech you, let your anger and your fury be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of your servant, and his supplications, and cause your face to shine upon your sanctuary that is desolate, for the LORD’s sake.
18 O my God, incline your ear, and hear; open your eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by your name: for we do not present our supplications before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies.
19 O LORD, hear; O LORD, forgive; O LORD, hearken and do; defer not, for your own sake, O my God: for your city and your people are called by your name.
20 And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel [man of God], whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give you skill and understanding.
23 At the beginning of your supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show you; for you are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
24 Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and upon your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations [the creations of men – which they worship as idols] he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Psalms 49
1 Hear this, all you people; give ear, all you inhabitants of the world:
2 Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
4 I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
5 Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?
6 They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceases for ever:)
9 That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.
10 For he sees that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man being in honor abides not: he is like the beasts that perish.
13 This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
16 Be not you afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;
17 For when he dies he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.
18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise you, when you do well to yourself.
19 He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.
20 Man that is in honor, and understands not, is like the beasts that perish.

August 7, 2019

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

Only the accusers and those joined with them in their evil deeds aren’t seeing the time and season we are in. Today’s title is Revelation 12:10, and is speaking of this exact moment when the wicked openly, blinded by hubris, show their true identity, which is evil personified. They openly show their hate in the lies they knowingly tell as the try to destroy their neighbors/brothers. They are in need of warning. Therefore, by and in the love of God, I warn them to turn from their evil and save themselves.

1 John 3
1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
4 Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
5 And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
6 Whosoever abides in him sins not: whosoever sins hath not seen him, neither known him.
7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8 He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother.
11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in death.
15 Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and sees his brother have need [of being warned and given this living waters, the word of God, by which man lives], and shuts up his bowels [his belly, from where living waters flow] of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
24 And he that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

Revelation 12 precisely portrays the moment and the battle in which we are engaged. As we know, these things are written so we would understand the time and season, and wouldn’t be in the dark with those who through it sleep.

Revelation 12
1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars [this verse is telling us this moment coincides with Zechariah 9:16, which is when the LORD’s comes to save His people and raise them to be the crown upon His head, as a sign to His land]:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon [as we’ve seen, this is Babylon, the confusion that rules over all the world and brought it into chaos], having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour [censor – see Matthew 13:4, Mark 4:4, and Luke 8:5] her child as soon as it was born.
5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael [meaning who is like God – as in 1 John 3:16 above] and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he hath but a short time.
13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle [which carries her to renew her strength, as in Isaiah 40:31, which we know is speaking of when the LORD reveals this word to those who have waited for him to open our understanding], that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time [speaking of what we know of the wheels Ezekiel saw: recorded events in one time, carried forward over time, to be rightly divided in our time, to give us understanding of the time and season, this present moment], from the face of the serpent.
15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman [these are the words of the false accuser spoken of in verse 10 above – the false accusations of white supremacy and white nationalism now heard], that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth [referring us to both Genesis 4:10 where the blood of Abel cries out of the ground to God; and Hebrews 12:24, where the voice now shaking the wicked from the earth is said to be as “blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel”], and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony [this word] of Jesus Christ.

As we know, Hebrew 12 tells of the correction that comes to all, which 1 Corinthians 15 speak of as the mystery of the resurrection, which changes all. As we also know, this change awakens some to shine as the stars of heaven and other to everlasting contempt, as is written in Daniel 12, when Michael stands (as in Revelation 12:7 above). The two places where these two opposing groups awaken are described in Hebrews 12 as two different mountains, one is hell and separation from God, the other Zion.

Hebrews 12
11 Now no chastening [correction] for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby [those from whom error is worked out – which is the effectual working of God’s word].
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. [The warning of the destruction of those who refuse to give up their errors: the corruption that separated them from God.]
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 [who’ve been corrected and come out of corruption and confusion] are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven [where there is no confusion, because the LORD is enthroned in our minds, by His rightly divided word, which gives us light: saves us from ignorance by giving us understanding]:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath 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.

Daniel 12
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro [referring us to what is written in Zechariah 4:10, which says, “For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel {who will finish the house, by the Spirit of the LORD} with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”], and knowledge shall be increased [as it now is].
5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river [the river Chebar, which carries God’s word through time, to be revealed giving us understand in the patterns, which quickens us to life from the dead].
6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that lives for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my LORD, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go your way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end [until now].
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
12 Blessed is he that waits, and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. [As we know, these dates, when we add the time and the times, the first number to the first and second, produce the sum that is the number of years since Abram’s {Abraham’s} sleep, and this day. This is defining the time when the promise was first given, and now when it is perfected in the LORD giving us full understanding revealing His plan of salvation in this moment.]
13 But go you your way till the end be: for you shall rest, and stand [be raised in this resurrection of the LORD’s body] in your lot at the end of the days.

Zechariah 4 speaks of the same two anointed ones as those who pour out this word of God, first to be recorded as part of the plan, and then, on the other side, to be received and understood. It tells of Zerubbabel, whose names mean he is raised to life out of confusion, and who is the pattern of Christ rising in us, by the Spirit of God, to finish His house, which we are.

Zechariah 4
1 And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
2 And said unto me, What see you? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
4 So I answered and spoke to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my LORD?
5 Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Know you not what these be? And I said, No, my LORD.
6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts.
7 Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone [Christ] thereof with shouting, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
8 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and you shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you.
10 For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?
13 And he answered me and said, Know you not what these be? And I said, No, my LORD.
14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the LORD of the whole earth.

