The Enemies, Whose End is Destruction, Whose God is Their Belly, and Whose Glory is in Their Shame

With trumpets make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King, for he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
 
Continuing: the title is from parts of Psalms 98:6 & 9, and speaks of the LORD coming to judge the world by the means it lacks: righteousness and equity. One of the vilest injustices on the earth is when men apply law and judgment unequally. We have seen this evil openly executed before our eye by the US Justice Department as it was first intentionally infested by enemies of our Constitution, who then perpetrated their intended injustice. Don’t believe the denials; these vermin are communists and their useful idiots, deliberately or as misguided dupes, carrying out the overthrow of our system, or as they have disguised it: fundamentally transforming toward more progressive ideas as its foundation. And as is their way (the results opposite their claimed intentions), their re-engineering society to achieving “social justice” is, in reality, removing all justice. Justice is when laws are equally administered, deaf and blinded to calls to anything others. The wicked in church and state abandon truth, reject the ways of peace and civilization, and judge only to achieve their evil desires.
 
Philippians 3
17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an ensample.
18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
20 For our conversation [politeia (polity – political) community – common unity] is in heaven [is founded in the righty divided word of God]; from where also we look for the Savior, the LORD Jesus Christ:
21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself [self-governing with truth and equity].
 
Psalms 98 begins by calling us to sing a new song: because we are rejoicing that the LORD has come and restored righteousness and equity to judgment.
 
Psalm 98
1 O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he has done marvelous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, has gotten him the victory.
2 The LORD has made known his salvation: his righteousness has he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.
3 He has remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
5 Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.
6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.
7 Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together
9 Before the LORD; for he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
 
The word “righteousness” in verse 9 is tsedeq, meaning right (natural, moral or legal), also abstractly, equity, or figuratively, prosperity. It is the word joined with melek (king) to form Melchizedek, the Hebrew name only used twice. The first is in Genesis 14:18 telling of the king of Salem (peace), the priest of the Most High God. In the passage, we are told that Abram (Abraham) refuses to receive anything from the hand of the king of Sodom, but received what was offered by Melchizedek. This is the pattern spoken of in Hebrews when the LORD comes in the order of Melchisedec and gives bread and wine (communion – the ways of common unity) to the seed of Abraham. It is showing the LORD as the first and last priest and king; the passage is the first time the word kohen (priest) is used in God’s word. The chapter is the first time the words melek appears, twenty-seven times, with the twenty-eighth in Melchizedek where tsedeq (righteousness) also first appears.
 
Genesis 14
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
20 And blessed be the most high God, which has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to yourself.
22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
23 That I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latches, and that I will not take any thing that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich:
 
The other time the name appears is in Psalms 110:4, which is later quoted Hebrews 5:6 & 7:17.
 
(Please bear with me for a moment: many say the people of God shouldn’t be involved in politics. They are wrong. We are part of the community, the body politic, joined into one community to achieve the same goal. Our politics are not supposed to divide the body, as it now does with intention and as the tactic of the demagogue (one who uses created prejudices and divisions to propel themselves to power). In this body church and state must be inseparably joined in achieving the goal of community but resolutely separate in their missions. Modern politics uses charity (Christian love and care for our brothers/neighbors) as a means (holding the purse as did Judas) to gain and keep power. Charity is what should and must be separated to the church run by men with no desire to through it increase wealth or power. Politics should also be peopled by those equally as servant minded, to build roads, armies and such. Political parties (factions) should be focused on these common goals, only differing in means to achieve them. The general welfare of the nation does not come from the endless argument and creating animosity. These are the ideal – and as we know the reality is there are those now among us who are hostile to our Constitution and our foundations. They are enemies of the community and seek to divide us to conquer us. They must be defeated. “25 But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” James 1)
 
Psalms 110
1 The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
2 The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule you in the midst of your enemies.
3 Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: you have the dew of your youth.
4 The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The LORD at your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.
 
The parenthetical statement above is describing our time when the LORD has appeared to bring these things to pass. The enemies of the community, those who agitate and disturb the peace, will be defeated as the people see them as they are and reject them (as they do now as the LORD has uncovered them before the eyes of all). The LORD has said He would send priests and kings, after the order of Melchisedec (outside the existing corrupted orders of priests and politicians), as we have here discussed many times. (I and the children God has given me are for signs and wonders – outside the confederacy of the corrupted.) We are told, in Hebrews 5, the LORD becomes the Author of eternal salvation to those who obey Him. We know the chapter goes on to speaks of those who think they are teachers and are in need of being taught the first principles (stoicheion – elements) of the oracles of God.
 
Hebrews 5
1 For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:
2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
3 And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
4 And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
5 So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, You are my Son, to day have I begotten you.
6 As he says also in another place, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
10 Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing.
12 For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
 
Hebrews 6
1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this will we do, if God permit.
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
7 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that comes oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which you have shewed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
12 That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men truly swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
 
Hebrews 7
1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abides a priest continually.
4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
5 And truly they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:
6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.
7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.
8 And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.
9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who received tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.
10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.
11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertains to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar.
14 For it is evident that our LORD sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.
15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there arises another priest,
16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
17 For he testifies, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
18 For there is truly a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
20 And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest:
21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The LORD swore and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)
22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
24 But this man, because he continues ever, has an unchangeable priesthood.
25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.
26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27 Who needs not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
28 For the law makes men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, makes the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.
8 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the LORD pitched, and not man.
3 For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
4 For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, says he, that you make all things according to the pattern shewed to you in the mount.
6 But now has he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8 For finding fault with them, he says, Behold, the days come, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, says the LORD.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
13 In that he says, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.
 
Hebrews 9
1 Then truly the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
2 For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.
3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;
4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;
5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy-seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.
7 But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:
8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle [His first body] was yet standing:
9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience [perfecting the conscience];
10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
11 But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building [but of his new body];
12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh:
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives.
18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God has enjoined unto you.
21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these [see and understand this in what is said in Hebrews 12:24 – 29, of the voice being heard from heaven].
24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:
25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others;
26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
 
Friends, those who have studied here for a while know Hebrews is written to introduce Timothy, the first outsider, into the New priesthood. It was written to the Hebrews who wanted to remain with the Levitical letter of the law instead of understanding the pattern it showed and was intended to achieve. Hebrews 13:23 tells of Timothy being set at “liberty,” from the seventy times used word apoluo (apolelumenon in the text), used the seventieth and last time here. It is the word used in the gospels to tell of Pilate having the power to “set free” the LORD from the sentence of death. Hebrews 13:23 is referring to Timothy as the one set free from the law by death (of the old nature and raised up in the order of Melchisedec,) as it is written in the final verses of Hebrews 9 above.
 
Friends, I say again, Christ is risen in me, by His own power (I am become who I am become), according to the scriptures.
 
Ezekiel 28
25 Thus says the LORD God; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.
26 And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God.

Under God, Liberty Enthroned Guarded by Order and Authority

The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.
 
Continuing: today’s title is Proverbs 10:24, a chapter written by Solomon describing the differences between the righteous and the wicked. In verses 8 & 10 he describes the wicked as “prating” fools, from the many (176) times used Hebrew word saphah, which is most often rendered “lips.” Daniel 12:5 translates the word twice as the “bank” of the river we know as death, the bank, therefore, showing where death begins or ends. Ezekiel 47 (verses 6, 7, &12) describe the saphah (as brink and bank) using the same terms that appear in Revelation 22 describing the river of living waters.
 
Daniel 12
1 And at that time shall Michael [who is like God] stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament [where the waters/word are rightly divided]; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank [saphah] of the river, and the other on that side of the bank [saphah]of the river.
 
What is described is the words of men showing them as either producing life or death, and when we pass into physical death, we rise into the next physical life (not a cliché) into the same state we left the last, again our words showing and producing life or death.
 
Ezekiel 47
1 Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.
2 Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that look eastward [where the LORD, the sun, and light are all first seen]; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.
3 And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward [toward the light], he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters [the words of life and death]; the waters were to the ankles.
4 Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins.
5 Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.
6 And he said unto me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink [saphah] of the river.
7 Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank [saphah] of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.
8 Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country [where the light comes from], and go down into the desert [wilderness], and go into the sea [the masses of people]: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.
9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing that lives, which moves, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river comes.
10 And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi [the fountain (eye) on the bank] even unto Eneglaim [the fountain (eye) of the two calves (idols)]; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many. [See Revelation 22:11]
11 But the miry places thereof and the marshes [the waters mired by men’s words of death] thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt [remember Lot’s wife].
12 And by the river upon the bank [saphah] thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat [living men preaching life giving words], whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat [life giving nourishment], and the leaf thereof for medicine.
13 Thus says the LORD God; This shall be the border, whereby you shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph shall have two portions [Ephraim – double blessing].
14 And you shall inherit it, one as well as another: concerning the which I lifted up mine hand to give it unto your fathers: and this land shall fall unto you for inheritance.
 
Revelation 22
1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the LORD God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the LORD God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
9 Then said he unto me, See you do it not: for I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
10 And he said unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.
16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
18 For I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
20 He which testifies these things says, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, LORD Jesus.
21 The grace of our LORD Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
 
Ezekiel first uses the word saphah in Ezekiel 3:5 & 6 where it is rendered “speech” as we are told of Ezekiel sent by the LORD to find and eat the roll. The “roll” is the Hebrew word mgillah, meaning a scroll as in a book or a volume.
 
