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What is the plan of God – the instructions to the children of God, His children of light (understanding)?

What is the plan of God – the instructions to the children of God, His children of light (understanding)?
 
The answer is the Jubilee, the forgiveness of all sin debt (and we will be forgiven as we forgive.)
 
Matthew 6
9 After this manner therefore pray you: Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For your is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15 But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
 
Hebrews 6
1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this will we do, if God permit.
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God:
8 But that which bears thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shewed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
12 That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men truly swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil;
20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
 
When Hebrews 6 begins by speaking of our going on into perfection, and then ends by saying this is our following the forerunner, Jesus, who is MADE a high priest after the order of Melchisedec, it is describing Jehovah’s Salvation risen to lead us into perfection by this Jubilee. As we have seen, Hebrews 6:14 describes this time by quoting Genesis 22:17, which tell of this blessing coming because Abraham obeyed the voice of the LORD. We are now able to read these verse again and understand their deeper meaning ((Thank You Father!!))
 
Genesis 22
17 That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.
 
The above is describing what we have read in Job 38:7; the LORD there before speaking of when He laid the foundation of the earth and the cornerstone thereof. We know these descriptions from verse 6 are of Christ: God in man bringing His plan to fruition; verse 7 then telling of when it exponentially explodes into a flash of understanding. It is when all the stars of heaven rise to light, “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”
 
The LORD further describing them in Genesis 22:17, says they will be “as the sands which is upon the sea shore.” He is referring us to Jonah 2: 7 thru 10 and our now understanding this is when we will see (re-cognize) Him again. “7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple. 8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. 10 And the LORD spoke unto the fish [the confusion], and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land [and he was “as the sand which is upon the sea shore”].
 
The LORD continues by telling us this is when we will possess the gates of the enemies (the gates [belly] of hell), closed as a prison, as if in the whale’s belly and holding us in down (katecho) in the darkness of their ignorance and confusion.
 
Jonah 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and you heard my voice.
3 For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all your billows and your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
 
Genesis 1
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was [hayah – became] without form [tohuw – confusion], and void [bohuw – emptiness]; and darkness [confusion] was upon the face of the deep [confusion covered the surface so the deep understanding wasn’t seen]. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters [moved on His word so what was below the surface could be seen].
3 And God said, Let there be light [understanding]: and there was light [understanding].
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day [called this understanding the first day], and the darkness [confusion] he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament [a great expansion – exposition] in the midst of the waters [the words of the earth], and let it divide the waters [words of truth] from the waters [words of error and intentional lies].
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament [the words of the world – the error and lies] from the waters which were above the firmament [the words of truth]: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven [where the words are divided by God’s judgment]. And the evening and the morning were the second day [the second understanding].
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear [where the word of God’s truth isn’t heard]: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas [where all the rivers [waters below] of the earth flow – into the people]: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth [the places where the word of God isn’t heard] bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself [all the nation in whom God has not put life by His word – as He did with Adam], upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day [this is the third understanding].
 
The first blessing is our release from the prison, the second blessing is upon all the nations of the world – those who don’t know God but by our understanding and His Spirit in us are taught by Him and will know Him.
 
Jeremiah 31
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more [the Jubilee].
 
Genesis 1 next describes the plan to enlighten (bless) the nation by the two great lights in the heavens. “14 And God said, Let there be lights [understanding] in the firmament [among those who are advising/leading] of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light [understanding] upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light [understanding] to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night [to rule over those who are without understanding]: he made the stars also [in the context of their mention here above]. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.”
 
We know these lights are the sun, which represents the church government, and the moon, which represents civil government; both meant to shine and reflect God’s understanding on earth through right and just rule. The sun is meant to rule those who have understanding, been taught God’s way of peace and civility and thereby govern themselves in/by this light. The moon is there to deal with those (foreign and domestic) who don’t have an understanding and therefore don’t self-govern. These children of darkness are the disrupters of the peace and disturbers of civilization, and are therefore in need of correction, and if incorrigible, must be separated from the law-abiding.
 
Now, in this evil time, there is a total abandoning of these ideas and principles, and thereby all peace and civilization are in an accelerated state of degrading [the bottomless pit]. These better ideas must be restored, and the quickening to life and understanding is the way, which must necessarily include a separation from those who under them refuse to live.
 
These are the ideas illuminated in Isaiah 61.
 
Isaiah 61
1 The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.
6 But you shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves.
7 For your shame you shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.
8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the LORD God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
 
Friends, the LORD has sent me to preach these ideas of eternal value. My life and mission are in the order of Melchisedec, following the LORD who is the forerunner, the Prince of peace, and the King of righteousness, the light in the sun and the moon.
 
The first blessing Abraham receives is from Melchizedek, Christ in Him blessing so all the world would be blessed.
 
Genesis 14
18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine [this same communion feast we have taken part in – giving the knowledge of God]: and he was the priest of the most high God.
19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
20 And blessed be the most high God, which has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to yourself.
22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom [those causing the fires], I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
23 That I will not take from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, and that I will not take any thing that is your, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich:
 
Hebrews 7
1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;
2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace;
3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abides a priest continually.
4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
5 And truly they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:
6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises.
7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.
 
Hebrews 7 continues with describing that there must be another to rise in this order, by Christ who lives forever in him. It says this is by the oath, that makes the son, who is consecrated forever. The word “consecrated” is from the Greek word teleioo, a form of the word telos, which means to reach the goal, the target at which we aim. It is describing the completion (perfection) of us is to be called the sons (children) of God, His priests, kings of His peace, kings of His righteousness, in the order of Melchisedec.
 
Isaiah 8
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion.
 
Hebrews 7
15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there arises another priest,
16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
17 For he testifies, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
18 For there is truly a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw near unto God.
20 And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest:
21 (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The LORD swore and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)
22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
23 And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
24 But this man, because he continues ever, has an unchangeable priesthood.
25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.
26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
27 Who needs not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
28 For the law makes men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, makes the Son, who is consecrated [teleioo] for evermore.
 