These two anointed ones are those later spoken of in Zechariah 9:9 & 10:3, first as the LORD enters riding the lowly ass, the beast which bears the burden, sacrifices its will to carry His Spirit to God’s people. This is speaking of Judah, the elect remnant in who the LORD first rises and is rejected. This same group is later seen as the LORD’s goodly horse in the battle, when realized to be the LORD at His coming, giving God’s word, which produces understanding, and which is the former and latter rain.

Zechariah 9
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes unto you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you also, by the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
12 Turn you to the strong hold, you prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto you;
13 When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim [those who’ve received the blessing sent from heaven], and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece [the dregs, those who remain wallowing in the mire they themselves have agitated], and made you as the sword of a mighty man.
14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
15 The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.
16 And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.
17 For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.

Zechariah 10
1 Ask you of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.
2 For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.
3 Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle.
4 Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor [ruler] together.
5 And they shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the LORD is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded.
6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them.
7 And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.
8 I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.
9 And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again.
10 I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.
11 And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves [pride] in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria [those who’ve degenerated into confusion] shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt [captivity] shall depart away. [This is telling of when the pride and overconfidence {hubris} destroys those who’ve used their words, lies and false accusations, to lead people into the captivity of confusion and chaos.]
12 And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, says the LORD.

1 Thessalonians 4
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, to meet the LORD in the air: 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 a helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God hath 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.

1 Corinthians 15
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 [as we see above in Zachariah 9:9 & 10:3]
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
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 show 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?

Do you understand the time? Romans 13: 10 Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness [ignorance], and let us put on the armor of light [understanding].

Friends, God’s elect remnant, the LORD has shortened these days for our sake. He has raised us to awaken others, so they will see the time and the season, and understand the LORD has come to save the world from those destroying it by their wickedness and deception.

Matthew 24
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28 For where-so-ever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign [spoken of in Revelation 12:1 and Zechariah 9:16] 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.

Revelation 11
11 And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them [the carcass], and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
12 And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
13 And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe comes quickly.
15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our LORD, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
17 Saying, We give you thanks, O LORD God Almighty, which are, and were, and are to come; because you have taken to you your great power, and have reigned.
18 And the nations were angry, and your wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward unto your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth.
19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

Psalms 21
1 The king shall joy in your strength, O LORD; and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
3 For you prevent [go before] him with the blessings of goodness: you set a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked life of you, and you gave it him, even length of days for ever and ever.
5 His glory is great in your salvation: honor and majesty have you laid upon him.
6 For you have made him most blessed for ever: you have made him exceeding glad with your countenance.
7 For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand shall find out all your enemies: your right hand shall find out those that hate you.
9 You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
10 Their fruit shall you destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.
11 For they intended evil against you: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
12 Therefore shall you make them turn their back, when you shall make ready your arrows [Judah is my bow, and Ephraim has become my arrows – see Zechariah 9:13 above] upon your strings against the face of them.
13 Be you exalted, LORD, in your own strength: so will we sing and praise your power.

August 6, 2019August 6, 2019

The reason for the Second Amendment, and thereby establishing the level of restriction it places upon the federal government’s power, is to combat a (federal) standing army.

The reason for the Second Amendment, and thereby establishing the level of restriction it places upon the federal government’s power, is to combat a (federal) standing army. It is clear in many of the Federalist papers, one of the main oppositions to the State’s ratifying the proposed Constitution, was that it gave the power to the legislature to fund a standing army. It was feared that in a time of peace, a federal government, which had been invaded and infested by vermin and despots (present-day Congress), would use the army against the states and its people. The Second Amendment was to further ensure the people’s ability to combat such a standing army and therefore guarantees the people’s right to possess (bear) any weapon needed to do so.

As stated here and in previous arguments on this same topic, the above is the extent to which the federal government is constrained and therefore disallowed from making any law which would restrict our right to bear arms. We as civilized people, may if we choose to do so, willingly restrict ourselves. BUT, there is no power vested in the federal government that would allow it to restrict us beyond or without our approval, which is the reason (to further emphasize) the “Bill of Rights” was ratified on 15 December 1791.

Below is pasted Federalist 46, which was part of the argument against the displeasure with the Constitution, even after its ratification, which dissatisfaction resulted in the addition of these clarifying Amendments, after the fact. These were (are) a Bill further establishing Rights that couldn’t be “infringed” by any Branch or office of the federal government.

With the language of the Second Amendment in mind, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” hereafter is the applicable portion of Federalist 46, followed by the entire paper. This quoted portion appears in the third paragraph from the end and is James Madison, writing as Publius, as he is arguing (which didn’t prevail) the reason why the people didn’t have to worry that a standing army (or any federal force) would be sent against them by a corrupted federal government.

“Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however be made. Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country against the British arms, will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it. Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion, that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession, than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors. Let us rather no longer insult them with the supposition that they can ever reduce themselves to the necessity of making the experiment, by a blind and tame submission to the long train of insidious measures which must precede and produce it.”

