A 4th of July 2020 Message – THE Roadmap for Renewal and the Awakening of the ignorant “so-called” Intellectual Class.

A 4th of July 2020 Message – THE Roadmap for Renewal and the Awakening of the ignorant “so-called” Intellectual Class.

It is appropriate, to begin with, President Calvin Coolidge’s July 5, 1926 speech commemorating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. At the time of his writing, there was an attempt by communists to infiltrate and take over the U.S. Government (as it now continues in its culmination). This subversive plot was enabled, if not orchestrated and led, by Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President (1913 to 1921), a Democrat known for his racist (and vocally anti-Republican pro KKK – *1) views. He was also known to be a Progressive, which was the name chosen to replace “Communist,” due to the disrepute the old name deservedly acquired after it was proven to produce mass-poverty, mass-misery, and mass-murder everywhere it was implemented.

After Wilson, Republican Warren G. Harding was elected President – We the people, having had enough of Wilson’s attempt at fundamentally transforming us into Communism, and enough of his institutionalization of racism (condoning and promoting the KKK’s violence against black and white Republicans – *2). Harding made it a point to fill his administration with capitalists well known as wanting to continue the set path the country was on before Wilson: pursing the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence: equality under the law and securing rights endowed by God.

After Harding’s premature death (heart attack) August 2, 1923, Vice President Calvin Coolidge was inaugurated as the 30th President. It is in the light of the above-stated circumstances, understanding the depths of the darkness advancing, Coolidge gives his speech. In it, he speaks of those attempting to replace the ideas enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, who were claiming their communist ideas were “progress.” He describes the ideas in the Declaration as “final,” meaning they couldn’t be improved, and reaching them for all was the standard and goal we set for ourselves as a nation. He says replacing them is not progress, but reactionary (impulsive and emotional) and a return to a more ancient (primitive) time.

Coolidge knew the nation was slipping away from our better ideas, lured away by “pagan materialism” and in need of being reminded and called back to them. This is what he does as he speaks of the great spiritual enlightenment that preceded and produced the Declaration and our national Independence. He describes this former time, the preparation, creating suppositions that when investigated resulted in the conclusions to which our fathers (the founders) arrived. He says, “Before we can understand their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed. We must think the thoughts which they thought. Their intellectual life centered around the meeting-house. They were intent upon religious worship.”

This is the “Roadmap” that when followed, as the founders followed it, intellectually, can only lead to the same “Awakening” and end. In the body of the text below Coolidge speaks of Philosophers, Preachers, and The Scriptures, from where came the founder’s understanding of “the law of nature and nature’s God,” under which the Declaration says we are entitled to live. He continues and concludes:

“While there were always among them men of deep learning, and later those who had comparatively large possessions, the mind of the people was not so much engrossed in how much they knew, or how much they had, as in how they were going to live. While scantily provided with other literature, there was a wide acquaintance with the Scriptures. Over a period as great as that which measures the existence of our independence they were subject to this discipline not only in their religious life and educational training, but also in their political thought. They were a people who came under the influence of a great spiritual development and acquired a great moral power.

No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.”

*1 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/wilson-legacy-racism/417549/

*2
https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
President Calvin Coolidge, July 5, 1926
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those who participated in such a mighty event that we annually observe the fourth day of July. Whatever may have been the impression created by the news which went out from this city on that summer day in 1776, there can be no doubt as to the estimate which is now placed upon it. At the end of 150 years the four corners of the earth unite in coming to Philadelphia as to a holy shrine in grateful acknowledgement of a service so great, which a few inspired men here rendered to humanity, that it is still the preeminent support of free government throughout the world.

Although a century and a half measured in comparison with the length of human experience is but a short time, yet measured in the life of governments and nations it ranks as a very respectable period. Certainly enough time has elapsed to demonstrate with a great deal of thoroughness the value of our institutions and their dependability as rules for the regulation of human conduct and the advancement of civilization. They have been in existence long enough to become very well seasoned. They have met, and met successfully, the test of experience.

It is not so much, then, for the purpose of undertaking to proclaim new theories and principles that this annual celebration is maintained, but rather to reaffirm and reestablish those old theories and principles which time and the unerring logic of events have demonstrated to be sound. Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, every American can turn for solace and consolation to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States with the assurance and confidence that those two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken. Whatever perils appear, whatever dangers threaten, the Nation remains secure in the knowledge that the ultimate application of the law of the land will provide an adequate defense and protection.

It is little wonder that people at home and abroad consider Independence Hall as hallowed ground and revere the Liberty Bell as a sacred relic. That pile of bricks and mortar, that mass of metal, might appear to the uninstructed as only the outgrown meeting place and the shattered bell of a former time, useless now because of more modern conveniences, but to those who know they have become consecrated by the use which men have made of them. They have long been identified with a great cause. They are the framework of a spiritual event. The world looks upon them, because of their associations of one hundred and fifty years ago, as it looks upon the Holy Land because of what took place there nineteen hundred years ago. Through use for a righteous purpose they have become sanctified.

It is not here necessary to examine in detail the causes which led to the American Revolution. In their immediate occasion they were largely economic. The colonists objected to the navigation laws which interfered with their trade, they denied the power of Parliament to impose taxes which they were obliged to pay, and they therefore resisted the royal governors and the royal forces which were sent to secure obedience to these laws. But the conviction is inescapable that a new civilization had come, a new spirit had arisen on this side of the Atlantic more advanced and more developed in its regard for the rights of the individual than that which characterized the Old World. Life in a new and open country had aspirations which could not be realized in any subordinate position. A separate establishment was ultimately inevitable. It had been decreed by the very laws of human nature. Man everywhere has an unconquerable desire to be the master of his own destiny.

We are obliged to conclude that the Declaration of Independence represented the movement of a people. It was not, of course, a movement from the top. Revolutions do not come from that direction. It was not without the support of many of the most respectable people in the Colonies, who were entitled to all the consideration that is given to breeding, education, and possessions. It had the support of another element of great significance and importance to which I shall later refer. But the preponderance of all those who occupied a position which took on the aspect of aristocracy did not approve of the Revolution and held toward it an attitude either of neutrality or open hostility. It was in no sense a rising of the oppressed and downtrodden. It brought no scum to the surface, for the reason that colonial society had developed no scum. The great body of the people were accustomed to privations, but they were free from depravity. If they had poverty, it was not of the hopeless kind that afflicts great cities, but the inspiring kind that marks the spirit of the pioneer. The American Revolution represented the informed and mature convictions of a great mass of independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and possessed the courage to dare to maintain them.

The Continental Congress was not only composed of great men, but it represented a great people. While its Members did not fail to exercise a remarkable leadership, they were equally observant of their representative capacity. They were industrious in encouraging their constituents to instruct them to support independence. But until such instructions were given they were inclined to withhold action.

While North Carolina has the honor of first authorizing its delegates to concur with other Colonies in declaring independence, it was quickly followed by South Carolina and Georgia, which also gave general instructions broad enough to include such action. But the first instructions which unconditionally directed its delegates to declare for independence came from the great Commonwealth of Virginia. These were immediately followed by Rhode Island and Massachusetts, while the other Colonies, with the exception of New York, soon adopted a like course.

This obedience of the delegates to the wishes of their constituents, which in some cases caused them to modify their previous positions, is a matter of great significance. It reveals an orderly process of government in the first place; but more than that, it demonstrates that the Declaration of Independence was the result of the seasoned and deliberate thought of the dominant portion of the people of the Colonies. Adopted after long discussion and as the result of the duly authorized expression of the preponderance of public opinion, it did not partake of dark intrigue or hidden conspiracy. It was well advised. It had about it nothing of the lawless and disordered nature of a riotous insurrection. It was maintained on a plane which rises above the ordinary conception of rebellion. It was in no sense a radical movement but took on the dignity of a resistance to illegal usurpations. It was conservative and represented the action of the colonists to maintain their constitutional rights which from time immemorial had been guaranteed to them under the law of the land.

When we come to examine the action of the Continental Congress in adopting the Declaration of Independence in the light of what was set out in that great document and in the light of succeeding events, we can not escape the conclusion that it had a much broader and deeper significance than a mere secession of territory and the establishment of a new nation. Events of that nature have been taking place since the dawn of history. One empire after another has arisen, only to crumble away as its constituent parts separated from each other and set up independent governments of their own. Such actions long ago became commonplace. They have occurred too often to hold the attention of the world and command the admiration and reverence of humanity. There is something beyond the establishment of a new nation, great as that event would be, in the Declaration of Independence which has ever since caused it to be regarded as one of the great charters that not only was to liberate America but was everywhere to ennoble humanity.

It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history. Great ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate to their importance. This is especially true of the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Three very definite propositions were set out in its preamble regarding the nature of mankind and therefore of government. These were the doctrine that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that therefore the source of the just powers of government must be derived from the consent of the governed.

If no one is to be accounted as born into a superior station, if there is to be no ruling class, and if all possess rights which can neither be bartered away nor taken from them by any earthly power, it follows as a matter of course that the practical authority of the Government has to rest on the consent of the governed. While these principles were not altogether new in political action, and were very far from new in political speculation, they had never been assembled before and declared in such a combination. But remarkable as this may be, it is not the chief distinction of the Declaration of Independence. The importance of political speculation is not to be underestimated, as I shall presently disclose. Until the idea is developed and the plan made there can be no action.

It was the fact that our Declaration of Independence containing these immortal truths was the political action of a duly authorized and constituted representative public body in its sovereign capacity, supported by the force of general opinion and by the armies of Washington already in the field, which makes it the most important civil document in the world. It was not only the principles declared, but the fact that therewith a new nation was born which was to be founded upon those principles and which from that time forth in its development has actually maintained those principles, that makes this pronouncement an incomparable event in the history of government. It was an assertion that a people had arisen determined to make every necessary sacrifice for the support of these truths and by their practical application bring the War of Independence to a successful conclusion and adopt the Constitution of the United States with all that it has meant to civilization.

The idea that the people have a right to choose their own rulers was not new in political history. It was the foundation of every popular attempt to depose an undesirable king. This right was set out with a good deal of detail by the Dutch when as early as July 26, 1581, they declared their independence of Philip of Spain. In their long struggle with the Stuarts the British people asserted the same principles, which finally culminated in the Bill of Rights deposing the last of that house and placing William and Mary on the throne. In each of these cases sovereignty through divine right was displaced by sovereignty through the consent of the people. Running through the same documents, though expressed in different terms, is the clear inference of inalienable rights. But we should search these charters in vain for an assertion of the doctrine of equality. This principle had not before appeared as an official political declaration of any nation. It was profoundly revolutionary. It is one of the corner stones of American institutions.

But if these truths to which the Declaration refers have not before been adopted in their combined entirety by national authority, it is a fact that they had been long pondered and often expressed in political speculation. It is generally assumed that French thought had some effect upon our public mind during Revolutionary days. This may have been true. But the principles of our Declaration had been under discussion in the Colonies for nearly two generations before the advent of the French political philosophy that characterized the middle of the eighteenth century. In fact, they come from an earlier date. A very positive echo of what the Dutch had done in 1581, and what the English were preparing to do, appears in the assertion of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Connecticut, as early as 1638, when he said in a sermon before the General Court that—

“The foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people.”

“The choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God’s own allowance.”

This doctrine found wide acceptance among the nonconformist clergy who later made up the Congregational Church. The great apostle of this movement was the Rev. John Wise, of Massachusetts. He was one of the leaders of the revolt against the royal governor Andros in 1687, for which he suffered imprisonment. He was a liberal in ecclesiastical controversies. He appears to have been familiar with the writings of the political scientist, Samuel Pufendorf, who was born in Saxony in 1632. Wise published a treatise, entitled “The Church’s Quarrel Espoused,” in 1710, which was amplified in another publication in 1717. In it he dealt with the principles of civil government. His works were reprinted in 1772 and have been declared to have been nothing less than a textbook of liberty for our Revolutionary fathers.

While the written word was the foundation, it is apparent that the spoken word was the vehicle for convincing the people. This came with great force and wide range from the successors of Hooker and Wise. It was carried on with a missionary spirit which did not fail to reach the Scotch-Irish of North Carolina, showing its influence by significantly making that Colony the first to give instructions to its delegates looking to independence. This preaching reached the neighborhood of Thomas Jefferson, who acknowledged that his “best ideas of democracy” had been secured at church meetings.

That these ideas were prevalent in Virginia is further revealed by the Declaration of Rights, which was prepared by George Mason and presented to the general assembly on May 27, 1776. This document asserted popular sovereignty and inherent natural rights, but confined the doctrine of equality to the assertion that “All men are created equally free and independent.” It can scarcely be imagined that Jefferson was unacquainted with what had been done in his own Commonwealth of Virginia when he took up the task of drafting the Declaration of Independence. But these thoughts can very largely be traced back to what John Wise was writing in 1710. He said, “Every man must be acknowledged equal to every man.” Again, “The end of all good government is to cultivate humanity and promote the happiness of all and the good of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, honor, and so forth. …” And again, “For as they have a power every man in his natural state, so upon combination they can and do bequeath this power to others and settle it according as their united discretion shall determine.” And still again, “Democracy is Christ’s government in church and state.” Here was the doctrine of equality, popular sovereignty, and the substance of the theory of inalienable rights clearly asserted by Wise at the opening of the eighteenth century, just as we have the principle of the consent of the governed stated by Hooker as early as 1638.

