Month: February 2020

Thus says the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

Continuing: In the previous post, we discussed the things waited for, from the Greek word prosdechomai, meaning to receive for one’s self, things only understood by patient persistence, which before the experience weren’t realized. As we saw, the last of Luke’s examples of things in this way waited for is Joseph of Arimathaea waiting for the kingdom of God. His first example was Simeon waiting for the consolation of Israel.

We saw Simeon’s name meaning “heard,” alluding to God’s people following false doctrine, the created bad advice heard from the son of perdition. In Luke, it was in telling of him again hearing the LORD and by it seeing Him as Jehovah’s salvation, personified in Jesus, the consolation of Israel he experienced.

We saw the name of the place Arimathaea as from the Hebrew words har (mountains) and mattan (gift), and with the name Joseph (meaning Jehovah will continue, add, and gather), telling of where the LORD’s body rests while we are separated from it by our sins (erroneous understanding).

The above ideas are connected through the first appearance of the five times used Hebrew word mattan, in Geneses 34:12. There the sins, spoken of in Genesis 49:5 thru 7, of Simeon and Levi are seen, which brought trouble and contempt upon all God’s people. It is from there, in Shechem, meaning burden (of men’s words), Jacob is told to leave and go to Bethel (the house of God) which in Canaan. Before saying this it says of the same place, “Jacob came to Luz,” the name meaning “almond tree,” which we know is speaking of something new springing forth. It is then the LORD appears and tells him he shall no longer be called Jacob, “but Israel shall be your name.”

This new thing happens after Jacob buried the idols (“strange gods”) his wives brought with them out of Padan-aram, meaning the high places (palaces, the existing order) from where they have been ransomed and delivered. We are told there Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse died, names meaning the order that ensnared them died, speaking of the teaching of the mother and nurse. After this Jacob heard God speaking to Him.

Earlier, In Genesis 32:28, when Jacob is first told his name is Israel, it is by a man. This is the beginning of the beginning. It speaks of God coming to mentally grapple with him, speaking through a man. Jacob, at this point, is ignorant of God and how He works, and also ignorant of the fact he is entering into the promised land. What follows is his journey out of ignorance and into the realization, first of El-Elohe-Israel (God is the God of Israel), and then El-Beth-El (God’s Family is God {dwelling with them and in them}).

The realization comes through the LORD unknown teaching him into the ways of peace and civilization (Shalem), which is demonstrated in Jacob making peace with Esau. It is from this peace Dinah the daughter of Leah wandered into the world, their names meaning judgment and weary, telling of the degeneration, by neglect, away from sound doctrine.

The “unknown” aspect is portrayed as the name Jehovah is last used in Genesis 32:9 as Jacob recalls when the LORD, in Genesis 31:3, told him to return to the land of his fathers and family, and He would be with him.

The LORD’s name doesn’t appear again until Genesis 38:7 when we are told of Him ending the life of Judah’s first and wicked son, Er, meaning he was “woke.” His wife Tamar, meaning palm tree (upright), after a series of events gives birth to twins (fathered by Judah) named Pharez, meaning breach, and Zarah, meaning rising of light. During their birth, Zarah’s hand came out first and the midwife “bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying ‘This one came out first.'” Pharaz was fully born first, and He, Tamar, and Zarah are all mentioned in Matthew 1:3 (Pharez and Tamar in the line of Jesus).

The name Zarah is from the one time used Hebrew word zerach, which is from the eighteen times used word zarach. The first time zarach appears is in Genesis 32:31, in telling of when the “sun rose” upon Jacob, after he wrestled with the man (the LORD unknown), as He passed over Peniel, meaning the face (presence) of God, at the beginning of the beginning.

Friends, these are all speaking in patterns of this moment when God’s people realize God’s presence, and looking back on the experience we see it is what the LORD, in His word, promised and foretold. The one time zerach is used it is in Isaiah 60:3 in telling of our “rising.” In verses 1 zarach is the glory of the LORD “risen” upon us, and in verse 2 it is when darkness covers the earth, and the LORD has risen (“arise”) upon us.

Isaiah 60
1 Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen [zarach] upon you.
2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise [zarach] upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you.
3 And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising [zerach].
4 Lift up your eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to you: your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
5 Then you shall see, and flow together, and your heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto you, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto you.
6 The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian [strife] and Ephah [gloom]; all they from Sheba [those perfected as promised] shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of the LORD.
7 All the flocks of Kedar [darkness – who have been ignorant of the LORD] shall be gathered together unto you, the rams of Nebaioth [the high places of power] shall minister unto you: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.
8 Who are these that fly as a cloud [with understanding], and as the doves [as an expected end] to their windows [they come to see]?
9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish [those who have fled from their vow] first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you.
10 And the sons of strangers shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister unto you: for in my wrath I smote you, but in my favor have I had mercy on you.
11 Therefore your gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto you the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.
12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.
13 The glory of Lebanon [purity] shall come unto you, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box [all the upright] together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
14 The sons also of them that afflicted you shall come bending unto you; and all they that despised you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you; The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
15 Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through you, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.
16 You shall also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shall suck the breast of kings: and you shall know that I the LORD am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
17 For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make your officers peace, and your exactors righteousness.
18 Violence shall no more be heard in your land, wasting nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.
19 The sun shall be no more your light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto you: but the LORD shall be unto you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.
20 Your sun shall no more go down; neither shall your moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be your everlasting light [giver of understanding], and the days of your mourning shall be ended.
21 Your people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
22 A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time.

Genesis 32
9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which said unto me, Return unto your country, and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you:
10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which you have shown unto your servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.
11 Deliver me, I pray you, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.
12 And you said, I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.
13 And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;
14 Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams,
15 Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals.
16 And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove.
17 And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, saying, Whose are you? and whither go you? and whose are these before you?
18 Then you shall say, They be your servant Jacob’s; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us.
19 And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall you speak unto Esau, when you find him.
20 And say you moreover, Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present [gift] that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.
21 So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.
22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women-servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok [the pouring out {of the gift}].
23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day [until his initial understanding came].
25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
26 And he said, Let me go, for the day break. And he said, I will not let you go, except you bless me.
27 And he said unto him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Your name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince have you power with God and with men, and have prevailed.
29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray you, your name. And he said, Wherefore is it that you do ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose [zacach] upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank [overcame {prevailed against} the things he {God’s people} forgot].

Genesis 33
1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids.
2 And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost.
3 And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
4 And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.
5 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with you? And he said, The children which God has graciously given your servant.
6 Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.
7 And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves.
8 And he said, What meanest you by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my LORD.
9 And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that you have unto yourself.
10 And Jacob said, Nay, I pray you, if now I have found grace in your sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen your face, as though I had seen the face of God [El-Beth-El], and you were pleased with me.
11 Take, I pray you, my blessing that is brought to you; because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took it.
12 And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you.
13 And he said unto him, My lord knows that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die.
14 Let my lord, I pray you, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly [“we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent {go before} them which are asleep ” 1 Thessalonians 4:15], according as the cattle that go before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir [come away from se’iyr, a he goat, a misleader, a devil when in God’s place],
15 And Esau said, Let me now leave with you some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needs it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord.
16 So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir.
17 And Jacob journeyed to Succoth [booths, a dwelling outside the house of the misleading], and built him a house, and made booths for his cattle: therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.
18 And Jacob came to Shalem [peace], a city of Shechem [the place burdened by men’s words], which is in the land of Canaan [where is zeal, without knowledge], when he came from Padanaram [the high places, from where the LORD has paid the price to redeem us]; and pitched his tent before the city.
19 And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money.
20 And he erected there an altar, and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

Genesis 34
1 And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.
2 And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.
3 And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel.
4 And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife.
5 And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter: now his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they were come.
6 And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him.
7 And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had wrought folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter: which thing ought not to be done.
8 And Hamor communed with them, saying, The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter: I pray you give her him to wife.
9 And make you marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you.
10 And you shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade you therein, and get you possessions therein.
11 And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find grace in your eyes, and what you shall say unto me I will give.
12 Ask me never so much dowry and gift [mattan], and I will give according as you shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife.
13 And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister:
14 And they said unto them, We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one that is uncircumcised; for that were a reproach unto us:
15 But in this will we consent unto you: If you will be as we be, that every male of you be circumcised;
16 Then will we give our daughters unto you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.
17 But if you will not hearken unto us, to be circumcised; then will we take our daughter, and we will be gone.
18 And their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem Hamor’s son.
19 And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter: and he was more honorable than all the house of his father.
20 And Hamor and Shechem his son came unto the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city, saying,
21 These men are peaceable with us; therefore let them dwell in the land, and trade therein; for the land, behold, it is large enough for them; let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.
22 Only herein will the men consent unto us for to dwell with us, to be one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised.
23 Shall not their cattle and their substance and every beast of theirs be ours? only let us consent unto them, and they will dwell with us.
24 And unto Hamor and unto Shechem his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city; and every male was circumcised, all that went out of the gate of his city.
25 And it came to pass on the third day, when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brethren, took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly, and slew all the males.
26 And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went out.
27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister.
28 They took their sheep, and their oxen, and their asses, and that which was in the city, and that which was in the field,
29 And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house.
30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house.
31 And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with a harlot?

Genesis 35
1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.
2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.
6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.
7 And he built there an altar, and called the place El-Beth-El: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
8 But Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth [oak of mourning/weeping].
9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
10 And God said unto him, Your name is Jacob: your name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be your name: and he called his name Israel.
11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of you, and kings shall come out of your loins;
12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to you I will give it, and to your seed after you will I give the land.
13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.
14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.
16 And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor.
17 And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; you shall have this son also.
18 And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.
19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.
20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave [the journey of the dead] unto this day.