Ezekiel 3
1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that you find; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel [and become as waters rising – which they will not understand at first] .
2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.
3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this roll that I give you. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
4 And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get you unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them.
5 For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;
6 Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have hearkened unto you.
7 But the house of Israel will not hearken unto you; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.
8 Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads.
9 As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
10 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.
11 And go, get you to them of the captivity, unto the children of your people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus says the LORD God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
12 Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.
13 I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.
14 So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.
 
Revelation 10
5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
6 And swore by him that lives for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he has declared to his servants the prophets.
8 And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which stands upon the sea and upon the earth.
9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make your belly bitter, but it shall be in your mouth sweet as honey.
10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
 
Mgillah is the word first used in Psalms 40:7, which speaks of the LORD coming in the volume of the book written of Him.
 
Psalm 40
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust, and respects not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O LORD my God, are your wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto you: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire; mine ears have you opened: burnt offering and sin offering have you not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do your will, O my God: yea, your law is within my heart.
9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, you know.
10 I have not hid your righteousness within my heart; I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation: I have not concealed your lovingkindness and your truth from the great congregation.
11 Withhold not you your tender mercies from me, O LORD: let your lovingkindness and your truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart fails me [see the prior post and Luke 21:26].
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
16 Let all those that seek you rejoice and be glad in you: let such as love your salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
17 But I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinks upon me: you are my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
 
Friends, salvation and resurrection come by our words and deeds, speaking and showing life. The words and the ways of the wicked and unreasonable are death, and their end is to remain in self-inflicted agitation forever.
 
I reluctantly tell you, I am sent as the living pattern, risen in this quickened mortal body, now put on immortality after the corrupted put on the incorruptible. (I say I am reluctant because I have not been sent to preach myself, but Jesus Christ, my LORD, crucified and risen from the dead. I know because I have seen and heard Him and know it is He in me that has brought me to life. I therefore without any reluctance declare and confess I know He lives. My only glory is the LORD, who I also know is my Father.)
 
Romans 10
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge [the knowledge I just confessed].
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law [see 1 Corinthians 15:56 & 57 below] for righteousness to every one that believes.
5 For Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which does those things shall live by them.
6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what says it? The word is nigh you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture say, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same LORD over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, LORD, who has believed our report?
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes truly, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
20 But Isaiah is very bold, and says, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
 
2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the LORD; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the LORD Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the LORD Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
 
1 Corinthians 15
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the LORD from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? [see Hosea 13:14 & Isaiah 25:8 below – from where this is quoted]
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our LORD Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, un-moveable, always abounding in the work of the LORD, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the LORD.
 
Hosea 13
12 The iniquity of Ephraim [double fruit – God’s people in this latter generation] is bound up; his sin is hid.
13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children [See Isaiah 13:8 in the prior post].
14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
16 Samaria [the place where men have replaced God with idols] shall become desolate; for she has rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up [as a result of their leaving God’s ways and ideas].
Hosea 14
1 O Israel, return unto the LORD your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity.
2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips [saphah].
 
Isaiah 25
1 O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things; your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For you have made of a city an heap; of a defensed city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify you, the city of the terrible nations shall fear you.
4 For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 You shall bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6 And in this mountain [of the transfiguration] shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people [removing the cover – the apocalypse], and the vail that is spread over all nations [unable to see the LORD God behind it].
8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the LORD God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD has spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab [the gates of death] shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.
11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swims spreads forth his hands to swim [dividing the waters]: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
12 And the fortress of the high fort of your walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

 

Lift Up a Banner Upon the High Mountain, Exalt the Voice Unto Them

Lift you up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
 
Continuing: the title is Isaiah 13:2 & 3 and is the burden of Babylon, meaning it is speaking of the day the burden can no longer be borne. The burden is confusion that has become delusion, spoken of as Babylon, meaning confusion when it rules over all the earth as it now does. In verses 7 & 8 we find described how this end comes, as men’s hearts fail (their power to rightly reason), and they are afraid. It says the burden is as a woman carrying a child who needs to be born. Verse 6 says this is the day of the LORD that comes as a destruction from the Almighty.
 
The chapter goes on in verse 8 to say “they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.” The word rendered here “amazed” is the nine times used Hebrew word tamahh; two of those come back to back in Habakkuk 1:5, rendered “wonder marvelously.” “5 Behold you among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously [tamahh, tamahh – Be amazed! Be amazed!]: for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe, though it be told you [though a man is telling you].”
 
This is the burden Habakkuk saw, and says it is of the coming Chaldeans, who we know are the sorcerers of Babylon, those using their words to manipulate and control people, which has resulted in mass delusion.
 
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 shew 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, though it be told you.
6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. [They have created their own standard and compare themselves to themselves – anything they do is self-justified by their end achieved.]
 
Isaiah 13 goes on the says the LORD comes to shake these wicked and unreasonable men out of the world. The chapter then further describes the destruction of everything pertaining to their methods of confusion. Verse 8 precisely describes the means of the LORD is to allow the bahal, rendered “And they shall be afraid,” to run its natural course.
 
Isaiah 13
1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
2 Lift you up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts musters the host of the battle.
5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl you; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travails: they shall be amazed [tammah] one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
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.
 
The result of the confusion we’ve been discussing, which is at the root of the delusion, is an inward and unquenchable agitation that disrupts peace and makes it impossible. Here is the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary Definition of bahal, (followed by its translated forms): Strong’s #926: bahal (pronounced baw-hal’) a primitive root; to tremble inwardly (or palpitate), i.e. (figuratively) be (causative, make) (suddenly) alarmed or agitated; by implication to hasten anxiously:–be (make) affrighted (afraid, amazed, dismayed, rash), (be, get, make) haste(-n, -y, -ily), (give) speedy(-ily), thrust out, trouble, vex.
 
It is the word translated “speedy” in Zephaniah 1:18 as the sudden end (of those melting away) comes upon the wicked.
 
Zephaniah 1
4 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;
5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham;
6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.
7 Hold your peace at the presence of the LORD God: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD has prepared a sacrifice, he has bid his guests.
8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.
11 Howl, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hastes greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste-ness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy [bahal] riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
 
All of these conditions are the “perplexity” spoken of in Luke 21:25 as the LORD describes the condition of the earth that causes men’s hearts to fail. As we have seen, what fails is their power to use their intellect to perceive and process data correctly, and thereby they have lost all ability to come to correct conclusions and then solutions. The LORD tells of these occurring after the signs in the sun, moon, and stars, which we know speaks of the church and civil governments, and God’s people at large, no long shining and reflecting His light on the earth, and because of this men are unable to find their way in the darkness.
 
Luke 21
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; the sea and the waves roaring;
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
29 And he spoke to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
30 When they now shoot forth, you see and know of your own selves that summer 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.
32 Truly I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
 
The Greek word rendered “perplexity” is aporia, a one-time used word said to mean a state of quandary. It is the same as the word aporeo, which is only used four times and first appears in John 13:22 where it gives us the deeper understanding. It is telling of when the disciples looked at one another, and “doubted,” (were perplexed, as in Isaiah 13:8 above,) when the LORD told them of one who would betray him. In the verse prior the LORD told of receiving those He sends is receiving Him, and those receiving Him receive the One who sent Him.
 
John 13
6 Then comes he to Simon Peter: and Peter says unto him, LORD, do you wash my feet?
7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do you know not now; but you shall know hereafter.
8 Peter said unto him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash you not, you have no part with me.
9 Simon Peter said unto him, LORD, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
10 Jesus said to him, He that is washed needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and you are clean, but not all.
11 For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, You are not all clean.
12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know you what I have done to you?
13 You call me Master and LORD: and you say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your LORD and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
16 Truly, truly, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his LORD; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
17 If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.
18 I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.
19 Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, you may believe that I am he.
20 Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that receives whomsoever I send receives me; and he that receives me receives him that sent me.
21 When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Truly, truly, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
22 Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting [aporeo] of whom he spoke.
 
The LORD is referring back to what John wrote of in John 1, and not knowing he was washing away all the corrupted ideas they [God’s people at large] had picked up on their journey [as Hebrews, those who have crossed over death with the LORD]. The LORD is telling of those who would not know Him because they refused to receive the one He would send, who He speaks of extensively in John, who would lead into all truth. Neither would they know until now, that the LORD sent me, as he sends all of us, to wash (with His pure word) away the defiled ideas that have accumulated, which have caused the perplexity (doubt through not being able to know) and the self-destructive delusions.
 
John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9 That was the true Light, which light every man that comes into the world.
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.
15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spoke, He that comes after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
16 And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
 
Those refusing to receive what and who the LORD sends, the knowledge of the truth, are explicitly warned of this offense in Hebrews 10:26, and in Paul quoting Habakkuk 1:5 in Acts 13:41. Both tell of the LORD sending correction, as does Hebrews 12, and this what shakes out past errors and replaces them with truth, and coming by the spoken word of the one the LORD sends. Now do you know, “If I wash you not, you have no part with me?”
 
Hebrews 10
22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.
26 For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy, who have trodden under foot the Son of God, and have counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and have done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him that has said, Vengeance belongs unto me, I will recompense, says the LORD. And again, The LORD shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
 
Hebrews 12
11 Now no chastening [correction] for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow 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 [from the rightly divided word]:
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. [See Isaiah 13:13 above]
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.
 