When we take all these circumstances into consideration, it is but natural that the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence should open with a reference to Nature’s God and should close in the final paragraphs with an appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world and an assertion of a firm reliance on Divine Providence. Coming from these sources, having as it did this background, it is no wonder that Samuel Adams could say “The people seem to recognize this resolution as though it were a decree promulgated from heaven.”

No one can examine this record and escape the conclusion that in the great outline of its principles the Declaration was the result of the religious teachings of the preceding period. The profound philosophy which Jonathan Edwards applied to theology, the popular preaching of George Whitefield, had aroused the thought and stirred the people of the Colonies in preparation for this great event. No doubt the speculations which had been going on in England, and especially on the Continent, lent their influence to the general sentiment of the times. Of course, the world is always influenced by all the experience and all the thought of the past. But when we come to a contemplation of the immediate conception of the principles of human relationship which went into the Declaration of Independence we are not required to extend our search beyond our own shores. They are found in the texts, the sermons, and the writings of the early colonial clergy who were earnestly undertaking to instruct their congregations in the great mystery of how to live. They preached equality because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image, all partakers of the divine spirit.

Placing every man on a plane where he acknowledged no superiors, where no one possessed any right to rule over him, he must inevitably choose his own rulers through a system of self-government. This was their theory of democracy. In those days such doctrines would scarcely have been permitted to flourish and spread in any other country. This was the purpose which the fathers cherished. In order that they might have freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action, whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the Colonies. These great truths were in the air that our people breathed. Whatever else we may say of it, the Declaration of Independence was profoundly American.

If this apprehension of the facts be correct, and the documentary evidence would appear to verify it, then certain conclusions are bound to follow. A spring will cease to flow if its source be dried up; a tree will wither if its roots be destroyed. In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.

We are too prone to overlook another conclusion. Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

In the development of its institutions America can fairly claim that it has remained true to the principles which were declared 150 years ago. In all the essentials we have achieved an equality which was never possessed by any other people. Even in the less important matter of material possessions we have secured a wider and wider distribution of wealth. The rights of the individual are held sacred and protected by constitutional guaranties, which even the Government itself is bound not to violate. If there is any one thing among us that is established beyond question, it is self-government — the right of the people to rule. If there is any failure in respect to any of these principles, it is because there is a failure on the part of individuals to observe them. We hold that the duly authorized expression of the will of the people has a divine sanction. But even in that we come back to the theory of John Wise that “Democracy is Christ’s government.” The ultimate sanction of law rests on the righteous authority of the Almighty.

On an occasion like this a great temptation exists to present evidence of the practical success of our form of democratic republic at home and the ever-broadening acceptance it is securing abroad. Although these things are well known, their frequent consideration is an encouragement and an inspiration. But it is not results and effects so much as sources and causes that I believe it is even more necessary constantly to contemplate. Ours is a government of the people. It represents their will. Its officers may sometimes go astray, but that is not a reason for criticizing the principles of our institutions. The real heart of the American Government depends upon the heart of the people. It is from that source that we must look for all genuine reform. It is to that cause that we must ascribe all our results.

It was in the contemplation of these truths that the fathers made their declaration and adopted their Constitution. It was to establish a free government, which must not be permitted to degenerate into the unrestrained authority of a mere majority or the unbridled weight of a mere influential few. They undertook the balance these interests against each other and provide the three separate independent branches, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial departments of the Government, with checks against each other in order that neither one might encroach upon the other. These are our guaranties of liberty. As a result of these methods enterprise has been duly protected from confiscation, the people have been free from oppression, and there has been an ever-broadening and deepening of the humanities of life.

Under a system of popular government there will always be those who will seek for political preferment by clamoring for reform. While there is very little of this which is not sincere, there is a large portion that is not well informed. In my opinion very little of just criticism can attach to the theories and principles of our institutions. There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes. We do need a better understanding and comprehension of them and a better knowledge of the foundations of government in general. Our forefathers came to certain conclusions and decided upon certain courses of action which have been a great blessing to the world. Before we can understand their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed. We must think the thoughts which they thought. Their intellectual life centered around the meeting-house. They were intent upon religious worship.

While there were always among them men of deep learning, and later those who had comparatively large possessions, the mind of the people was not so much engrossed in how much they knew, or how much they had, as in how they were going to live. While scantily provided with other literature, there was a wide acquaintance with the Scriptures. Over a period as great as that which measures the existence of our independence they were subject to this discipline not only in their religious life and educational training, but also in their political thought. They were a people who came under the influence of a great spiritual development and acquired a great moral power.

No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren sceptre in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.

A 4th of July 2020 Message – THE Roadmap for Renewal and the Awakening of the ignorant “so-called” Intellectual Class.

A 4th of July 2020 Message – THE Roadmap for Renewal and the Awakening of the ignorant “so-called” Intellectual Class.

It is appropriate, to begin with, President Calvin Coolidge’s July 5, 1926 speech commemorating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. At the time of his writing, there was an attempt by communists to infiltrate and take over the U.S. Government (as it now continues in its culmination). This subversive plot was enabled, if not orchestrated and led, by Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President (1913 to 1921), a Democrat known for his racist (and vocally anti-Republican pro KKK – *1) views. He was also known to be a Progressive, which was the name chosen to replace “Communist,” due to the disrepute the old name deservedly acquired after it was proven to produce mass-poverty, mass-misery, and mass-murder everywhere it was implemented.

After Wilson, Republican Warren G. Harding was elected President – We the people, having had enough of Wilson’s attempt at fundamentally transforming us into Communism, and enough of his institutionalization of racism (condoning and promoting the KKK’s violence against black and white Republicans – *2). Harding made it a point to fill his administration with capitalists well known as wanting to continue the set path the country was on before Wilson: pursing the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence: equality under the law and securing rights endowed by God.

After Harding’s premature death (heart attack) August 2, 1923, Vice President Calvin Coolidge was inaugurated as the 30th President. It is in the light of the above-stated circumstances, understanding the depths of the darkness advancing, Coolidge gives his speech. In it, he speaks of those attempting to replace the ideas enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, who were claiming their communist ideas were “progress.” He describes the ideas in the Declaration as “final,” meaning they couldn’t be improved, and reaching them for all was the standard and goal we set for ourselves as a nation. He says replacing them is not progress, but reactionary (impulsive and emotional) and a return to a more ancient (primitive) time.

Coolidge knew the nation was slipping away from our better ideas, lured away by “pagan materialism” and in need of being reminded and called back to them. This is what he does as he speaks of the great spiritual enlightenment that preceded and produced the Declaration and our national Independence. He describes this former time, the preparation, creating suppositions that when investigated resulted in the conclusions to which our fathers (the founders) arrived. He says, “Before we can understand their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed. We must think the thoughts which they thought. Their intellectual life centered around the meeting-house. They were intent upon religious worship.”

This is the “Roadmap” that when followed, as the founders followed it, intellectually, can only lead to the same “Awakening” and end. In the body of the text below Coolidge speaks of Philosophers, Preachers, and The Scriptures, from where came the founder’s understanding of “the law of nature and nature’s God,” under which the Declaration says we are entitled to live. He continues and concludes:

“While there were always among them men of deep learning, and later those who had comparatively large possessions, the mind of the people was not so much engrossed in how much they knew, or how much they had, as in how they were going to live. While scantily provided with other literature, there was a wide acquaintance with the Scriptures. Over a period as great as that which measures the existence of our independence they were subject to this discipline not only in their religious life and educational training, but also in their political thought. They were a people who came under the influence of a great spiritual development and acquired a great moral power.

No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.”

*1 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/wilson-legacy-racism/417549/

*2
https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
President Calvin Coolidge, July 5, 1926
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those who participated in such a mighty event that we annually observe the fourth day of July. Whatever may have been the impression created by the news which went out from this city on that summer day in 1776, there can be no doubt as to the estimate which is now placed upon it. At the end of 150 years the four corners of the earth unite in coming to Philadelphia as to a holy shrine in grateful acknowledgement of a service so great, which a few inspired men here rendered to humanity, that it is still the preeminent support of free government throughout the world.

Although a century and a half measured in comparison with the length of human experience is but a short time, yet measured in the life of governments and nations it ranks as a very respectable period. Certainly enough time has elapsed to demonstrate with a great deal of thoroughness the value of our institutions and their dependability as rules for the regulation of human conduct and the advancement of civilization. They have been in existence long enough to become very well seasoned. They have met, and met successfully, the test of experience.

It is not so much, then, for the purpose of undertaking to proclaim new theories and principles that this annual celebration is maintained, but rather to reaffirm and reestablish those old theories and principles which time and the unerring logic of events have demonstrated to be sound. Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, every American can turn for solace and consolation to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States with the assurance and confidence that those two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken. Whatever perils appear, whatever dangers threaten, the Nation remains secure in the knowledge that the ultimate application of the law of the land will provide an adequate defense and protection.

It is little wonder that people at home and abroad consider Independence Hall as hallowed ground and revere the Liberty Bell as a sacred relic. That pile of bricks and mortar, that mass of metal, might appear to the uninstructed as only the outgrown meeting place and the shattered bell of a former time, useless now because of more modern conveniences, but to those who know they have become consecrated by the use which men have made of them. They have long been identified with a great cause. They are the framework of a spiritual event. The world looks upon them, because of their associations of one hundred and fifty years ago, as it looks upon the Holy Land because of what took place there nineteen hundred years ago. Through use for a righteous purpose they have become sanctified.

It is not here necessary to examine in detail the causes which led to the American Revolution. In their immediate occasion they were largely economic. The colonists objected to the navigation laws which interfered with their trade, they denied the power of Parliament to impose taxes which they were obliged to pay, and they therefore resisted the royal governors and the royal forces which were sent to secure obedience to these laws. But the conviction is inescapable that a new civilization had come, a new spirit had arisen on this side of the Atlantic more advanced and more developed in its regard for the rights of the individual than that which characterized the Old World. Life in a new and open country had aspirations which could not be realized in any subordinate position. A separate establishment was ultimately inevitable. It had been decreed by the very laws of human nature. Man everywhere has an unconquerable desire to be the master of his own destiny.

We are obliged to conclude that the Declaration of Independence represented the movement of a people. It was not, of course, a movement from the top. Revolutions do not come from that direction. It was not without the support of many of the most respectable people in the Colonies, who were entitled to all the consideration that is given to breeding, education, and possessions. It had the support of another element of great significance and importance to which I shall later refer. But the preponderance of all those who occupied a position which took on the aspect of aristocracy did not approve of the Revolution and held toward it an attitude either of neutrality or open hostility. It was in no sense a rising of the oppressed and downtrodden. It brought no scum to the surface, for the reason that colonial society had developed no scum. The great body of the people were accustomed to privations, but they were free from depravity. If they had poverty, it was not of the hopeless kind that afflicts great cities, but the inspiring kind that marks the spirit of the pioneer. The American Revolution represented the informed and mature convictions of a great mass of independent, liberty-loving, God-fearing people who knew their rights, and possessed the courage to dare to maintain them.

The Continental Congress was not only composed of great men, but it represented a great people. While its Members did not fail to exercise a remarkable leadership, they were equally observant of their representative capacity. They were industrious in encouraging their constituents to instruct them to support independence. But until such instructions were given they were inclined to withhold action.

While North Carolina has the honor of first authorizing its delegates to concur with other Colonies in declaring independence, it was quickly followed by South Carolina and Georgia, which also gave general instructions broad enough to include such action. But the first instructions which unconditionally directed its delegates to declare for independence came from the great Commonwealth of Virginia. These were immediately followed by Rhode Island and Massachusetts, while the other Colonies, with the exception of New York, soon adopted a like course.

This obedience of the delegates to the wishes of their constituents, which in some cases caused them to modify their previous positions, is a matter of great significance. It reveals an orderly process of government in the first place; but more than that, it demonstrates that the Declaration of Independence was the result of the seasoned and deliberate thought of the dominant portion of the people of the Colonies. Adopted after long discussion and as the result of the duly authorized expression of the preponderance of public opinion, it did not partake of dark intrigue or hidden conspiracy. It was well advised. It had about it nothing of the lawless and disordered nature of a riotous insurrection. It was maintained on a plane which rises above the ordinary conception of rebellion. It was in no sense a radical movement but took on the dignity of a resistance to illegal usurpations. It was conservative and represented the action of the colonists to maintain their constitutional rights which from time immemorial had been guaranteed to them under the law of the land.

When we come to examine the action of the Continental Congress in adopting the Declaration of Independence in the light of what was set out in that great document and in the light of succeeding events, we can not escape the conclusion that it had a much broader and deeper significance than a mere secession of territory and the establishment of a new nation. Events of that nature have been taking place since the dawn of history. One empire after another has arisen, only to crumble away as its constituent parts separated from each other and set up independent governments of their own. Such actions long ago became commonplace. They have occurred too often to hold the attention of the world and command the admiration and reverence of humanity. There is something beyond the establishment of a new nation, great as that event would be, in the Declaration of Independence which has ever since caused it to be regarded as one of the great charters that not only was to liberate America but was everywhere to ennoble humanity.