The name Rachel appears to be from two words, raz, meaning hide (in a mystery or secret], and cheyl (chel or chayil) meaning an army. It is telling of where the hosts of the LORD “ford” the river of death, and are there hidden (“rae”) in a mystery.

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 [cheyl – in His army], 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.

And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the LORD’s Christ.

The LORD began today in Luke 2:26 (the title), where we’re told of Simeon hearing the LORD (unknown) speaking to Him. In the following verse, we’re told he was then led by the Spirit into the temple where the parents brought the child Jesus, on the eighth day (the day of circumcision and presentation). In these two verses are described the LORD, unknown by man and called the Holy Ghost, speaking of His, Jehovah’s, anointed, who is then called by the name Jesus, meaning He is Jehovah’s salvation manifested. This is the Divine Formula of salvation, when the Father reveals Himself in and through the Son, and in realizing, believing, having faith, it is the Father, we see Him by His word and work revealed in and through sons in human flesh. This is the original intention of circumcision, removing the flesh so what (Who) it hides may be seen.

Luke 2
25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the LORD’s Christ.
27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,
28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 LORD, now let you your servant depart in peace, according to your word:
30 For mine eyes have seen your salvation,
31 Which you have prepared before the face of all people;
32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.
33 And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.
34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through your own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

What follows will reveal many of the deeper connections and meanings, again through the Divine Formula of following the LORD as He brings together many different parts of His word into one cohesive message (ordered, as only He can). It is intended for all, but will only be fully understood by those who’ve (here with us) loved and kept (tereo – shamar) His word.

The many patterns (describing this moment) above in Luke 2 begin with the name Simeon, meaning heard, who hearing and believing the LORD, saw Him, and thereby received the “consolation of Israel” for which he waited. The “consolation,” from the word paraklesis, is the work of the LORD while He is still unknown, leading us into all truth, so we can see Him. Those who do see Him, as is the meaning of the name Israel, will rule with Him. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon says Israel means “God prevails.”

The “consolation” is the “comfort” spoken of in Isaiah 40:1, when the LORD comes to prepared His people to receive Him, by straitening what had been made crooked, and by this, we “Behold our God.”

Isaiah 40
1 Comfort you, comfort you my people, says your God.
2 Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
3 The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass withers, the flower fades: because the spirit of the LORD blows upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9 O Zion, that brings good tidings, get you up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

As we’ve seen in the pattern of Genesis 49, after Reuben took His father’s place, in the pattern of the “son of perdition” recklessly reinterpreted God’s word, Simeon listened to (heard) him. Then he and Levi (the priesthood) joined with his erroneous leading and led all God’s people astray, by which they were scattered. Luke is speaking of this, the misleading of Simeon, those who should be listening to the Father, being reversed and the LORD again being heard and followed by His people.

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 are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable [pachaz – ebullition] as water [this tells of the advice of the serpent, as one of God’s children, with unbridled license, recklessly reinterpreting His word], you shall not excel [yathar – remain]; because you went up to your father’s bed [went into the women – God’s people who have His words]; then defiled you it: he went up to my couch [took God’s place].
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren [names meaning, those hearing and joining this teaching that replace God’s]; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not you into their secret [their hidden counsel]; 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 [by this they brought death on all man, and removed the protection found in the garden].
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel [speaking of the continual scattering of God’s people into many sects].
8 Judah [the leaders God choses], you are 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: from the prey, my son, you are gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet [speaking of the Davidic king line], until Shiloh come [meaning peace and tranquility – the one {Joseph’s seed – the one separated} from who it will again flow – see Ezekiel 21:27 and the overturning]; 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 [this is speaking of the lowly {Zechariah 9:9}, God’s elect remnant, outside the established sects, bound until Shiloh comes, when they are loosed]; 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 [the lowly raised up at the LORD’s coming] shall dwell at the haven of the sea [safe from the masses]; and he shall be for a haven of ships [and saving any who come to the LORD through them]; and his border shall be unto Zidon [they will be the end of those who’ve hunted souls].
14 Issachar [through him will come the reward – the fruitful bough] is a strong ass [the LORD’s people, now become His goodly horse in the battle – Zechariah 10:3] 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.
16 Dan [the judge – speaking of strength returned and the righteous judgment of the world begins] shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17 Dan shall be a serpent by the way [as a serpent raised as a standard on a pole {nec}], an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels [this is the heel bruised in the judgment, meaning the serpents among the people, are rendered without effect], so that his rider shall fall backward [so the body of Christ will return to the place from which she fell – see, in Isaiah 28:13, what causes them to fall backward].
18 (I have waited for your salvation, O LORD.)
19 Gad [the LORD’s army, overcome until their return to Him], a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.
20 Out of Asher [happy] his bread shall be fat [happiness returns when the word of God prospers], and he shall yield royal dainties [ma’adan – speaking of the royal line again raised up – referring us to its use in Proverbs 29:17, telling us this is when rest returns, when we, by correction, give the Father “delight”].
21 Naphtali [by this wrestling – unknowingly with the LORD] is a hind let loose: he gives goodly words [our tongue {the word of God} is loosed and we teach it as received directly from Him].
22 Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well [a tree of life by these waters of God]; whose branches run over the wall [the wall of lies men have created and teach]:
23 The archers [ba’al – the gods of this world whose teaching has blinded all form seeing the Father, in the son, the seed of the women who brings forth the man child – see Revelation 12:17] have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence 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 [the deep meaning that lies below the surface], blessings of the breasts, and of the womb [seed, the son]:
26 The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors [all those who have come before us, who were blessed with only parts of what is perfected in our return to the LORD] unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: 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 right hand of God’s power] shall ravin as a wolf [shall tear in pieces the wolf that has scattered the one flock]: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. [These last words are referring us to Maher-shalal-hash-baz, the son spoken of in beginning Isaiah 8, his name meaning he hastes to the spoil and is quick to the prey. He is the son foretold as coming by the virgin, later called Immanuel, as the advice, teaching, of the LORD comes, when men have formed a confederacy listening to the dead gods of the world.]

In the name Joseph, we are told of the father (of Jesus), unknown by our (his brothers) separating ourselves from Him by our sins (selling him into what becomes our captivity and oppression {Egypt}).

Isaiah 59
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you [as Joseph’s face was hidden from His brothers], that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness.
4 None calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

As we know, the name Mary means rebel and tells Jesus’ mother as one who rebelled against the teaching of the corrupt status quo, and taught Him knowledge and wisdom, giving him understanding. This is what straitens what is crooked. It’s first the consolation, teaching that leads us into all truth, and is then, seeing the Father, we become His children and enter His kingdom.

When Luke tells of Simeon “waiting” he used the Greek word prosdechomai, meaning to receive for one’s self. In the previous post, we saw this meaning in the Hebrew words ra’ah ‘eth, translated “consider” in Ecclesiastes 7:13. “Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked? The word ra’ah means to see, and the word ‘eth is never translated because it is said to be inexpressible in the English language. It is describing things that must be intelligently (with knowledge) experienced to be understood, such as the work of God which reveals Him.

Luke uses the word prosdechomai in describing the things that must be experienced to be understood. The first is the redemption of Jerusalem, the second is the appearance of the LORD, the third is why the LORD receives sinners, and the last is the kingdom of God.

Luke 2
36 And there was one Anna [grace], a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel [the face {presence} of God], of the tribe of Aser [blessing {gift}]: she was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity;
37 And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayers night and day.
38 And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the LORD, and spoke of him to all them that looked [prosdechomai] for redemption in Jerusalem.
39 And when they had performed all things according to the law of the LORD, they returned into Galilee [the LORD’s innner circle], to their own city Nazareth [from the Hebrew word nazar, meaning to hold aloof or to separate {fromwhat defiles} – selah].
40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

Luke 12
32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33 Sell that you have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that fails not, where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupts.
34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
35 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
36 And you yourselves like unto men that wait [prosdechomai] for their LORD, when he will return from the wedding; that when he comes and knocks, they may open unto him immediately.
37 Blessed are those servants, whom the LORD when he comes shall find watching: truly I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
39 And this know, that if the good-man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
40 Be you therefore ready also: for the Son of man comes at an hour when you think not.
41 Then Peter said unto him, LORD, speaks you this parable unto us, or even to all?
42 And the LORD said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his LORD shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?
43 Blessed is that servant, whom his LORD when he comes shall find so doing.
44 Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has.

Luke 15
1 Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
2 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receives [prosdechomai – wait for, long-suffers, for the repentance of] sinners, and eats with them.
3 And he spoke this parable unto them, saying,
4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repent, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

The final use of prosdechomai is in telling where the LORD’s dead body laid, with Joseph of Arimathaea (separated from his people by the sin, erroneous teaching and misleading of those who refuse to be correct away from error). Arimathaea is telling where He is now found by His brothers, in His grace in receiving us even while we are still blinded to Him by our sins. Arimathaea is the Hebrew words har, mountain, and mattan, meaning gift (Mattanyah – the gift of Jehovah – the last king who will be the first, who the grace, gift, blessing, of God brings to life).

Luke 23
49 And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee [the LORD’s inner circle], stood afar off, beholding these things.
50 And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just:
51 (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited [prosdechomai] for the kingdom of God.
52 This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.
53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.
54 And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on.
55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid.
56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.

When we are told of “waiting” to understand, by experiencing these things for ourselves, they are referring to Genesis 49:19 above, which parenthetically says, “I have waited for your salvation, O LORD.” It’s speaking of the moment God’s people realize His presence and turn away from their idols to Him. Isaiah refers to this moment in Isaiah 49:23, a chapter also (in verse 8) telling of the acceptable time, when the LORD has heard us and answered.