We know from Hebrews 5 that the oaths spoken of are first from Psalms 2:7 telling of the LORD declaring His son, and then Psalms 110:4 declaring Him a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
 
Hebrews 5
4 And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
5 So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, You are my Son, to day have I begotten you [Psalms 2:7].
6 As he says also in another place, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec [Psalms 110:4].
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect, he became the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him;
10 Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
 
Friends, the LORD started our day today in a book titled The Dead Sea Scrolls In English (Revised and Extended Fourth Edition), by Geza Vermes. It is a book I bought and read years ago, and have only looked at occasionally since. One of my sons was curious and took it off the shelf, and happened to leave in on my work table.
 
One of the many Scrolls therein is titled The Heavenly Prince Melchizedek. It is a prophesy written by an unknown author, inspired (breathed) by God, and kept for two thousand years unseen in a cave in Qumran, until it was unearthed 70 years ago.
 
Here is the full book cut and pasted as it appears at gnosis.org.
 
The Coming of Melchizedek
11Q13
Col.2
 
(…) And concerning what Scripture says, “In this year of Jubilee you shall return, everyone of you, to your property” (Lev. 25;13) And what is also written; “And this is the manner of the remission; every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because God’s remission has been proclaimed” (Deut.15;2) the interpretation is that it applies to the Last Days and concerns the captives, just as Isaiah said: “To proclaim the Jubilee to the captives” (Isa. 61;1) (…) just as (…) and from the inheritance of Melchizedek, for (… Melchizedek) , who will return them to what is rightfully theirs. He will proclaim to them the Jubilee, thereby releasing them from the debt of all their sins. He shall proclaim this decree in the first week of the jubilee period that follows nine jubilee periods.
 
Then the “Day of Atonement” shall follow after the tenth jubilee period, when he shall atone for all the Sons of Light, and the people who are predestined to Melchizedek. (…) upon them (…) For this is the time decreed for the “Year of Melchizedek`s favor”, and by his might he will judge God’s holy ones and so establish a righteous kingdom, as it is written about him in the Songs of David; “A godlike being has taken his place in the council of God; in the midst of divine beings he holds judgment”
 
(Ps. 82;1). Scripture also says about him ; “Over it take your seat in the highest heaven; A divine being will judge the peoples” (Ps. 7;7-8) Concerning what scripture says; “How long will you judge unjustly, and show partiality with the wicked? Selah” (Ps. 82;2), the interpretation applies to Belial and the spirits predestined to him, because all of them have rebelled, turning from God’s precepts and so becoming utterly wicked. Therefore Melchizedek will thoroughly prosecute the vengeance required by God’s statutes. Also, he will deliver all the captives from the power of Belial, and from the power of all the spirits destined to him. Allied with him will be all the “righteous divine beings”(Isa. 61;3).
 
(The …) is that whi(ch …all) the divine beings. The visitation is the Day of Salvation that He has decreed through Isaiah the prophet concerning all the captives, inasmuch as Scripture says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion “Your divine being reigns”.” (Isa. 52;7) This scriptures interpretation: “the mountains” are the prophets, they who were sent to proclaim God’s truth and to prophesy to all Israel. “The messengers” is the Anointed of the spirit, of whom Daniel spoke; “After the sixty-two weeks, an Anointed shall be cut off” (Dan. 9;26) The “messenger who brings good news, who announces Salvation” is the one of whom it is written; “to proclaim the year of the LORD`s favor, the day of the vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn” (Isa. 61;2)
 
This scripture’s interpretation: he is to instruct them about all the periods of history for eternity (… and in the statutes) of the truth. (…) (…. dominion) that passes from Belial and returns to the Sons of Light (….) (…) by the judgment of God, just as it is written concerning him; “who says to Zion “Your divine being reigns” (Isa. 52;7) “Zion” is the congregation of all the sons of righteousness, who uphold the covenant and turn from walking in the way of the people. “Your divine being” is Melchizedek, who will deliver them from the power of Belial. Concerning what scripture says, “Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; in the seventh month . . . ” (Lev. 25;9)
 
Friends, this is our time to rise and shine. We have a baptism to be baptized with; and how are we straitened till it be accomplished!
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.
 
Psalms 110
1 The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.
2 The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule you in the midst of your enemies.
3 Your people shall be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: you have the dew of your youth.
4 The LORD has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
5 The LORD at your right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
6 He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.
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But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should shew forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should shew forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
 
Friends, as we saw in the prior post, Nehemiah, his name meaning Jehovah’s comfort, is the pattern of the Holy Spirit coming near. The mission is to call us out of ignorance, to rebuild the wall and the city upon the only Faithful and True foundation, which is Christ: God with us and in us.
 
The word rendered “called” above (1 Peter 2:9 & 10) is the Greek word kaleo, from where comes the word parakaleo, adding para, meaning beside or near, the final form meaning called near.
 
Here is the Strong’s Greek Dictionary definition: #3870: parakaleo (pronounced par-ak-al-eh’-o) from 3844 and 2564; to call near, i.e. invite, invoke (by imploration, hortation or consolation):–beseech, call for, (be of good) comfort, desire, (give) exhort(-ation), intreat, pray.
Another more refined form of this calling is understood in the word parakletos (Paraclete), which we know is translated Comforter, the name the LORD uses to describe His Holy Spirit, who He said He would send to lead us into all truth.
 
John 14
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter [Parakletos], that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you see me: because I live, you shall live also.
20 At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21 He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas [Judah, not the leaders who betrayed Him] said unto him, not Iscariot, LORD, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loves me not keeps not my sayings: and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
26 But the Comforter [Parakletos], which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
 
Kletos appear to be related to the one time used word ketos, which is the “whale’s” belly, as in the earth where the LORD says He will be until we see Him again. We know ketos is from the word chasm, also a one time used word translated “gulf” in describing the great unpassable distance between heaven and the fires of Hades. We have in previous studied seen this chasm is the great open mouths of those who are agitating the masses (the sea), which also cause the fires that are melting away their foundational ideas. Adding the letter “L” appears in context to represent the Greek word luo, meaning to be loosed (from the whale’s belly and the gulf {Sheol} as was Jonah) and also meaning to melt. (See the word apoluo rendered “liberty” in Hebrews 13:23. The calling is to be liberated from corruption.)
 