It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history. Great ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate to their importance. This is especially true of the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Three very definite propositions were set out in its preamble regarding the nature of mankind and therefore of government. These were the doctrine that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that therefore the source of the just powers of government must be derived from the consent of the governed.

If no one is to be accounted as born into a superior station, if there is to be no ruling class, and if all possess rights which can neither be bartered away nor taken from them by any earthly power, it follows as a matter of course that the practical authority of the Government has to rest on the consent of the governed. While these principles were not altogether new in political action, and were very far from new in political speculation, they had never been assembled before and declared in such a combination. But remarkable as this may be, it is not the chief distinction of the Declaration of Independence. The importance of political speculation is not to be underestimated, as I shall presently disclose. Until the idea is developed and the plan made there can be no action.

It was the fact that our Declaration of Independence containing these immortal truths was the political action of a duly authorized and constituted representative public body in its sovereign capacity, supported by the force of general opinion and by the armies of Washington already in the field, which makes it the most important civil document in the world. It was not only the principles declared, but the fact that therewith a new nation was born which was to be founded upon those principles and which from that time forth in its development has actually maintained those principles, that makes this pronouncement an incomparable event in the history of government. It was an assertion that a people had arisen determined to make every necessary sacrifice for the support of these truths and by their practical application bring the War of Independence to a successful conclusion and adopt the Constitution of the United States with all that it has meant to civilization.

The idea that the people have a right to choose their own rulers was not new in political history. It was the foundation of every popular attempt to depose an undesirable king. This right was set out with a good deal of detail by the Dutch when as early as July 26, 1581, they declared their independence of Philip of Spain. In their long struggle with the Stuarts the British people asserted the same principles, which finally culminated in the Bill of Rights deposing the last of that house and placing William and Mary on the throne. In each of these cases sovereignty through divine right was displaced by sovereignty through the consent of the people. Running through the same documents, though expressed in different terms, is the clear inference of inalienable rights. But we should search these charters in vain for an assertion of the doctrine of equality. This principle had not before appeared as an official political declaration of any nation. It was profoundly revolutionary. It is one of the corner stones of American institutions.

But if these truths to which the Declaration refers have not before been adopted in their combined entirety by national authority, it is a fact that they had been long pondered and often expressed in political speculation. It is generally assumed that French thought had some effect upon our public mind during Revolutionary days. This may have been true. But the principles of our Declaration had been under discussion in the Colonies for nearly two generations before the advent of the French political philosophy that characterized the middle of the eighteenth century. In fact, they come from an earlier date. A very positive echo of what the Dutch had done in 1581, and what the English were preparing to do, appears in the assertion of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Connecticut, as early as 1638, when he said in a sermon before the General Court that—

“The foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people.”

“The choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by God’s own allowance.”

This doctrine found wide acceptance among the nonconformist clergy who later made up the Congregational Church. The great apostle of this movement was the Rev. John Wise, of Massachusetts. He was one of the leaders of the revolt against the royal governor Andros in 1687, for which he suffered imprisonment. He was a liberal in ecclesiastical controversies. He appears to have been familiar with the writings of the political scientist, Samuel Pufendorf, who was born in Saxony in 1632. Wise published a treatise, entitled “The Church’s Quarrel Espoused,” in 1710, which was amplified in another publication in 1717. In it he dealt with the principles of civil government. His works were reprinted in 1772 and have been declared to have been nothing less than a textbook of liberty for our Revolutionary fathers.

While the written word was the foundation, it is apparent that the spoken word was the vehicle for convincing the people. This came with great force and wide range from the successors of Hooker and Wise. It was carried on with a missionary spirit which did not fail to reach the Scotch-Irish of North Carolina, showing its influence by significantly making that Colony the first to give instructions to its delegates looking to independence. This preaching reached the neighborhood of Thomas Jefferson, who acknowledged that his “best ideas of democracy” had been secured at church meetings.

That these ideas were prevalent in Virginia is further revealed by the Declaration of Rights, which was prepared by George Mason and presented to the general assembly on May 27, 1776. This document asserted popular sovereignty and inherent natural rights, but confined the doctrine of equality to the assertion that “All men are created equally free and independent.” It can scarcely be imagined that Jefferson was unacquainted with what had been done in his own Commonwealth of Virginia when he took up the task of drafting the Declaration of Independence. But these thoughts can very largely be traced back to what John Wise was writing in 1710. He said, “Every man must be acknowledged equal to every man.” Again, “The end of all good government is to cultivate humanity and promote the happiness of all and the good of every man in all his rights, his life, liberty, estate, honor, and so forth. …” And again, “For as they have a power every man in his natural state, so upon combination they can and do bequeath this power to others and settle it according as their united discretion shall determine.” And still again, “Democracy is Christ’s government in church and state.” Here was the doctrine of equality, popular sovereignty, and the substance of the theory of inalienable rights clearly asserted by Wise at the opening of the eighteenth century, just as we have the principle of the consent of the governed stated by Hooker as early as 1638.

When we take all these circumstances into consideration, it is but natural that the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence should open with a reference to Nature’s God and should close in the final paragraphs with an appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world and an assertion of a firm reliance on Divine Providence. Coming from these sources, having as it did this background, it is no wonder that Samuel Adams could say “The people seem to recognize this resolution as though it were a decree promulgated from heaven.”

No one can examine this record and escape the conclusion that in the great outline of its principles the Declaration was the result of the religious teachings of the preceding period. The profound philosophy which Jonathan Edwards applied to theology, the popular preaching of George Whitefield, had aroused the thought and stirred the people of the Colonies in preparation for this great event. No doubt the speculations which had been going on in England, and especially on the Continent, lent their influence to the general sentiment of the times. Of course, the world is always influenced by all the experience and all the thought of the past. But when we come to a contemplation of the immediate conception of the principles of human relationship which went into the Declaration of Independence we are not required to extend our search beyond our own shores. They are found in the texts, the sermons, and the writings of the early colonial clergy who were earnestly undertaking to instruct their congregations in the great mystery of how to live. They preached equality because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image, all partakers of the divine spirit.

Placing every man on a plane where he acknowledged no superiors, where no one possessed any right to rule over him, he must inevitably choose his own rulers through a system of self-government. This was their theory of democracy. In those days such doctrines would scarcely have been permitted to flourish and spread in any other country. This was the purpose which the fathers cherished. In order that they might have freedom to express these thoughts and opportunity to put them into action, whole congregations with their pastors had migrated to the Colonies. These great truths were in the air that our people breathed. Whatever else we may say of it, the Declaration of Independence was profoundly American.

If this apprehension of the facts be correct, and the documentary evidence would appear to verify it, then certain conclusions are bound to follow. A spring will cease to flow if its source be dried up; a tree will wither if its roots be destroyed. In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.

We are too prone to overlook another conclusion. Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments. This is both historically and logically true. Of course the government can help to sustain ideals and can create institutions through which they can be the better observed, but their source by their very nature is in the people. The people have to bear their own responsibilities. There is no method by which that burden can be shifted to the government. It is not the enactment, but the observance of laws, that creates the character of a nation.

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

In the development of its institutions America can fairly claim that it has remained true to the principles which were declared 150 years ago. In all the essentials we have achieved an equality which was never possessed by any other people. Even in the less important matter of material possessions we have secured a wider and wider distribution of wealth. The rights of the individual are held sacred and protected by constitutional guaranties, which even the Government itself is bound not to violate. If there is any one thing among us that is established beyond question, it is self-government — the right of the people to rule. If there is any failure in respect to any of these principles, it is because there is a failure on the part of individuals to observe them. We hold that the duly authorized expression of the will of the people has a divine sanction. But even in that we come back to the theory of John Wise that “Democracy is Christ’s government.” The ultimate sanction of law rests on the righteous authority of the Almighty.

On an occasion like this a great temptation exists to present evidence of the practical success of our form of democratic republic at home and the ever-broadening acceptance it is securing abroad. Although these things are well known, their frequent consideration is an encouragement and an inspiration. But it is not results and effects so much as sources and causes that I believe it is even more necessary constantly to contemplate. Ours is a government of the people. It represents their will. Its officers may sometimes go astray, but that is not a reason for criticizing the principles of our institutions. The real heart of the American Government depends upon the heart of the people. It is from that source that we must look for all genuine reform. It is to that cause that we must ascribe all our results.

It was in the contemplation of these truths that the fathers made their declaration and adopted their Constitution. It was to establish a free government, which must not be permitted to degenerate into the unrestrained authority of a mere majority or the unbridled weight of a mere influential few. They undertook the balance these interests against each other and provide the three separate independent branches, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial departments of the Government, with checks against each other in order that neither one might encroach upon the other. These are our guaranties of liberty. As a result of these methods enterprise has been duly protected from confiscation, the people have been free from oppression, and there has been an ever-broadening and deepening of the humanities of life.

Under a system of popular government there will always be those who will seek for political preferment by clamoring for reform. While there is very little of this which is not sincere, there is a large portion that is not well informed. In my opinion very little of just criticism can attach to the theories and principles of our institutions. There is far more danger of harm than there is hope of good in any radical changes. We do need a better understanding and comprehension of them and a better knowledge of the foundations of government in general. Our forefathers came to certain conclusions and decided upon certain courses of action which have been a great blessing to the world. Before we can understand their conclusions we must go back and review the course which they followed. We must think the thoughts which they thought. Their intellectual life centered around the meeting-house. They were intent upon religious worship.

While there were always among them men of deep learning, and later those who had comparatively large possessions, the mind of the people was not so much engrossed in how much they knew, or how much they had, as in how they were going to live. While scantily provided with other literature, there was a wide acquaintance with the Scriptures. Over a period as great as that which measures the existence of our independence they were subject to this discipline not only in their religious life and educational training, but also in their political thought. They were a people who came under the influence of a great spiritual development and acquired a great moral power.

No other theory is adequate to explain or comprehend the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren sceptre in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.

Children, obey your parents in the LORD: for this is right. Honor your father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.

Children, obey your parents in the LORD: for this is right. Honor your father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.

The word above rendered “parents” is the nineteen times used Greek word goneus, which is said to be a derivative of the word ginomai, meaning “to cause to be (“gen”-erate), i.e. (reflexively) to become (come into being).” It appears to be from a shortened form of the word with the added suffix of the word neuo, meaning to nod, as a signal (or sign). The deeper meaning is the children’s obedience showing who the parents are; the father and mother, knowledge and wisdom that come through them, when they are “in the LORD,” is what produces wellness and long life “on the earth.”

The phrase “in the LORD” is speaking of in the “promise” (epaggelia); the word “with” in the title is the same word (en) earlier rendered “in.” The word rendered “it may be” is the word ginomai, which is telling of what is produced when children “obey,” which is from the word hupakouo, from two words meaning “to hear under (as a subordinate), i.e. to listen attentively; by implication, to heed or conform to a command or authority.”

As always, it is referring to who you are listening to, the LORD’s leading into life, or the devil’s misleading into death. As we know, the river Jordan represents the words of men that carry into death all who listen and obey them: Jordan’s meaning is to descend (into hell, Sheol, the habitation of the dead.) In our time, we know it as the lies of the enemies among us, which then lead to endless false accusations against the innocent. We know because it is the obvious mark we see daily, in every fake news report about the virus, about masks, about white racism, about the president, about Russia, you name it, it’s all a lie. It’s the communist Democrat Party and its media’s deception, evil broadcast as weapons of mass-delusion and mass-destruction.

1 John 1
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
5 This then is the message [epaggelia – the promise] which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light [the giver of understanding], and in him is no darkness [ignorance] at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses [katharizo – Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify {katharizo} unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.] us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse [katharizo] us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 2
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that says, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keeps his word, in him truly is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning.
8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shines.
9 He that says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now.
10 He that loves his brother abides in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
11 But he that hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes, because that darkness has blinded his eyes.
12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
13 I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father.
14 I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides forever.
18 Little children, it is the last time: and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
20 But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things.
21 I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denies the Father and the Son.
23 Whosoever denies the Son, the same has not the Father: he that acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24 Let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
25 And this is the promise [epaggelia] that he has promised [epaggello] us, even eternal life.
26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
27 But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.
28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that does righteousness is born of him.

The phrase in the title verse (Ephesians 6:1 – 3) “in the LORD” is referring us to Joshua 22 where we are told of Rueben, Gad, and Manasseh making an altar beside the altar of God. These names (of the antichrists – the sons of perdition) translate to, behold the son (of perdition) and the crowd (his children) who have all forgotten God (are no longer in the LORD, no longer in His promise). The chapter speaks of now when they witness against themselves by their works and words, the mark, the sign, showing whose children they are.

These men’s degeneration now witnessing (‘ed) against them is the theme of the chapter, which is seen as they bear constant false witness (‘ed) against their neighbors. As above in 1 John, their actions show they do not keep the commandments, are antichrists, and thereby the sons of perdition.