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

Isaiah 50
1 Thus says the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother [teachers] put away.
2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinks, because there is no water, and die for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
4 The LORD God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens mine ear to hear as the learned.
5 The LORD God has opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
7 For the LORD God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
8 He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the LORD God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
10 Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness, and has no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.
11 Behold, all you that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light [your own erroneous understanding] of your fires, and in the sparks that you have kindled. This shall you have of mine hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.

Psalms 26
1 Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide.
2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
3 For your lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in your truth.
4 I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.
5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.
6 I will wash mine hands in innocence: so will I compass your altar, O LORD:
7 That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all your wondrous works.
8 LORD, I have loved the habitation of your house, and the place where your honor dwells.
9 Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:
10 In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.
11 But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me.
12 My foot stands in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the LORD.

Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked?

Continuing: the subject brought to light in the title is right and wrong, as in what is correct or incorrect, righteousness and wickedness and those who join with these ideas. The title, Ecclesiastes 7:13, is saying to see, understand for yourself (ra’ah ‘eth), the work (ma’aseh – activity and enterprise) of God. It asks, who can set in order (taqan – equalize), measure by weighing, to compose an argument to prove right what He has proven wrong and has overthrown (`avath)?

Solomon is speaking of his attempting to show the foolish (the proud self-righteous) and wicked their errors and having no ability to change their minds. He tells of these congregations of men as a woman he finds more bitter than death, whose reasoning is as a snare and a net, and her hands are bands. He says only those who please God (as did Abraham by believing Him and by faith followed His instructions) will escape her, but the sinner (all men of the earth) shall be taken by her. This is his dilemma, he has found one man among a thousand who understands, but a woman (an ekklesia {as in Ecclesiastes} – a faithful congregation) among men he has not found one. In this, the LORD is speaking of what Paul rights of the wisdom and work of God, which Solomon is telling us to consider.

Romans 11
8 (According as it is written, God has given them [God’s people {and all men of the earth}] the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
9 And David says [in Psalms 69:22 & 23], 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 [those who don’t know God], 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 [those who haven’t known God, but now see Him in His work and word, and have by Him been quickened to life as His first-fruits, His elect remnant], 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 [the corrupt congregations] 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 partakes 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 high-minded, 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 wert 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 [in Isaiah 59:20 and 27:9, passages telling of why the branches are separated from the tree, from the LORD, and how they are brought back, as the branch {the rod of an almond tree} shoots from to reconcile them], 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? [These verses are referring us to Isaiah 40 where they are quoted in telling of the LORD himself preparing us to receive Him and then gathering us to Himself, by giving us understanding that only comes from God the Father.]
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.

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

Ecclesiastes 7
11 Wisdom is good with [which is left as] an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun [awaken, having understanding even in the darkness, before the light comes to all others].
12 For wisdom is a defense, and money is a defense: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to [quickens] them that have it.
13 Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked?
14 In the day of [having understanding in] prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity [and having understanding in {ra’} a time of affliction and evil] consider [ra’ah]: God also has set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him [so man will understand that only the things of value withstand adversity].
15 All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongs his life in his wickedness.
16 Be not [self] righteous over much [over your error, don’t defend them into your own destruction]; neither make yourself over wise: why should you destroy yourself?
17 Be not over much wicked, neither be you foolish: why should you die before your time?
18 It is good that you should take hold of this; yea, also from this withdraw not your hand [works]: for he that fears God shall come forth of them all.
19 Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city.
20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that does good, and sins not.
21 Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest you hear your servant curse you:
22 For oftentimes also your own heart knows that you likewise have cursed others.
23 All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.
24 That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out? [Those who diligently search in places the LORD leads them, into all truth]?
25 I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:
26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands [that hold all men of the earth]: whoso pleases God shall escape from her [and find wisdom]; but the sinner shall be taken by her [not escape her] .
27 Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:
28 Which yet my soul seeks, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
29 Lo, this only have I found, that God has made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions [created many errors].

Ecclesiastes 8
1 Who is as the wise man? and who knows the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom makes his face to shine [give understanding], and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
2 I counsel you to keep the king’s commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.
3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he does whatsoever pleases him.
4 Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What do you?
5 Whoso keeps the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgment.
6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
7 For he knows not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

Isaiah 59
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness.
4 None calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eats of their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goes therein shall not know peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither does justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Yea, truth fails; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.
19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the LORD.
21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD; My spirit that is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed, says the LORD, from henceforth and forever.

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

Psalm 69
16 Hear me, O LORD; for your lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of your tender mercies.
17 And hide not your face from your servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.
19 You have known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: mine adversaries are all before you.
20 Reproach has broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom you have smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom you have wounded.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into your righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful: let your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.
33 For the LORD hears the poor, and despises not his prisoners.
34 Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moves therein.
35 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.
36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

Psalms 84
1 How amiable are your tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh cries out for the living God.
3 Yea, the sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
4 Blessed are they that dwell in your house: they will be still praising you. Selah.
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart are the ways of them.
6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also fills the pools.
7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appear before God.
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of your anointed.
10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in you.

Part 2: See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

The LORD begins with a continuation of the previous post, today speaking of His raising us to “root out” those who, from within, from their positions of power, subvert and undermine our sure foundation and better ideas. We also, in part 1, saw the means of doing this was by what Jeremiah saw as “a rod of an almond tree,” the “rod” meaning leadership and the “almond tree” representing its newly spring forth (form outside corrupted leadership).

The Hebrew word in the title, Jeremiah 1:10, rendered “root out” is nathach, meaning to tear away, and “pull down” is from nathats, meaning to tear down. They appear again together, in Jeremiah 18:7, as the LORD is describing this nation as a potter’s house and His leaders as those working at the wheel. It is by their hand the product they’ve produced is marred. He then describes Himself as the ultimate judge, the Chief Potter, and asserts His right to tear down what is defective and remake it with His hand. He goes on to define those leading His people, working at the wheel (the written word of God passed forward to us), as those whose ways and ideas have degenerated into corruption and outright evil, and are therefore producing a corrupted and dangerous product.

Friends, Jeremiah 18 is describing a nation within a nation and a kingdom within a kingdom, as it is this day when men’s hearts have failed them (their reasoning minds are reduced to emotional and panicked reaction). The one is the ruling class, the elites of the popular culture, and their pawns, the cannon fodder they’ve mustered, after intentionally deadening their rational minds into blindly chasing the promised rewards that will never materialize. These are those who put themselves above justice, and under their newly created standard, the condemned are those who disagree or dare threaten their control of the ignorant. The first nation and kingdom are the spiritually wicked in high places, who by deception and corruption now rule all the traditional institutions. (I mean all, either as originators of corrupt thinking or by surrender to its new standard, all are complicit in the confusion that undermines good government and sound doctrine.)

Luke 12
10 Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
12 But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake [as does the corrupt nation to its less powerful victims].
13 And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
14 Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what you shall answer:
15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist [which is why they now censor us].
16 And you shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
17 And you shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.
18 But there shall not a hair of your head perish.
19 In your patience possess you your souls.
20 And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
21 Then let them which are in Judaea [Judah, among the corrupt leaders, because it is against them vengeance comes, to deliver all who’ve suffered under their power] flee to the mountains [the places rising outside Judah]; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter there-into.
22 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled [see Jeremiah and Ezekiel below].
23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people [as it has been and now is, because they know their time is short].
24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles [those who don’t know God, or call Him their God], until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity [aporia, only appearing here, meaning church, state, and God’s people, seeing no way out]; the sea and the waves roaring [telling of the proud, those who trust in their own ideas, with open mouths {echeo} misleading the sun, moon, and stars];
26 Men’s hearts failing them [apopsucho, only appearing here, meaning to breathe out – life, as in their properly functioning and rational mind making right decisions, leaving and replaced with panicked emotion] for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven [to power to rightly divided truth from fiction] shall be shaken.
27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud [were understanding has been held, since it was removed from the earth] with power and great glory [giving an understanding that can only come from God].
28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws nigh.
29 And he spoke to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
30 When they now shoot forth [new rods, branched, new leaders outside the corruption], you see and know of your own selves that summer [the end of winter’s sleep] is now nigh at hand.
31 So likewise you, when you see these things come to pass, know you that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand [which will again take its place as a nation and kingdom, under God, raised by Him from confusion and build upon the ruin of the old].
32 Truly I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
33 [The old] Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness [keep your mind alert and thinking rationally], and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth [unaware because of the prevalent ignorance it calls wisdom].
36 Watch you therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
37 And in the day time [when light {understanding} prevailed] he was teaching in the temple; and at night [when darkness {ignorance} prevails He is outside] he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives [from where, outside the church, where Zechariah 14:4 tells He stands, as in verse 37 above, where we will stand, when he “goes forth,” shoots forth as a new branch, when He comes to battle the corrupt nation.].
38 And all the people came early in the morning [once the light had come again] to him in the temple, for to hear him.