FEDERALIST No. 46
The Influence of the State and Federal Governments Compared
From the New York Packet.
Tuesday, January 29, 1788.
James Madison

To the People of the State of New York:
RESUMING the subject of the last paper, I proceed to inquire whether the federal government or the State governments will have the advantage with regard to the predilection and support of the people. Notwithstanding the different modes in which they are appointed, we must consider both of them as substantially dependent on the great body of the citizens of the United States. I assume this position here as it respects the first, reserving the proofs for another place. The federal and State governments are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, constituted with different powers, and designed for different purposes. The adversaries of the Constitution seem to have lost sight of the people altogether in their reasonings on this subject; and to have viewed these different establishments, not only as mutual rivals and enemies, but as uncontrolled by any common superior in their efforts to usurp the authorities of each other. These gentlemen must here be reminded of their error. They must be told that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone, and that it will not depend merely on the comparative ambition or address of the different governments, whether either, or which of them, will be able to enlarge its sphere of jurisdiction at the expense of the other. Truth, no less than decency, requires that the event in every case should be supposed to depend on the sentiments and sanction of their common constituents.

Many considerations, besides those suggested on a former occasion, seem to place it beyond doubt that the first and most natural attachment of the people will be to the governments of their respective States. Into the administration of these a greater number of individuals will expect to rise. From the gift of these a greater number of offices and emoluments will flow. By the superintending care of these, all the more domestic and personal interests of the people will be regulated and provided for. With the affairs of these, the people will be more familiarly and minutely conversant. And with the members of these, will a greater proportion of the people have the ties of personal acquaintance and friendship, and of family and party attachments; on the side of these, therefore, the popular bias may well be expected most strongly to incline.

Experience speaks the same language in this case. The federal administration, though hitherto very defective in comparison with what may be hoped under a better system, had, during the war, and particularly whilst the independent fund of paper emissions was in credit, an activity and importance as great as it can well have in any future circumstances whatever. It was engaged, too, in a course of measures which had for their object the protection of everything that was dear, and the acquisition of everything that could be desirable to the people at large. It was, nevertheless, invariably found, after the transient enthusiasm for the early Congresses was over, that the attention and attachment of the people were turned anew to their own particular governments; that the federal council was at no time the idol of popular favor; and that opposition to proposed enlargements of its powers and importance was the side usually taken by the men who wished to build their political consequence on the prepossessions of their fellow-citizens.

If, therefore, as has been elsewhere remarked, the people should in future become more partial to the federal than to the State governments, the change can only result from such manifest and irresistible proofs of a better administration, as will overcome all their antecedent propensities. And in that case, the people ought not surely to be precluded from giving most of their confidence where they may discover it to be most due; but even in that case the State governments could have little to apprehend, because it is only within a certain sphere that the federal power can, in the nature of things, be advantageously administered.

The remaining points on which I propose to compare the federal and State governments, are the disposition and the faculty they may respectively possess, to resist and frustrate the measures of each other.

It has been already proved that the members of the federal will be more dependent on the members of the State governments, than the latter will be on the former. It has appeared also, that the prepossessions of the people, on whom both will depend, will be more on the side of the State governments, than of the federal government. So far as the disposition of each towards the other may be influenced by these causes, the State governments must clearly have the advantage. But in a distinct and very important point of view, the advantage will lie on the same side. The prepossessions, which the members themselves will carry into the federal government, will generally be favorable to the States; whilst it will rarely happen, that the members of the State governments will carry into the public councils a bias in favor of the general government. A local spirit will infallibly prevail much more in the members of Congress, than a national spirit will prevail in the legislatures of the particular States. Every one knows that a great proportion of the errors committed by the State legislatures proceeds from the disposition of the members to sacrifice the comprehensive and permanent interest of the State, to the particular and separate views of the counties or districts in which they reside. And if they do not sufficiently enlarge their policy to embrace the collective welfare of their particular State, how can it be imagined that they will make the aggregate prosperity of the Union, and the dignity and respectability of its government, the objects of their affections and consultations? For the same reason that the members of the State legislatures will be unlikely to attach themselves sufficiently to national objects, the members of the federal legislature will be likely to attach themselves too much to local objects. The States will be to the latter what counties and towns are to the former. Measures will too often be decided according to their probable effect, not on the national prosperity and happiness, but on the prejudices, interests, and pursuits of the governments and people of the individual States. What is the spirit that has in general characterized the proceedings of Congress? A perusal of their journals, as well as the candid acknowledgments of such as have had a seat in that assembly, will inform us, that the members have but too frequently displayed the character, rather of partisans of their respective States, than of impartial guardians of a common interest; that where on one occasion improper sacrifices have been made of local considerations, to the aggrandizement of the federal government, the great interests of the nation have suffered on a hundred, from an undue attention to the local prejudices, interests, and views of the particular States. I mean not by these reflections to insinuate, that the new federal government will not embrace a more enlarged plan of policy than the existing government may have pursued; much less, that its views will be as confined as those of the State legislatures; but only that it will partake sufficiently of the spirit of both, to be disinclined to invade the rights of the individual States, or the preorgatives of their governments. The motives on the part of the State governments, to augment their prerogatives by defalcations from the federal government, will be overruled by no reciprocal predispositions in the members.

Were it admitted, however, that the Federal government may feel an equal disposition with the State governments to extend its power beyond the due limits, the latter would still have the advantage in the means of defeating such encroachments. If an act of a particular State, though unfriendly to the national government, be generally popular in that State and should not too grossly violate the oaths of the State officers, it is executed immediately and, of course, by means on the spot and depending on the State alone. The opposition of the federal government, or the interposition of federal officers, would but inflame the zeal of all parties on the side of the State, and the evil could not be prevented or repaired, if at all, without the employment of means which must always be resorted to with reluctance and difficulty. On the other hand, should an unwarrantable measure of the federal government be unpopular in particular States, which would seldom fail to be the case, or even a warrantable measure be so, which may sometimes be the case, the means of opposition to it are powerful and at hand. The disquietude of the people; their repugnance and, perhaps, refusal to co-operate with the officers of the Union; the frowns of the executive magistracy of the State; the embarrassments created by legislative devices, which would often be added on such occasions, would oppose, in any State, difficulties not to be despised; would form, in a large State, very serious impediments; and where the sentiments of several adjoining States happened to be in unison, would present obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing to encounter.

But ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single State, or of a few States only. They would be signals of general alarm. Every government would espouse the common cause. A correspondence would be opened. Plans of resistance would be concerted. One spirit would animate and conduct the whole. The same combinations, in short, would result from an apprehension of the federal, as was produced by the dread of a foreign, yoke; and unless the projected innovations should be voluntarily renounced, the same appeal to a trial of force would be made in the one case as was made in the other. But what degree of madness could ever drive the federal government to such an extremity. In the contest with Great Britain, one part of the empire was employed against the other. The more numerous part invaded the rights of the less numerous part. The attempt was unjust and unwise; but it was not in speculation absolutely chimerical. But what would be the contest in the case we are supposing? Who would be the parties? A few representatives of the people would be opposed to the people themselves; or rather one set of representatives would be contending against thirteen sets of representatives, with the whole body of their common constituents on the side of the latter.

The only refuge left for those who prophesy the downfall of the State governments is the visionary supposition that the federal government may previously accumulate a military force for the projects of ambition. The reasonings contained in these papers must have been employed to little purpose indeed, if it could be necessary now to disprove the reality of this danger. That the people and the States should, for a sufficient period of time, elect an uninterupted succession of men ready to betray both; that the traitors should, throughout this period, uniformly and systematically pursue some fixed plan for the extension of the military establishment; that the governments and the people of the States should silently and patiently behold the gathering storm, and continue to supply the materials, until it should be prepared to burst on their own heads, must appear to every one more like the incoherent dreams of a delirious jealousy, or the misjudged exaggerations of a counterfeit zeal, than like the sober apprehensions of genuine patriotism. Extravagant as the supposition is, let it however be made. Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country against the British arms, will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain, that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments, and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it. Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion, that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession, than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors. Let us rather no longer insult them with the supposition that they can ever reduce themselves to the necessity of making the experiment, by a blind and tame submission to the long train of insidious measures which must precede and produce it.

The argument under the present head may be put into a very concise form, which appears altogether conclusive. Either the mode in which the federal government is to be constructed will render it sufficiently dependent on the people, or it will not. On the first supposition, it will be restrained by that dependence from forming schemes obnoxious to their constituents. On the other supposition, it will not possess the confidence of the people, and its schemes of usurpation will be easily defeated by the State governments, who will be supported by the people.

On summing up the considerations stated in this and the last paper, they seem to amount to the most convincing evidence, that the powers proposed to be lodged in the federal government are as little formidable to those reserved to the individual States, as they are indispensably necessary to accomplish the purposes of the Union; and that all those alarms which have been sounded, of a meditated and consequential annihilation of the State governments, must, on the most favorable interpretation, be ascribed to the chimerical fears of the authors of them.

PUBLIUS.

August 5, 2019

Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the LORD of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we return?

Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the LORD of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we return?

Why so much chaos, so much hell on earth, even now in this nation that was once a haven? The above statement, Malachi 3:7, tells of what any “woke” Christian (meaning awakened by Christ in us) knows is the root of the problem, it (the verse) and those following describing it (the problem) and its cure.

The beginning verses of the same chapter tell of the judgment of God, which is to send a messenger, in His name, to illuminate the cause and the cure. What needs to be remedied are the ideas and ways men have taught and put in the place of God’s good judgment, of which he reminds us. As now, while this is happening, the ignorant and the evil reject His advice and offer more of the same agitation and confusion (mental chaos), concealed in their same old snake oil (which does nothing except further intoxicating now deluded minds).

Malachi 3
1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, says the LORD of hosts.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, says the LORD of hosts.
6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
7 Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the LORD of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we return?
8 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, says the LORD of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a delightsome land, says the LORD of hosts.
13 Your words have been stout against me, says the LORD. Yet you say, What have we spoken so much against you?
14 You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16 Then they that feared the LORD spoke often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.
18 Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not.

Malachi 4
1 For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the LORD of hosts.
4 Remember you the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb [where God taught us His ways and freed our minds from the corrupt ideas {still} holding us captive] for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet [the destroyer of idols, by this word of the LORD God Almighty] before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse [not the same word as used elsewhere in Malachi – here it is cherem, meaning utter destruction].

Malachi 2
1 And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If you will not hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, says the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.
3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
4 And you shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, says the LORD of hosts.
5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
8 But you are departed out of the way; you have caused many to stumble at the law; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts.
9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.
10 Have we not all one father? has not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
11 Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and has married the daughter of a strange god [Babylon – foolishness and confusion].
12 The LORD will cut off the man that does this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offer an offering unto the LORD of hosts.
13 And this have you done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regards not the offering any more, or receives it with good will at your hand.
14 Yet you say, Wherefore? Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously: yet is she your companion, and the wife of your covenant.
15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth [the knowledge of God and His wisdom].
16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates putting away: for one covers violence with his garment, says the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that you deal not treacherously.
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, Wherein have we wearied him? When you say, Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

The curse is the natural (law) consequence of following man’s corrupt and evil ideas and ways, just as the blessing comes by following God’s wisdom (supreme ideas) and acting with the forethought and foresight they generate. Chapter 2 above speaks of the curse coming when God’s truth, knowledge, and law are no longer spoken by the priests and Levites, and when Judah has profaned the LORD’s holiness with their abominations (replacing the teaching of Jerusalem: peace and civilization, with the confusion and chaos that come with worshiping idols, meaning men’s ideas). Later, in chapter 3, we are told of Judah, after being purified by this refining fire, returning to his former state, and his offering (the words of his mouth) again acceptable (pleasing), as in days of old.