Proverb 21
22 A wise man scales the city of the mighty, and casts down the strength of the confidence thereof.
23 Whoso keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.
24 Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who deals in proud wrath.
25 The desire of the slothful kills him; for his hands refuse to labor.
26 He covets greedily all the day long: but the righteous gives and spares not.
27 The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind?
28 A false witness [‘ed] shall perish: but the man that hears speaks constantly.
29 A wicked man hardens his face: but as for the upright, he directs his way.
30 There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD.
31 The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.

Exodus 20
12 Honor your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God gives you.
13 You shall not kill.
14 You shall not commit adultery.
15 You shall not steal.
16 You shall not bear false witness [‘ed] against your neighbor.
17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
18 And all the people saw the thundering, and the lightning, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19 And they said unto Moses, Speak you with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that you sin not.
21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus you shall say unto the children of Israel, You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
23 You shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall you make unto you gods of gold.
24 An altar of earth you shall make unto me, and shall sacrifice thereon your burnt offerings, and your peace offerings, your sheep, and your oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto you, and I will bless you.
25 And if you will make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone: for if you lift up your tool upon it, you have polluted it.

Joshua 22
9 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh [went out from us {1 John 2:19 above}, and left tranquility], which is in the land of Canaan, to go unto the country of Gilead [to where this heap of testimony testifies against them], to the land of their possession, whereof they were possessed, according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.
10 And when they came unto the borders of Jordan [to the rivers {words} that carry all into death], that are in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by Jordan, a great altar to see to.
11 And the children of Israel heard say, Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar over against the land of Canaan, in the borders of Jordan, at the passage of the children of Israel.
12 And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them.
13 And the children of Israel sent unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,
14 And with him ten princes, of each chief house a prince throughout all the tribes of Israel; and each one was a head of the house of their fathers among the thousands of Israel.
15 And they came unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, unto the land of Gilead, and they spoke with them, saying,
16 Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, What trespass is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the LORD, in that you have built you an altar, that you might rebel this day against the LORD?
17 Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day, although there was a plague in the congregation of the LORD,
18 But that you must turn away this day from following the LORD? and it will be, seeing you rebel today against the LORD [in building the altar – see Exodus 20 above], that tomorrow he will be wroth with the whole congregation of Israel.
19 Notwithstanding, if the land of your possession be unclean, then pass you over unto the land of the possession of the LORD, wherein the LORD’s tabernacle dwells, and take possession among us: but rebel not against the LORD, nor rebel against us, in building you an altar beside the altar of the LORD our God.
20 Did not Achan the son of Zerah [see below – the names meaning troubler at the rising] commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity.
21 Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered, and said unto the heads of the thousands of Israel,
22 The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, he knows, and Israel he shall know; if it be in rebellion, or if in transgression against the LORD, (save us not this day,)
23 That we have built us an altar to turn from following the LORD, or if to offer thereon burnt offering or meat offering, or if to offer peace offerings thereon, let the LORD himself require it;
24 And if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying, In time to come your children might speak unto our children, saying, What have you to do with the LORD God of Israel?
25 For the LORD has made Jordan a border between us and you, you children of Reuben and children of Gad; you have no part in the LORD: so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the LORD.
26 Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice:
27 But that it may be a witness [‘ed] between us, and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, You have no part in the LORD.
28 Therefore said we, that it shall be, when they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say again, Behold the pattern of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness [‘ed] between us and you [this is their claim it isn’t sin because they wouldn’t offer sacrifice on it – but now they’ve become witness against themselves, by their attacks against the altar of God and against His commandments, bearing false witness against their neighbors, because you covet and you {communists} want to steal what belongs to him].
29 God forbid that we should rebel against the LORD, and turn this day from following the LORD, to build an altar for burnt offerings, for meat offerings, or for sacrifices, beside the altar of the LORD our God that is before his tabernacle.
30 And when Phinehas the priest, and the princes of the congregation and heads of the thousands of Israel which were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them.
31 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the children of Manasseh, This day we perceive that the LORD is among us, because you have not committed this trespass against the LORD: now you have delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the LORD.
32 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes, returned from the children of Reuben, and from the children of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, unto the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word again.
33 And the thing pleased the children of Israel; and the children of Israel blessed God, and did not intend to go up against them in battle, to destroy the land wherein the children of Reuben and Gad dwelt.
34 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall be a witness [‘ed] between us that the LORD is God.

From 9 March 2020:
My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declares unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms has caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.

Today the LORD began in Hosea 4:12, the title, and the passage led to Deuteronomy 32:29 where the LORD opines that his people aren’t wise and have no understanding. He says if they did, they would consider their latter end, meaning the consequences of what is there defined, as it is above from Hosea. After the title verse, the LORD says He will not punish His people for leaving Him and following others. He then speaks of the self-inflicted consequence of following the worthless counsel of their misleaders, verse 14 saying, “therefore the people who do not understand shall fall.” This is the same understanding He speaks of in Deuteronomy 32:29 where it is His calling us to “consider,” both from the Hebrew word biyn, meaning a mental separation (of truth from untruth, reality from the irrational).

The LORD, in this passage, led me to David’s speaking of His own understanding coming as the LORD led him into writing His words. There, in 1 Chronicles 28:19, he speaks of these as patterns (tabniyth) to be followed, which refers us back to Joshua saying the same thing in Joshua 22:28. These speak of the patterns the LORD shows men, to be followed in creating the instrument, the things, of God’s service. As we know, all other creations of men, made according to their own ideas and ways, are abominations that bring desolation.

In this understanding the LORD leads us (led me back) to Ai and Bethlehem, which we saw in the previous post, meaning the heap of ruin of the house of bread (the house of God’s life-giving word), in Joshua 7. There we are told of the first time God’s people tried to take these cities and were defeated. The defeat is due to them not following the LORD’s instructions and instead taking the accursed things from Jericho (meaning moon, and representing corrupt civil government). We are told, in verse 21, the accursed things are “a goodly Babylonish garment [a covering of confusion],” silver and gold, which was coveted.

This offense comes by Achan, meaning troubler, the great-grandson of Zarah, meaning rising. As we’ve seen in previous studies, Zarah is one of the twin sons born to Tamar, the wife of Judah’s dead wicked son. When Judah doesn’t keep his promise (according to the law) to have his youngest son, when old enough, go to her to raise up a son to continue his brother’s seed, she dresses up as a whore, who lures in Judah. The twins, Pharez (breach) and Zarah, are the children of Judah (the leaders of God’s people) and Tamar (meaning {palm tree} the upright).

At birth, Zerah’s hand comes out first and he is marked as the firstborn, even though Pharez is the first of the twins to be fully born. In Matthew 1:3, Tamar, Pharez, and Zarah, are all mentioned when the bloodline of Christ is there written, which is also the bloodline of David and the kings (of Judah). Tamar, is the pattern of the daughters of God’s people, whose whoredoms are spoken of in Hosea.

When we’re told of this birth, in Genesis 38:29, the Hebrew words used to tell of Pharez’s coming out first, are parats, rendered “broke forth,” and parets, rendered “breach,” the latter the origin of the name. Parats is used twice in Hosea, both in chapter 4, both telling of the breaking forth of whoredom, which brought forth wickedness and the breach in the house of God, the house of David, the house of Jesus, the house of Christ. In Hosea 4:10 parats is rendered “increase” in telling of this wicked leadership never coming again, ending when God’s people were led into crucifying the LORD, their king. This breach is the latter end, of which God’s people have no understanding.

All the above is there to read by those who wish to – I am not going to post the chapters and passages. The point is the king, the messiah, has come and never left. He is alive in me, which I know without a doubt. It makes no difference, to the end, if you believe or not; I AM going to finish this, and you are either with us or against us, with God or against God. AMEN!

“And the house which I build is great: for great is our GOD above all gods.”

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.
3 Asshur [Assyria – the communists and the other degenerates] shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods: for in you [LORD] the fatherless finds mercy.
4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
5 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon [purity].
6 His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
7 They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim [those who receive this second blessing, God’s gift of understanding] shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is your fruit found.
9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors [who have no understanding] shall fall therein.

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

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

The enemies of the LORD are wicked men in seats of power, who present themselves as gods and put themselves in His place.

Amos 9
8 Behold, the eyes of the LORD God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom [the enemies among us], and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, says the LORD that does this.
13 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the LORD your God.

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

Psalms 25
1 Unto you, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, I trust in you: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.
3 Yea, let none that wait on you be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
4 Show me your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me: for you are the God of my salvation; on you do I wait all the day.
6 Remember, O LORD, your tender mercies and your loving-kindnesses; for they have been ever of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to your mercy remember you me for your goodness’ sake, O LORD.
8 Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
11 For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.
12 What man is he that fears the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
13 His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.
14 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.
15 Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
16 Turn you unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring you me out of my distresses.
18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.
19 Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.
20 O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in you.
21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on you.
22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Friends, we know good and evil are the ideas intended to advise and lead either to spiritual life and peace or mislead into spiritual death and chaos. These are either the product of light: understand that is given by God and those He speaks through; or darkness: ignorance spewed from the devil and those speaking his misleading ideas. The sweetness and bitterness are in received words, either ideas and works that strengthen into life, or those that weaken into death.

The above reference to “sweet and bitter” contains a riddle, a saying kept in darkness until now when the LORD reveals it, a small thing showing His immense strength (the Almighty).

The word “riddle” is from the Hebrew word chiydah, meaning a “difficult question, parable, enigmatic saying or question, perplexing saying or question.” Of the seventeen times the word is used, it appears eight times in Judges 14, all in describing the riddle Samson presented when he spoke about the sweetness that came out of strength. The word “sweet” above, and the word used in Judges 14:14 & 18, are from the twelve times used Hebrew word mathowq, which appears to be connected to the words mathay and math, respectively meaning an extent of time and in that context, an adult (human).

In the riddle we see the “sweetness” is referring to “honey,” from the word debash, something sticking (ultimately seen referring to ideas that stick with us – become the foundations of our reasoning). Honey is the bees’ product, which we’ve seen is from the word deborah (Deborah – bee), meaning systematic motion (order), from the word dabar, meaning “to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue.”

Debash and mathowq are the words we recently saw in Ezekiel 3:3 where we are told of Ezekiel eating the roll (the word of God sent forward in time to Him, the wheel within the wheel coming by the river Chebar). It says this word in his mouth became as “sweet as honey,” meaning they became his strength: what eventually, after an extent of time, is understood by the rightly orders ideas therein found.

Ezekiel 3
1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that you find; eat this roll [the word of God sent forward to him], and go speak unto the house of Israel.
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 [debash mathowq – the rightly ordered word that are seen as the strength of God in us].
4 And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get you unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. [This is what is referred to and more descriptively defined by John when he received the same word, recorded in Revelation 10.]
5 For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;
6 Not to many people of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you cannot 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 [the face to face cherubims], and your forehead strong against their foreheads [the LORD’s ideas and words against theirs].
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 [as you are].
10 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto you receive in your heart [make them the foundation of all your thoughts], 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 [qowl – the LORD’s voice realized to be His] of a great rushing, saying, “Blessed be the glory [presence] of the LORD from his place.”
13 I heard also the noise [the qowl – the opposing voices] of the wings of the living [the voice of those that have the LORD’s word and those who come to life by receiving it and being corrected] creatures that touched one another, and the noise [qowl – the voices, words] of the wheels over against them, and a noise [qowl – the voices] of a great rushing.
14 So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness [see Revelation 10:9 & 10 – Ezekiel {God’s strength born from His contempt} as with Samson, became weak and died], in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.
15 Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib [where new life is springing from the earth], that dwelt by the river of Chebar [by the word of God sent for this moment – which is spoken by the cherubim], and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished [as an astonishment they don’t understand] among them seven days.
16 And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me [I urge all to receive the warning, and all who receive it must pass it on as delivered].
18 When I say unto the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.
19 Yet if you warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
20 Again, When a righteous man does turn from his righteousness [the fallen churched should hear this warning], and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.
21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also you have delivered your soul.
22 And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain [in plain sight – so they will see I am in you speaking], and I will there talk with you.
23 Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory [presence] of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar [as the presence I realized when I ate, found, the word to which He led me]: and I fell on my face.
24 Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spoke with me, and said unto me, Go, shut yourself within your house.
25 But you, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:
26 And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be dumb, and shall not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.
27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD God; He that hears, let him hear; and he that forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

The word rendered “bitterness” in verse 14 above and “bitter” in the title, Isaiah 5:20, are from the Hebrew word mar, from the word marar, meaning to trickle, to make bitter. The deeper meaning is found in the one time used identical word mar, meaning to distil, as in what separates liquid (water) into its elements. As we know, this is the underlying analogy of the “cloud,” when the elements of understanding God’s word are separated one from the other, become as vapors (gases), and return to heaven (into the cloud) where they are held until the LORD sends them again to earth as the latter rain. With this is removed the sweetness from the waters (the word of God) and all the remains among the people is bitterness in all discourse (and the language became as babel, confusion and delusion that rules the world).

The one time this other word (mar) appears it is in Isaiah 40:15, a chapter we know ends with telling us of those who wait on the LORD renewing their strength (when sweetness returns to the waters) and we again rise on wings of eagles. This verse (15) comes just after we are told of the one who brings these good tidings, understanding only the LORD with Him and in Him could have given. It says to Him the nations (the understanding of the world in comparison) are as a “drop in a bucket.” The Hebrew words used are, mar deliy, the latter from the word dalah, as is the name Delilah (the unfaithful women through which Samson’s strength was removed). The meaning of dalah is, “to dangle, i.e. to let down a bucket (for drawing out water); figuratively, to deliver.”