Zechariah 14
1 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, and your spoil shall be divided in the midst of you.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
5 And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal [unto sanctification]: yea, you shall flee, like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah [of the strength of Jehovah] king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with you [see the prior post].
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark [these messages are heard but not yet fully understood]:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light [into the darkness of ignorance and confusion the LORD comes with understanding].
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem [all the high places, and their fruit, shall be brought down by the peace that flows from His right hand]: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate [the entryway taught by the right hand of the LORD] unto the place of the first gate [the place where the light is first seen], unto the corner gate [and turning to Him {the LORD} they shall enter], and from the tower of Hananeel [those who God has favored] unto the king’s winepresses.
11 And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem [the peace He is teaching]; Their flesh [works] shall consume [maqaq – melt] away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes [what they say they’ve seen] shall consume [maqaq – melt] away in their holes, and their tongue [their corrupt words, ideas {stoicheion – elements}] shall consume [maqaq – melt] away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.
14 And Judah [the elect remnant – the saints who have come with the LORD] also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen [Gentiles] round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance [the things they thought were valuable but are actually the burdens and plagues]
15 And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague [the defeat of all those who carry {teach and preach} these burdens].
16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
18 And if the family of Egypt [the houses of oppression] go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen [Gentiles] that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles [who come not out of these houses of oppression – to the harvest].
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt [the oppressors who put heavy burdens on God’s people], and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses [this shall be the shade in the day, that replaces the plague of the burdens upon the horses], Holiness Unto The LORD; and the pots [filled with these living waters that have flowed from Him] in the LORD’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto [pure, to be delivered in the form it was received from] the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite [those who hate their brother, because upon him is the righteousness that pleases the LORD] in the house of the LORD of hosts.

Jeremiah 18
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.
3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine hand, O house of Israel.
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up [nathash], and to pull down [nathats], and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
13 Therefore thus says the LORD; Ask you now among the heathen, who has heard such things: the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon [the purity in high places] which comes from the rock of the field [that comes through Christ in the world, in the wilderness]? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place [this word of God that comes from outside the corrupted leaders] be forsaken [nathash – shall you tear it away from My people to whom I send it]?
15 Because my people has forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy [sending them My air to move them, My Spirit bringing My thoughts and ideas, giving understanding]; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
18 Then said they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah [Jehovah rising in Him, and raising His people]; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
20 Shall evil be recompensed [returned] for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, and to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
23 Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight, but let them be overthrown before you; deal thus with them in the time of your anger.

Ezekiel uses the word nathash, in Ezekiel 19:12, as the LORD is speaking to the princes (rulers) of His people about them being taken into captivity and confusion, in the chains of ignorance. He speaks of their mother (teaching that gave them knowledge, wisdom, and understanding) nourishing them, until the nations took them in their pit (and they learned the ways that bound them in chains). He tells of their mother, their teachers, being planted by the waters (the word of God) and full of branches by many waters (speaking of the words and ideas of those who don’t know God). He says she had a strong rod for a scepter to rule among the many branches, until she was “plucked up” and dried up by the east wind (meaning she was torn ways from the word of God, and therefore when His Spirit moved she melted away). He says the rod to rule withered, and they were burned with fire, and now (she) their teachers and leaders are in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land (a land without the waters that once nourished her).

Ezekiel 19
1 Moreover take you up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
2 And say, What is your mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.
3 And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.
4 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.
5 Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.
6 And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.
7 And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.
8 Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.
9 And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.
10 Your mother is like a vine in your blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
11 And she had strong rods for the scepters of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.
12 But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.
13 And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.
14 And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which has devoured her fruit, so that she has no strong rod to be a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

Zechariah 3
6 And the angel of the LORD protested [reiterated] unto Joshua, saying,
7 Thus says the LORD of hosts; If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my charge, then you shall also judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you places to walk among these that stand by.
8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you, and your fellows that sit before you: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch.
9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, says the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
10 In that day, says the LORD of hosts, shall you call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree [the mother who nourishes, where the branch shoots forth, as the scepter to lead {teach and rule with right judgment}].

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 spoke unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel [born out of Babylon, by coming away from confusion], 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 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 has sent me unto you.
10 For who has despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven [with the church]; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

Jeremiah 5
1 Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that executes judgment, that seeks the truth; and I will pardon it.
2 And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.
3 O LORD, are not your eyes upon the truth? you have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goes out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
7 How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
9 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 Go you up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’s.

Isaiah 2
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

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

See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

Continuing: in the previous post, we again discussed the topic of the total desolation of God’s people, this nation that declares itself under Him and His protection. We’ve seen this desolation as occurring over the past seventy years, after all of our institutions were infiltrated by those on a long march toward transforming US into communists. We saw, as was their plan, they’ve destroyed the foundations upon which we were founded, and instead taught, broadcast, and implemented their own corrupt and worthless ideas. The result has been an endless degeneration and downward spiral toward our destruction. For those who think it has ended, I TELL YOU IT HAS NOT.

The battle in the democrat (communist) party is between (Bolsheviks and Mensheviks) those who’ve moved too quickly and openly stated their goal (communism) and those who believe in the long march, slowly transforming under the cloak of deception and denial. Either way, they have, by their own hand, exposed themselves and their intentions and temporarily stopped their “progressive” march.

If we do not return to teaching and preaching the foundational truths, exposing the infiltrators and reestablishing the better ideas that made US the greatest, most prosperous, nation in history, the progressives (incremental communism through Marxism) will use their already acquired institutional power and positions to again subvert and undermine any advance. The title speaks of the other aspect, the destruction of the corrupt institutions, all those mentioned in previous posts, and “to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their [our] future security.” As we’ve seen, these guards (tereo and shamar) are to not only teach and preach truth, but also to vigilantly preserve and protect our ideas from their enemies.

Now is the time of the shooting forth, which Jeremiah sees as “a rod of an almond tree,” which is the first tree to show life after the winter’s sleep.

Jeremiah 1
9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what sees you? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
12 Then said the LORD unto me, You have well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
13 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What sees you? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.
14 Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. [This is peaking of the gates of hell {corrupt men as Moab} now holding God’s people from peace and corrupting our leaders.]
16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
17 You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command you: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound you before them.
18 For, behold, I have made you this day a defensed city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
19 And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you.

The “rod” Jeremiah sees is from the Hebrew word maqqal, meaning a shoot, or stick, for walking, striking, guiding, or divining. Jeremiah only used it one other time, in Jeremiah 48:17, as the LORD draws His sword against Moab (the infiltrators), and the idols (ideas) they put in God’s place, making them the gates of hell.

Jeremiah 47
6 O you sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere you be quiet? put up yourself into your scabbard, rest, and be still.
7 How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD has given it a charge against Ashkelon [the place of the trail, in the judgment fires], and against the sea shore [the end of man’s pride in his ideas, his creations]? there has he appointed it.

Jeremiah 48
1 Against Moab [the gates of hell] thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Woe unto Nebo [their false prophets]! for it is spoiled: Kiriathaim [what they have built] is confounded and taken: Misgab [their strongholds, seats in high places] is confounded and dismayed.
2 There shall be no more praise of Moab: in Heshbon [their strongholds] they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also you shall be cut down, O Madmen [their dunghill]; the sword shall pursue you.
3 A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim [the hole wherein they hide], spoiling and great destruction.
4 Moab [the gates of hell] is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.
5 For in the going up of Luhith [the words upon which they stand] continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim [the holes where the hide] the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.
6 Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath [stripped naked – put off your ideas and ways] in the wilderness.
7 For because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you shall also be taken: and Chemosh [those who’ve subdued] shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.
8 And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken.
9 Give wings unto Moab [the gates of hell], that it may flee and get away: for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein.
10 Cursed be he that does the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keeps back his sword from blood [cursed be those who keep back this word of God from destroying their ideas and works].
11 Moab [the makers of the gates of hell] has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
12 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles.
13 And Moab [the gates of hell] shall be ashamed of Chemosh [those who’ve subdued for them], as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel [the places where idols were set in God’s place] their confidence.
14 How say you, We are mighty and strong men for the war?
15 Moab [the gates of hell] is spoiled, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
16 The calamity of Moab [those who’ve created the gates of hell] is near to come, and his affliction hastes fast.
17 All you that are about him, bemoan him; and all you that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod [maqqel]!
18 You daughter that do inhabit Dibon [the places melting away in their own fires], come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab [of the gates of hell] shall come upon you, and he shall destroy your strong holds.
19 O inhabitant of Aroer [of ruin], stand by the way, and espy; ask him that flees, and her that escapes, and say, What is done?
20 Moab [the gates of hell] is confounded [yabesh – confused, ashamed, and disappointed]; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell you it in Arnon [the places where they broadcast and argue their lies, and curse God’s people], that Moab [the gates of hell] is spoiled,
21 And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Holon [their houses built upon sand], and upon Jahazah [which are trodden down], and upon Mephaath [and their understanding is shown to be confusion],
22 And upon Dibon [and they melt away], and upon Nebo [with their false prophets], and upon Bethdiblathaim [and be destroyed with their creations in their fires],
23 And upon Kiriathaim [with all their institutions], and upon Bethgamul [the houses of there just reward], and upon Bethmeon [the house of the idols they’ve created],
24 And upon Kerioth [all they’ve built], and upon Bozrah [and destroy their base, their sheepfold], and upon all the cities of the land of Moab [the gates of hell], far or near.
25 The horn [the power] of Moab [of the gates of hell] is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the LORD.
26 Make you him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab [those who’ve created and maintain the gates of hell] also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
27 For was not Israel a derision unto you? was he found among thieves? for since you spoke of him, you skipped for joy.
28 O you that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that makes her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth.
29 We have heard the pride of Moab [the gates of hell], (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogance, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.
30 I know his wrath, says the LORD; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.

The “rod” Jeremiah see as an almond tree is a new walk, to strike, to guide, and to foresee, all speaking of restoring these from their ruin, and in doing destroying the gates of hell. In Numbers 22:27 it is the staff in the hand of the false prophet, with which he struck the ass who rejected his madness. As we know, the dumb ass refused the way the prophet, Balaam (not of the people), was going to curse God’s people for Balak (devastator or waster) the king of Moab.