These passages are referring us to Genesis 49 and the words of Jacob as he gathers his son and tells them of what shall befall them in these last days. This chapter should be read in the context of the deeper understanding the LORD has already revealed in these refining messages.

Genesis 49
1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, you sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, you art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable as water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed; then defiled you it: he went up to my couch. [This is telling of the strength departing, as he went into his Father’s wife – see 1 Corinthians 5:1, and remember our recent study of the same.]
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not you into their secret [cowd, the counsel of the wicked – see Psalms 64:2 below]; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not you united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall.
7 Cursed [‘arar – the same curse mentioned in Malachi 2:2 & 3:9] be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them [these wicked priests and Levites] in Israel.
8 Judah [the leaders of God’s people – in whom the LORD’s strength returns], you art he whom your brethren shall praise: your hand shall be in the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp [the children of the Lion of Judah – see Isaiah 8, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, haste to the spoil and quick to the prey; and verse 17 & 18]: from the prey, my son, you art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion [as in the days of old]; who shall rouse him up?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet [birthed from His belly], until Shiloh [shalah – tranquility, from shalal, as above, from Isaiah 8 {verse 1 & 3} identifying Judah as the elect, the children of the Lion of Judah, spoken of in Isaiah 8:18]; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine [as we have seen, this identifies the elect, Judah, in whom the LORD comes into Jerusalem {again}]; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:
12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
13 Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for a haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon. [This tells of the destination the travelers {Hebrews and pilgrims} have reached, their end as fishers of men],
14 Issachar [there is his reward] is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:
15 And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute [the LORD in us then doing His work, and the land is at peace and civilized].
16 Dan [God’s judgment] shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels [the works of the powers of the earth], so that his rider shall fall backward.
18 I have waited for your salvation, O LORD.
19 Gad [the complete {unified} assembly of God’s people], a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher [happiness] his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.
21 Naphtali [those wrestling with God, unaware] is a hind let loose: he gives goodly words.
22 Joseph [Jehovah has continued – as a son] is a fruitful bough [parah ben – fruit as offspring, progeny], even a fruitful bough [parah ben] by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24 But his bow [see Zechariah 9 below] abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence [then and there] is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
25 Even by the God of your father, who shall help you; and by the Almighty, who shall bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors [of all those who have come before me] unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills [the end of the age, world without end]: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.
27 Benjamin [the children that are God’s right hand – His power] shall ravin [tear in pieces] as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night the shall divide the spoil. [Again see Isaiah 8:1, 3 & 18, which, as here, define the unified body of Christ.]
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spoke unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. [see Malachi 4:6 above]

Isaiah 8
1 Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take you a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz [haste to the spoil and quick to the prey; this is telling of being quickened, brought to life from the dead, away from their corrupt teaching and ways, back to God].
2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah [Jehovah is my light {understanding}] the priest, and Zechariah [who Jehovah has remembered] the son of Jeberechiah [who Jehovah has blessed].
3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father [the knowledge of God], and my mother [the wisdom of God], the riches of Damascus [where the work has become silenced] and the spoil of Samaria [the watchtower that has been corrupted by replacing God with idols] shall be taken away before the king of Assyria [declined by steps – degrees].
5 The LORD spoke also unto me again, saying,
6 Forasmuch as this people refuses the waters of Shiloah [the word sent from God] that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin [those they desired – in whose words they have chosen to trust] and Remaliah’s son [Pekah – opened these gates of the self-destruction of God’s people];
7 Now therefore, behold, the LORD brings up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria [the degenerate advice that produces after its own kind, ignorance, confusion, and chaos], and all his glory: and he shall come up [swelled with pride in his words that carry death to the masses] over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
8 And he shall pass through Judah [the leaders of God’s people]; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel [into this state and to combat death, God sends His word, to manifest His presence and glory to His children who will receive Him].
9 Associate yourselves, O you people, and you shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all you of far countries: gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 Say you not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary [a haven]; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. [who have both corrupted themselves with abominations]
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion.
19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits [spirit of the dead, producing after their own kind], and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter [those using their words to manipulate and deceive others into not listening to God]: should not a people seek unto their God? [Should they be looking] for the living [life] to the dead [whose advice is death]?
20 [Shouldn’t they be looking] To the law and to the testimony[?]: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light [understanding] in them.
21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry [because they are listening to what can never satisfy the need they have, which is for the ideas and ways of peace and civilization]: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness [even deeper ignorance – following the advice that has brought death upon them].