Luo is the word Peter uses in 2 Peter 3:10 rendered “melt” and in verses 11 & 12 as “dissolved:” first telling of the element (the stoicheion – foundational principles), which we know are the ideas of corrupted men; then of the old heaven and earth and the works of these men. This melting is also what turns the solidified waters again into liquid, so they again flow from within those in whom they are frozen – as if held in a Rock, “reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
 
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 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 shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our LORD is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
 
Friends, you are the called and chosen, those who God has chosen to make His first-fruits. You are His elect remnant, those who have not been defiled by the unfaithfulness of false prophets and false teachers, and it is for your sake the LORD has appeared (made Himself conspicuously apparent ending the temptation). Revelation 3:10 Because you have kept [see John 14:23 above] the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
 
Matthew 24
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be [as understanding into people’s minds].
28 For wheresoever the carcass is [the dead body – in Sheol – as was Jonah], there will the eagles be gathered together.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken [all understanding shall be realized as darkened in these people and the institutions of church and state government]:
30 And then shall appear the sign [the light {understanding} spoken of in verse 27 above] of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves [as if a carcass putting forth new life after a time without it], you know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise you, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. [Know that life {the Spirit of God} has come near, and is knocking to enter your dead body.]
34 Truly I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
36 But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken [away as with the flood], and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken [away as with the flood], and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your LORD does come.
43 But know this, that if the good-man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his LORD has made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his LORD when he comes shall find so doing.
47 Truly I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My LORD delays his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken [with the wicked whose minds are stupefied {intoxicated} by what they are still consuming];
50 The LORD of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder [take them away, as with the flood], and appoint him his portion [his allotted place] with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 
The one who calls is Jesus Christ, meaning Jehovah’s Salvation appearing in our human body. We know many are called with this same calling, but only a few are chosen. The calling is to holiness, and doing (coming out from under these men’s ideas and instead choosing to listen to the LORD) is why the LORD chooses us as His dwelling place (see 1 Peter 1:16 below).
 
1 Peter 1
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations [the temptation to not believe this is God’s presence]:
7 That the trial [the proof in the experience] of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
8 Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
15 But as he which has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation;
16 Because it is written, Be you holy; for I am holy. [See Leviticus 11:44 where it in a pattern tells us the advice we eat is what defiles our mind.]
17 And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judges according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:
18 Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
19 But with the precious blood [the sacrifice {to renew our minds in holiness – and to enter our dead bodies giving His life for ours}] of Christ, as of a lamb [pure and perfect] without blemish and without spot:
20 Who truly was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever.
24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away:
25 But the word of the LORD endures for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
 
These last verses are quoted from Isaiah 40:6 thru 8. The chapter ends telling of those who are left: not taken away by the flood the LORD speaks of in Matthew 24 above and explains ending Matthew 7. Those left standing are those who haven’t followed or led as false prophets, but have heard these sayings of the LORD and have done them – purifying themselves as He is pure. Those who are left standing are the trees bringing forth good fruit, who have waited for the LORD and not followed these wicked men (the false prophets and false teachers) into the fires of perdition.
 
Matthew 7
13 Enter you in at the strait gate [the entrance rife with obstacles {the false prophets} that must be avoided]: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.
21 Not every one that says unto me, LORD, LORD, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, LORD, LORD, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.
24 Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that hear these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
 
The portion of the name Nehemiah that means comfort is the Hebrew word nacham, which appears twice in Isaiah 40.
 
Isaiah 40
1 Comfort [nacham] you, comfort [nacham] 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 [the lowly], and every mountain [the mighty] and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass withers, the flower fades: because the spirit of the LORD blows upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9 O Zion, that brings good tidings, get you up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
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 counsellor has taught him?
14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
18 To whom then will you liken God? or what likeness will you compare unto him?
19 The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains.
20 He that is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.
21 Have you not known? have you not heard? has it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:
23 That brings the princes to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25 To whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that brings out their host by number: he calls them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one fails.
27 Why say you, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28 Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
 
1 Corinthians 1
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
23 But we preach Christ crucified [rejected and put to death by the confusion of the wise of this world], unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
24 But unto them which are called [kletos], both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For you see your calling [klesis], brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
27 But God has chosen [I am] the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen [I am] the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are:
29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
30 But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
31 That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the LORD. [the glory seen in me is Him]
 
1 Corinthians 2
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power [of God in me]:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught:
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the LORD of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God know no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost [Parakletos] teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. [John 1: 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.]
15 But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who has known the mind of the LORD, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.
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Beginning today with the LORD’s response to hearing what appears as the verse of the day at Biblebateway.com. (Psalms 119: 143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet your commandments are my delights.)

Beginning today with the LORD’s response to hearing what appears as the verse of the day at Biblegateway.com. (Psalms 119: 143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet your commandments are my delights.)

Nehemiah 1
1 The words of Nehemiah [Jehovah comforts] the son of Hachaliah [whom Jehovah enlightens]. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu [of His confidence – depending on the LORD], in the twentieth year [when the Divine order had been restored], as I was in Shushan [when the light became conspicuously bright – double bright, meaning of Jehovah and in the sons of man] the palace,
2 That Hanani [{the LORD’s} favor and grace], one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah [who praised: revered {the LORD}]; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped [those who revered the LORD and had escaped the hold {katecho} of ignorance and darkness – the enlightened], which were left of the captivity [the elect remnant who have joined themselves to the living LORD], and concerning Jerusalem [the teaching of God’s ways of peace and truth, which becoming the foundation of the city of God: His people as heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.]
3 And they said unto me, “The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.”
4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
5 And said, “I beseech you, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keeps covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
6 Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you: both I and my father’s house have sinned.
7 We have dealt very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which you commanded your servant Moses.
8 Remember, I beseech you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:
9 But if you turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.’
10 Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand.
11 O LORD, I beseech you, let now your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who desire to fear your name: and prosper, I pray you, your servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.