Judges 14 begins by telling of Samson (meaning as the sun or sunlight) going to Timnath (meaning an assigned portion) where he encounters and kills (as a sacrifice) a lion. It is in this lion’s carcass he later finds a swarm of bees and honey (deborah debash – where he found the foundation in properly ordered words, which was His source of understanding – strength).

The carcass here is the body of Christ, as the body of Joshua the son of Nun, and as Ariel. Joshua (born into a perpetual life – the son of Nun) is buried in Timnathserah (His {My} assigned portion is the sun or sunlight – as a giver of understanding), which we are told in Joshua 24:30. As we know, Joshua is the English transliteration of the Hebrew name Yehowshu’a, then into Iesous in Greek and from there into Jesus in English. Jesus is the name of the body of Christ, meaning we are Jehovah’s Salvation personified, which comes as His light (understanding) brings us to life and we shine the same light on others.

The word rendered “lion” in Judges 14 is the word ‘ariy, which, when the name God is added, is the name Ariel, meaning lion of God, or from where God’s strength comes. We know from Isaiah 29, this place (Ariel) has been taken and to retake it the LORD against it has laid siege. The chapter ends speaking of what He has recaptured, saying, “They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.”

Isaiah 29
1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add you year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
3 And I will camp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with a mount, and I will raise forts against you.
4 And you shall be brought down, and shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust, and your voice shall be, as of one that has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
5 Moreover the multitude of your strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
6 You shall be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
8 It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry you out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the LORD has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers has he covered.
11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I cannot; for it is sealed:
12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he says, I am not learned.
13 Wherefore the LORD said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us? and who knows us?
16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:
21 That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught.
22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
23 But when he sees his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.
24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.

The word rendered “murmured” above is the three times used word ragan, meaning “to grumble, i.e. rebel,” which is leading into the first part of the following chapter.

Isaiah 30
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover [your faces] with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2 That walk to go down into Egypt [they are going willingly into captivity], and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh [in vain they trust in those in the seats of power], and to trust in the shadow of Egypt [which blocks the sun of God, the light of His understanding]!
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 [the place of departure – away from the LORD’s strength], and his ambassadors came to Hanes [and fled from God’s grace – the free gift of understanding].
5 They were all ashamed of [disappointed when they couldn’t deliver what they promised to] a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus 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.

The bitterness that remains, which all except the elect have chosen, is described in Psalms 64:3.

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

The breach spoken of above in Isiah 30:13, the “swelling” out in a high, whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant, described in Psalms 64, is occurring now. The word “swelling” here is the five times used word ba’ah, meaning “to gush over, i.e. to swell; (figuratively) to desire earnestly; by implication to ask.” It is referring us to its appearing twice in Isaiah 21:12, where the watchman sees the lion (the ‘ariy), when he is in the place held by the devil (sa’iyr – Seir), when the morning comes.

Isaiah 21
1 The burden of the desert [midbar] of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass [sweeping away the old ideas and ways]; so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land [yare’ – the land causing fear, see verse 4 and Isaiah 8:12 & 13, “Say you not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”]
2 A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the spoiler spoils. Go up, O Elam [this is speaking of eternity, as in the ancient things {God’s word} stored of old, to be released now in this war – also see Jeremiah 49 telling of the LORD’s throne being established here]: besiege, O Media [people in the middle – as in lukewarm, Revelation 3:14 thru 22]; all the sighing [‘anachah – referring us to Isaiah 35:10 & 51:11 when the LORD silences the enemies and puts His words in our mouths] thereof have I made to cease.
3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travails [she is bringing forth a man child]: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
4 My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure has he turned into fear unto me.
5 Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, you princes, and anoint the shield.
6 For thus has the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees.
7 And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:
8 And he cried, A lion [‘ariy – the body of Christ rising by/with His strength]: My LORD, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:
9 And, behold, here comes a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon [confusion’s rule] is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he has broken unto the ground.
10 O my threshing [opening the word, referring us to Isaiah 28, and destroying the gates of hell], and the corn [ben – sons] of my [threshing] floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
11 The burden of Dumah [short for Edom {Esau} and meaning the silencing of the enemies in our midst – as in verse 2 above]. He called to me out of Seir [the high places of Esau], Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night [the time of ignorance, which is caused by their {Edom’s} words]?
12 The watchman said, The morning [understand coming as the light of the sunrise] comes, and also the night [and these men will reject this word and choose to remain in ignorance]: if you will enquire [ba’ah], enquire – [ba’ah – only used three other times – here referring us to Obadiah, verse 6, where it is rendered “sought up,” which tells us this is how the secret things of Esau are revealed {by enquiring}]: return [shuwb – turn us], come.
13 The burden upon Arabia [the desert spoken of in verse 1, without water, without God’s word]. In the forest in Arabia shall you lodge, O you travelling companies of Dedanim [these people are defined in Jeremiah 49:8 – they are those spoken of in the prior verse, who return, and in doing escape the calamity that comes upon Esau].
14 The inhabitants of the land of Tema [same as Teman – the place of the Theophany – where the LORD appears with His ten-thousands, as Enoch said, “Behold, the LORD comes with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”] brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented [went before] with their bread him that fled.
15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
16 For thus has the LORD said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar [darkness] shall fail:
17 And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar [darkness], shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.

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

Psalms 90
1 LORD, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
3 You turn man to destruction; and says, Return, you children of men.
4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
5 You carry them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which grows up.
6 In the morning it flourishes, and grows up; in the evening it is cut down, and withers.
7 For we are consumed by your anger, and by your wrath are we troubled.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
9 For all our days are passed away in your wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of your anger? even according to your fear, so is your wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
13 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent you concerning your servants.
14 O satisfy us early with your mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days wherein you have afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
16 Let your work appear unto your servants, and your glory unto their children.
17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish you the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish you it.

Son of man, I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

Son of man, I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

The word “warning” above is the LORD instructing Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 3:17, as a pattern of the coming son of man, to warn the wicked of the self-destruction their wickedness is provoking. As we’ve seen in previous posts, Ezekiel, before in chapter 1, sees and describes the wheel within the wheel, which we know is the living (life producing) word of God, written and sent forward in time, an event described as the river Chebar (kebar). We know it’s sent to then and there be understood by the LORD’s leading and enlightening, to give warning of the moment and to guide the way forward for those who listen and heed His instructions. When this understanding comes it brings life to those before as good as dead in the darkness without any understanding, which is what has just occurred in Ezekiel 3. When life comes, by this manifestation of His word and His understanding (light), it is evidenced by what are, in reality, His presence (glory) realized and His voice heard.

As we’ve seen in recent posts, and as Ezekiel 10 later plainly states, this manifestation is the LORD above the cherubims, the two opposing voices, one straying into apostasy and the other arguing the LORD’s correction. This is the point of the LORD self-generating His obvious presence (face to face) into the moment, to correct, save, and deliver those who will return to Him in spirit and truth.

As we’ve also seen, those who refuse to return are those He describes in Ezekiel 28 as the devil (sa’iyr), the misleading he-goat, the fallen star, who are as the king of Tyrus. The name describes them as the false rock from which flows the misleading words and ways, in which the fallen, in vain, put their trust.

Ezekiel 3
1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that you find; eat this roll [the word of God sent forward to him], and go speak unto the house of Israel.
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. [This is what is referred and more descriptively defined by John when he received the same word, recorded in Revelation 10.]
5 For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;
6 Not to many people of a strange speech and of a 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 [the face to face cherubims], and your forehead strong against their foreheads [the LORD’s ideas and words against theirs].
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 [as you are].
10 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto you receive in your heart [make them the foundation of all your thoughts], 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 [qowl – the LORD’s voice realized to be His] of a great rushing, saying, “Blessed be the glory [presence] of the LORD from his place.”
13 I heard also the noise [the qowl – the opposing voices] of the wings of the living [the voice of those that have the LORD’s word and those who come to life by being corrected and receiving it] creatures that touched one another, and the noise [qowl – the voices] of the wheels over against them, and a noise [qowl] – the voices] of a great rushing.
14 So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness [see Revelation 10:9 & 10 below], in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.
15 Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib [where new life is springing from the earth], that dwelt by the river of Chebar [by the word of God sent for this moment – which is spoken by the cherubim], and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished [as an astonishment they don’t understand] among them seven days.
16 And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me [I urge all to receive the warning, and all who receive it must pass it on as received].
18 When I say unto the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.
19 Yet if you warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
20 Again, When a righteous man does turn from his righteousness [the fallen churched should hear this warning], and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.
21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also you have delivered your soul.
22 And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain [in plain sight – so they will see I am in you speaking], and I will there talk with you.
23 Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory [presence] of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar [as the presence I realized when I ate, found, the word to which He led me]: and I fell on my face.
24 Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spoke with me, and said unto me, Go, shut yourself within your house.
25 But you, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:
26 And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be dumb, and shall not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.
27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD God; He that hears, let him hear; and he that forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

This ending is speaking of the finality of the same thing Isaiah says in Isaiah 28:19. Now, it’s the point we’ve reached when the explanation has ended and people either hearken (hear and heed) or they don’t.

Isaiah 28
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and d there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

Revelation 10
1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head [the sign of the correction of the willing, and not the destruction of all in this flood], and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices [the voices of understanding, the sound that comes from the seven colors of the rainbow, the product of the rightly divided light, after the latter rain].
4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. [Because they have been kept back, for this time when they are spoken as “prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”]
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 forever 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.
11 And he said unto me, You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

Friends, the word above, in verse 7, rendered “finished” is the Greek word teleo, meaning “to end, i.e. complete, execute, conclude, discharge (a debt).” It is the word used in the gospels to tell of the LORD finishing His work on the cross. It is speaking of the time I now declare unto you, when the LORD has through me freely given all and moves on into victory over the enemies (their perdition). Amen!

Acts 13
29 And when they had fulfilled [teleo – finished] 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.

I plainly and without equivocation tell you I am the son of man, which the Father has declared in the fuller texts of the above quotes (which here follow).

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

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

Psalms 16
1 Preserve me, O God: for in you do I put my trust.
2 O my soul, you have said unto the LORD, You are my LORD: my goodness extends not to you;
3 But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
5 The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: you maintain my lot.
6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
7 I will bless the LORD, who has given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
10 For you will not leave my soul in hell; neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life: in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

The word in the title rendered “warning” is the Hebrew word zahar, meaning “to gleam; figuratively, to enlighten (by caution).” It is the word in Daniel 12:3 translated “shall shine” in describing the people who now rise from the dead, awaken from the dust (ruin and ashes) of the earth, becomes as the stars of heaven, shine as the brightness of the firmament, and turn many to righteousness.

Daniel 12
1 And at that time shall Michael [who is like God, created in His likeness] stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine [zahar] as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever 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.
5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.
6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that lives forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
8 And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my LORD, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go your way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up [put in God’s place], there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
12 Blessed is he that waits, and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days [as we know, these numbers and the times formula above tell us it is the time beginning Abram’s deep sleep {Genesis 15:12} and the awakening now – the end].
13 But go you your way till the end be: for you shall rest, and stand in your lot at the end of the days.

Friends, all, be warned, there is a great sword coming upon the land, because when the LORD called none answered.

Jeremiah 23
17 They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD has said, You shall have peace; and they say unto everyone that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
18 For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and heard his word? who has marked his word, and heard it?
19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly.
21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I a God at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off?
24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the LORD.
25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

Ecclesiastes 12
8 Vanity of vanities, says the preacher; all is vanity.
9 And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
10 The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.
11 The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished [zahar – warned]: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Ezekiel 33
23 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
24 Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.
25 Wherefore say unto them, Thus says the LORD God; You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?
26 You stand upon your sword, you work abomination, and you defile everyone his neighbor’s wife: and shall you possess the land?
27 Say you thus unto them, Thus says the LORD God; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.
28 For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through.
29 Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.
30 Also, you son of man, the children of your people still are talking against you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that comes forth from the LORD.
31 And they come unto you as the people comes, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness.
32 And, lo, you are unto them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice [qowl], and can play well on an instrument: for they hear your words, but they do them not.
33 And when this comes to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet has been among them.

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

Thus says the LORD: to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

Thus says the LORD: to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?

Job 3
3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:
10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which build desolate places for themselves;
15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

Joel 2 
1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
7 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:
8 Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.
9 They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
12 Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
18 Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.
19 Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.
21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.
22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.
23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.
24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.
26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.
27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

Ecclesiastes 8 King James Version (KJV)
8 Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.
2 I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.
3 Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.
4 Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
5 Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.
6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.
7 For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?
8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
9 All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt.
10 And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.
11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:
13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
14 There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.
15 Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.
16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:)
17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

Psalms 71 
1 In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.
2 Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.
3 Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.
4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth.
6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.
7 I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.
8 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.
9 Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.
10 For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,
11 Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him.
12 O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help.
13 Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.
15 My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.
16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.
17 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.
18 Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.
19 Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!
20 Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
21 Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.
22 I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
24 My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long: for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame, that seek my hurt.