Zechariah 9
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes unto you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim [the son of Joseph], and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you also, by the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
12 Turn you to the strong hold, you prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto you;
13 When I have bent Judah [the leaders of God people, the elect] for me, filled the bow with Ephraim [the blessed of God], and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece [the dregs, who are still wallowing in their own mire they have stirred – as a whale in the sea, agitating the waters], and made you as the sword of a mighty man.
14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning [understanding]: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet [call His people to assemble in one body], and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
15 The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.
16 And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. [“I and the children God has given me are for signs and wonders.”]
17 For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids. [again, see Joel 1:10 & 2:19]

Zechariah 10
1 Ask you of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.
2 For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.
3 Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts has visited his flock the house of Judah, and has made them as his goodly horse in the battle.
4 Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor [leader] together.
5 And they shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the LORD is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded.
6 And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them.
7 And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.
8 I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.
9 And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again.
10 I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead [founded upon this mountain of the LORD’s ideas and ways] and Lebanon [purity and holiness]; and place shall not be found for them [in these old corrupted places that are now in ruin and on fire].
11 And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea [the pride of wicked], and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria [the degenerates] shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt [the rule of captivity] shall depart away.
12 And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, says the LORD.

Ezekiel 17
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;
3 And say, Thus says the LORD God; A great eagle with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had divers colors, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar:
4 He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants.
5 He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree.
6 And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.
7 There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation.
8 It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.
9 Say you, Thus says the LORD God; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.
10 Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind touches it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew.
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
12 Say now to the rebellious house, Know you not what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and has taken the king thereof, and the princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon;
13 And has taken of the king’s seed, and made a covenant with him, and has taken an oath of him: he has also taken the mighty of the land:
14 That the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it might stand.
15 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that does such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?
16 As I live, says the LORD God, surely in the place where the king dwells that made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he brake, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.
17 Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company make for him in the war, by casting up mounts, and building forts, to cut off many persons:
18 Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and has done all these things, he shall not escape.
19 Therefore thus says the LORD God; As I live, surely mine oath that he has despised, and my covenant that he has broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head.
20 And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.
21 And all his fugitives with all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds: and you shall know that I the LORD have spoken it.
22 Thus says the LORD God; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent:
23 In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell.
24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it.

Ezekiel 31
1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art you like in your greatness?
3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
4 The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
5 Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.
6 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.
7 Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.
8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
9 I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.
10 Therefore thus says the LORD God; Because you have lifted up yourself in height, and he has shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;
11 I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.
12 And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.
13 Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches:
14 To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit.
15 Thus says the LORD God; In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed: and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.
16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.
17 They also went down into hell with him unto them that be slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen.
18 To whom art you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shall you be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the LORD God.

Psalms 64
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
3 Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
6 They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.
7 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
8 So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.
9 And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.

August 3, 2019August 4, 2019

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.

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.

Today’s title, Revelation 17:3, is speaking of when John understood the judgment that would come, which is here, when God’s judgment is upon MYSTERY BABYLON, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND [OF] THE ABOMINATIONS OF [ALL] THE EARTH.

As we understand, Babylon is confusion, the mother of children who are unfaithful to God, both the products of replacing God with abominations (men’s ideas and ways replacing the holy, as idols worshipped in God’s place).

When the chapter speaks of the beast (Babylon – confusion) having seven heads and ten horns, it is speaking of all the churches and civil governments of the world in darkness, which we know is ignorance come from replacing God, and the resulting confusion that covers all the earth. The judgment is God coming, as light into the darkness, giving understanding that both reveals His presence and glory, while also causing those who attempt to perpetuate the ignorance (lies) to perish (apoleia) by their own hand (works). Understanding this simplicity uncovers (apocalypse – reveals) the mystery of Babylon.

(Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [ignorance] was upon the face of the deep [the ideas in God’s word, ignored and now hidden]. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters [the sealed word, only superficially understood]. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light [understanding]. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light [understanding] Day, and the darkness [ignorance] he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day [the first time understanding appeared]. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament [a great expansion in righty interpreting the word of God and separating it from the words of men] in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven [where and when the word of God is separated from the words of men, and in this pure form effects the minds and lives of all those who will receive His understanding]. And the evening and the morning were the second day.)

Revelation 17
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials [this understanding poured into and then from earthen vessels], and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto you the judgment of the great whore that sits upon many waters [the unfaithful church, which first falls into darkness]:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication [with the church in darkness, the civil governments also fall into the same state of ignorance and confusion], and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk [the mind of all men become stupefies into the same darkness] 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 [God’s people, who kill those speaking God’s true message, because it is against and reveals their unfaithfulness]: 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 [all God’s people], and of the beast [confusion – Babylon] that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns [church and civil governments].
8 The beast [confusion before the light] that you sawest was [before the light came], and is not [in the time when John wrote, when understanding was still with God’s people: the light of Christ in men]; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit [the never-ending fall, backsliding {carrying away} of God’s people away from Him and into replacing Him with abominations], and go into perdition [apoleia – by this fall they perish – as will those who, by choice, remain in a state away {separated} from God]: 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. [These men wonder, are confused because they haven’t found themselves in the word of God’s understanding, because they instead remain in confusion and listening {beholding} the confusion that has replaced God.]
9 And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains [churches that have risen up and loom over the earth], on which the woman [the unfaithful] sits.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen [the first five church types described in Revelation 2 & 3], and one is [the church of Philadelphia, that existed at the time of Johns writing and until the light was completely suppressed by the ignorance that replaced it], and the other is not yet come [the church of Laodicea, which describes the church after the light, fallen into complacency and without effect – Jesurun]; and when he comes, he must continue a short space.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth [when complacence has had its full effect and the church become with any understanding at all, and in total darkness becomes part of Babylon], and is of the seven, and goes into perdition [apolia].
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 [the power that now works in the children of disobedience, deception enabled by confusion – which has brought demagogues to power in all governments].
13 These have one mind [all joined by the same confusion into one beast – Babylon], and shall give their power and strength unto the beast [confusion].
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 [where the unfaithful church and civil governments rule over all the world], are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
16 And the ten horns which you saw upon the beast, these shall hate the whore [the civil governments are hostile to the {confused} church], and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
17 For God has 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 [Babylon – confusion], which reigns over the kings of the earth.