The word “cupbearer” is from the Hebrew word mashqeh, meaning, to cause to drink. The “I” in the sentence is Nehemiah (Jehovah’s comfort), who verse 1 tells us is in the palace. There we also see in the translated names that the LORD’s comfort comes to those He enlightens; those who then bear this same cup, having revered Him, entered His kingdom, and are in His palace with Him.

Mashqeh is the same word rendered “butler” ten times in Genesis 40 & 41. We know it is there the butler who is in prison with Joseph, whose dream Joseph interprets. We know the butler is first released from prison, just as Joseph told him he would be. Later, while the butler is in the palace, in the presence of the king, he remembers what he promised Joseph, and opened His mouth – and by his words brought Joseph out of the prison in which he was held.

This is the pattern telling of when and why blind eyes are opened, and why we are released from the prison of ignorance and darkness. It is so we will remember the vow made to the one who allowed us to see what we couldn’t understand, as did the butler, as did Jonah. In remembering, we open our mouths and bring the LORD out of the same prison by enlightening others. “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”

Jonah 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly [from the midst of the confusion and the agitation of the masses that have consumed God’s people],
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of Sheol [the prison in which the dead are held by bad advice – the ideas of men] cried I, and you heard my voice.
3 For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all your billows and your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple [I am].
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption [Again, this coming out of the pit and then returning to same old ideas, and the state worse than the first], O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered [as did the butler remember Joseph] the LORD: and my prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities [the old ideas – men’s creations] forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
10 And the LORD spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land [where this word of God isn’t heard].

The quote in the paragraph above, before Jonah 2, is Isaiah 42:7, from the chapter that describe those the LORD delights in, upon whom He has put His Spirit (anointed with the oil that feeds the light), to be a light to the Gentiles: those who don’t know the living God, because they have never heard. They haven’t heard because of Jacob’s rebellion, to whom these elect are also sent, to raise and bring them back to the LORD. We know Jacob is speaking to God people, those whose say they do know Him while they ignorantly wrestle with Him and the word He sends them. This aspect is referring to what Paul writes in Romans 10 when he tells of God’s people having a zeal, but not according to knowledge. He is speaking of Jacob in the rebellion, hearing and seeing daily but not understanding they are the servant that needs to be enlightened, so they will open their mouths, and go to the world with the same words. This is the gospel.

In this context, Paul, in Romans 10, quotes Isaiah many times. The most enlightening may be when He (in Romans 10:16) quotes Isaiah 53:1, asking, “Who has believed our report?” Paul is speaking of those who have not obeyed the gospel, which he describes in the verse before as those who are “sent, as it is written [in Isaiah 52:7], ‘How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings [from the LORD] of good things!'” These tidings, the word from God, are the report, God’s voice speaking good news from a man He has chosen and sent, which isn’t believed even though it is the LORD’s arm (work) revealed before the eyes of all the world. What is seen (but not seen by those looking with natural eyes) is what Isaiah 53 then goes on to describe, which the LORD says will culminate when the He is (by our open mouth) released from the prison of ignorance and rebellion (as seen in the patterns of Jacob, Jonah, the butler, Joseph, and now in God’s people). “He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation [who shall declare Him to this age]?”

Isaiah 42
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
5 Thus says God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which comes out of it; he that gives breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
6 I the LORD have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.
10 Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.
11 Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar [darkness] does inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.
13 The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.
14 I have long time held my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.
15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.
17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, You are our gods.
18 Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see.
19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’s servant?
20 Seeing many things, but you observe not; opening the ears, but he hears not.
21 The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.
22 But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivered; for a spoil, and none says, Restore.
23 Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
24 Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.
25 Therefore he has poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it has set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

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

Isaiah 52
1 Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says the LORD, You have sold yourselves for naught; and you shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus says the LORD God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what have I here, says the LORD, that my people is taken away for naught? they that rule over them make them to howl, says the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that does speak: behold, it is I.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that says unto Zion, Your God reigns!
8 Your watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart you, depart you, go you out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; be you clean [This is telling of departing from the ideas of men: Babylon {confusion} and away from the idols men have created and worship in God’s place – in which the world is held captive – see Revelation 18:4 and 2 Corinthians 6:14, both below ], 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, 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.

2 Corinthians 6
1 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain.
2 (For he says, I have heard you in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored [rescued] you: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. [see Revelation 18:10 below])
3 Giving no offense in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:
4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;
6 By pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
8 By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;
9 As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;
10 As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
11 O you Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged [our understanding is seen as your understanding increases from God’s word heard from us – His glory {presence} seen reproduces His glory in you].
12 You are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in your own bowels [you are not restricted by our preaching, but rather by it you are liberated from your own ideas which restrict you].
13 Now for a recompense [as an appropriate repayment] in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be you also enlarged [let your mouths be opened to show your understanding and God’s glory – to enlarge yourselves and others].
14 Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers [those who don’t believe this is the word of God, and instead choose to remain with their idols: the creations of men]: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what concord has Christ with Belial [the idols of confusion – worshiped by those resisting God and His correction]? or what part has he that believes with an infidel [those who have been unfaithful to God]?
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? for you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate, says the LORD [see Isaiah 52:11 above], and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
18 And will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, said the LORD Almighty. [Do you believe this? Then say so! “You are the light of the world {you have the understanding the world needs}. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.”]