Numbers 22
20 And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call you, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto you, that shall you do.
21 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
22 And God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.
23 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
24 But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.
25 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall: and he smote her again.
26 And the angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.
27 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.
28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto you, that you have smitten me these three times?
29 And Balaam said unto the ass, Because you have mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill you.
30 And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I your ass, upon which you have ridden ever since I was your unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto you? and he said, Nay.
31 Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
32 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore have you smitten your ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand you, because your way is perverse before me:
33 And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain you, and saved her alive.
34 And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned; for I knew not that you stood in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease you, I will get me back again.
35 And the angel of the LORD said unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto you, that you shall speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak [devastation].
36 And when Balak [devastators] heard that Balaam [not of the people] was come, he went out to meet him unto a city of Moab [at the gates of hell], which is in the border of Arnon [in the place where the broadcast and argue their lies, and curse God’s people], which is in the utmost coast.

The rod for leading, meant for good, but in the hand of the corrupt, it’s a rod of violence upon the back of those (God’s people) they force to follow. It’s the two “staves,” Beauty and Bands, spoken of in Zechariah 11, with which Zechariah feeds the flock of slaughter. This comes after the LORD enters lowly, riding the ass, which He then makes His goodly horse in the battle. It is speaking destroying the old corrupt leadership because the new has shot forth.

Zechariah 11
1 Open your doors, O Lebanon [where purity and holiness should be in their high places], that the fire may devour your cedars [the upright, who have become corrupted].
2 Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O you oaks of Bashan [that should be fruitful]; for the forest of the vintage is come down.
3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan [whose words carry all into death] is spoiled.
4 Thus says the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.
6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.
7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves [maqqel]; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
9 Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dies, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.
10 And I took my staff [maqqel], even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.
11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD.
12 And I said unto them, If you think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver [the price of betrayal], and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands [that bound the LORD with the corrupt leaders], that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel [broke the band between the corrupt leaders and God’s people at large].
15 And the LORD said unto me, Take unto you yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
16 For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that stand still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces [as do the leaders of God’s people, devour and scatter in pieces as they wipe their mouth and deny it].
17 Woe to the idol shepherd that leaves the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm [their works, their own creations], and upon his right eye [as it has been and they are blind]: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened [ignorant].

John 10
7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Truly, truly, I say unto you, I am the door [the gate into rest and refreshing] of the sheep.
8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out [have true liberty], and find pasture.
10 The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
12 But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep.
13 The hireling flees, because he is a hireling [doing it for the money, because it a job], and cares not for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As the Father knows me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one-fold, and one shepherd.
17 Therefore does my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
19 There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.
20 And many of them said, He has a devil, and is mad; why hear you him?
21 Others said, These are not the words of him that has a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.
24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long do you make us to doubt? If you be the Christ, tell us plainly.
25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.
26 But you believe not, because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
30 I and my Father are one.

1 John 4
1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
2 Hereby know you the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof 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.

Hebrews 12
22 But you are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Psalms 87
1 His foundation is in the holy mountains.
2 The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah.
4 I will make mention of Rahab [the extent of the captivity] and Babylon [and the confusion therein] to them that know me: behold Philistia [the invading army among us], and Tyre [the false rock, in which men put their trust], with Ethiopia [which is covered in darkness, in ignorance]; this man was born there.
5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the Highest Himself shall establish [kuwn – erect, prepare {by wiring to}] her.
6 The LORD shall count [mark them as His], when he writes up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.
7 As well the singers as the players on instruments [of salvation] shall be there: all my springs are in you [the LORD’s waters of life].

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Friends, the above is Genesis 6:5 and is telling of a time such as now, when men’s thought degenerated into producing only evil. Until very recently in history, the last sanctuary, the escape for the world, was here in the United States of America. We were such because of the better ideas we chose and propagated, not only among ourselves but to any who desired to join us. The attractions were our liberty, security, and prosperity, evident to and celebrated by almost all except the few who were the enemies of the same. This evidence witnessed not only to the superiority of our ideas but also the goodness of the people who chose to live by them. This was the experiment, the experience that began in the Year of our LORD, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Six, that quickly proved itself true and reproducible. This reproduction came through teaching the same foundation, ideas that existed before this time and were even then proven, and after by the institution of a government designed to allow people to flourish in the happiness produced.

But, as we know, a little over a century ago, other ideas, communism, crept in through men whose desires were the destruction of this nation, because of our prosperity and the power produced. These men’s plan of attack, their long march, was to infiltrate all the institutions, church, government, education, entertainment, and finance, which were built upon, and in various ways taught and reinforced, our foundations.

Most of us, most who will read this, know all of the above and preached it constantly. We are the remnant that remains after the flood of evil that has swept over us and now controls almost all of the above-mentioned institutions. They’ve succeeded through embedded operatives, who subvert and corrupt, and what they don’t control, by this same means, they’ve rendered ineffective toward the original mandate (to secure our rights).

They’ve reached this point, of seemingly insurmountable advantage, by silencing us through their lie (their chosen weapon in his war) that said there was such a thing as a society where no standard (thought) was taught as superior. In our (mass) silence they made their greatest advances, in the last seventy years destroying every societal norm and demonized morality in general. Now, in our awakening to this realization, we know we must retake the ground we surrendered and again teach truth and elevate rational, logical, thinking. The enemies, seeing this and knowing they have no defense against a quickened mind, have through these institutions turned their weapon of choice (lies – ignorance and darkness) against us while at the same time in mass censoring ours (truth – understanding and light).

This takes us to the titles and the sermon: the solution in our time, which will save all those who come to its light, is the light, understanding that comes through word of mouth. As we know, this is the plan revealed by The LORD Jesus Christ over two thousand years ago, to be understood now. It is His Spirit in us, come to life as we come to understanding God is with us and lives in us, and there is nothing we cannot overcome. This is the true meaning of “receiving the LORD,” receiving the light, the same understanding of the ways to peace and security, through accepting them and self-governing (our-selves) by His better ideas, the ways of life and liberty that bring true civilization. Believe His promises, come to the light, the better ideas that will works as they always do, and live.

Isaiah 54
5 For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
6 For the LORD has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were refused, says your God.
7 For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says the LORD your Redeemer.
9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you.
10 For the mountains [all the corrupt institutions] shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, says the LORD that has mercy on you.
11 O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones [these stones are His better ideas, the foundation He has laid, and will lay again].
13 And all your children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of your children.
14 In righteousness shall you be established: you shall be far from oppression; for you shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near you.
15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against you shall fall for your sake.
16 Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
17 No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.

Friends, in context, the LORD, in John 6:45 quotes verse 13 above, and (as above) through it is, by my (our) flesh, speaking the same words, at this moment, to the world. This is what the LORD speaks of below when He says we must eat His flesh and drink His blood. He is speaking of communion, not as the corrupted churches teach it, but as it is in truth.

The word communion is from the Greek word koinonia, meaning partnership and participation. He is speaking of taking in His teaching, the body of his work (the thoughts in the flesh body – evidently and logically not the flesh itself), and then, as he did, long-suffer, pay any price (the blood), to deliver it out of our mouth (where it is) as received. As we join with the LORD His life is manifested through us as He works in and through us. This meaning is explained below in 2 Corinthians 4. Read it, receive it, and Join Him (it’s only realized by experience, and when followed, it never fails to reproduce).

John 6
28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent.
30 They said therefore unto him, What sign show you then, that we may see, and believe you? what do you work?
31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32 Then Jesus said unto them, Truly, truly, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is he which comes down from heaven, and gives life unto the world.
34 Then said they unto him, LORD, evermore give us this bread.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes on me shall never thirst.
36 But I said unto you, That you also have seen me, and believe not.
37 All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.
38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
39 And this is the Father’s will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
42 And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he says, I came down from heaven?
43 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
44 No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes unto me.
46 Not that any man has seen the Father, save he which is of God, he has seen the Father.
47 Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that believes on me has everlasting life.
48 I am that bread of life.
49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Truly, truly, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
54 Whoso eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56 He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him.
57 As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats me, even he shall live by me.
58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eats of this bread shall live forever.
59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it?
61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Does this offend you?
62 What and if you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it was given unto him of my Father.
66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will you also go away?

2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the LORD; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light [understanding] to shine out of darkness [ignorance], has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the LORD Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death works in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the LORD Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

1 Corinthians 1
18 For the preaching of the cross [that we must long-suffer as He suffered] is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe [those who say they know the law]? where is the disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
22 For the Jews [the religious, who think they are the true believers] require a sign, and the Greeks [those who think they are the wise of this world] seek after wisdom:
23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, 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.

Galatians 3
1 O foolish Galatians [nourished on this milk, gala, to bring you to when you can eat flesh], who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
2 This only would I learn of you, Received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3 Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh [are you made perfect by word from a flesh mind, or do you, by faith, believe it is the LORD’s Spirit speaking from in the flesh]?
4 Have you suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain [if it is the worthless words of a man].
5 He therefore that ministers to you the Spirit, and works miracles among you, does he it by the works of the law [by words alone, without the Spirit giving them their quickening power], or by the hearing of faith?
6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
7 Know you therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen [those who don’t know Him as their God] through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In you shall all nations [all the world] be blessed.
9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham [it is by the faith of those, who hear and believe the word of God is His word, people and the world are blessed].

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 casts 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 thought that I was altogether such a 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.

He is in the way of life that keeps instruction: but he that refuses reproof errs.

The “way” here spoken of, from the word ‘orach, is a well-worn path, therefore easily found and followed. It is correction, teaching sound doctrine, which should be kept (shamar), guarded and protected from those who refuse it. Those who stray (err – ta’ah) from it wander into the ways of darkness and death.

When the LORD, in John 14:23, answers the question about how He will manifest Himself to us and not to the world, He says it is to those who love and “keep” His word. The word keep is the Greek word tereo, meaning to guard, from loss or injury, by keeping an eye on. The LORD, in this chapter, also tells of when His people and the world will not see Him, which comes (came) when the “prince” of this world comes, who has nothing in the LORD. The LORD is speaking of when, as now, all have erred away from the truth and He, unseen as a thief in the night, unknown as the Holy Spirit, comes to lead us (teach us back to the path) into all truth.