Deuteronomy 4
23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD your God has forbidden you.
24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
25 When you shall beget children, and children’s children, and you shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD your God, to provoke him to anger:
26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
27 And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and you shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.
28 And there you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
29 But if from thence you shall seek the LORD your God, you shall find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things are come upon you, even in the latter days, if you turn to the LORD your God, and shall be obedient unto his voice;
31 (For the LORD your God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore unto them.
32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there has been any such thing as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?
33 Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?
34 Or has God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 Unto you it was shewed, that you might know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.
36 Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you: and upon earth he shewed you his great fire; and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.
37 And because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought you out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt;
38 To drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you are, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.
 
Acts 13
17 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it.
18 And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.
19 And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.
20 And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.
21 And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.
22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave their testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
23 Of this man’s seed has God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus:
24 When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
25 And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think you that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there comes one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.
26 Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you fears God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.
27 For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.
28 And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.
29 And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulcher.
30 But God raised him from the dead:
31 And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
32 And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
33 God has fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he has raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.
34 And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.
35 Wherefore he says also in another psalm, You shall not suffer your Holy One to see corruption.
36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
37 But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
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 declare it unto you.

In this the Children of God are Manifest, and the Children of the Devil

 
Continuing: the above statement is from 1 John 3:10 and comes in a larger passage that tells of love and hate, sin and righteousness, as the outward manifestation of the those we have previously described as the children of obedience and disobedience. Later in verses 16 & 17 John says these traits are exhibited and perceived in our laying down our lived for the brethren, which he further defines as having this world’s good and seeing a brother has a need, opening up our bowels of compassion and giving. John is talking about what we know and is now in us, in our mind and heart, which is the word of God. When he says “this world’s good” he is describing what a man needs to sustain life, which we know is every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3). We know what dwells in us is the mind and spirit of God, and we show compassion as we lay down our lives to give this same mind (His better ideas – the ways of peace and civilization) to the world dying without it.
 
Now, I tell these men who sit in the seats of God and hinder this word of God, directly from His mouth, from being heard by the world, “Either speak what you read here or get out of the way! Let my people rise to meet the LORD.” This is the difference between the air of obedience and disobedience, between the sons (children) of God and the prince of the power of the air: the Spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.
 
1 John 3
1 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
4 Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
5 And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
6 Whosoever abides in him sins not: whosoever sins has not seen him, neither known him.
7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8 He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9 Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother.
11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in death.
15 Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
17 But whoso has this world’s good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
24 And he that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.
 
These men that sit in these seats of power, corrupted and delusional, in church and state, are trying any and every way they can think of to subvert and demonize what they know is inevitably coming to consume them. “12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume 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.” Zechariah 14
 
The word Zechariah uses in verse 13 above to tell of the vexing that comes when the LORD is among these men who are fighting against His foundational teaching of peace and security, translated “tumult,” is mhuwmah, meaning confusion and an uproar. It is telling of the end of confusion, which we know has resulted in the strong delusion we’ve discussed in the previous posts.
 
When John tells above of shutting up what is inside us he is alluding to when the LORD opens what was shut, when He Himself comes to open it. Hear this word of the LORD and understand the time we are living in.
 
The first of the twelve times mhuwmah is used it is in Deuteronomy 7:23 as the LORD tells of when He comes to destroy these men with a mighty destruction, which we know is by letting them reap what they have sown.
 
Deuteronomy 7
9 Know therefore that the LORD your God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
10 And repays them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hates him, he will repay him to his face.
11 You shall therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command you this day, to do them.
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if you hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD your God shall keep unto you the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto your fathers:
13 And he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you: he will also bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land, your corn, and your wine, and your oil, the increase of your kine, and the flocks of your sheep, in the land which he swore unto your fathers to give you.
14 You shall be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, upon you; but will lay them upon all them that hate you.
16 And you shall consume all the people which the LORD your God shall deliver you; your eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shall you serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto you.
17 If you shall say in your heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
18 You shall not be afraid of them: but shall well remember what the LORD your God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;
19 The great temptations which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD your God brought you out: so shall the LORD your God do unto all the people of whom you are afraid.
20 Moreover the LORD your God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from you, be destroyed.
21 You shall not be affrighted at them: for the LORD your God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.
22 And the LORD your God will put out those nations before you by little and little [as described in Zachariah 14 above]: you may not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon you.
23 But the LORD your God shall deliver them unto you, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction [mhuwmah], until they be destroyed.
24 And he shall deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.
25 The graven images of their gods shall you burn with fire: you shall not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto you, lest you be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.
26 Neither shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be a cursed thing like it: but you shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
 
Do you see the glory of the LORD yet?
 
The next time the word is used it is in Deuteronomy 28:20 to tell of what will come upon those who refuse to obey, harken diligently, unto the voice of the LORD their God, to do all His commandments I command you this day. The chapter begins by telling of those who do harken, and precisely tells us why and how we have been raised above all nations in history.
 
Deuteronomy 28
1 And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD your God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that the LORD your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth:
2 And all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall hearken unto the voice of the LORD your God.
3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your kine, and the flocks of your sheep.
5 Blessed shall be your basket and your store.
6 Blessed shall you be when you comes in, and blessed shall you be when you goes out.
7 The LORD shall cause your enemies that rise up against you to be smitten before your face: they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways.
8 The LORD shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouses, and in all that you sets your hand unto; and he shall bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
9 The LORD shall establish you an holy people unto himself, as he has sworn unto you, if you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and walk in his ways.
10 And all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of you.
11 And the LORD shall make you plenteous in goods, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers to give you.
12 The LORD shall open unto you his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto your land in his season, and to bless all the work of your hand: and you shall lend unto many nations, and you shall not borrow.
13 And the LORD shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if that you hearken unto the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do them:
14 And you shall not go aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 But it shall come to pass, if you will not hearken unto the voice of the LORD your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day; that all these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you:
16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be your basket and your store.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land, the increase of your kine, and the flocks of your sheep.
19 Cursed shall you be when you comes in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 The LORD shall send upon you cursing, vexation [mhuwmah], and rebuke, in all that you sets your hand unto for to do, until you be destroyed, and until you perish quickly [suddenly]; because of the wickedness of your doings, whereby you have forsaken me.
 
Isaiah only uses the word one time, in Isaiah 22:5, to tell of this day, a day like no other and known only to the LORD Himself: when confusion culminates in the delusion that consumes itself.
 
Isaiah 22
1 The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops?
2 You that are full of stirs, a tumultuous city, joyous city: your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle.
3 All your rulers are fled together, they are bound by the archers: 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 [mhuwmah] 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 with chariots of men and horsemen [as when Egypt came into My snare], and Kir [and became walls rising from the waters] uncovered the shield.
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.
8 And he discovered the covering of Judah, and you did look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest.
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 to morrow 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, even unto Shebna, 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?
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 [the abominations (idols) they serve].
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 [whose inheritance is 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.
 
Do you see it yet? All see it but few, (only those not suffering from the delusions of the world,) will proclaim the glory of the LORD.
 
Ezekiel next uses the word, first in Ezekiel 7:7, to also tell of this (only) day when the LORD judges these men.
 
Ezekiel 7
1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Also, you son of man, thus says the LORD God unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.
3 Now is the end come upon you, and I will send mine anger upon you, and will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense upon you all your abominations.
4 And mine eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense your ways upon you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am the LORD.
5 Thus says the LORD God; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.
6 An end is come, the end is come: it watches for you; behold, it is come.
7 The morning is come unto you, O you that dwells in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble [mhuwmah] is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.
8 Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon you, and accomplish mine anger upon you: and I will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense you for all your abominations.
9 And mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will recompense you according to your ways and your abominations that are in the midst of you; and you shall know that I am the LORD that smites.
10 Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.
11 Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall there be wailing for them.
12 The time is come, the day draws near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
14 They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goes to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
15 The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.
18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity.
20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.
21 And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.
22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.
23 Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
24 Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.
25 Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.
27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
 
Ezekiel uses the word one other time, also in (Ezekiel) 22:5 (where double confusion – delusion – meets grace), telling of when the LORD calls His son to judge the bloody city. We are again told of these wicked men and their ways melting away in the consuming fire of the LORD’s indignation (as we are told of in 2 Peter 3, which should be read again if not remembering its full content). It tells of these men who the LORD will vex, because they have vexed others. In this we again see it is their own doing (works) that are returned on their head, and they become as a hangman snared in his own noose.
 
Ezekiel 22
1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Now, you son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? yea, you shall shew her all her abominations.
3 Then say you, Thus says the LORD God, The city sheds blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself.
4 You are become guilty in your blood that you have shed; and have defiled yourself in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and are come even unto your years: therefore have I made you a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.
5 Those that be near, and those that be far from you, shall mock you, which are infamous and much vexed [mhuwmah].
6 Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in you to their power to shed blood.
7 In you have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in you have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
8 You have despised mine holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths [My interrupting you for correction].
9 In you are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in you they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of you they commit lewdness.
10 In you have they discovered their fathers’ nakedness: in you have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.
11 And one has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.
12 In you have they taken gifts to shed blood; you have taken usury and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten me, says the LORD God.
13 Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the midst of you.
14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.
15 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and disperse you in the countries, and will consume your filthiness out of you.
16 And you shall take your inheritance in yourself in the sight of the heathen, and you shall know that I am the LORD.
17 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.
19 Therefore thus says the LORD God; Because you are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
20 As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.
21 Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof.
22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst thereof; and you shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.
23 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
24 Son of man, say unto her, You are the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.
25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus says the LORD God, when the LORD has not spoken.
29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, says the LORD God.
 
