Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.
The LORD begins with the above pronouncement, from Isaiah 22:13, to His people telling them it is a time to die. This comes in a time when all is lost, and only by death will we live. The verse before this tells of His calling all mourning and repentance, but instead, there is joy and gladness.
As we saw in the previous post, horses and chariots tell of men’s ideas that carry them into battle. The pattern we see in Isaiah 22 is the LORD calling all to be ashamed of the ways (of men) they follow, die to them, and in doing live to Him: following and becoming His goodly horse in the battle. It’s the difference between going into battle with Saul’s armor or covered in faith in the power and glory of God. I choose the latter.
The enemies mixed among us tell us we will never reach the expected end. Daily they display their overwhelming power before us, as did Goliath to the armies of God’s people. I tell you now, the one stone the takes the giant down is the stone Peter found, “and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The stone is the confession, the public pronouncement of the anointed One sent to be raised up, crucified by the world, so we would, with His rising, with Him have life from the dead.
Matthew 16
13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
14 And they said, Some say that you are John the Baptist: some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.
15 He said unto them, But whom say you that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto you, That you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
21 From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from you, LORD: this shall not be unto you.
23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get you behind me, Satan: you are an offence unto me: for you savor not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
28 Truly I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
When the LORD tells Peter, “flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven,” before calling him Peter, He calls him Simon Barjona. Simon is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Simeon, Jacob’s son, who (understanding Genesis 49, we know) was the first to follow the straying son (Reuben) of perdition. Simeon is from the Hebrew word shama’, meaning to hear attentively. It’s the word initially used in Genesis 3, first in verses 8 & 10 telling of when Adam and Eve “heard” the LORD’s voice walking in the garden. It next appears in verse 17 in telling when Adam “hearkened” to his wife’s voice, the first to be misled by the serpent, who is also the pattern of the son of perdition.
Barjona, means son of Jonah; a name meaning dove, as the sign of reaching the expected end and time to come out of the ship/ark. It is speaking of Jonah as the first on the shore, the first to call Nineveh, who didn’t know their right hand from their left, to mourning and repentance. When the LORD tells of His coming, as the sign of Jonah returning from the belly of the hell, He follows it will the parable of the swept house. He says the one returning finds it empty and looks for something to fill it. As we know, the house is God’s people who are ignorant like Nineveh, who went to the churches, the ships that are the belly of hell, sepulchers where the dead are housed. They are the seven (churches) spirits that fill those looking for the Spirit of God, making the latter state worse than the first. They are worse because they are following the son of perdition, the ignorant and think they are wise, who only know how to resist, oppose, and deny the LORD at His appearing and kingdom.
Matthew 12
30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathers not with me scatters abroad.
31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy Holy Ghost [the LORD unknown to the ignorant, who they vilify, oppose, and resist] shall not be forgiven unto men.
32 And whosoever speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
34 O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
37 For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.
38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from you.
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah:
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly [the belly of hell – whale from the one-time used word ketos, which is from the one-time used word chasma, rendered “gulf” in telling of the great chasm between heaven and hell, which is the open mouths of men, the mouth of the fish, from the Hebrew word dag, meaning it what is under the sea, humanity at large, into which these men’s words flow, agitating it into a storm. It is the ever-open mouths of men, mislead and vilifying the LORD at His coming, which it’s what has held all men in hell until now]; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here.
42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.
44 Then he said, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he finds it empty, swept, and garnished.
45 Then goes he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
47 Then one said unto him, Behold, your mother and your brethren stand without, desiring to speak with you.
48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven [acknowledging the son, and receiving Him they are given the power to become the children of God], the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
John 1
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 3
11 Truly, truly, I say unto you, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and you receive not our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13 And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation [krisis – the crisis, the decision point, the choice that determine your eternity], that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Jonah 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell [Sheol, where the dead are housed] cried I, and you heard [shama’] my voice.
3 For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all your billows and your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
10 And the LORD spoke unto the fish [dag], and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
Jonah 3
1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid you.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
Isaiah 22
1 The burden of the valley of vision [what is now plainly seen]. What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops?
2 You that are full of stirs, a tumultuous city [agitated by the words of men], joyous city: your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
3 All your rulers are fled together [because they are hirelings], they are bound by the archers [the flee because they fear words that are as shot arrows]: all that are found in you are bound together, which have fled from far.
4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.
5 For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the LORD God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains.
6 And Elam [eternity] bare the quiver [that hold the arrows] with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield. [Kir is the wall that holds the waters in, restricts the free course of this word of God {see 2 Thessalonians 3:1 – 3}. Those leading and teaching God’s are more interested in controlling the flow than they are in listening and following the one from Who it flows].
7 And it shall come to pass, that your choicest valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate [the army mustered at the gate that holds men in hell].
8 And he discovered the covering of Judah, and you did look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest [this is referring to verse 6 above and what is to be discovers about those leading God’s, see Micah below and what Jeremiah 26 says about it].
9 You have seen also the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10 And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall.
11 You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but you have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.
12 And in that day did the LORD God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
13 And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.
14 And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die, says the LORD God of hosts.
15 Thus says the LORD God of hosts, Go, get you unto this treasurer [where these treasures are held, waiting to be discovered], even unto Shebna [vigor – meaning in these words, reserved for this moment, are life and strength], which is over the house, and say,
16 What have you here? and whom have you here, that you have hewed you out a sepulcher here, as he that hews him out a sepulcher on high, and that graves an habitation for himself in a rock? [This is telling of these men’s control of knowledge turning it into a grave.]
17 Behold, the LORD will carry you away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover you.
18 He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country: there shall you die, and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your lord’s house.
19 And I will drive you from your station, and from your state shall he pull you down.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim [who God raises] the son of Hilkiah [said to mean – whose portion is Jehovah, more precisely, from chalaq, meaning he is the smooth stone of Jehovah]:
21 And I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will commit your government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.
22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.
24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.
25 In that day, says the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD has spoken it.
Micah 3
5 Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
6 Therefore night shall be unto you, that you shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that you shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
9 Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
Micha 4
1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken it.
Jeremiah 26
2 Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’s house, all the words that I command you to speak unto them; diminish not a word:
3 If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.
4 And you shall say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; If you will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,
5 To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but you have not hearkened;
6 Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.
7 So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.
8 Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, You shall surely die.
9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
10 When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house.
11 Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.
12 Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.
13 Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he has pronounced against you.
14 As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you.
15 But know you for certain, that if you put me to death, you shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD has sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.
16 Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.
17 Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,
18 Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and besought the LORD, and the LORD repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls.
The title is quoted in 1 Corinthians 15:32, where Paul discusses the baptism into Christ’s death, as Jeremiah describes above: speaking the word of God knowing, for this, the world (church and state) will surely try to destroy us. Taking up this cross, we follow Christ, believing, knowing by faith, there is a resurrection that comes by the power of God, who rising in us, raises us to life with Him.
1 Corinthians 15
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27 For he has put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our LORD, I die daily.
32 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.
33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
36 You fool, that which you sowest is not quickened, except it die:
37 And that which you sowest, you sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
38 But God gives it a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
Hebrews 10
5 Wherefore when he comes into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering you wouldest not, but a body have you prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do your will, O God.
8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin you wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do your will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Romans 3
3 Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death has no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he lives, he lives unto God.
11 Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our LORD.
Psalms 27
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.
5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
8 When you said, Seek you my face; my heart said unto you, Your face, LORD, will I seek.
9 Hide not your face far from me; put not your servant away in anger: you have been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