Revelation 18
1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon [confusion] the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues [see Isaiah 52:11 above].
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she has filled fill to her double.
7 How much she has glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the LORD God who judges her.
9 And the kings of the earth [the wicked in power: demagogues, communists, and tyrannical popes and politicians alike – thinking they are gods and have some divine right to rule over God’s people as lords], who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her [confusion], shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning [in the fires their ideas themselves have caused],
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour [this is the hour now come – see John 5:25] is your judgment come.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buys their merchandise any more:
12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
13 And cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
14 And the fruits that your soul lusted after are departed from you, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from you, and you shall find them no more at all.
15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
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 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.

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They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.
 
Today’s title is Isaiah 24:14 and tells the reaction of those who experience the LORD’s presence, when He comes near them in the fires and they realize Him. The chapter before and after describes the condition of the earth and the people, and identifies the cause as the institutions of church and state and those in them governing. We are told this is taking place on earth, after the degeneration of these groups into confusion and disappointment: meaning they have become ineffectual: unable to accomplish the mandates of their establishment.
 
Isaiah 24
1 Behold, the LORD makes [know that] the earth [is] empty, and makes [it known] it [has become] waste, and turns it upside down, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof.
2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD has spoken this word.
4 The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
7 The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted do sigh.
8 The mirth of tabrets ceases, the noise of them that rejoice ends, the joy of the harp ceases. [All the joys of life are gone, made bitter by defiling {politicizing} everything with delusional and unrealistic expectations that these ideas will produce peace – instead they intoxicated and agitated into chaos].
9 They shall not drink wine with a song [the ideas and words they are drinking are transformed into what intoxicates {stupefying} them into agitation because in this state nothing makes sense]; strong drink shall be [make those who drink it] bitter to them that drink it.
10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people [when these things come to pass and you see them], there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree [a harvesting of olives to make oil {to anoint} that will feed the light {a clear mind and understanding}], and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done [a gathering of the grapes that haven’t already been made into the bitter wine – to make a new wine – not to intoxicate but to sooth].
14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea [among the masses].
15 Wherefore glorify you the LORD in the fires [the agitation of the intoxicated masses], even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea [the dry land {places without God’s word/water} that have raised up and control the masses – again, see Jonah 2:10].
16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs [Psalms 97], even glory [the LORD’s presence – Jehovah’s Salvation {Jesus}] to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
17 Fear, and the pit [the table of the wicked, that cause of the blindness, and wherein people who are led into blindness fall], and the snare [the corrective word of God, that becomes a snare to those who have learned and only know the ways and ideas of the blind], are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open [from where has come the latter rain – the word of God flowing from heaven in it pure form giving light – understanding], and the foundations of the earth do shake [so the wicked and the things they have created {their works of darkness – blindness} are shaken out of it – see Job 38:12 thru 15].
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage [mluwnah, only used one other time – see Isaiah 1:8]; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. [As a besieged city falls so the new city {heavenly Jerusalem} can be built upon its ruin.]
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host [the enemy army in our midst] of the high ones that are on high [the mighty who have led the age into the shadow of death, now holding the people there, and who will hold them down {in their pit} until they are taken out of the way], and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. [see 2 Peter 2:1 thru 4, & 17 thru 20, and Jude 12 thru 21 – Jonah 2:8 They that observe lying vanities {worthless words} forsake their own mercy. {Jonah 2 tells of the pit they will not come out of, because they reject the LORD’s mercy, His correction.}]
23 Then the moon shall be confounded [the civil government shall be feckless in confusion], and the sun ashamed [the blind church in darkness – ashamed when her promised ends are realized to be lies], when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. [see Isaiah 60:19 & 20]
 
Isaiah 23 speaks of these patterns, which we now see clearly. It tells us the visitation spoken of in verse 22 above is the LORD visiting the false rock (Tyre) who the people depend on in God’s place.
 
Isaiah 23
1 The burden of Tyre [the false rock, depending on lies]. Howl, you ships of Tarshish [the institutions that have carried God’s people away {as Jonah} from His ways and ideas]; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim [seeing the destruction depending on these same lies brought upon other places] it is revealed to them.
2 Be still, you inhabitants of the isle [dry lands risen over the masses – without God’s word, ways, and ideas]; you whom the merchants of Zidon [who hunt souls and make men their prey/merchandise], that pass over the sea, have replenished.
3 And by great waters the seed of Sihor [words of darkness], the harvest of the river [the words that flow into the sea/masses], is her revenue; and she is a mart [a seller and buyer of people] of nations.
4 Be you ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea has spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins. [these men who have made people their prey haven’t produced what they expected.]
5 As at the report concerning Egypt [that her mighty men have been overthrown in the sea], so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.
6 Pass you over to Tarshish [thinking you are escaping God]; howl, you inhabitants of the isle [the places without God’s word].
7 Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days [as in the days of the serpent in the garden – giving advice {as Tyre} that leads humanity into death]? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn [the ways of those who take your advice have carried them away into darkness].
8 Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?
9 The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
10 Pass through your land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.
11 He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the LORD has given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.
12 And he said, You shall no more rejoice, O you oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shall you have no rest.
13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans [those who have used their words to manipulate and control all God’s people]; this people was not, till the Assyrian [the communists] founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he [the communists] brought it to ruin.
14 Howl, you ships of Tarshish [those who have fled from the LORD]: for your strength is laid waste.
15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre [the false rock that people now depend upon] shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king [confusion]: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as a harlot [as one who has been unfaithful].
16 Take a harp, go about the city, you harlot [Mystery Babylon] that have been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.
17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire [return to the work of the LORD], and shall commit fornication [interact] with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
18 And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
 
Friends, it’s a simple story that men keep forgetting and repeating. This nation has never been in a state of darkness this drastic, where the wicked, the God haters and the lawless, have taken control of church and state, and God’s people have fled away into self-serving fables and silence of His truth. They, as Jonah did, now find themselves in the midst of an agitated and tempestuous sea, which should refocus their attention on God and reinvigorate (strengthen) them to do His will as He has commanded.
 