Now go take the blind by the hand and show them their ways will consume them, and let them follow you out of these places of corruption and delusion.
 
Amos uses the word, in Amos 3:9, as the LORD publishes these words on the mountain of Samaria: (the place where the calves (idols) where set up and called God, to keep the people from going to Jerusalem.)
 
Amos 3
1 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed [unless they have agreed to meet at this time and in this place – and are thereby of the same mind]?
4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?
5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?
6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD has not done it?
7 Surely the LORD God will do nothing, but he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared, who will not fear? the LORD God has spoken, who can but prophesy [speak His word]?
9 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod [of the powerful}, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt [the places captivity], and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria [where the idols have been set up], and behold the great tumults [mhuwmah] in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.
10 For they know not to do right, says the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.
11 Therefore thus says the LORD God; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down your strength from you, and your palaces shall be spoiled.
12 Thus says the LORD; As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria [idol worship] in the corner of a bed [sleeping], and in Damascus [drunken and in tears] in a couch [also in a sleep like stupor]. [See 1 Thessalonians 5]
13 Hear you, and testify in the house of Jacob [those still wrestling with God and not knowing it is Him], says the LORD God, the God of hosts,
14 That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel [the house of God]: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground.
15 And I will smite the winter house [where the fire continually burn] with the summer house [which is opened so the wind (Spirit) can continually blow through]; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses [of delusion and desolation] shall have an end, says the LORD.

Confusion now Turned into Delusion (an inability to recognize or accept reality/truth)

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
 
Continuing: as we saw in the previous post, the delusion spoken of comes as a natural result of being fed by and trusting what is not true. This state begins as confusion and when sustained ends in delusion. The words in the title, from 2 Thessalonians 2:11 & 12, rendered “strong delusion” are the Greek words energeia plane; meaning energy (work) and fraudulent. (It is the false teaching, the fraudulent reports that come from all the TV preacher: false prophets and the fake news media. These are the lies that produce confusion and have now turned into delusion – an inability to recognize or accept reality/truth.)
 
As we know, 2 Thessalonians is Paul further defining 1 Thessalonians, which had not been fully understood. The word plane appears in 1 Thessalonians 2:3 as Paul describes how his entrance to them wasn’t with “deceit” or under the cloak of covetousness. He tells of his entry (without hidden motives) being unlike those who controlled the religion of the day and who abused them in this way. He says it was manifest in their receiving the word of God, knowing it was God’s and not the word of man (with deceit – plane), and accepting it as such is what had touched and had a result on those who had this belief/faith.
 
Paul then tells of his being hindered by Satan, and therefore unable to come to them in person. He is speaking of those he has just spoken of, who both killed the LORD Jesus and the prophets, who both persecute us and forbid us from speaking this same word of God to the Gentiles that they might be saved. We know the chapter ends with Paul saying to those who received the word of God that they are thereby in the presence of the LORD at His coming.
 
In this we see all the aspects further defined in 2 Thessalonians. These are the same men spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 2, those using “deceit” and sitting and restraining (katecho) the free course of the Gospel, are those Paul speaks of in 2 Thessalonians 2:5 – 7 when he says to “remember.” He says these are things he told them when he was with them (which itself leads us to consider Timothy is actually writing the letter. See 1 Thessalonians 3:2 and 2 Thessalonians 1:1. “with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.” Hebrews 13:23). He says these men’s actions are the mystery of iniquity that was already at work, and which would be restraining (letting – katecho – hold down – keeping people from rising to meet the LORD, as in 1 Thessalonians 2:19) until they are taken out of the way.
 
When Paul speaks of those who are in the presence of the LORD at his coming, those who had received Paul’s (and Timothy’s) preaching as it is, as the word of God, he is telling of what he later describes in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 as the LORD descending with this word from heaven, “with the voice of an archangel.” As we know the archangel is telling of the messenger who is God’s presence manifested in bodily form, as Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 2:19 when he told of those who received the message as the word of God, being in the presence of the LORD at his coming.
 
The work of deceit, the strong delusion, is what is manifested in those who refuse to believe the truth, even when it is spoken by the archangel, the one Paul knows is a man the LORD sends with His authority and direct message to His people, in His name, as He had with Paul and Timothy.
 
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 ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth 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 Ye 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 heareth them.
6 We are of God: he that knowes God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
 
Friends, the rapture is a lie. The LORD comes in the flesh, His message in men He chooses, who have put off the former uncleanness of deception and become obedient, just as the LORD became obedient, even unto death.
 
In this context and with this truth as your foundation, read the following word of God, and receive it as it is the Word of God. And when you receive it as such, understanding and believing, realize you are in the Presence of the LORD at His coming.
 
Ephesians 1
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working [energeia] of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought [energeo] in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
22 And has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
23 Which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.
 
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 [energeo] in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;)
6 And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
11 Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
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 an habitation of God through the Spirit.
 
What we see is the work of deceit and truth as what produces death (the sleeping mind) and truth which raise us to life (quickens). Those sitting in the seats of God opposing Him, incorrectly described as one person in 2 Thessalonians 2, are those later correctly described in 2 Thessalonians 3 as wicked and unreasonable men. They are those opposing this true Gospel, not allowing it to be received as the word of God. The Greek word used to describe “him” and “he,” singular, and “them” and “they,” plural, is the same word autos. There is a singular spirit of disobedience at work ruling over the children caught in his confusion, doing his work which has now been cultivated into delusion in those refusing the love of the truth.
 
These spirits are the air (aer) of disobedience the LORD comes into and catches us away from, into the air (aer) of obedience where we meet Him. (Galatians 3:1 “who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?)
 
1 Thessalonians 2
1 For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain:
2 But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.
3 For our exhortation was not of deceit [plane], nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:
4 But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which tries our hearts.
5 For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness:
6 Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.
7 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children:
8 So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us.
9 For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.
10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:
11 As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his children,
12 That you would walk worthy of God, who has called you unto his kingdom and glory.
13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works [energeo] also in you that believe.
14 For you, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for you also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
15 Who both killed the LORD Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
17 But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.
18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.
19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence of our LORD Jesus Christ at his coming?
20 For you are our glory and joy.
 
1 Thessalonians 3
1 Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;
2 And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow-laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:
3 That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
4 For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and you know.
5 For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain.
6 But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that you have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:
7 Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:
8 For now we live, if you stand fast in the LORD.
9 For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;
10 Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
11 Now God himself and our Father, and our LORD Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.
12 And the LORD make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ with all his saints.
 
1 Thessalonians 4
1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the LORD Jesus, that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more.
2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the LORD Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication:
4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor;
5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the LORD is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.
7 For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
8 He therefore that despises, despises not man, but God, who has also given unto us his holy Spirit.
9 But as touching brotherly love you need not that I write unto you: for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
10 And indeed you do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that you increase more and more;
11 And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
12 That you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing.
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the LORD, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the LORD shall not prevent them which are asleep.
16 For the LORD himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the LORD in the air: and so shall we ever be with the LORD.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
 
1 Thessalonians 5
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the LORD so comes as a thief in the night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our LORD Jesus Christ,
10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify 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.
 
2 Thessalonians 1
1 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ:
2 Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ.
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith grows exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other abound;
4 So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure:
5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer:
6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the LORD Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ:
9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the LORD, and from the glory of his power;
10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
12 That the name of our LORD Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the LORD Jesus Christ.
 
2 Thessalonians 2
1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first [apostasis – stand away (from God)], and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition [the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works [energeo] in the children of disobedience – Ephesians 2:2];
4 Who opposes and exalts himself [themselves] above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he [they] as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself [themselves] that he is [they are] God.
5 Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now you know what withholds [katecho – holds us down] that he [they] might be revealed in his [their] time. [See Jeremiah 46:17 from the prior post – “he (Pharaoh) has passed the time appointed.”]
7 For the mystery of iniquity does already work [energeo]: only he who now lets [katecho – holds down] will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the LORD shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the LORD, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our LORD Jesus Christ.
15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
16 Now our LORD Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
17 Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.
 
2 Thessalonians 3
1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the LORD may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you [seen as the word of God, as it is – see 1 Thessalonians 2:13]:
2 And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
3 But the LORD is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
4 And we have confidence in the LORD touching you, that you both do and will do the things which we command you.
5 And the LORD direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
7 For yourselves know how you ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;
8 Neither did we eat any man’s bread for naught; but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
9 Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our LORD Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
13 But you, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
16 Now the LORD of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The LORD be with you all.
17 The salutation of Paul with mine own hand [by my hand], which is the token in every epistle: so I write.
18 The grace of our LORD Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Increased Confusion Becomes Delusion (believing a lie – rapture or other fake reports)

And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
 
Continuing: the Greek word above translated as “offended” is skandalizo (scandalize), meaning entrap, from the word skandalon, meaning a snare. Skandalizo also means to trip up; figuratively to stumble, or entice to sin, or apostasy (to fall away from God’s ways and ideas). The idea is what we see occurring around us and to us, provoked and incited by the fake news media motivated by the agenda of the globalists and communists. Their means is to publicly scandalize any and all who oppose them and their agenda, to provoke and cultivate hate, which is the antitheses of God’s teaching.
 