John 14
15 If you love me, keep [tereo] my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever;
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 [tereo] 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 – as the elect] said unto him, not Iscariot [not the leaders who betray Him], LORD, how is it that you will manifest [emphanizo – to exhibit, bring into our sight] yourself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep [tereo] my words [logos]: 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 [tereo] not my sayings [logos]: and the word [logos] 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, 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 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 [archon – a first, rulers] of this world comes, and has nothing in me.
31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

This “prince” is the same one Paul speaks of in Ephesians 2:2, and describes as “princes” in 1 Corinthians 2:6 & 8. These are those whose ideas and thoughts (air) have strayed from the LORD’s sayings.

1 Corinthians 2
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes [archon] of this world, that come to naught:
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes [archon] 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.

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 an holy temple in the LORD:
22 In whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

The LORD speaks of the prince (the rulers of the world: firsts who will be last), in John 12:31, being cast out. It comes as the voice of the Father is heard from heaven declaring the LORD His Son, who then says He must be “lifted up.” The Greek word here is hupsoo, meaning to exalt. The passage is telling these princes of the world being cast down and the son exalted. It is also telling of the world’s response, which is to crucify him.

John 12
27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
28 Father, glorify your name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
29 The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spoke to him.
30 Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.
31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince [archon] of this world be cast out.
32 And I, if I be lifted up [hupsoo] from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
33 This he said, signifying what death he should die.
34 The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abides forever: and how say you, The Son of man must be lifted up [hupsoo]? who is this Son of man?
35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walks in darkness knows not whither he goes.
36 While you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. These things spoke Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
37 But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:
38 That the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, LORD, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again,
40 He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
41 These things said Isaiah, when he saw his glory, and spoke of him.
42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers [archon] also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:
43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
44 Jesus cried and said, He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on him that sent me.
45 And he that sees me sees him that sent me.
46 I am come a light [understanding] into the world, that whosoever believes on me should not abide in darkness [ignorance].
47 And if any man hears my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
48 He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

Ephesians 3
8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our LORD:
12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
13 Wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our LORD Jesus Christ,
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Ephesians 4
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the LORD, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called,
2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
3 Endeavoring [spoudazo – be diligent] to keep [tereo – gaurd] the unity [henotes – oneness] of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The word “keep” in the title, Proverbs 10:17, the Hebrew shamar, is used in Isaiah 42:20 where it is rendered “observe.” There the LORD is speaking of His servant, the elect who are deaf and blind, calling them to see and hear. In this specific verse, He speaks of His messenger, who is, by the LORD’s righteousness, seeing things that haven’t been kept (observed), and hearing sayings that haven’t been intelligently heard (shama’) or understood. The verse following this passage, says these truths, correctly ordered thoughts, left the conscious mind of man when the people were “robbed and spoiled.” It says the People were a prey, are now (there in ignorance) “snared in holes, and are [as if] hid in prison houses.”

Isaiah 42
14 I have long time held my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.
15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.
17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, You are our gods.
18 Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see.
19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’s servant?
20 Seeing many things, but you observe not [shamar – seeing many things that haven’t been kept, guarded]; opening the ears, but he hears not [shama’ – opening the ear to things that haven’t been heard intelligently].
21 The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; he will magnify [gadal] the law, and make it honorable.
22 But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil, and none says, Restore.
23 Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.
25 Therefore he has poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it has set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

The LORD, through His messenger, speaking His word, is revealing sayings (logos) that have been hidden by the neglect of men who wander off the path of instruction and sound doctrine. He is speaking things that should have been guarded and weren’t, things that aren’t now taught by any man. These men, instead of being thankful and glorifying the LORD who has magnified (exalted – lifted up) His word, they reject Him and His righteousness, His correction, and go about in darkness, blindly trying to prove themselves right.

This LORD “magnifying” His word (Law) is spoken of in Isaiah 28:29, the word gadal there rendered “excellent.” The chapter speaks of the LORD teaching, with words that are not understood by those who’ve made a covenant with death, who are in agreement with hell. It says these men have rejected this rest and the refreshing, and have made lies and falsehood their hiding place. These men are so self-righteous they think the LORD’s scourge of correction, which they know is coming upon the world at some time, is to correct all others, but not them. Verse 29 tells of this threshing, which is the scourge of correction, line upon line, precept upon precept, which comes from the LORD, who is “wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.”

It, His teaching and correction, is as in Perazim and Gibeon, which, as we know, allude to the “hail” and “flood” spoken of in Isaiah 28:2. Perazim is referring to 2 Samuel 5:20, when in Baal-Perazim the LORD broke forth of great waters (this word) upon David’s enemies; and Gibeon to Joshua 10:10 & 11, when the LORD sent great hail (his word frozen, reserved in heaven for this moment) upon the those against who He sent Joshua to war.

Isaiah 28
1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim [the sleeping and deadened minds {caused by what they’ve consumed} of those leading God’s people in this generation], whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the LORD has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looks upon it sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem [tsphiyrah – the crown of the morning, light rising, exalted] 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 [shmuw’ah – this report, the rumor of it]? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: 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 [shmuw’ah – sound doctrine as a rumor].
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
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 – full end], even determined upon the whole earth.
23 Give you ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
24 Does the plowman plow all day to sow? does he open and break the clods of his ground?
25 When he has made plain the face thereof, does he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
26 For his God does instruct him to discretion, and does teach him.
27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29 This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent [gadal] in working.

The Greek tereo is the word, rendered “reserved,” used by Peter and Jude to tell of guarding, hedging in, the angels who left their first estate, keeping them as men imprisoned in their own ignorance (darkness).

Jude
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 [tereo – guarded] not their first estate [arche – the word they were first given], but left their own habitation [they left the house of light, and went into the house of darkness], he has reserved [tereo] in everlasting chains under darkness [their own ignorance – see Job 38:15 below] 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 [It is the LORD in me who rebukes these men!].
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 [tereo] the blackness of darkness [ignorance] forever.
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.

Job 38 [Thus says the LORD]
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 [understanding] 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?

2 Peter 2
9The LORD knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve [tereo] the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the LORD.
12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceptions while they feast with you;
14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: a heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: [by] the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice [who] forbid the madness of the [false] prophet.
17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness [ignorance] is reserved [tereo] forever.
18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity [worthless words], they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the LORD and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

2 Peter 3
1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2 That you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the LORD and Savior:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved [tereo] unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
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 – these same men’s corrupt foundational ideas] shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Proverbs 10
11 The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
12 Hatred stirs up strife: but love covers all sins.
13 In the lips of him that has understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.
14 Wise men lay-up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.
15 The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.
16 The labor of the righteous tends to life: the fruit of the wicked to sin.
17 He is in the way of life that keeps [shamar] instruction: but he that refuses reproof errs.
18 He that hides hatred with lying lips, and he that utters a slander, is a fool.
19 In the multitude of words there wants not sin: but he that refrains his lips is wise.
20 The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth.
21 The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.
22 The blessing of the LORD, it makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.
23 It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding has wisdom.
24 The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.

Psalms 138
1 I will praise you with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto you.
2 I will worship toward your holy temple, and praise your name for your lovingkindness and for your truth: for you have magnified your word above all your name.
3 In the day when I cried you answered me, and strengthened me with strength in my soul.
4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth.
5 Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.
6 Though the LORD be high, yet has he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knows afar off.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me: you shall stretch forth your hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and your right hand shall save me.
8 The LORD will perfect that which concerns me: your mercy, O LORD, endures forever: forsake not the works of your own hands.

And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.

Friends, the subject above comes to light when understanding death. As we’ve seen, death is unbelief, a mind not working properly and therefore not able to know the LORD, who is veiled in flesh and speaking the word of God. The voice of the LORD is as an unknown tongue, words of truth not understood in a generation where it has been replaced with darkness: men teaching their own creations, false prophecies and false teaching, which can and do only produce ignorance and confusion. This state of a drunken or sleeping mind is represented in the dead man.

The dead man is delivered to his mother who represents the one who teaches knowledge and wisdom. Later, in verse 18, after the LORD has called the dead to life, the disciples of John (the dead man) who were prepared (taught by John’s baptism, the mother) to receive the LORD, went to John and “showed him of all these things.”

Luke 7
15 And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.
16 And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God has visited his people.
17 And this rumor of him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about.
18 And the disciples of John showed him of all these things.
19 And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Are you he that should come? or look we for another?
20 When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist has sent us unto you, saying, Are you he that should come? or look we for another?
21 And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight.
22 Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things you have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.
23 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
24 And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went you out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
25 But what went you out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously appareled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts.
26 But what went you out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.
27 This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, which shall prepare your way before you.

Luke, who knows all these things, is speaking of the resurrection, the awakening. The “things” he is declaring, writing, are recording the physical appearance of what were previously rumors, which we understand from the Hebrew word shmuw’ah (rendered rumor, report, and doctrine).

Luke says, in Luke 1:4, he is writing so “you might know the certainty of those things, wherein you have been instructed.” The word “things” here is logos, meaning sayings, uttered by a living voice, as in the rumors now heard, of the resurrection. The word “know” is epiginosko, meaning to recognize, as in to become fully acquainted with, to acknowledge. The word speaks of realizing, perceiving, understanding, what was until now a rumor heard. Luke then, to reinforce this word adds “certainty,” from the three times used Greek word asphaleia, meaning security. The other two times it’s rendered “safety,” first by Luke, in Acts 5:23, telling of those who think they have God’s people safely held in their prisons (held in ignorance by their ideas). The other by Paul, in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, as he speaks of the LORD coming as a thief in the night, in the darkness of these same men’s ignorance, when they are falsely claiming “peace and safety.” As we’ve seen, this is when sudden destruction comes upon the children of the night, and the children of light are awakened by the light (understanding) of the LORD’s appearing and kingdom.