The only answer, the only end of this age of confusion and chaos, is for the church to unite and as God’s army engage the culture. He comes, with His saints to rescue not destroy. If destruction were the goal, He would just need to leave us to continue: doing nothing to stop those destroying themselves and with them the world.
 
When the LORD said he would be three days in the belly of what is agitating the earth, in Sheol as was Jonah, He was telling of being with us, in death, until our confusion ended and we see Him again. This ending is the resurrection of the dead, the expected end the church has been promised.
 
Jeremiah 29
4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away [for the seventy years spoken of above in Isaiah 23:15 thru 17] from Jerusalem [from being taught and founded upon God’s ways of peace and civilization] unto Babylon [confusion and darkness];
5 Build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
6 Take you wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that you may be increased there, and not diminished.
7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall you have peace [as we have until now when we need to be awakened].
8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.
9 For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, says the LORD.
10 For thus says the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon [now] I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you [as it was with Jonah].
13 And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.
14 And I will be found of you, says the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, says the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
15 Because you have said, The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon [our confusion];
16 Know that thus says the LORD of the king that sits upon the throne of David [I am], and of all the people that dwell in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity [who have not remained with the LORD [resting in His peace] even in our time in confusion and in death];
17 Thus says the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
18 And I will persecute them with the sword [this word], with the famine [not hearing it], and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them:
19 Because they have not hearkened to my words, says the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear, says the LORD.
 
Jonah 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly [from the confusion covering the world in the shadow of death],
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of Sheol [among the dead] cried I, and you heard my voice.
3 For you had cast me into the deep [into where meaning is found – below the surface], in the midst of the seas [among the masses]; and the floods compassed me about: all your billows and your waves passed over me [the agitation of confusion that comes when leaving God and following ignorant men].
4 Then I said, I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple. [2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.]
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. [see Isaiah 24:17 & 18 above – out of the pit and into the snare]
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
10 And the LORD spoke unto the fish [the cause of the confusion], and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land [where there is no word of God flowing or heard].
 
The snare entered by those coming out of the pit, is coming from death to life and returning to corrupt ideas, taking “seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.”
 
2 Timothy 2
1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit you to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
3 You therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.
5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strives lawfully.
6 The husbandman that labors must be first partaker of the fruits. [Romans 6: 20 For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD.]
7 Consider what I say; and the LORD give you understanding in all things.
8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:
9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:
12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
13 If we believe not, yet he abides faithful: he cannot deny himself. [If we are His He abide with us in our confusion and our death, until He is awakened in us and we see Him in those preaching in His name {presence} to us.]
14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the LORD that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
15 Study to shew yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth [what tells us what we have been promised and brings us to it – His presence].
16 But shun profane and vain babblings [of ignorant men]: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
17 And their word will eat as does a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus [those whose words of ignorance keep God’s people from joining with Him, as they hide behind the spurious mask of false love, which are the snare of the devil];
18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection [joining with the LORD in life] is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
19 Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The LORD knows them that are his. And, let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor.
21 If a man therefore purge himself from these [what is not valuable and dishonorable], he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the LORD out of a pure heart.
23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes [Knowing they come from those who are not seeking truth, but are meant to produce a never-ending argument as they endlessly argue with lies and vilify the truth].
24 And the servant of the LORD must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
 
Romans 13
1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers [God in us is the highest power on earth]. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God [I am].
2 Whosoever therefore resists [the mark of satan] the power, resists the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Will you then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and you shall have praise of the same:
4 For he is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid; for he bears not the sword [this word of God] in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil.
5 Wherefore you must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
6 For for this cause pay you tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.
8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.
9 For this, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill [not even the unborn], You shall not steal [not even by taxation], You shall not bear false witness [not even for political purposes and to gain power – as do the communists and their fake news media beast of confusion], You shall not covet [lust for mammon – what the world trusts in and works for]; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbor [rich or poor] as yourself.
10 Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness [confusion], and let us put on the armor of light [understanding].
13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
14 But put you on the LORD Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.
 
Matthew 6
9 After this manner therefore pray you: Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15 But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16 Moreover when you fast [go without – abstaining for purity’s sake], be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Truly I say unto you, They have their reward.
17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face;
18 That you appear not unto men to fast, but unto your Father which is in secret: and your Father, which sees in secret, shall reward you openly.
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22 The light of the body is the eye [how you see – understand]: if therefore your eye be single [all see these same things], your whole body shall be full of light.
23 But if your eye be evil [seeing for the sake of worldly treasure], your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light [the understanding you claim to have] that is in you be darkness [be confusion], how great is that darkness! [So dark it has darkened the light of heaven and earth]
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [the things the world trusts in – anything or anyone other than the LORD].
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take you thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.
33 But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
 
Psalms 67
1 God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
2 That your way may be known upon earth, your saving health among all nations.
3 Let the people praise you, O God; let all the people praise you.
4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for you shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.
5 Let the people praise you, O God; let all the people praise you.
6 Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.
7 God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
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Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you.

Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you.
 
The above is Isaiah 60:1 & 2 and is describing the LORD (Jehovah) coming near as light in the dark world, which we know is speaking of understanding coming into confusion: ordered thought into agitation and chaos. Understanding comes near us as light in the LORD’s preaching His word, which is in us the anointing: Christ in the preacher. When the LORD’s presence is revealed: realized by those upon whom the light has shined, they as a result rise to life by the same anointing. As we see above, those who “Arise” are called to themselves shine, showing God’s glory through their understanding, as light into the same darkness.
 
Isaiah 60:1 & 2 are a continuation of the thought and ideas the LORD illuminates in the prior chapter. In it, He explains why there is darkness, and ends describe the remedy as His anointing, first in one and then exponentially, pouring it out through the many who are called to “Arise” and “shine.”
 