The church before Philadelphia is Sardis, which seems to be from the Hebrew word s’or, a five-times used word always rendered “leaven.” As we know, leaven is corruption, which the LORD reminds us is the doctrines of those who’ve controlled the church and fully worked in their corruption, until the whole lump was corrupt.

The word s’or is referring us to Deuteronomy 16 where it appears in verse 4. In the beginning of the chapter the LORD reminds us of when we (His people) came out of Egypt, in the night, and by this He is alluding to His telling of His coming as a thief in the night (the time of which the people are ignorant).

Deuteronomy 16
1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the LORD your God: for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.
2 You shall therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.
3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
4 And there shall be no leavened bread seen with you in all your coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which you sacrificed the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.
5 You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, which the LORD your God gives you:
6 But at the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place his name in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at even, at the going down of the sun [in the night], at the season that you came forth out of Egypt.
7 And you shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God shall choose: and you shall turn in the morning [when understanding comes as the rising sun], and go unto your tents.
8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God: you shall do no work therein.
9 Seven weeks shall you number unto you: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as you begin to put the sickle to the corn.
10 And you shall keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give unto the LORD your God, according as the LORD your God has blessed you:
11 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite that is within your gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD your God has chosen to place his name there.
12 And you shall remember that you were a bondman in Egypt: and you shall observe and do these statutes.
13 You shall observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that you have gathered in your corn and your wine [see Joel 1:9 thru 11 and 2:17 thru 19]:
14 And you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within your gates.
15 Seven days shall you keep a solemn feast unto the LORD your God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD your God shall bless you in all your increase, and in all the works of your hands, therefore you shall surely rejoice.
16 Three times in a year shall all your males appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.
18 Judges and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, throughout your tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment.
19 You shall not wrest judgment; you shall not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.
20 That which is altogether just shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.
21 You shall not plant you a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make you.
22 Neither shall you set you up any image; which the LORD your God hates.

Sardis is telling of the lump that has been fully corrupted and when God’s people have been blinded (from seeing Him) by the gods of this world. These are those describes as the synagogues of Satan, led by those who oppose and resist the LORD at His appearing as light over the horizon (with understanding).

Revelation 3
1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things says he that has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know your works, that you have a name that you live, and are dead.
2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found your works perfect before God.
3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore you shall not watch, I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come upon you.
4 You have a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
5 He that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
6 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.
7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things says he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens;
8 I know your works: behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it [because the LORD, whose weakness is stronger than any man, as Samson {like the sun}, has, in the night, stolen away the gates]: for you have a little strength, and have kept my word, and have not denied my name.
9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews [which say they are the “true” believers], and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet [the enemies have now become His footstool], and to know that I have loved you.
10 Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which you have, that no man take your crown.
12 Him that overcomes [the corruption] will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
13 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I would you wert cold or hot.
16 So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.
17 Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.

The name Laodicea, as we saw in the post of 27 March 2019, “is compounded from the Greek words laos, meaning people, and dike, meaning justice or right (justified or made right). It is describing the decision these people, all people in this now totally fallen world, are faced with, return to the form of Philadelphia (brotherly love – loving self and others alike, meaning – truthful to yourself and others), or remain fallen and in hell, in what the LORD calls the synagogue of Satan, meaning they are gathered together into hell, ‘because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.'”

Said in another post, 21 January 2018, when discussing the word rendered “eye-salve” in verse 18 above, and how sight left (and blindness came), “Those who study here know the word rendered ‘eye-salve’ is from the same root word kollao, meaning to stick, as in being bonded to, and is seen as also the root of the name Colossians. The book of Colossians is telling of those who are entering the promise, through the charity (the free gift of teaching/enlightenment,) which is the bond of perfection, (what joins us together and completes us.)

Acts 8:23 uses the same word, sundesmos, translated in Colossians 2:19 as ‘bond,’ in speaking of men such as the LORD is here admonishing and correcting. There it tells of them as being in the bond of inequity – ‘because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.'”

On the same topic, from an earlier post, 15 July 2017, “Today the revelation (= apocalypse = uncovering) of the mystery of Christ’s coming, beginning with it defined as such in Ephesians 5:32 saying, ‘This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church,’ just after quoting from Genesis 2:24, saying, ‘For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.’ The word here rendered ‘joined,’ is the Greek word proskollao, a compound word from pros, meaning toward, near, from here forward; and kollao, meaning stick to, like glue. (Proverbs 18:24 A man that has friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.)

In recent posts, we have discussed the Greek word plane, meaning to wander, and being the word used in 2 Thessalonians 2 to tell of the strong ‘delusion’ the LORD will send to those rejecting the love of the truth He is preaching. We know there we are told of these as the wicked ones sitting in the judgment seats, opposing the LORD at His coming, and the strong delusion, in opposition to His truth, culminates in the destruction of these men who are obviously the antichrists.

In examining these two passages we see the contrast in those opposing Christ at His coming, those who have strayed into the extreme and absurd delusion (plane), and those who join (proskallao) themselves to the truth and Christ (sticking to Him as a friend, closer than a brother).