Luke 1
1 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,
2 Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;
3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto you in order, most excellent Theophilus [friends of God],
4 That you might know the certainty of those things, wherein you have been instructed.

Acts 5
17 Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees [who don’t believe in the resurrection, even though a man is declaring it],) and were filled with indignation,
18 And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.
19 But the angel of the LORD by night opened the prison doors [as a thief in the night], and brought them forth, and said,
20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life [resurrection that comes, brings us from the prison of ignorance, by understanding].
21 And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
22 But when the officers came, and found them not in the prison, they returned and told,
23 Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety [asphaleia], and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.
24 Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.
25 Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people.
26 Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.
27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
28 Saying, Did not we straitly [strictly] command you that you should not teach in this name? and, behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.
29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree.
31 Him has God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God has given to them that obey him.
33 When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.
34 Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;
35 And said unto them, You men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do as touching these men.
36 For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to naught.
37 After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.
38 And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught:
39 But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it; lest haply you be found even to fight against God.
40 And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

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 [the dead] will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the LORD, that we which are alive [by understanding, and teaching, shining the LORD’s light, upon the sleeping: the drunken and dead] and remain unto the coming of the LORD shall not prevent [rise before] them which are asleep.
16 For the LORD himself shall descend from heaven [where the word of God is rightly divided from the waters below] with a shout, with the voice of the archangel [the word of God spoken through a man], 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 [harpazo, be pulled from the fire caused by ignorance – see Jude 1:23] together with them in the clouds [where understanding is reserved, once it was taken from the earth], to meet the LORD in the air [thoughts and ideas, Spirit moving men, as do the winds of doctrine]: 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 [asphaleia]; 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 has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our LORD Jesus Christ,
10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do.
12 And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the LORD, and admonish you;
13 And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace among yourselves.
14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
15 See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.

The word Luke uses, in Luke 1:4, rendered “instructed” is the eight times used word katecheo, said to mean to sound down into the ears, and to indoctrinate. It’s from the words kata, meaning down, and the three times used word echos, meaning a loud or confused noise (echo), as in a roar, or a rumor. (The voice of an Archangel, the shout, as the sound of the trumpet, mustering the LORD’s army.)

Luke uses the word echos two times, first in Luke 4:37 telling of the “fame” of the LORD heard when he cast the unclean spirit of a devil out of the man in the synagogue. He was there teaching, which is the focus and what casts out the darkness, freeing its prisoners.

Luke 4
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind [in Isaiah 61:1 this is rendered “opening of the prison”], to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the LORD.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
23 And he said unto them, You will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country.
24 And he said, Truly I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven [when no word of God was sent from heaven] was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow [whose son {Micaiah} was raised from the dead].
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian [who listened to the word , the instruction, of God, spoken through Elisha, and did as he was told].
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
31 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days.
32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,
34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with you, you Jesus of Nazareth? are you come to destroy us? I know you who you are; the Holy One of God.
35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold your peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.
36 And they were all amazed, and spoke among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commanded the unclean spirits, and they come out.
37 And the fame [echos – rumor] of him went out into every place of the country round about.

Luke, in Acts 2:2, then uses the word echos to tell of the “sound” of the Holy Spirit (the LORD unknown) descending from heaven.

Acts 2
1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound [echos – a confused noise, as a rumor not yet understood, as a foreign tongue, truth heard where before there was only ignorance] from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
7 And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

Friends of God, this sound isn’t the sound of a trumpet, or merely the voice of men’s words, but is, in fact, the LORD’s glory and presence among us. The third time echos appears is in Hebrews 12:19 telling of those who haven’t received the LORD’s instruction, and have rejected His correction. It is they who only hear undiscernible noise, truth as a foreign language.

Hebrews 12
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the LORD, nor faint when you are rebuked of him:
6 For whom the LORD loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?
8 But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they truly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
18 For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, 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.

Katecheo is used twice by Paul in Galatians 6:6, therein giving us the sum of the matter: to teach the teaching we have received, because only together with those now sleeping (the drunken and dead made sober and alive) do we rise in one body with the LORD.

Galatians 6
1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.
2 Bear you one another’s burdens [their misunderstanding can only be corrected by the LORD speaking His word through us], and so fulfil the law of Christ.
3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
5 For every man shall bear his own burden [his own words].
6 Let him that is taught [katecheo] in the word communicate unto him that teaches [katecheo] in all good things.
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Isaiah 31
1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt [to oppression and imprisonment] for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
2 Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.
3 Now the Egyptians [prison keepers] are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helps shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.
4 For thus has the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.
5 As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.
6 Turn you unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
7 For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin.
8 Then shall the Assyrian [the communists] fall with the sword [by the word from the mouth of the LORD], not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited.
9 And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 32
1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
2 And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
3 And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
4 The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
5 The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl [the greedy for dishonest gain] said to be bountiful.
6 For the vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7 The instruments also of the churl are evil: he devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.
8 But the liberal devises liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.
9 Rise up, you women that are at ease; hear my voice, you careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.
10 Many days and years shall you be troubled, you careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.
11 Tremble, you women that are at ease; be troubled, you careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
12 They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13 Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
14 Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens forever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
16 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.
18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;
19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.
20 Blessed are you that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.

Revelation 19
1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the LORD our God:
2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he has judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
3 And again they said, Alleluia And her smoke rose up forever and ever.
4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all you his servants, and you that fear him, both small and great.
6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the LORD God omnipotent reigns.
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready.
8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
9 And he said unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See you do it not: I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he does judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
16 And he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And LORD Of Lords.
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
18 That you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

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

Yea, truth fails; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.

Today’s verse of the day at Biblegateway.com is Romans 8:38 & 39 “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our LORD.”

Isaiah 59
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness.
4 None calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eats of their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goes therein shall not know peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither does justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Yea, truth fails; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.
19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the LORD.
21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD; My spirit that is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed, says the LORD, from henceforth and forever.

And the LORD continues:

Proverbs 1
20 Wisdom cries without; she utters her voice in the streets:
21 She cries in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she utters her words, saying,
22 How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
24 Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25 But you have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;
27 When your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish comes upon you.
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33 But whoso hearkens unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

In Numbers 20 we are told of Aaron’s death and replacement by Eleazar in Kadesh at mount Hor. In ending Deuteronomy 32 we are told of Moses’ not entering the Promise Land because he and Aaron didn’t sanctify the LORD among the people at Meribah-Kadesh. The Hebrew word rendered “sanctified” is qadash, the same word as Kadesh, meaning to make, pronounce, or observe as clean. Meribah means strife or contention, which occurred in the form of Israel chiding with Moses and thereby tempting the LORD. In telling of the event, the word rendered “tempt” and “tempted,” in Exodus 17:2 & 7, is nacah, meaning to test. In this, we understand the people were testing the word of God flowing from Moses and Aaron asking them to prove it was the LORD among them.

In Numbers 20, in a pattern, we are told of now, when the church was dead, because they rebelled against the LORD. There in Kadesh the people chided again against Moses and Aaron, again testing the LORD. The LORD told Moses to this time speak to the Rock in the presence of the people, before their eyes (so they would see where the waters were coming from). Instead of speaking to the Rock, Moses struck it twice. The LORD then said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you believed Me not, to sanctify (qadash) Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”

In Numbers 20:13 we are then told the LORD sanctified Himself, by again sending His word through Moses, even though he and Aaron didn’t believe. The word, in verse 12, telling of their unbelief, rendered “believe,” is ‘aman, meaning, “to build up or support; to foster as a parent or nurse; figuratively to render (or be) firm or faithful, to trust or believe, to be permanent or quiet; morally to be true or certain.” It is the word used to tell of believing the LORD is speaking – through a man.

Isaiah 1
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 [that believed the LORD was speaking through a man – ‘aman] city become a 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 [‘aman – believing the LORD is speaking through a man] 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.

Isaiah 28
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes [‘aman – the LORD is speaking through a man] 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 [shmuw’ah – sound doctrine coming as a rumor not yet verified because it isn’t understood by the ignorant].

Isaiah 13
9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

Hebrews 13
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.

Habakkuk warns, in Habakkuk 1:5, of not believing what is reported, and then Luke, in Acts 13:41, knowing all things, quotes the verse adding that it’s “a man” speaking.

Habakkuk 1
1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear! even cry out unto you of violence, and you will not save!
3 Why do you show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment does never go forth: for the wicked does compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceeds.
5 Behold you among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe [‘aman – I am speaking through a man], though it be told you.

Acts 13
38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:
39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
40 Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;
41 Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declares it unto you.

John 5
24 Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that hear my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
25 Truly, truly, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
26 For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given to the Son to have life in himself;
27 And has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me.

Now is the time, today is the day (stop striking me) “and speak you unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock: so you shall give the congregation and their beasts drink.”

Jonah 3
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God [‘aman – was speaking through a man, Jonah], and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

Hosea 5
1 Hear you this, O priests; and hearken, you house of Israel; and give you ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because you have been a snare on Mizpah [watchtower], and a net spread upon Tabor [the broken].
2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.
3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, you commits whoredom, and Israel is defiled.
4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.
5 And the pride of Israel does testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity: Judah also shall fall with them.
6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them.
7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.
8 Blow you the cornet in Gibeah [hill, the places of power spoken of in verse 1], and the trumpet in Ramah [the high places]: cry aloud at Bethaven [the worthless houses], after you, O Benjamin [those who should be the children of my strength].
9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be [‘aman – by the LORD who is telling us through a man].