Isaiah 59
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood [what drains life and causes the shadow of death to cover the earth], and your fingers with iniquity [injustice and untruth]; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness [twisted judgment].
4 None call for justice, nor any pleads for truth: they trust in vanity [they trust in what has no value], and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eats of their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper [the venomous beast of confusion].
6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goes therein shall not know peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither does justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves [they speak their own words and think they will produce their expected conclusion]: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us [disappointment becomes apparent when their promises aren’t realized – as if waking from a dream and realizing it was just as dream: products of the stupefied mind that were never going to become reality – See Isaiah 29:8].
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Yea, truth fails; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense [a deserved response] to his enemies; to the islands [the dry places – risen out of the sea – meaning those who are without the word of God and have control over the masses] he will repay recompense.
19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west [where the sun set and there is no light – where understanding has departed], and his glory from the rising of the sun [when His light comes, Arising and Shinning into the darkness]. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob [those who were ignorantly wrestling with God and His words, shall turn to Him when they see the standard – the light], says the LORD.
21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD; My spirit that is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed, says the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
Friends, as discussed in the previous post, the LORD has given us this understanding, exhaled His life-giving words into us, so we would then exhale them; as the last verse above says. The LORD then calls and sends us, saying, “Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you.”
 
This call comes to those who “turn” to the LORD from transgression, which we know is what Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 3:16 when he says it is what removes the veil keeping people from understanding the word of God. As we have many times seen, he goes on to further describe it as the gospel hidden from those who have been blinded by following the gods of this world. These gods are the mighty men of this age: the unreasonable and wicked men who refuse the love of God’s truth and instead choose what is causing them and their followers to perish. We are told they and their ideas are what hold God’s people down [from “Arising” to meet Him when He comes as the light], and will hold them down [in the darkness] until they are taken out of the way.
 
2 Corinthians 3
12 Seeing then that we have such hope [of God glory in us], 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 [God’s glory in man] of that which is abolished [the veil]:
14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ [the anointing sent to us and which is then in us when we receive it].
15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart [their reasoning mind].
16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the LORD [see Him in those preaching this His true gospel], the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now the LORD is that Spirit [who comes to us and is then in us]: and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD, are changed into the same image from [seeing His] glory to [it producing our] glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD.
 
2 Corinthians 4
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. [His gospel reproduces in His image, not in the image of the preacher.]
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 [presence] 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.
 
Here following is the deep that has become hidden by the slothful lacking curiosity, who have neglected their call and become ignorant, who “have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.”
 
The “standard” mentioned in Isaiah 59:19 above, which the Spirit of the LORD lifts up, is from (actually written in the original text) the Hebrew word nacac, meaning to gleam, as in to become conspicuous as a signal. (It is the sign the LORD speaks of in Matthew 24:27 and 30, as the light {understanding} seen in heaven, after verse 29 tell us all the lights there are darkened {become without understanding}.)
 
For some reason the translators incorrectly identified this “standard” as from the word nuwc, which means to flee away, and could therefore possibly be referring to the false lights fleeing away into darkness, so the light of the Spirit of the LORD becomes conspicuous. Nacac seems to better fit the context by its meaning in its only other appearance in the word of God. It is the “ensign” in Zechariah 9:16, which tells of God’s elect (you) as the Jewels in his crown, lifted as lights conspicuously shining as a signal of His presence (glory). This is what Isaiah 60: 1 & 2 are describing: when His elect become the Jewels He has made up (see Malachi 3:17 below), and as the LORD says in Job 38:7, “When the mourning stars sang together, and all the sons [children] of God shouted for joy.”
 
Here is the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary definition: Strong’s #5264: nacac (pronounced naw-sas’) a primitive root; to gleam from afar, i.e. to be conspicuous as a signal; or rather perhaps a denominative from 5251 (and identical with 5263, through the idea of a flag as fluttering in the wind); to raise a beacon:–lift up as an ensign.
 
Zechariah 9
3 And Tyrus [the false rock] did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets [which clouded the waters, God’s word, and blinded her from seeing His way].
4 Behold, the LORD will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea [by the masses]; and she shall be devoured with fire.
5 Ashkelon [those tried in the fires] shall see it, and fear; Gaza [the powerful – the mighty men of the age] also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron [as Saul shall be replaced]; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza [as did Saul, they shall lose their power], and Ashkelon [the place of this trial – confusion] shall not be inhabited.
6 And the illegitimate children shall dwell in Ashdod [without power], and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines [those who by choice remain in their own mire they have stirred].
7 And I will take away his blood [the words that drain life] out of his mouth, and his abominations [idols – ideas created by men] from between his teeth [as when David fought the lion and the bear]: but he that remains [comes through this purification], even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite [will be as those cast out of Jebus so God’s people could enter and it could become Jerusalem – taught and founded on God’s ways of peace].
8 And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passes by, and because of him that returns: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen with mine eyes.
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes unto you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey [those released from those who have ruled over them with oppression – referring to Genesis 49:7 thru 12, and 22 thru 26]
10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you also, by the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
12 Turn you to the strong hold, you prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto you;
13 When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim [referring to Genesis 49:24 and the bowman who shoots the longshot arrow, as a stone slung by David], and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece [the mired and intoxicated], and made you as the sword of a mighty man.
14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
15 The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones [as David]; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.
16 And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones [Jewels] of a crown, lifted up as an ensign [nacac] upon his land.
17 For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! [the feast He has provided] corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
 
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 [the sudden event discussed in the prior post – when God’s people speak up – see Isaiah 29:5 & 6, when the LORD visits and His people make a great noise] come to his temple [to dwell in His people], 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 appeareth? 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 [those using their words to manipulate and control others], and against the adulterers [those who have left God and joined with idols – the ideas of the corrupted age], and against false swearers [dissemblers], and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages [who steal by taxation – toward a communist end], the widow, and the fatherless [those who have no man to protect and provide for them – in need of true religion], and that turn aside the stranger from his right [those who apply the law unjustly – with respect to the person], and fear not me [and fear not that the LORD is the avenger of these injustices], says the LORD of hosts.
6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
7 Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the LORD of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we return?
8 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring you all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, says the LORD of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a delightsome land, says the LORD of hosts.
13 Your words have been stout against me, says the LORD. Yet you say, What have we spoken so much against you?
14 You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?
15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16 Then they that feared the LORD spoke often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my Jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.
18 Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not.
 