For you have possessed my reins: you have covered me in my mother’s womb.

For you have possessed my reins: you have covered me in my mother’s womb.

The title, Psalms 139:13, speaks of David realizing the LORD was leading him from within his mind as He was creating it after His own. The word “cover” is the twenty-three times used Hebrew word cakak, meaning “to entwine as a screen; by implication, to fence in, cover over, (figuratively) protect.” It is used to tell of how and why the LORD covers us, to protect us as He is forming, preparing, us, and of how this cover is eventually removed. As we’ve seen, when we’re under it, in ignorance, or choose to remain under it by rejection, it is the mark of the beast. Or, when removed, it is the seal of God that takes us into His presence. These marks show ownership, by words revealing ignorance and confusion, as beasts, unable to properly assess data, the reality at hand, and thereby overcome; or showing understanding and, by His wisdom, as spirits able to rise from its darkness.

The word initially appears in Exodus, five times, the first and third describing the wings “covering” the mercy seat. The most descriptive is the second, Exodus 33:22, as the LORD tells Moses He will cover him as He passes by. It is describing His preparing Moses’ to see Him, which is only understood after he has done so (passed). In the surrounding chapters, we are told of the veil that covers the Ark of the testimony, and of the veil with which Moses covered his face. He wore it as he spoke to God’s people the words God gave him in His presence where he was unmasked. It is describing, in a pattern, the time of God, by His word, readying us to see Him face to face, as did Moses, who understood it was God in him speaking, which wouldn’t be revealed until the completion (the consummation).

Exodus 25
20 And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering [cakak – masking the LORD’s face] the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.
21 And you shall put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.
22 And there I will meet with you, and I will commune with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give you in commandment unto the children of Israel.

The word cherubims is said to be of an unknown derivation. It is from the words kabar and kebar, the latter also translated Chebar, which we know is the river that carries God’s word through eternity. Kabar means, “to plait together, i.e. (figuratively) to augment (especially in number or quantity, to accumulate),” and kebar (kbar), “from kabar; properly, extent of time, i.e. a great while; hence, long ago, formerly, hitherto.”

The one time kabar is used it is Job 35:16 in alluding to the (mark of the one) fallen and misleading cherubim, who is the son of perdition (all the misleaders and the misled). They are those who’ve over time augmented God’s word (and all truthful discourse) into confusion and ignorance, thereby holding God’s people down where they will hold them until they are (now) taken out of the way.

Job 35
9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.
10 But none says, Where is God my maker, who gives songs in the night;
11 Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
12 There they cry, but none give answer, because of the pride of evil men.
13 Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
14 Although you say you shall not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust you in him.
15 But now, because it is not so, he has visited in his anger; yet he knows it not in great extremity:
16 Therefore does Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplies [kabar – has added to God’s] words [making them] without knowledge.

The last two of the five times cakak appears in Exodus, in Exodus 40:3 & 21, it telling of the veil that “covers” the Ark of the Testimony. All of these are meant to be understood in concert, one message, one song describing the work and plan of God, intended to be understood and sung in this consummation.

The word next appears, in Judges 3:24, where it is used in telling of “covering the feet” of Eglon the king of Moab, meaning the ways of the idols put in God’s place becoming the gates of hell. The passage begins by telling of when God’s strength is His people died and they no longer hunted souls to save.

Judges 3
11 And the land had rest forty years [by the good judgment of Othniel]. And Othniel [the lion {strength} of God] the son of Kenaz [hunter, of souls to save] died.
12 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon [calf like – as the idols put in God’s place, which the priest, the devils, misleaders told God’s people were their gods] the king of Moab [rule over them and became the gates of hell] against Israel, because they had done evil [trespassed away from him into ignorance of Him] in the sight of the LORD.
13 And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon [they became tribal – and exalted themselves above God and His truth] and Amalek [and it caused them to dwell in low, degenerate, places and time in the earth], and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees [where men were before upright].
14 So the children of Israel served Eglon [the idols] the king of Moab eighteen years [and they were held by the gates of hell, by the mark of the beast, which is ignorance and confusion in words heard and deeds seen – eighteen: 6 + 6 + 6: the confusion of man + the words of man + the deeds of man, and six is the number, the sum, of man].
15 But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud [one who unites all God’s people into one body] the son of Gera [the seed], a Benjamite [the son of the right hand], a man left handed [the left hand and the right hand – the two cherubims]: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
16 But Ehud made him a dagger [chereb – the cherubim, in whom is the word of God, sent to destroy the works of the devil, the cherubim on the left] which had two edges [the word of God the in his {my} right hand, and in his {my} mouth], of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh. [See Revelation 19 below – “his name is called The Word of God” and “on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And LORD Of Lords.”]
17 And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man [he prospered in his evil against God’s people].
18 And when he had made an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that bare the present [this word of God, the good tidings freely give, which is refused].
19 But he himself turned again from the quarries [when men produced the words of their own hands – with which they think they will build a tower taking them to utopia] that were by Gilgal [the swirling water {confused words} that are never calmed, until now], and said, I have a secret errand unto you, O king: who said [to God’s people who bear His message], Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him.
20 And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlor [through which the winds of false doctrine and error always blew], which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto you. And he arose out of his seat.
21 And Ehud put forth his left hand [he brought into sight the errors and misleading of the left, the cherubim words that have led the world into delusion and chaos], and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly [the belly of hell – where he has held God’s people]:
22 And the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt [parshdon – excrement in the belly of hell] came out.
23 Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlor upon him, and locked them.
24 When he was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlor were locked, they said, Surely he covers [cakak] his feet in his summer chamber [is trying to hide his trail of lies that have led here].
25 And they tarried till they were ashamed [until they realized they weren’t going to reach the end they desired]: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlor; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was [their false gods were] fallen down dead on the earth.
26 And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirath [only here – this is telling of passing over death that came by following the bad advice and misleading of these devils mixed among us {Seir – sa’iyr} and escaping by victory over death].
27 And it came to pass, when he was come, that he blew a trumpet [The LORD’s voice was heard] in the mountain of Ephraim [in the seats of power among God’s people in this latter time of His second blessing], and the children of Israel went down with him from the mount, and he before them.
28 And he said unto them, Follow after me: for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him, and took the fords of Jordan [the rivers {the words of devils} that have carried all men into the belly of hell] toward Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over.

The LORD, in Job 38:8, uses the word cakak to tell of when He “shut up” the sea, when it issued out of the womb. He says this is when He laid the foundation of the (new) earth, and when He laid the cornerstone, who is Christ with us and in us. He says this is when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Amen!

Job 38
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2 Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up now your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and answer you me.
4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding.
5 Who has laid the measures thereof, if you know? or who has stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Or who shut up [cakak] the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it [this says the LORD allowed the darkness, to protect us from ourselves until we reach a point of self-control – and then: “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, beside you, what he has prepared for him that waited for him”],
10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
11 And said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed?
12 Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
14 It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.
15 And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the high arm [ruwm zrowa’ – the power that lifts them] shall be broken.
16 Have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in the search of the depth?
17 Have the gates of death been opened unto you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
18 Have you perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if you know it all.

Psalms 5
1 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.
2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto you will I pray.
3 My voice shall you hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto you, and will look up.
4 For you are not a God that has pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with you.
5 The foolish shall not stand in your sight: you hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You shall destroy them that speak leasing [falsehood]: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
7 But as for me, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy: and in your fear will I worship toward your holy temple.
8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of mine enemies; make your way straight before my face.
9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulcher; they flatter with their tongue.
10 Destroy you them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all those that put their trust in you rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because you defend [cakak] them: let them also that love your name be joyful in you.
12 For you, LORD, will bless the righteous; with favor will you compass him as with a shield.

From 31 October 2015:
Apocalypse – Uncovering the Covering Waves

Continuing: understanding the “sanctuary” is one of the keys to seeing the origin of the great tribulation (troubles) in our time. Today we will begin with a deeper examination of the account of the LORD calming the sea, as recorded in Matthew 8:23 – 27. It is preceded by a quote from Isaiah 53:4 and followed by the account of casting the devils into the swine. The story of the swine ends with the LORD being asked to depart because of the damage he had done the source of income that came from the unclean animals. This is interconnected with the calming the sea in telling us not all will want the storms to be quelled. As we look further we will see this aspect become prominent, along with seeing the legions of demons being the origin of the storm of troubles. In the post before last we looked at the word translated “lukewarm” and used only one time (Revelation 3:16) describing the final church before it (the church) became a lifeless carcass (apostate replica). We looked at the Greek word translated as “lukewarm” being chliaros, with a metaphoric meaning said to be a condition of wretchedly fluctuating between stupor (torpor) and fervor of love. Being thrown back and forth is the condition of the man controlled by the legion of devils, and when he is among the tombs (the place where the dead are buried). Calming the waters is preceded in the verse prior by the command, “Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.”

When the story of the swine is told in the other Gospels the man is named Legion and defines himself as so because he is many. The city in these others is of the Gadarenes, and so because it is in the context of the nations; gad in Hebrew meaning to crowd, as in gathering into factions. In Matthew 8 the city is defined as Gergesene. The meaning is seen in the Greek word gerousia, translated as senate, and meaning elders, and used for the religious leaders.

These are all speaking in of the same vast picture, each being a single pixel in what is only seen when revealed (apokalupsis) to us by The Divine Painter. (I thank You, O Father, LORD of heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes.)

Matthew 8
22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
24 And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, LORD, save us: we perish.
26 And he says unto them, Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
27 But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!

Why are the nations (masses of people – the culture) likened to the sea? The word translated “sea” is the Greek word thalassa. The only definition given is that it is a prolonged version of hals, a primary word meaning salt. Further reason is seen in the word laos, meaning people as a generalized group. What we see in the context of our conversation is the “sea” spoken of as people who are salted (should be salted and lighted by). And we as Christians know well what the salt is.

Matthew 5
13 You are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

The passage above tells of those who are “blessed” and culminates after the LORD says, “11 Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

This is telling of our taking what is delivered unto us (in the sanctuary of His presence) into the world (see yesterday’s post). Have you experienced the above? When the Son of man comes will he find the faith found in the Centurion. Have we used the talents He has given us? The word “Centurion” is from the word hekatontarches. meaning, ruler over hundreds.

Matthew 24
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.

Matthew 13
23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that hears the word, and understands it; which also bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
37 He answered and said unto them, He that sows the good seed is the Son of man;
38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

The word translated “world” in telling of the “field” is kosmos, meaning the things that adorn the age (culture). The other two times the “world” is mentioned in telling of the end it is the word aion, meaning the age, and the word “end” is from sunteleia, literally meaning all things uniting in an intended completion.

The ship in Matthew 8 is the sanctuary separated from the nations. It is the ark (both) as patterning our taking the Holy things delivered to us to the nations (the veil torn so all can see the ark).

Revelation 11
15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our LORD, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
17 Saying, We give you thanks, O LORD God Almighty, which are, and wast, and are to come; because you have taken to you your great power, and have reigned.
18 And the nations were angry, and your wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward unto your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth.
19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightning, and voices, and thundering, and an earthquake, and great hail.

The word in Matthew 8:24 translated as “tempest” is seismos, and the word “great” is from megas. This is the only time seismos is translated as “tempest.” The other thirteen times it is used it is “earthquake.” The word seismos is from the word seio meaning to rock, as vibrating or agitation. It is the origin of the word seizure, as in the spasmodic behavior of Legion. This isn’t telling of a storm come from above (from God), but rather an agitation with its origin under the sea.

This “earthquake” is told of in Matthew 24:7 as being the agitation of the nations (people). And in Revelation 17:15 we see the water (then where the harlot sits) as the people.

Matthew 24
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

Revelation 17
15 And he said unto me, The waters which you saw, where the whore sit, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

The “waves” that cover the ship, the trashing demons who invade the sanctuary (our rest), are said to “cover” the ark(ship). The word used is kalupto, meaning cover. It is the word that tells of the cover that is removed in the apocalypse (apo, away + kalupto, cover). Removing the waves!

We are told of the waves by the word kuma, which is only used five times. It is used here, and in Matthew 14:24 telling of the LORD coming walking on the water, apart from the turmoil under it, as the ship is tossed by it. In Mark 4:37 it is used to tell of the same event as in Matthew 8.

The most descriptive use is in Jude verse 13 where it is used to warn of “certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only LORD God, and our LORD Jesus Christ.” Verse 13 says these are, “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.”

Jude
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the LORD comes with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speak great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our LORD Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.

When the final victory comes it is in seeing what comes from above and it overvaluing what is agitating the nations. That is what is said in Matthew 8:26 when it says, “Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.” The word “rebuked” here is epitimao. It is establishing His value as greater than what is coming from the agitation (epi, above or over + timao – to fix a value).

The one other time kuma is used is in Acts 27:41 in telling of the ship being destroyed as it is carrying Paul to Rome to be Judged and eventually killed. That ship is the church in its self-destruction. These ships are again spoken of in Revelation 18 as of the merchants who make their living by them (the den of thieves inhabiting the apostate replica) as Babylon is destroyed in one “hour.”