(Before going on it is appropriate to mention those who in public discourse seek to disarm by rebuking any who rightly draws conclusion from their understanding of the COURSE of similar historical events. I urge all to do the opposite realizing that human nature is to repeat the same mistakes, and this axiom is just as true with those knowing history. Man, blinded by hubris and arrogance, delusionally thinks he can commit the same errors and with his greater “brilliance” force a different outcome to what he always eventually finds to be the same inevitable end.)
 
The above parenthetical statement is to the point – this type of instigation of hate of one group always leads to the same end. Men through history have created these same prejudices, first creating stereotypes and then inciting people to act against any who exhibit the outward signs of what they have been taught and manipulated to hate.
 
The word in the title (Matthew 24:10) rendered “betray” is the Greek word paradidomi, meaning to hand over (to be scandalized and hated). The word “hate” is from miseo, meaning to detest (especially to persecute).
 
The fake news media and those who hate our culture put on their acts of showing compassion and producing crocodile tears, while in fact, the real intention is to stir up hate against their neighbors. Their hate knows no boundaries, their consciences without moral restraint, and as we know, their moto is “the end justifies any means.” Always remember, these people use the lie as a weapon and with the intention to manipulate people into doing their will. It is also their intentional tactic to cloth the spells they broadcast in the spurious garments of morality. (In the defense of the useful idiots: they have no idea what has happened to them nor are they any longer in control of their own reactions when prompted by these sorcerers and their witchcraft – liars.)
 
This is the time, place, and condition the LORD appears into, preaching the gospel of truth and brotherly love, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
 
Matthew 24
1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said unto them, See you not all these things? truly I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of your coming [parousia – being near (advent)], and of the end of the world [aion – age]?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ [saying, I am anointed]; and shall deceive many.
6 And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation [ethnos – ethnicity] shall rise against nation [ethnos – ethnicity], and kingdom against kingdom [the realms of darkness and light]: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
15 When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso reads, let him understand:)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray you that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [These tell us He will rise in us, after we realize He comes to all as does the sun rising, enlightening all.]
28 For wheresoever the carcass is [the church with every stone cast down], there will the eagles be gathered together.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun [the church] be darkened, and the moon [civil government] shall not give her light, and the stars [all God’s people cast down] shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens [by the voice of the one we are told of in Hebrews 1 & 12] shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven [where the word of God is rightly divided and there is no confusion]: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory [this is a further description of verse 14 above].
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Truly I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
36 But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your LORD does come.
43 But know this, that if the good-man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his LORD has made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his LORD when he comes shall find so doing.
47 Truly I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My LORD delays his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The LORD of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 
The LORD is telling of His people as the stones of the temple cast down, and of confusion building its kingdom over them, until the appointed time when they are uncovered and brought up out of their graves.
 
These events are spoken of in Isaiah 9 as light coming and lighting upon Israel. At the same time the destroyers, the children of disobedience, say they will rebuild with the same defiled hands that built corruption and produced desolation.
 
Isaiah 9
2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before you according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4 For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
8 The LORD sent a word into Jacob, and it has lighted upon Israel.
9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
12 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
13 For the people turn not unto him that smites them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.
14 Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
15 The ancient and honorable, he is the head [he has led it]; and the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail [he is the end of it].
16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
17 Therefore the LORD shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
18 For wickedness burns as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother [they shall consume themselves as they consume each other].
 
In Jeremiah 43 the LORD tells of these fallen stones being hidden under the kingdom of confusion (Babylon). This happens when they entered into the new captivity (Egypt), after they refused to obey the voice of the LORD and thus came to Tahpanhes (the place where they were cast down and became stationary). The name of the place only appears seven times, three of those in this chapter.
 
Jeremiah 43
7 So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.
8 Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,
9 Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in the clay in the brick-kiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;
10 And say unto them, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.
11 And when he comes, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword.
12 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace.
13 He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh [the house of their self-proclaimed brilliance], that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.
 
The name is first used in Jeremiah 2:16 where it is written as Tahapanes in telling of this as the place the crown on the head of God’s people was broken. We know from our previous studies, this is a chapter describing God’s people changing from Him to following idols.
 
Jeremiah 2
8 The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, say the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.
10 For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.
11 Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
12 Be astonished, O you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be you very desolate, says the LORD.
13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
14 Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he spoiled?
15 The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
16 Also the children of Noph [are seen as] and Tahapanes [the stones cast down] have broken the crown of your head.
17 Have you not procured this unto yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?
 
When verse 16 speaks of the stones cast down from the crown, and ealier of God’s people becoming slaves (to the deceptions manipulations of those leading them), it is to what Zechariah 9:16 later refers. It tells of when the LORD raises these stones again to be His crown, as an ensign to the land, “when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD.” Zechariah 9:1
 
Zechariah 9
14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
15 The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.
16 And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.
17 For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
 
The name Tahpanhes appear again in Jeremiah 44:1 as the LORD defines the abominations, which Daniel later speaks of, as does the LORD in Matthew 24 above. When reading this chapter you will see the place the LORD is telling us to flee from, when we see the idols that are worshiping. We also see that these men are refusing to humble themselves or to hear these words of correction.
 
Jeremiah 46
1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol [in this watchtower], and at Tahpanhes [where all the stones are fallen], and at Noph [and have seen], and in the country of Pathros [this interpretation], saying,
2 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; You have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation [because of their abominations – the idols they follow], and no man dwells therein,
3 Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, you, nor your fathers.
4 Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.
5 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.
6 Wherefore my fury and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day.
7 Therefore now thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Wherefore commit you this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain;
8 In that you provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither you be gone to dwell, that you might cut yourselves off, and that you might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
10 They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.
11 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah.
12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:
14 So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as shall escape.
15 Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,
16 As for the word that you have spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto you.
17 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.
 
Tahpanhes is next used in Jeremiah 46:14 telling of the day of the LORD’s vengeance.
 
Jeremiah 46
10 For this is the day of the LORD God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the LORD God of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shall you use many medicines; for you shall not be cured.
12 The nations have heard of your shame, and your cry has filled the land: for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.
13 The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar [the prophets of lies which caused the desolation] king of Babylon [the confusion that now rules over all the world] should come and smite the land of Egypt.
14 Declare you in Egypt, and publish in Migdol [this watchtower], and publish in Noph [to those who see by these words] and in Tahpanhes [the place where God’s people have fallen away]: say you, Stand fast, and prepare you; for the sword shall devour round about you.
15 Why are your valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.
16 He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.
17 They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt [those now holding God’s people captive in the fall] is but a noise; he has passed the time appointed.
 
We know from prior studies, Jeremiah speaks of when the LORD rises and His elect remnant rise with Him. We know Ezekiel speaks of when all God people are raised by the preaching and prophesying of the LORD in and through His elect remnant (His first-fruits). The final time Tahpanhes appears (the seventh) it is in Ezekiel 30:18 where it’s written as Tehaphnehes. In this chapter, the LORD tells of when He breaks the arm (hold of the yoke) of those who have taken us captive. The LORD says he will do this by increasing their confusion to the point of their destruction. Confusion increased becomes delusion, which we see now and is written of in 2 Thessalonians 2:11. There it is telling of what has taken hold of the wicked and unreasonable men and is taking them into self-destruction by their own delusions – as they all believe a lie.
 
2 Thessalonians 2
1 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the LORD, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our LORD Jesus Christ.
 
Ezekiel 30
18 At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.
19 Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
20 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword.
22 Therefore thus says the LORD God; Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.
23 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
24 And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break Pharaoh’s arms, and he shall groan before him with the groaning of a deadly wounded man.
25 But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt.
26 And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

From One to Many and From Many One

I thank you, O Father, LORD of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in your sight. All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knows who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.

Continuing: the above passage is from Luke 10:20 & 21 and immediately follows the LORD upbraiding those who have seen His works, the Father revealing the Son and the Son the Father, and refusing to accept it. These are the mighty works of revelation: showing the power and precisely explaining the Father’s ways, plan, and purpose.

One of the places the LORD speak against is Choraniz, from the word choros, which is a word only appearing once in the word of God, meaning ring, as in to circle around (a preacher or the chief of musicians). It is the word rendered “dance” in Luke 15:25 as we are told of the other son hearing the music and dancing as the Father rejoiced and celebrated the son who returned from [among] the dead. This same attitude is what is what the LORD is upbraiding in Luke 10.

Luke 10
24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.
27 And he said unto him, Your brother is come; and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.
28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him.
29 And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve you, neither transgressed I at any time your commandment: and yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:
30 But as soon as this your son was come, which has devoured your living with harlots, you have killed for him the fatted calf.
31 And he said unto him, Son, you are ever with me, and all that I have is yours.
32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this your brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

The LORD is speaking with an intended double meaning, of His own rising in our dead bodies and our becoming sons, and then as sons revealing the Father to those who the son is revealed by the Father. It is a very basic principle of logic that this must start with one that becomes many, who themselves become one as they are made exactly the same as the first. (Isaiah 8:18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion. 19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? [Should they be looking] for the living to the dead? 20 [Or] To the law and to the testimony[?]: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.)