Hosea 11
9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you: and I will not enter into the city.
10 They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.
11 They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt [captivity], and as a dove [the expected end] out of the land of Assyria [the hand of the communists]: and I will place them in their houses, says the LORD.
12 Ephraim compasses me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah [God’s elect remnant] yet rules with God, and is faithful [‘aman – believes the LORD is speaking through a man] with the saints.

Isaiah 52
1 Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says the LORD, You have sold yourselves for naught; and you shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus says the LORD God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what have I here, says the LORD, that my people is taken away for naught? they that rule over them make them to howl, says the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that does speak: behold, it is I.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that says unto Zion, Your God reigns!
8 Your watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart you, depart you, go you out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12 For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your reward.
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astonished at you; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed [‘aman – the LORD is speaking through a man] our report [sound doctrine as a rumor not yet verified because it’s not understood by the ignorant]? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness [nor majestry]; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 54
1 Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says the LORD.
2 Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes;
3 For you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4 Fear not; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be you confounded; for you shall not be put to shame: for you shall forget the shame of your youth, and shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more.
5 For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
6 For the LORD has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were refused, says your God.
7 For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says the LORD your Redeemer.
9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you.
10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, says the LORD that has mercy on you.
11 O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with fair colours, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones.
13 And all your children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of your children.
14 In righteousness shall you be established: you shall be far from oppression; for you shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near you.
15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against you shall fall for your sake.
16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
17 No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.

Isaiah 55
1 Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure [‘aman – because the LORD spoke it through a man {nathan – in 2 Samuel 7:8 thru 16}] mercies of David.
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you know not, and nations that knew not you shall run unto you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.
6 Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call you upon him while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Psalms 81
1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.
6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder: I proved you at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto you: O Israel, if you will hearken unto me;
9 There shall no strange god be in you; neither shall you worship any strange god.
10 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt: open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured forever.
16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied you.

The king shall joy in your strength, O LORD; and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!

The above is David, Psalms 21:1, speaking of himself, the king, when he finds himself resurrected into life, in spirit first and then in truth. The Psalm has a postscript saying it is “To the chief Musician, upon Aijeleth Shahar.” The untranslated names are said to mean the Day-dawn. Aijeleth (‘ayeleth) is used two other times, both rendered “hind,” and is from the Hebrew root ‘ayil, meaning strength, and chief (politically, as in a chief ruler, as in the king line, as does the word nagiyd examined in the previous post).

As we have seen in previous posts (see 4 December 2019), ‘ayil is the longer form of the word ‘el, meaning and rendered God. The word “strength” above, said to be from ‘oz (strength and majesty), is more likely from the word ‘azar, meaning help and to rescue (succor). The roots of these words make up the name Eleazar, and ‘ezer, from the same root, is the needed (part – meet) “help,” Eve, God made for Adam. As we’ve seen, Eleazar, the same as Lazarus, represents the priesthood raided up. In a pattern, they are the elect the LORD raises, as His army, to rule as priests and kings with Him (Israel’s meaning). They (Judah, as Mary) are the needed help meet to bring forth the children (Ephraim – God’s people at large, as Martha) of God, the LORD’s providential strength given to David.

These are the hind and her calf, of the dawn, when the Light that has been in the hidden shines, giving understanding, awakens them to their purpose (mustering them for the mission).

Psalms 21
1 The king shall joy in your strength [‘azar – help and rescue], O LORD; and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
2 You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
3 For you prevented him [went before him with Providence] with the blessings of goodness [“blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb” Genesis 49:25]: you set a crown of pure gold on his head [“The blessings of your father have prevailed [gabar] 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.” Genesis 49:26].
4 He asked life of you, and you gave it him, even length of days forever 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 [“above his progenitors”] forever: 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 [their creations: false prophesies and false teaching], which they are not able to perform.
12 Therefore shall you make them turn their back, when you shall make ready your arrows [Ephraim] upon your strings against the face of them.
13 Be you exalted, LORD, in your own strength [‘azar – your strength and help]: so will we sing and praise your power.

The word ‘azar is the word rendered “help” in Genesis 49:25, which comes from the Almighty. As we have often seen, the providence is the bow (Judah) in the hand of David (the one whose birthright it is to sit on his throne), and the arrow shot forward is Ephraim. As we know, this is written in Zechariah 9:12 thru 16, saying, “Turn you to the strong hold, you prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will render double unto you; When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece [those wallowing in the mire they’ve stirred with their feet, in their journey through time], and made you as the sword of a mighty man. And the LORD shall be seen over them [in the cloud], 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. The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones [as David]; 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 [filled with this word, the blood of the LORD’s long-suffering sacrifice]. And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as [the Shepherd his flock, see Genesis 49:24 below] the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.”

Genesis 49
8 Judah [the leaders of God’s people – in whom the LORD’s strength returns], you are 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]: from the prey, my son, you are 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 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.

22 Joseph [Jehovah has continued – as a son, {Ephraim}] 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 [see Matthew 10:22]:
24 But his bow [see Zechariah 9 above] 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 [‘azar] 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 [gabar] 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.

The two places where Aijeleth (‘ayeleth) are used in telling of the coming Light, the dawn (Shahar), are Proverbs 5:19 and Jeremiah 14:5. These are instructions and enlightenment needed at this moment.

Job
5 God thunders marvelously with his voice; great things does he, which we cannot comprehend.
6 For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength [‘oz – majesty].
7 He seals up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work.
8 Then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places.
9 Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.
10 By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened.
11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
12 And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commands them upon the face of the world in the earth.
13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
14 Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
15 Do thou know when God disposed them, and caused the light [understanding] of his cloud to shine?
16 Do thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge?

Proverbs 5
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow your ear to my understanding:
2 That you may regard discretion, and that your lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman [an apostate church that is far from God] drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6 Lest you should ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that you can not know them.
7 Hear me now therefore, O you children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 Lest you give your honor unto others, and your years unto the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with your wealth; and your labors be in the house of a stranger;
11 And you mourn at the last, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink waters out of your own cistern, and running waters out of your own well.
16 Let your fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only your own, and not strangers’ [mixed] with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind [‘ayeleth – your help, the presence and glory of God in the unified body] and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and be you ravished always with her love.
20 And why will you, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his goings.
22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins [his straying away from God].
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

Jeremiah 14
1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth [batstsoreth – the drought, when the rain, when God’s word from heaven, has been held back].
2 Judah mourns, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground [they are brought down by their own ignorance]; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
4 Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
5 Yea, the hind [‘ayeleth – Judah] also calved [Ephraim] in the field, and forsook it [forsook the children of God], because there was no grass [becuase there was no word from heaven].
6 And the wild asses [the ass and its colt, not tied to the true vine – see Genesis 49:11 above] did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons [they were moved by their own inventions, and opened their mouths to devour]; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass [becuse there was no word of God – because it was removed into the clouds of heaven].
7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do you it for your name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
8 O the hope of Israel, the savior thereof in time of trouble, why should you be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why should you be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.
10 Thus says the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet [from stirring up mire and polluting these pure waters], therefore the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
11 Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.
12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
13 Then said I, Ah, LORD God! behold, the prophets say unto them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of their heart.
15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
17 Therefore you shall say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.
18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.
19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!
20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against you.
21 Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, break not your covenant with us.
22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are not you he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon you: for you have made all these things.

The drought, the word batstsoreth, only appears one other time, in Jeremiah 17:8. It comes in telling of the apostate church, totally desolate because of their abominations. They have rejected the LORD and refuse to hear His correction, and expect Him to return to bow at the feet of their idols. They are choosing to perish and have no conscience telling them they are wicked for leading their followers into the fires of hell with them. These are proud men unable to release themselves from their own ignorance and darkness. I say again, COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM.

Jeremiah 16
1 The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
2 You shall not take you a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters in this place.
3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
5 For thus says the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.
6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
7 Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
8 You shall not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
10 And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say unto you, Wherefore has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?
11 Then shall you say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
12 And you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:
13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that you know not, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor.
14 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
15 But, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.
19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

Jeremiah 17
1 The sin of Judah [those who have risen into leadership, but are misleaders not under God] is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders.
4 And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever.
5 Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departed from the LORD.
6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
7 Blessed is the man that trust in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
11 As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he that gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.
15 Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.
16 As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow you: neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was right before you.
17 Be not a terror unto me: you are my hope in the day of evil.
18 Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
19 Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
20 And say unto them, Hear you the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
21 Thus says the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden [your own words are burdens] on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
22 Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do you any work, but hallow you the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
23 But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
24 And it shall come to pass, if you diligently hearken unto me, says the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein;
25 Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain forever.
26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.
27 But if you will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

Luke 24
1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher.
3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the LORD Jesus.
4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek you the living among the dead?
6 He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
7 Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
8 And they remembered his words,
9 And returned from the sepulcher, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.
10 It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.
11 And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
12 Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulcher; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
16 But their eyes were held that they should not know him.
17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that you have one to another, as you walk, and are sad?
18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem, and have not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher;
23 And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
24 And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.
25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.
29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,
34 Saying, The LORD is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon.
35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
36 And as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them, Peace be unto you.
37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
38 And he said unto them, Why are you troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have.
40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have you here any meat?
42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb.
43 And he took it, and did eat before them.
44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
48 And you are witnesses of these things.
49 And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry you in the city of Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high.
50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
53 And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

Psalms 142
1 I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.
2 I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.
3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then you knew my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily [secretly] laid a snare for me.
4 I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
5 I cried unto you, O LORD: I said, You are my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
6 Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.
7 Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise your name: the righteous shall compass me about; for you shall deal bountifully with me.