Acts 27 (the mainsail being hoisted is the picture of the LORD be raised up, in this “hour”)
33 And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that you have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
34 Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you.
35 And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat.
36 Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat.
37 And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls.
38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea.
39 And when it was day, they knew not the land: but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship.
40 And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore.
41 And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained un-moveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
42 And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
43 But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land:
44 And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.

Revelation 18
16 And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to naught. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
20 Rejoice over her, you heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets; for God has avenged you on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in you; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in you; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in you;
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in you; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in you: for your merchants were the great men of the earth; for by your sorceries were all nations deceived.
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

Revelation 11
15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our LORD, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
17 Saying, We give you thanks, O LORD God Almighty, which are, and was, and are to come; because you have taken to you your great power, and have reigned.
18 And the nations were angry, and your wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should give reward unto your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great; and should destroy them which destroy the earth.
19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightning, and voices, and thundering, and an earthquake, and great hail.

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

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

The sanctuary isn’t made with hands. The tribulation is.

Will you not from this time cry unto me, My father, you are the guide of my youth? Will He reserve his anger forever? will He keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you could.

Will you not from this time cry unto me, My father, you are the guide of my youth? Will He reserve his anger forever? will He keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you could.

The last part of the above verses, Jeremiah 3:4 & 5, the evil spoken and done, is speaking of the mark of the beast as we have seen it: ideas revealed in words spoken and works done, which show who you are listening to and following (the masters who own you). Verse 3 prefaces this saying, “Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; and you have a whore’s forehead, you refused to be ashamed.”

As we know, the shame that should be acknowledged is related to unfaithfulness to God, leaving Him to follow the ideas and advice of others. This results in disappointment when the unfaithful no longer “refuse” the evidence they’re experiencing and realize what was foretold by false prophets and false teachers has misled and deceived the world into chaos and mass misery. This is the context of the chapter: the unfaithfulness, the call to return and receive this latter rain, and the shame that inevitably occurs.

Hear the word of the LORD to His people (there is no salvation possible for those who refuse to hear it as it is, The Extemporaneous Word of God):

Jeremiah 3
1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says the LORD.
2 Lift up your eyes unto the high places, and see where you have not been lien with. In the ways have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your whoredoms and with your wickedness.
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; and you have a whore’s forehead [a mind marked by unfaithfulness], you refused to be ashamed.
4 Will you not from this time cry unto me, My father, you are the guide of my youth?
5 Will he reserve his anger forever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you could.
6 The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.
7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn you unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah [all her leaders] saw it.
8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly [“near in their mouth, and far from their reins” and “why call you me, LORD, LORD, and do not the things which I say?”], says the LORD.
11 And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, says the LORD, and I will not keep anger forever.
13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says the LORD.
14 Turn, O backsliding children, says the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16 And it shall come to pass, when you be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.
17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.
18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.
19 But I said, How shall I put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, You shall call me, My father; and shall not turn away from me.
20 Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.
21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.
22 Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto you; for you are the LORD our God.
23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.
24 For shame has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

Friends, there is no healthy shame among God’s people because they have all been told the idols they’ve followed are their God and that they are the faithful. Faithfulness to fables, the misleading and the deception you have been led into, isn’t salvation, logically and rationally because you are listing to and following someone other than Him, and you bear their mark, not His.

The word telling of this refusal to be ashamed, rendered “refused” in verse 3 above, in the Hebrew word ma’en, which next appears twice in Jeremiah 5:3.

Jeremiah 5
1 Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem [to gather information, and you will see the undeniable evidence], and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that executes judgment, that seeks the truth [they all seek to be accepted by those who have the mark of unfaithfulness]; and I will pardon it.
2 And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely. [Because “they committed adultery with stones and with stocks,” verse 9 above and referring back to Jeremiah 2:27, saying, “Saying to a stock, You are my father; and to a stone, You have brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.”]
3 O LORD, are not your eyes upon the truth? you have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused [ma’em] to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused [ma’en] to return.
4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
7 How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
9 Shall I not visit for these things? says the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 Go you up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’s.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, says the LORD.
12 They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.
14 Wherefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, says the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, neither understands what they say.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulcher, they are all mighty men.
17 And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat: they shall eat up your flocks and your herds: they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees: they shall impoverish your fenced cities, wherein you trusted, with the sword.
18 Nevertheless in those days, says the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.
19 And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Wherefore does the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shall you answer them, Like as you have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
22 Fear you not me? says the LORD: will you not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
23 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserves unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
29 Shall I not visit for these things? says the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end thereof?

So, His question to you is, “How long will you refuse to return? How long will you keep the mask of your mark covering up His presence in the man of God, who is the voice of His presence? When will you reveal His salvation to the world?”

1 Kings 20
34 And Ben-hadad [the children of the mighty – whose ways and ideas have deceived God’s people and the world] said unto him, The cities, which my father took from your father, I will restore; and you shall make streets for you in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send you away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away. [He made a deal with the devil who showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and said, “All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” This is the devil loosed, the son of perdition, who the LORD has “appointed to utter destruction.”]
35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbor in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray you. And the man refused [ma’en] to smite him [this is the smiting of the Rock, the word nakah used in Exodus 17:6 & 7 telling of when Moses “smote” the rivers of Egypt and turned them to blood, and then when he was told by the LORD to “smite the rock” from where His word flowed].
36 Then said he unto him, Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as you are departed from me, a lion shall slay you. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him [because he refuse the word, the advice of the LORD].
37 Then he found another man, and said, Smite [nakah] me, I pray you. And the man smote [nakah] him, so that in smiting [nakah] he wounded him [the sacrifice {the cross} required to deliver the word of God as received].
38 So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with ashes [666 – ‘apher – the cloth covering, the mask of deception {ignorance of the word of God that came when they left Him}] upon his face.
39 And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he said, Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man [keep the son of perdition bound]: if by any means he be missing, then shall your life be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver [you shall pay the price of this betrayal of trust].
40 And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall your judgment be; yourself have decided it.
41 And he hasted, and took the ashes [He removed the mask, the mark {666} of the beast, the veil of man’s reoccurring ignorance and deception covering the LORD’s identity, and we see Him face to face] away from his face; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets.
42 And he said unto him, Thus says the LORD, Because you have let go out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction [the son of perdition, who when up into his father place], therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.

2 Corinthians 3
11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious.
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 [marking confusion] 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 [the mask covering the LORD open face] shall be taken away.
17 Now the LORD is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty [freedon from these oppressors and their misleading].
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 [understanding] 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 works in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the LORD Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

The word “wounded” above in 1 Kings 20:37 is the three times used word patsa’, which is referring us to it appearing in Song of Solomon 5:7.

Song of Solomon 5
1 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.
2 I sleep, but my heart wakes: it is the voice of my beloved that knocks, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
3 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.
5 I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.
6 I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spoke: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
7 The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded [patsa’] me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him, that I am sick of love.
9 What is your beloved more than another beloved, O you fairest among women? what is your beloved more than another beloved, that you do so charge us?
10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chief among ten thousand.
11 His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.
12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.
13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
14 His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
16 His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

The “watchmen” and the “keepers” above, those who both wounded the LORD and then take away the veil covering Him, are both from the same Hebrew word shamar, descriptively and contextually meaning, “to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc.”

So, I ask you, “How long will you refuse to open your mouths?”

Proverbs 1
22 How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
24 Because I have called, and you refused [ma’en]; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25 But you have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;
27 When your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish comes upon you.
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33 But whoso hearkens unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

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

The word shamar is the word, in Jeremiah 3:5, rendered “keep” when asking if the LORD will hold back His anger forever. The question is answered in Jeremiah 5:24 where shamar is translated “reserves,” saying it comes in when God’s people realize and say, “Let us now fear the LORD our God, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserves unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”

This time of the LORD’s anger, the appointed time of the harvest, is what Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4:26 when we are to “be angry and sin not.” It is also what Jude tells of as he quotes Enoch.

Ephesians 4
9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the LORD, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That you put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
26 Be you angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed [marked] unto the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be you kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.

Jude
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the LORD comes with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember you the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our LORD Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our LORD Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23 And others save with fear, pulling [harpazo] them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25 To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Isaiah 62
1 For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns.
2 And the Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory: and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
3 You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah: for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.
5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you: and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
6 I have set watchmen [shamar – who will call for the gate to be opened] upon your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: you that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,
7 And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8 The LORD has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give your corn to be meat for your enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink your wine, for the which you have labored:
9 But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness.
10 Go through, go through the gates; prepare you the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
11 Behold, the LORD has proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
12 And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and you shall be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.

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

The mask (the face covering) is an open exhibition of the “mark” of the beast!

The mask (the face covering) is an open exhibition of the “mark” of the beast!

As we know, the “beast” is Babylon, a name meaning confusion, and a Biblical place noted for trying to build a tower that would take man into heaven (a man created utopia). The name is first rendered Babel (Genesis 10:10), and is from the Hebrew root word balal, meaning “to overflow (specifically with oil.); by implication, to mix; also (denominatively from 1098) to fodder.”

These meanings are telling of when the word of man, as the “swelling of Jordan,” overflow the set boundaries of propriety: when known untruths are mixed with truth and confusion results. The idea of fodder (bliyl) is as what is consumed: the messages men corrupt (defile) for their self-centered purposes, which are the cause of the confusion. The word bliyl only appears three times, Job 6:5 & 24:6 in telling of the words (as “fodder” and “corn”) that are the source of Job’s problems, and Isaiah 30:24 as the clean (undefiled) “provender” that is produced when the LORD’s latter rain, His teaching, comes. It says this is after we, God’s people, defile the “covering” of the idols put in God’s place, and put it behind us (saying “get you hence,” a phrase used {by the LORD in Matthew 4:10} to rebuke Satan).

Job 6
2 Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together [Oh that there was right judgment in the world and bring an understanding of the cause of these troubles]!
3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up [because there is no judgment].
4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me [the false accusation of the wicked], the poison [from their mouths] whereof drinks up my spirit: the terrors [bi’uwthoym – only appears one other time, in Psalms 88:16, saying, “Your fierce wrath goes over me; your terrors have cut me off {from the living}] of God do set themselves in array against me.
5 Does the wild ass bray when he has grass [or when he has nothing living growing on the earth to eat, because the latter rain has been held back]? or loweth [make noise with his mouth] the ox over his fodder [bliyl]?
6 Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
7 The things that my soul refused to touch [the unsavory and tasteless words of men who’ve consumed and speak confusion] are as my sorrowful meat.

Job 24
1 Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?
2 Some remove the landmarks [the mark that show the boundaries]; they violently [with their deceptions] take away flocks, and feed thereof [all the people of the earth, and devour them for their own self-centered reasons].
3 They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4 They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.
5 Behold, as wild asses in the desert [who has no life-giving {words} food to eat], go they forth to their work; rising betimes [before this time] for a prey: the wilderness yields food for them and for their children.
6 They reap everyone his corn [bliyl – the food {lies mixed with truth} of confusion] in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
7 They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. [They are without the LORD’S covering, the words of His mouth, by which only does man live – Deuteronomy 8:1 All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers. 2 And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, 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 you know not that it is the word from God’s mouth}, 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.]
8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock [the false salvation – in which men in vain put their trust] for want of a shelter.
9 They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge [money] of the poor.
10 They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;
11 Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst [this is the way of the misleaders of the world, who promise their ways will satisfy, while the result is they never produce anything, other than more false promises].
12 Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded cries out: yet God lays not folly to them.
13 They are of those that rebel against the light [God’s understanding that comes from His mouth]; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
14 The murderer rising with the light [the liar saying he has understanding] kills the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief [by the ignorance his lies produce he robs the poor and now all the world of an abundant life]. [John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.]
15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight waits until all men are covering by the ignorance his lies have produced], saying, No eye shall see me: and disguises [masks] his face.
16 In the dark [ignorance] they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light [they have no understanding – and their ways of deception are lies meant to take away yours].
17 For the morning [their new day – the utopia they create] is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them [if a person understands this, he sees], they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
18 He is swift as the waters [sinking into the earth, as into a grave]; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholds not the way of the vineyards.
19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters [these men without God’s word, without understanding, hold back the soothing waters that do come]: so does the grave those which have sinned.
20 The womb shall forget him [the wicked]; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.
21 [Because] He evil entreats the barren that bears not: and does not good to the widow.
22 He draws also the mighty with his power: he rises up, and no man is sure of life.
23 Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he rests; yet his [the LORD’s] eyes are upon their ways.
24 They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
25 And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?

Matthew 4
8 Again, the devil took him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9 And said unto him, All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me.
10 Then says Jesus unto him, Get you hence, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the LORD your God, and him only shall you serve.
11 Then the devil left him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

The “mark,” from the Greek word charagma, meaning “a scratch or etching, i.e. stamp (as a badge of servitude), or sculptured figure (statue).” It is used nine times, eight or them in the book of Revelation rendered “mark.” It isn’t used to tell of the “mark” upon those faithful to God, only of those following the beast.

It is speaking of servitude, who you belong to, as displayed in words that portray whose ideas you agree with and therefore also exhibit them in the resulting actions. The mark of the beast is speaking of the ideas of Babylon (confusion – the mark in your forehead) that are inspiring your words and the things you do (confusion marking your hand). It is also a mark of blindness, a lack of foresight, unable to think in the abstract, or understand these same ideas are leading to perdition.