Luke 10
1 After these things the LORD appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.
2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray you therefore the LORD of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.
3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.
5 And into whatsoever house you enter, first say, Peace be to this house.
6 And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again.
7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.
8 And into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:
9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
10 But into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say,
11 Even the very dust of your city, which cleaves on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be you sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
12 But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.
13 Woe unto you, Chorazin! woe unto you, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
14 But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you.
15 And you, Capernaum, which are exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell.
16 He that hears you hears me; and he that despises you despises me; and he that despises me despises him that sent me.
17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, LORD, even the devils are subject unto us through your name.
18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions [Remeber Revelation 9 & James 3, and the venomous words that rot men from within and cause the fires of hell], and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank you, O Father, LORD of heaven and earth, that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in your sight.
22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knows who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
23 And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see:
24 For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.
25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how read you?
27 And he answering said, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
28 And he said unto him, You have answered right: this do, and you shall live.
29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever you spend more, when I come again, I will repay you.
36 Which now of these three, think you, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do you likewise.
38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, LORD, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

One of the other names the LORD mentions (in verse 13) above is Bethsaida, meaning the house of the fishes. The name is referring us back to the only other time it appears in Luke, in Luke 9:10, which begins with the twelve being sent, just as the seventy are later sent as we read above in chapter 10. The LORD is telling of what is written of in verse 16 above and which He continues to describe in telling of healing the one who fell among the thieves. In verse 16 He speaks of those who have become sons, and those who will hear them are hearing the LORD’s word, and rejecting them is rejecting the LORD.

This method, of teaching teachers, is what the LORD explains to the twelve in Bethsaida in Luke 9 where we are told He takes them privately into the desert place belonging to the city of Bethsaida. We see this then acted out as the LORD the tells the disciples to feed the crowd who had received Him and the sick [who the thieves had wounded] who He had healed. (Remember John 1:12 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.”

The word Bethsaida is a Hebrew name, beth meaning house or familial relation, and tsayid (tsayad), meaning a huntsman. The place is speaking of becoming sons (children) of God by diligently pursuing the LORD, and seeking Him the Father shows Him to us and then in us. These are the fish, what the disciples searched for and found, and then taking the same, expanded upon it fed multitudes.

The bread we know is referring to the lowly birth and the insignificant place of Bethlehem, the house (family) of bread. This itself is referring back to the origin and man living, coming to life and sustained, by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Deuteronomy 8
2 And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness [midbar – desert], to humble you, and to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or no.
3 And he humbled you, and suffered you to hunger, and fed you with manna [meaning – we know not what it is], which you knew not, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD does man live.

This idea of manna, not knowing what is fed, as it has been these many years with the fish and loaves, is for the puspose we are told of in these verses from Dueteronomy 8. It is also what John speaks of in John 1 when he tells of the LORD as the word of God, coming to the His own and they not receiving Him, and the world not comprehending He is the light.

John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that comes into the world.
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.
15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that comes after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
18 No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

This is what was declared by the Father, the reward of those who diligently seek the LORD, which the disciples declared after they understood.

Hebrews 11
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

What we read of in Luke 9 is the powerful (the wise of this world) have no idea who the LORD is, but it pleases the Father to reveal Him to the lowly and the humble.

Luke 9
1 Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
2 And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
3 And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.
4 And whatsoever house you enter into, there abide, and thence depart.
5 And whosoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.
6 And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.
7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead;
8 And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again.
9 And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him.
10 And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.
11 And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.
12 And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place.
13 But he said unto them, Give you them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people.
14 For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.
15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.
16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.
17 And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.
18 And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?
19 They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again.
20 He said unto them, But whom say you that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God.

Micah 5
1 Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops: he has laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
2 But you, Bethlehem Ephratah [the fruit of the house of bread – the children who are the product of receiving God’s word], though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travails has brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.
5 And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian [invaders] shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.
6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria [this nation removed from God] with the sword, and the land of Nimrod [of filtered and purified waters – the rightly divided word] in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian [the invaders and their infestation], when he comes into our land, and when he treads within our borders.
7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew [the distilled water of upon the earth] from the LORD, as the showers upon [word of God directly from heaven, where the word is rightly divided] the grass, that tarries [unrestrained] not for man, nor waits for the sons of men.
8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treads down, and tears in pieces, and none can deliver.
9 Your hand shall be lifted up upon your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD, that I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, and I will destroy your chariots [as I did to the horsemen and chariots of Egypt, as I brought them into my trap and the waters over them]:
11 And I will cut off the cities of your land, and throw down all your strong holds:
12 And I will cut off witchcrafts [those who control my people with words of deception and manipulation] out of your hand; and you shall have no more soothsayers [those who claim to know the future and know nothing other than how to deceive]:
13 Your graven images [these lies that have become idols] also will I cut off, and your standing images out of the midst of you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.
14 And I will pluck up your groves out of the midst of you: so will I destroy your cities.
15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.
Amen!

The Hangman Caught in His Own Noose

Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that cover with a covering, but not of My spirit, that they may add sin to sin:

Continuing: The above is followed by telling of the same offenses as walking into the decline of Egypt, the place we know tells of the captivity, but more so the ways learned and trusted in that led there. These words appear in Isaiah 30, which then goes on speak of those taking this bad advice, the strength of Pharaoh, saying it will be their shame and is the confusion that overshadows (causes) the captivity. Verse 4 then says, “For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.”

In this final sentence in context, when examined in more detail, we see the deep meaning the LORD provided for us, to see when, why and how these wicked and unreasonable men destroy themselves.

Isaiah 30
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

Zoan is the capital of Egypt where these princes are giving and following bad advice. The name means the place of departure and tells of the place where our leaders have departed from the reliable advice of the LORD, instead listening to those whose words are meant to manipulate and further confuse. Hanes, a word only used here, is from the Hebrew word chanaq, meaning to hang oneself to death, and thereby telling of where the advice of these ambassadors (mal’ak – angels as messengers with evil intent) leads them and any who follow.

The names tell of those who now lead us in our capitol and follow the same manipulative words that have led the nation into decline. The ambassadors of evil are the fake new media and the manipulative words meant to continue the captivity in their world of reversed values and the resulting confusion.

The word translated confusion in verse 3 above is the Hebrew word klimmah, meaning to wound, as in to taunt or to insult. It is the word next used in Isaiah 43:16 to tell of the these wicked men’s confusion returning upon their own heads. The chapter tells of Cyrus who the LORD has raised up to raise up His nation and His people who have been wounded and shamed by these evil men. (So, when you see President Trump taunting and insulting the left and the fake news media he is fulfilling the word and will of God before our eyes.)

Isaiah 45
1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
2 I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
3 And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, which call you by your name, am the God of Israel.
4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called you by your name: I have surnamed you, though you have not known me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded you, though you have not known me:
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
8 Drop down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
9 Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashions it, What make you? or your work, He has no hands?
10 Woe unto him that says unto his father, What begets you? or to the woman, What have you brought forth?
11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command you me.
12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, says the LORD of hosts.
14 Thus says the LORD, The labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto you, and they shall be yours: they shall come after you; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto you, they shall make supplication unto you, saying, Surely God is in you; and there is none else, there is no God.
15 Truly you are a God that hides yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.
17 But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: you shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
18 For thus says the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he has established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek you me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.
21 Tell you, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who has declared this from ancient time? who has told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me.
22 Look unto me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
24 Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

The wicked are those spoken of in Isaiah 30:5 as we read of them being ashamed of us, those of us against who their evil manipulations have to power. The next verse tells the beasts who carry the reward to those who have joined the confederacy of the disobedient and allow themselves to be ruled into captivity. We are told the place is the land of trouble and anguish, where and when comes the young and the old lion, the serpent and the fiery flying serpent. It says these are what actually comes from the Egyptians (captors) whose help is in vain, whose strength is to sit still.

It is impossible to read these passages and not think of Esther and its centering on Mordecai and Haman (and his ten sons). The pattern tells of when evil Haman conspired to kill off all the people of God, just as the wicked in our time have conspired to end this nation under God by destroying His people. As we know, it tells of Haman (the name is said to mean brilliant, while it actually refers to the noose around his neck, as chain unknown to him) who conspired to kill all God’s people and also publicly hang Mordecai (because he refused to bow to him.) The name Mordecai is said to mean little man, meaning of low degree and its deeper reference is to him as all the people of God who refuse to bow to the wicked in power, and rebel against the same.

We know Haman built a gallows on which he sought to hang Mordecai. The gallows look exactly like the fabricated attacks of the modern Trump haters who seek to hang him because he refuses to bow to their self-proclaimed brilliance. As we know, they seek to hang him because he represents the will of the little people, those the wicked see as the insignificant people of God, of whom they are ashamed. We know the end of the story is Haman and his ten sons are hanged on the gallows they themselves built, in effect hanging themselves to death by their own fabrications and evil intentions.

This is the end and it will not fail, nor does it sleep.

Esther 9
20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
21 To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
22 As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.
23 And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them;
24 Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;
25 But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26 Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,
27 The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year;
28 And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.

Here is how Isaiah 30 continues from the point it is left above.

Isaiah 30
12 Wherefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus says the LORD God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and you would not.
16 But you said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee: till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: you shall weep no more: he will be very gracious unto you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.
20 And though the LORD give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers:
21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.
22 You shall defile also the covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as a menstruous cloth; you shall say unto it, Get you hence.
23 Then shall he give the rain of your seed, that you shall sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures.
24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD binds up the breach of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 You shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, does kindle it.