This is the context we see as the word plane is used in 1 John 4:6, in a passage explaining how we know the spirit of error (plane), which it also defines as the spirit of antichrist, and the spirit of truth. The context begins well before in chapter 3 where John is speaking [of] the spirit of God that is in us and proven there by our no longer practicing sin, speaking of righteousness as the standard, and our no longer missing this target (sin, literally meaning missing the target). Hitting this target we have (or should be) aiming at is the proof Christ has been born in us, and that we are the children of God.

When chapter 4 speaks of the spirit of error it is speaking of leaving this standard, being led astray from it and thereby having no evidence, and antichrist being in those denying Christ is, or even can be, born in us in this way. 1 John 3:5 states it very plainly as the reason Christ is manifested [in us], to take away our sins, the chapter going on to immediately say, ‘6 Whosoever abides in him sins not: whosoever sins has not seen him, neither known him. 7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 8 He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.’

Chapter 3 ends telling us that those Born (sons and daughters) of God, keep His commandments, and His Spirit is in us and will remain with us (from here forward sticking to us like glue – proskallao). At this point of understanding chapter 4 begins with its warning to test the spirits, for many false prophets are at work in the world. It then tells us how we will know them, because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world [working in the children of disobedience], saying, ‘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 you 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 [plane].’

These false prophets are the same false teachers Peter warns against, telling us they will be among us, having brought in damnable heresies, even denying the LORD that bought them. He goes on to tell of the word of God, stored up in heaven, to be released at this time to destroy the works of these wicked and incorrigible men (rejecting God’s love/correction).

Friends, I tell you now, even weeping, these are the children of the devil doing his work and preaching lies against the truth, who have now long refused correction and trampled under-foot the grace God has shown them. They preach lies detailing the end time events, all false doctrines that deny the LORD’s coming is in our flesh, and there shall He be with us forever.”

The word kollao appears in 1 Corinthians 6:16 & 17 telling of our being raised when we are joined with Christ, and when we are no longer joined with the harlot. These are the mystery of Christ and the church and the mystery of Babylon, the mother of harlots.

The chapter (grossly under translated) is describing complacency, the lack of judgment, which allows confusion (Babylon) to take hold of the church, and births those who are unfaithful to God (mother of harlots). It is describing why we must judge those who are unfaithful to the LORD, who haven’t kept His word and ideas in pure form, whose belly is their god, and remove them from the body.

As previously discussed, 1 Corinthians 5 begin speaking of one among them who has his Father’s wife. This is telling of the gods of this world, men who have put themselves in God’s place, and become idols worshiped as if they are God. This interaction with idols is the fornication Paul is speaking of. He is exposing the spiritual truth to uncovering these unfaithful stewards and ministers, who are judging Paul by the erroneous teaching they’ve put in place of God’s truth.

These ideas are continuations of what Paul speaks of in the opening chapters.

1 Corinthians 1
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, 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.

1 Corinthians 2
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 3
13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
14 If any man’s work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
16 Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
20 And again, The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

1 Corinthians 4
1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.
4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judges me is the LORD.
5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the LORD come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

1 Corinthians 5
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must you needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written [speaking spiritually] unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not you judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judges [their sin brings judgment upon them]. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person [who are committing these spiritual sins, which have brought spiritual consequences on the body of Christ].

1 Corinthians 6
1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? [You are courageous to judge with corrupt judgment, but not by what is holy.]
2 Do you not know that the saints [the holy] shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy [unfit] to judge the smallest matters?
3 Know you not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life [which comes only by the word of God]?
4 If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church [see 1 Corinthians 1 above, the least esteemed because we preach the truth and aren’t looking for the approval of the corrupt].
5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
6 But brother goes to law [krino – their own corrupt ideas] with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because you go to law [using the corrupt teaching of the wicked who lead you] one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? [why do you defraud – using your corrupt doctrines?]
8 Nay, you do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. [apostereo – a word used to describe the Tenth Commandment – which is the spiritual root of all the spiritual offenses then listed]
9 Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you: but you are washed [with living water], but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the LORD Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats [speaking of what is desired and what is produces – see 1 Corinthians 3 above]: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication [interaction with idols], but for the LORD; and the LORD for the body.
14 And God has both raised up the LORD, and will also raise up us by his own power.
15 Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid.
16 What? know you not that he which is joined [kollao] to a harlot is one body? for two, says he, shall be one flesh.
17 But he that is joined [kollao] unto the LORD is one spirit.
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is without the body; but he that commits fornication [joins with an idol – the gods of this world who have blinded the minds of all the world] sins against his own body.
19 What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?
20 For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Philippians 3
17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example.
18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 Whose end is destruction [apoleia – perdition], whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the LORD Jesus Christ:
21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

John 7
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Psalms 50
1 The mighty God, even the LORD, has spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined.
3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
4 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.
5 Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.
7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, even your God.
8 I will not reprove you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.
9 I will take no bullock out of your house, nor he goats out of your folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you: for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.
13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay your vows unto the Most High:
15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.
16 But unto the wicked God says, What have you to do to declare my statutes, or that you should take my covenant in your mouth?
17 Seeing you hate instruction, and cast my words behind you.
18 When you saw a thief, then you consented with him, and have been partaker with adulterers.
19 You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son.
21 These things have you done, and I kept silence; you thoughts that I was altogether such an one as yourself: but I will reprove you, and set them in order before your eyes.
22 Now consider this, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
23 Whoso offers praise glorifies me: and to him that orders his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.