The one time charagma is used outside of Revelation it is in Acts 17:29 as Paul is on Mars’ hill admonishing those who are ignorant of God. It is there rendered “graven” in telling of this ignorance as a result of men thinking God is something created (‘graven) by men. They are also ignorant of the fact that He is here with us and has always been. He says this time of ignorance, which God winked at (saying “I got this”), would continue until this resurrection, now, when God’s judgment is upon the world and His word is heard from the man of His choosing (I AM).

Acts 17
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, You men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious.
23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore you ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is LORD of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands [He dwells in human flesh, eternally with us];
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he gives to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the LORD, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven [charagma] by art and man’s device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men every where to repent:
31 Because he has appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear you again of this matter.

Friends, the mark (the charagma) is following the creation of men, the confusion they use to force the world to mark itself as owned by them. The mask is just such a mark, the covering that hides the face of confusion. The LORD’s mark is the open face, understand that uncover Him and His people. Ask the wise men of this world, your preacher, your teachers, any leaders, if this is the time and if this is the way, and they will tell you absolutely not. In this, they mark themselves as confused and disqualified to lead God’s people.

Here is what Revelation says of the beast when first mentioning this mark:

Revelation 13
16 And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark [to wear a face cover to show who owns them] in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark [unless you wear the cover], or the name of the beast [confusion], or the number [arithmos – a numeric definition] of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man [Anthropos – a man’s face]; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

The definition of the “mark” is the number (airthmos – the numeric definition) of confusion that covers the man’s face. In the Strong’s Greek Dictionary, number 666 is the one time used word apousia, meaning to be absent. It’s one time use is in Philippians 2:12 as we are told this is a time when Paul is absent, during which he tells us to, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” He is speaking of when there is no man like-minded, with Him or with Christ, and we should therefore not be following other men, until Timothy, who is like-minded, comes. This time has been until now absent just leadership.

1 Corinthians 13
11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious.
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 [marking confusion] 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 [the mask covering the LORD open face] shall be taken away.
17 Now the LORD is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty [freedon from these oppressors and their misleading].
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.

1 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 [understanding] 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 works in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the LORD Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

Philippians 2
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence [apousia], work out [exercise – the LORD’s power in you] your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and disputing:
15 That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world;
16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.
17 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.
18 For the same cause also do you joy, and rejoice with me.
19 But I trust in the LORD Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.
20 For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.
21 For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.
22 But you know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he has served with me in the gospel.
23 Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.

The Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary number 666 is ‘apher, meaning a cover (cloth bandages), from the word ‘epher, meaning worthless (ashes). The word ‘apher is only used twice, both times in telling of a mask with which a prophet disguised himself, first, in 1 Kings 17:38, put on, and then, in verse 41, removed.

Isaiah 30
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12 Wherefore thus 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 a 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 [qowl] 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 [mask] of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as a menstruous cloth [the mask covered in blood]; 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 [bliyl – words cleansed of their corruption], 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 [shem – the identifying mark] 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 [qowl] to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice [qowl] of the LORD shall the Assyrian [the communists] 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.

These ideas describe the mark as confusion (now delusion) visibly manifested (by words intentionally spoken to deceive and mislead), by which the world is now ruled.

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

In that day shall your mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and you shall speak, and be no more dumb: and you shall be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

In that day shall your mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and you shall speak, and be no more dumb: and you shall be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Today a discussion of how the enemies mixed among us, do and have, led all the world, including God’s people in church and state, into confusion now turned mass delusion, resulting in a conundrum without a solution, because it’s not yet accepted to be chaos in hell.

As many who’ve studied along here know, I’ve often discussed the simplicity of problem-solving, reduced to three steps, which I’ve learned through experience. They are, first, accurately identify and assess the problem, second, develop a solution that appropriately addresses it, and third, implement the solution and remain vigilant to assure it doesn’t reoccur.

It is this simplicity the enemy twists and perverts, to subvert the solution because if there is a solution there is peace. In the lasting peace of a sound and well-founded mind, no agitation can be used to manipulate and control people into doing the evil will of those attempting to incite them.

The perpetrators of such incitement, the princes of agitation, with all the subtlety of a serpent in a garden, accomplish their subversion through first falsely accusing the motives of those who have properly assessed the problem. If they are unsuccessful in undermining the first step, they do it in the second (maligning the “appropriate” solution), and if failing there, they attack, discourage, and demonize the implementation, while also discouraging and degrading it’s continued success.

Of course, we think all men are endowed with sufficient intellect to recognize this (con job) as it’s occurring, which brings us to the realization of the subtle conditioning that allows it. These men, in church and state, mask their conquest in claims of caring and brotherly love, telling the victims, their future slaves, how much their lives matter to them. These controllers, whether in the NFL, NASCAR, or the church, use their redefinition of “love” to bring into, or back under, their control. These men care nothing about the condition, neither do they care about an “appropriate solution,” while covering (all their past failures in achieving such) with more of their false brotherly love.

These men, day after day, tell of all the good they see as their pawns make others momentarily comfortable in the failures and collapse caused by their past policies and practices. I give you the result of their control as the overwhelming evidence against them. I know the way of peace, and it isn’t to make you feel good in your demise.

Friends, the LORD has chosen and sent me to fix this, and in His strength and by His good judgement, I will. Understand this is the moment of decision – when all men of good faith and pure intention must repent and change. They must relinquish their control over the minds of those who follow them and with me follow only the LORD. What I know, because I also know evil and the ways of those (swelled with pride in their ability to deceive and mislead) who inflict it upon humanity, is they will not surrender it peacefully. They are going to destroy the world become without form and void, leaving only the ruin upon which the LORD will build a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.

Today’s title verse is Ezekiel 24:27, from a passage wherein the LORD is speaking of this time of His judgment when His strength returns to men who receive Him, His assessment, and with Him implement of the appropriate solution. His strength is what will take us through the fiery darts of false accusation and demonization, by His truth exercising (working out) the blinding subtleties by which all the world has been taken captive and is enslaved. This is the time of the light overcoming the darkness, understanding removing ignorance, strength replacing weakness; when the LORD GOD Almighty supplants man as the just authority guiding the world – into eternity.

Hear the word of the LORD, His assessment of the condition, and his solution that comes with His good judgment bringing the return of His strength in those leading His people. Receive His love, His strength willing to take the fiery darts of the wicked, to show to man His good and His mercy, which are the marks (the shem, His name) that identify Him.

Revelation 19
9 And he said unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See you do it not: I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy [is the Spirit of Jehovah’s salvation speaking through us].
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he does judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself [I know the mark of His identity and I thereby know He is alive and present in me].
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God [this is the point, until you recognize His presence, marked by His word, and acknowledge Him and act accordingly].
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean [those who realize the day, and His presence].
15 And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword [this Word of God], that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron [the strength of God that cannot be overcome]: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God [there is no strength, no power, greater than Him].
16 And he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And LORD Of Lords.
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
18 That you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

Ezekiel 24
2 Son of man, write you the name [shem – the marks that identify this day] of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem [when confusion set itself against the peace that flows from God’s teaching] this same day.
3 And utter a parable unto the rebellious house [an assessment they will not understand, because they are a rebellious people, who have refused to hear the LORD], and say unto them, Thus says the LORD God; Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it:
4 Gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones.
5 Take the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under it, and make it boil well, and let them seethe the bones of it therein.
6 Wherefore thus says the LORD God; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it.
7 For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust;
8 That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered.
9 Therefore thus says the LORD God; Woe to the bloody city! I will even make the pile for fire great.
10 Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned.
11 Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot, and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed.
12 She has wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her: her scum shall be in the fire.
13 In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged you, and you were not purged, you shall not be purged from your filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon you.
14 I the LORD have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to your ways, and according to your doings, shall they judge you, says the LORD God.
15 Also the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
16 Son of man, behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke: yet neither shall you mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run down.
17 Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of your head upon you, and put on your shoes upon your feet, and cover not your lips, and eat not the bread of men.
18 So I spoke unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.
19 And the people said unto me, Will you not tell us what these things are to us, that you do so?
20 Then I answered them, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
21 Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus says the LORD God; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left shall fall by the sword.
22 And you shall do as I have done: you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
23 And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.
24 Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he has done shall you do: and when this comes, you shall know that I am the LORD God.
25 Also, you son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters,
26 That he that escapes in that day shall come unto you, to cause you to hear it with your ears?
27 In that day shall your mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and you shall speak, and be no more dumb: and you shall be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

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

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.
14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
15 See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.

The marriage spoken of above is God’s people joining Him, by joining one to another, in one body. Hebrews 13 speaks of letting “brotherly love continue,” which we know is from the word Philadelphia. It goes on to say marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled, which is referring us to Reuben, who is the pattern of the son of perdition, the bothers among us who perish, “whose end shall be according to their works,” as it is written in 2 Corinthians 11:15 above.

Hebrews 13
1 Let brotherly love continue.
2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares [the LORD’s messengers, referring to the one speaking, whose voice Hebrews 12 ends saying is shaking the world to shake the wicked from it, who is as God {Michael}, whose words are an all-consuming fire].
3 Remember them that are in bonds [bound to the LORD by a vow of fidelity], as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
4 Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers [those who buy and sell men’s souls] and adulterers [those who’ve been unfaithful] God will judge.
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.
9 Be not carried about with [subtlety into] divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats [that which the wicked covet], which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

This definition of Reuben in found in Genesis 49, saying he defiled his father’s bed, taking his place with his wife. As we’ve therein seen, this leads to the violence of Simeon and Levi, which we know speaks of their misleading all God’s people. We know this is, in fact and in pattern, referring to what is recorded in Genesis 34, when Simeon and Levi killed those who were at peace with them. It says it happened in Shechem (shoulder and back – a burden), where they killed Hamor (he-ass – carrying the burden) who had taken their sister Dinah (judgment) for a wife.

This telling of when the son of perdition, in the pattern of Satan in the garden, went into His father’s wife, and by subtlety led her away from the simplicity that is found in Christ (God in man, as a faithful husband and father). The resulting loss of good judgment becomes the burden that brings dishonor upon God’s people, and the murder of those wanting to live in peace.

The following is from the post of 13 December 2019:

Malachi 2
16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates putting away: for one covers violence with his garment, says the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that you deal not treacherously.
17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, Wherein have we wearied him? When you say, Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

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

Malachi 4
1 For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name [shem – my presence] 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 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.

The Hebrew word rendered “violence,” in Malachi 2:16 above, is chamac. It is first used in Genesis 6:11 & 13 to tell of the “violence” that filled the earth and caused the flood.

Genesis 6
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence [chamac].
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence [chamac] through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make you an ark of gopher wood; rooms shall you make in the ark, and shall pitch it within and without with pitch [to keep the waters out].

The resulting event is what Peter mentions in 2 Peter 3, saying by the word of God they were overflowed and perished. He says the present heaven and earth will end by the same word, as fire, in the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Peter says these same ungodly men are ignorant of this, and that it is the coming of the LORD as a thief in the night (in the darkness of men’s ignorance).

2 Peter 3
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition [apoleia] of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The LORD is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements [stoicheion – these men’s corrupt ideas and ways] shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements [stoicheion] shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.

The word chamac is rendered “cruelty” in Genesis 49:5, there telling of it in the habitations of Simeon and Levi.

Genesis 49
1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
2 Gather yourselves together, and hear, you sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.
3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
4 Unstable [pachaz – ebullition] as water [this tells of the advice of the serpent, as one of God’s children, with unbridled license, recklessly reinterpreting His word], you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed [went into the women – God’s people who have His words]; then defiled you it: he went up to my couch [took God’s place].
5 Simeon and Levi are brethren [names meaning, those hearing and joining this teaching that replace God’s]; instruments of cruelty [chamac] are in their habitations.
6 O my soul, come not you into their secret [their hidden counsel]; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not you united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall [by this they brought death on all man, and removed the protection found in the garden].
7 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel [speaking of the continual scattering of God’s people into many sects].

The word (chamac) next appears once in Exodus, in Exodus 23:1 where it’s speaking of an “unrighteous” witness, then once in Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy 19:16, where it is a “false” witness, and then once in Judges, in Judges 9:24, in telling of the “cruelty” done by Abimelech the son of Gideon, which was the murder of his seventy brothers so he could be king.

In this we see the violence that is covered, by those who have left the truth, their first love, spoken of in Malachi 2:15 thru 17, is false witness and the cruelty of murder, as described by the LORD in John 8:44.

Friends, I ask you, are these not as the days of Noah? They are, and therefore I ask you again to come out from among these violent men, and enter the kingdom of heaven, so I can shut the door.

Luke 17
24 For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
25 But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

The word chamac is the word used in Isaiah 53:9 to tell of the LORD doing no “violence,” a passage quoted by Peter in 1 Peter 2:22.

Isaiah 52
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that does speak: behold, it is I.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that says unto Zion, Your God reigns!
8 Your watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart you, depart you, go you out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
12 For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your reward.
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
14 As many were astonished at you; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

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

1 Peter 2
21 For even hereunto were you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps:
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judges righteously:
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.
25 For you were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

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

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