The public hanging of the self-appointed hangmen is what is alluded to in Nahum 2:12 as we are told of them as the lion that strangled the prey. The word “strangled” is one of the two times the word chanaq is used, and here tells of the strangler not knowing he is in effect hanging himself to death. As we saw in the previous post, Nahum 3 then tells of the LORD uncovering the nakedness of these men and bringing the shame upon them which they have unjustly brought on others.

The only other time chanaq is used it is in 2 Samuel 17:23 when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was no longer followed, not even by the unfaithful son, and hanged himself to death.

This takes us to the two times root word puwr (Strong’s #6331) is used. It is the root word from where is derived the identical Hebrew word (Strong’s #6332) translated “Pur” and “Purim.”

The first use is in Psalms 33:10 where it tells of the LORD bringing the counsel of the heathen to “naught.” It says this happens as the LORD speaks it, saying, “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Let all the world see and know these are the word of the LORD I have spoken here today in His name, of which you are witnesses.

Psalms 33
1 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.
2 Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.
4 For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.
5 He loves righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as an heap: he lays up the depth in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The LORD brings the counsel of the heathen to naught [puwr]: he makes the devices of the people of none effect.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.
13 The LORD looks from heaven; he beholds all the sons of men.
14 From the place of his habitation he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
15 He fashions their hearts alike; he considers all their works.
16 There is no king saved by the multitude of a host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
17 A horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
22 Let your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in you.

The other use of puwr is in Psalms 89:33 where the LORD tells of His will that all would come to repentance. As we know because we have seen, His mercy endures forever. We have seen the only condemnation is to those who reject the light and love the darkness, and in this wrong choice, they choose to themselves condemnation and eternal darkness.

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, 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.

Psalms 89
14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of your throne: mercy and truth shall go before your face.
15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of your countenance.
16 In your name shall they rejoice all the day: and in your righteousness shall they be exalted.
17 For you are the glory of their strength: and in your favor our horn shall be exalted.
18 For the LORD is our defense; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
19 Then you spoke in vision to your holy one, and said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
20 I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:
21 With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
23 And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.
24 But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
25 I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
26 He shall cry unto me, You are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
27 Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.
28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take [puwr] from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
38 But you have cast off and abhorred, you have been wroth with your anointed.
39 You have made void the covenant of your servant: you have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
40 You have broken down all his hedges; you have brought his strong holds to ruin.
41 All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbors.
42 You have set up the right hand of his adversaries; you have made all his enemies to rejoice.
43 You have also turned the edge of his sword, and have not made him to stand in the battle.
44 You have made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground.
45 The days of his youth have you shortened: you have covered him with shame. Selah.
46 How long, LORD? will you hide yourself for ever? shall your wrath burn like fire?
47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore have you made all men in vain?
48 What man is he that lives, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
49 LORD, where are your former loving-kindnesses, which you swore unto David in your truth?
50 Remember, LORD, the reproach of your servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
51 Wherewith your enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of your anointed.
52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.

LORD, why casts you off my soul? why hides you your face from me?

Continuing: in the prior post, we discussed Daniel 3 as the pattern of the false prophets of our time and the abominations they’ve created. We saw they force all to bow to their words and ideas, and any who refuse are cast into the fiery furnace of their false accusations, ridicule, and demonization. This speaks of the false teachers, the TV preachers of church and state spewing their false reports and agenda driven advice and warnings. We saw in Numbers 22, Balaam called to curse God’s people, met by the Angel of the LORD, and hearing the words of the ass, both telling Him to alter his ways. We know the ass spoke because he saw the Angel of the LORD standing in the way, who Balaam the false prophet couldn’t see. In Daniel 3 we discussed Nebuchadnezzar seeing a fourth man in the fire, who he said was like the son of God, and who he later describes as the Angel of God sent to deliver those cast in the fires.
 
We saw in these, and other passages, the destruction of these men’s works comes as their ways return upon them. In Daniel 3 it is when the fires are made seven times hotter and consume those trying the throw God’s people in them, the “seven” telling us they were unwittingly doing God’s work. When we read on into Numbers 23 we see that Balaam continues to work for Balak, with the intention to curse God’s people, but the LORD instead puts His words in his mouth. We are told several time in the chapter of Balaam telling Balak to build him seven altars, again “seven” showing he is unwillingly and unwittingly doing the LORD’s work, which will eventually be the end of those resisting God’s plan for His people (blessing).
 
Balak is the king of Moab, the names and the pattern telling of Balak as the gatekeeper of the wilderness (Moab): the false lights that come to tempt and try God’s people. In Daniel 3, and Numbers 22 thru 25 where Balak and Balaam are described, respectively, neither Daniel nor Moses are mentioned. In Numbers Moses is spoken of in every chapter except in these, where he is instead, showing the LORD’s silence during the test, represents himself as the ass and the Angel of the LORD. In Daniel 3 we saw, in his absence by name, he is represented as the fourth man in the fire, in the form of the son of God, and as the Angel sent for the salvation of God’s faithful and obedient children. Daniel is likewise not mentioned in chapter 11 where Gabriel is speaking, who is Daniel as the Angel of the LORD on that side of the river (that physical life). We know Gabriel speaks of Michael as Daniel himself in resurrection on the other side of the river, where he will again stand as the Angel of the LORD to awaken those who are sleeping in the dust (ruin or ashes) of the earth.
 
Both Daniel and Moses are speaking of the same time when the same pattern appear and expose (uncover – apocalypse) the false teaching and misleading in our time. In the modern church these false prophets teach that they and those who bow to their abomination will be saved while all others are cast into hell. The truth is they are those who have started the fire and cause all to pass through them. It is out of their hand the LORD comes to catch us away and back to Himself.
 
When James tells of the tongue being what set the fire of hell, as he says all thing except the tongue can be tamed, he is speaking in this same context. This is the point of Numbers 22 and Daniel 3, it is in this trial we see who the faithful are, who deny themselves and allow the LORD to speak through them. This is what we see in man and beast in these chapters. Even if these men are unwilling, they will be made to speak and perform the means (works) of their own end.
 
So, it is a trial, and the LORD is silent so the spirit of disobedience will show itself in the open, and then the LORD appears with healing in His wings.
 
Daniel 11
29 At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter.
30 For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.
31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate.
32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.
33 And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days.
34 Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.
35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.
36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honor the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.
45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
 
Daniel is speaking of what is written in the words Balaam was made to speak, even if he didn’t want to. (Balaam was hired by Balak when Balak saw that Israel had defeated the Ammonites. This is the same hire of false prophets and false teacher who now ill advise those God is leading to victory – over death. It is the same point made in Psalms 88:14, only the living praise God by showing His glory in speaking His word. Life is found in the open mouth that speaks the word of God willingly.)
 
Psalms 88 [Do you hear the words of Jonah 2 in this Psalm?]
1 O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you:
2 Let my prayer come before you: incline your ear unto my cry;
3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draws nigh unto the grave.
4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that has no strength:
5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom you remember no more: and they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
7 Your wrath lies hard upon me, and you have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.
8 You have put away mine acquaintance far from me; you have made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
9 Mine eye mourns by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon you, I have stretched out my hands unto you.
10 Will you shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise you? Selah.
11 Shall your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or your faithfulness in destruction?
12 Shall your wonders be known in the dark? and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But unto you have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent you.
14 LORD, why casts you off my soul? why hides you your face from me?
15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer your terrors I am distracted.
16 Your fierce wrath goes over me; your terrors have cut me off.
17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.
18 Lover and friend have you put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.
 
Romans 10
6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what says it? The word is nigh you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture says, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same LORD over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, LORD, who has believed our report?
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
20 But Isaiah is very bold, and says, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
 
James 3
1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor lists [wills].
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed of mankind:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
11 Does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
15 This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
 
Hebrews 12
11 Now no chastening [correction] for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth 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.
 
Friends, I tell you the truth, those spewing their own ideas on the airways, who refuse to release the prey, are the enemies of God. Their power is in the air that surrounds them, the spirit now at work in the children of disobedience.
 
Malachi 4
1 For, behold, the day comes [has now come], that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the LORD of hosts.
4 Remember you the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb [the wilderness were you unlearned the ways of your bondage] for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
 
This last verse tells of the option which the LORD doesn’t allow, because of the prophet, as Elijah, meaning the LORD is God, successfully turning the hearts (the reasoning minds to understand the former and the latter).
 
The “curse” spoken of here is from the Hebrew word cherem, which is the equivalent of the Greek word anathema. It is the word rendered “destruction” in Zachariah 14:11 where it tells of when there shall be no more utter destruction. It goes on to tell of the false ones’ tongues and eyes consuming away as they stand on the feet. It is describing their words, and what they say they have seen, consuming away as the LORD appears among them. This stand, with or apart from the LORD, is what Daniel speaks of in Daniel 12: 1 – 4. “1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. 4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
 
Zechariah 14
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
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.
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: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel 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; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume 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 also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance.
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.
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 go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, 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, Holiness Unto The LORD; and the pots 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 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 in the house of the LORD of hosts.
 
The cherem (destruction and curse) that is turned back by this word of the LORD, is the word translated as “their nets” in Habakkuk 1:15, 16, & 17. It comes as Habakkuk is asking some of the same questions we see above in Psalms 88, and the LORD immediately answers by telling that He is working a work, which they are seeing and refusing to believe, and as Acts 13:41 says when quoting it, “though a man declare it unto you.” The LORD tells of raising up those who come manipulating people with their words (the Chaldeans), whose dignity proceeds from themselves (men approving men – evil agreeing with evil). It tells of these men’s minds being changed, but instead of changing in accord with God’s mind, they continue to transgress, and to their transgression (their idols) they impute even more power.
 
Habakkuk then tells of realizing the LORD has not done this to kill his people, but rather He has ordained judgment and established the correction for those in error. Habakkuk then again asks why the LORD doesn’t do something, and why He holds His tongue when the wicked devour a man more righteous than he. He speaks of these manipulators making their nets to catch men in their destruction and worship this means of catching them. He ends asking if they will empty their nets, which we know they will by what is written in Zechariah 14:11.
 
Habakkuk 2 then begins with Habakkuk waiting to hear the LORD’s answer, which comes as this one has, made plain, so those who read it may run from these men’s destructive grasp. We know this chapter goes on tell of now, when the earth is filled with the knowledge and glory of the LORD: as waters cover the sea (His words have gone out to all). It ends warning against looking to these men, the dead wood, to teach their corrupted ideas in which there is no breath (life). “But the LORD is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silent before him.”
 
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 dost you shew 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, though it be told you.
6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs.
7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hastes to eat.
9 They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.
11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god [the idol they have created].
12 Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, you have established them for correction.
13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and can not look on iniquity: wherefore look you upon them that deal treacherously [it is their eyes that aren’t seeing], and holds your tongue when the wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he [He is telling them through a man – who they aren’t hearing as God speaking – see verse 5]?
14 And makes men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net [cherem], and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net [cherem], and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net [cherem], and not spare continually to slay the nations?
 
Habakkuk 2
1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
5 Yea also, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, neither keeps at home, who enlarges his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers unto him all nations, and heaps unto him all people:
6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increases that which is not his! how long? and to him that lades himself with thick clay!
7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite you, and awake that shall vex you, and you shall be for booties unto them?
8 Because you have spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil you; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
9 Woe to him that covets an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!
10 You have consulted shame to your house by cutting off many people, and have sinned against your soul.
11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
12 Woe to him that builds a town with blood, and stablishes a city by iniquity!
13 Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
15 Woe unto him that gives his neighbor drink, that puts your bottle to him, and makes him drunken also, that you may look on their nakedness!
16 You are filled with shame for glory: drink you also, and let your foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’s right hand shall be turned unto you, and shameful spewing shall be on your glory.
17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover you, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
18 What profits the graven image that the maker thereof has graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusts therein, to make dumb idols?
19 Woe unto him that says to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.
20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

They Have Sown the Wind, and They Shall Reap the Whirlwind

The title is from Hosea 8:7 and is speaking of those who rule over and mislead God’s people into serving idols. It tells of the inevitable conclusion if they refuse to return from their strange ways and ideas, and continue to reject the word God sends by His Angel, as now with this message.

Hosea 8
1 Set the trumpet to your mouth. He [the Angel of LORD as the messenger] shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
2 Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know you.
3 Israel has cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
5 Your calf [idols set in place of God], O Samaria [Israel as idol worshippers], has cast you off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocence [how long will they refuse to remove their idols – corrupted ideas they have created and say are God]?
6 For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
7 For they [those who have led My people into this condition] have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind [the destruction resulting from what they have sown]: it has no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles [God’s people are exactly as those who know not God or His ways] as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.
9 For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim [God’s people in this latter time] has hired lovers.
10 Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them [the feast of ingathering], and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes [the troubles caused by the misleaders and what they have sown among us].
11 Because Ephraim has made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.
12 I have written to him [morning after morning] the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing [as a language and ways he refused to receive or accept].
13 They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepts them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.
14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples; and Judah has multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

Hosea 12 speaks in further detail of Ephraim’s condition as Jacob’s rebellion and its punishment by the consequences of his ways. These consequences are the whirlwind he reaps, the cause of which is spoken of in verse 11 as the heaps on the altars of Gilead and Gilgal. It is speaking of the idols placed there, the same as calves in Hosea 8:5 above, and the bullocks in Hosea 12:11. The word “heap” and the name Gilead and Gilgal all use either or both the Hebrew words giyl or gal. Giyl means a revolution of time or age, from an identical word meaning to spin (under the influence of any violent emotion). Gal means to roll, to heap up stones or dung, or a spring or water as waves heaped up (by the wind – by a spirit, as in the emotion of the giyl). These meanings are those implied in the deep of the text.

Hosea 12
1 Ephraim feeds on wind, and follows after the east wind: he daily increases lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians [led by foreign (apostasy) ways and ideas, which destroy the nations of the world], and oil [wisdom and understanding] is carried into Egypt [captivity].
2 The LORD has also a controversy with Judah [leadership – kings and princes], and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.
3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:
4 Yea, he had power over the Angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: He found him [the rebels] in Bethel [the house of God], and there He [the Angel (messenger) of the LORD] spoke with us;
5 Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial [the LORD is a man of war, and His weapon is the Word of God and it restoring our memory].
6 Therefore turn [shuwb – turn back] you to your God: keep mercy and judgment and wait on your God continually.
7 [But] He [Ephraim] is a merchant [his merchandise is altered judgment], the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loves to oppress.
8 And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.
9 And I that am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt will yet make you to dwell in tabernacles [speaking of Bethel in verse 5 above, where he finds us and causes us to remember – by the prophets and the patterns], as in the days of the solemn feast.
10 I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.
11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.
12 And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
13 And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.
14 Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his LORD return unto him.

In Hosea 11:5 & 6 the LORD describes why He leaves Ephraim in his blood (his chosen ways and ideas that drain life from men and societies). He says it is because they refuse to return (shuwb) and instead remain in following their own counsel which is destroying them.

Hosea 11
1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
2 As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim [the idols, ways and ideas, of foreign nations, from where they have many times been delivered], and burned incense to graven images.
3 I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed [rapha’] them.
4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.
5 He shall not return into the land of Egypt, and the Assyrian shall be his king [foreign ways and ideas shall rule over him], because they refused to return.
6 And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.
7 And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.
8 How shall I give you up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver you, Israel? how shall I make you as Admah? how shall I set you as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.
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 [qadowsh – speaking of the first of the first-fruits – the Angel of the LORD] in the midst of you: and I will not enter into the city.
10 They shall walk after [follow] 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 [coming] out of Egypt, and as a dove [coming] out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses [bayith – beth], says the LORD.
12 Ephraim compasses me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet rules with God, and is faithful with the saints [qadowsh – His holy ones – His elect remnant – the first-fruits].

When the LORD says in Hosea 12:2 He has a “controversy” with Juda it is defined as He speaks of Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel of the LORD. Jacob was still in rebellion against the LORD, not knowing it was the LORD he was wrestling.

We are told in Genesis 32:22 the place where they crossed over was the Jabbok, meaning the pouring out, as in to empty himself of himself. This was the objective of the Angel wrestling with Jacob, so he would see the LORD face to face in himself, and would become Israel, he who would reign with God as God wills. We know this is the meaning of the name Israel, from the word sarah, meaning to prevail, and El which is the name of God. The prevailing is over self, understanding it is God being formed in us by a new mind, as we pour out (remove) our self and the LORD God pours out Himself into us.

After this Jacob calls the place Penuel and Peniel, from the word panah, meaning to turn, and by implication it means (to) face, appear or look; and the word El. It is the cover removed when we turn (epistrepho or peniymiy) inwardly to the LORD and see Him as if in a mirror, face to face.

Genesis 32
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.
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.
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 breaks. 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 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.

2 Corinthians 3
12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the LORD, the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now the LORD is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.

2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the LORD; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

This “controversy” is from the Hebrew word riyb, meaning to grapple with, which is used one other time in Hosea (4:1) as the LORD defines the reason His people are destroyed. He says it is because there is no knowledge of God because those calling themselves priest have forgotten the law of the LORD. Even more descriptively, the word riyb is used in Exodus 17:7 where it is rendered “chiding” to tell of when the people of God wrestled with the words of God from Moses. We know this is the temptation even the LORD faced; overcoming it by believing the LORD does indeed speak and show His presence in man. It is the temptation even the elect face, and overcoming it is the perfecting.

We know it is what Peter is speaking of when in 2 Peter 3 he first tells of him bringing these things again to our remembrance (the memorial), and then speaks of the longsuffering of the LORD. He tells of the LORD doing this because it is not His will that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance. He ends describing the reality that some will continue to wrestle with the words of God, and do so to their destruction, never seeing it as it is, the LORD speaking and appearing in the son (sons) of man.

Isaiah 8
18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion.
19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? [Should they look] for the living to the dead?
20 [Or] To the law and to the testimony[?]: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Revelation 14
1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb.
5 And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication..

Hosea 4
1 Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel: for the LORD has a controversy [riyb] with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood.
3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwells therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for your people are as they that strive with the priest.
5 Therefore shall you fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

Exodus 17
1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.
2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide you with me? wherefore do you tempt the LORD?
3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with you of the elders of Israel; and your rod, wherewith you smote the river, take in your hand, and go.
6 Behold, I will stand before you there upon the rock in Horeb; and you shall smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7 And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding [riyb] of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

2 Peter 3
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 shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our LORD is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

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