Malachi 4
1 For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the LORD of hosts.
4 Remember you the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb 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.
 
When asked for a sign, the LORD said the only sign that would be given is the sign of the prophet Jonah, meaning his telling of the moment as God defines it through him. What has been lost in these words of Matthew 12 is that what follows is speaking of the sign, as coinciding with what Jonah says in Jonah 2, which end with him doing what is describe in ending Matthew 12.
 
Matthews 12
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah:
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth [in Sheol as was Jonah – see Jonah 2:2 below].
41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here.
42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places [see Isaiah 59:18 above], seeking rest, and finds none.
44 Then he says, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he finds it empty, swept, and garnished.
45 Then goes he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation [who are among the dead in Sheol].
46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
47 Then one said unto him, Behold, your mother and your brethren stand without, desiring to speak with you.
48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father [as did Jonah – see Jonah 2:9] which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
 
Jonah 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of Sheol cried I, and you heard my voice.
3 For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all your billows and your waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption [out of the house mentioned in Matthew 12:45], O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.
10 And the LORD spoke unto the fish [the confusion that was agitating the sea – the masses], and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land [see Isaiah 59:19 and Matthew 12:43 thru 45, which tell of where we are sent in the name {as the presence} of the LORD, with His call to repentance, purification, and glory].
 
Psalms 97
1 The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.
2 Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.
3 A fire goes before him, and burns up his enemies round about.
4 His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.
5 The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the LORD of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.
7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all you gods [mighty men of the earth].
8 Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of your judgments, O LORD.
9 For you, LORD, are high above all the earth: you are exalted far above all gods.
10 You that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserves the souls of his saints; he delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
 
Isaiah 60
1 Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.
2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you.
3 And the Gentiles [those who don’t know the LORD our God] shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
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 [those in strife] and Ephah [those in gloom]; all they from Sheba [those in the house of the seven wicked spirits – see Matthew 12:45] shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD.
7 All the flocks of Kedar [in darkness – those who are held down in confusion] shall be gathered together unto you, the rams of Nebaioth [the leaders the LORD raises on high] 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, and as the doves to their windows?
9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish [those who {as Jonah} have fled from the LORD’s commandments and will] 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 favour 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 seen in the high places] shall come unto you, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together [His upright leaders as His trees planted by these rivers of living water], 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 [see Hebrews 12:22 – this is heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God], 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 [understanding], and your God your glory.
20 Your sun shall no more go down; neither shall your moon withdraw itself [these lights are speaking of church and state governments never again falling into darkness]: for the LORD shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.
21 Your people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, 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.
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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.

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.
 
The title is from Isaiah 29:14, a chapter which explains precisely how this has happened. It tells of the LORD pouring blindness upon the wise and so-called learned of our time, which will be as if these men awaken from a dream and realize their own minds have deceived them.
 
Friends, this is the state of all God’s people; led there by the those who teach and preach their own ways and ideas. As we have read in 2 Thessalonians 2 & 3, these men are those who hold God’s people down (katecho) and will hold them there until taken out of the way. Chapter 3 says we should pray these wicked men will be removed so this true gospel will have free course and be glorified: seen as the word of God and those hearing it as such will realize they are in the presence of the LORD at His coming. (See 1 Thessalonians 2:19 as it refers to those spoken to in verse 13). Even those who now superficially believe this is true remain under the effect this false doctrinal poison: unsure and confused refusing to tell the masses this sword was coming and has now come.
 
1 Thessalonians 2
12 That you would walk worthy of God, who has called you unto his kingdom and glory.
13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe.
 
And
 
19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence of our LORD Jesus Christ at his coming?
20 For you are our glory and joy.
 
The effect of the above is what Isaiah 29 describes as the LORD laying siege to recover Ariel: the name we know means the lion of God and describes God’s strength in His people. This aspect is spoken of in Isaiah 25 where the same terrible ones, the wicked, are suddenly brought low, which is speaking of the marvelous work of God when the wise of this world are removed and the LORD’s voice is heard.
 
The sudden occurrence comes when the strength of God’s people returns and they as lions roar. This is the confession Paul describes in Romans 10, where he first speaks of not looking in heaven of in the deep for the LORD, but rather He is found in the preaching of this gospel, which is confessed. This is the quickening to life of God’s people, when their strength returns and they rise as the LORD describes in Job 38:7, “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Their rising is the beginning of the new creation, the new man and the new heaven and earth, wherein dwells righteousness – correctness based on God’s truth.
 
Romans 10
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge [they lack this knowledge of who God is and how He manifests His presence].
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness [correctness and truth], and going about to establish their own righteousness [trying to establish their teaching and ideas are truth], have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness [correction and truth] of God. [They reject it because it doesn’t agree with their teaching – their creations.]
4 For Christ [One God in man working His will and plan – His marvelous work of destroying the so-called wisdom of the wise and hiding His truth from them while they remain in rebellion] is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.
5 For Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which does those things shall live by them.
6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what says it? The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart [your reasoning mind]; that is, the word of faith, which we preach [is Christ in us, and you are in His presence at His coming – and receiving Him is life from the dead as He rises in you – we confess not ourselves, but we confess Christ has risen in us];
9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture says, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed [they have reached the end they expected – in the presence of God].
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same LORD over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? [These tell of believing Jesus Christ is alive in the preacher {which describes the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit}, and hearing the words as His.]
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, LORD, who has believed our report?
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
 
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. [The siege is to release God’s people from their captivity, held by the words of men – to restore their strength and open/fill their mouths with the Word of God.]
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 [His voice that comes with the light – understanding], and with earthquake [to shake the wicked from the world – see Job 38:13], and great noise [the roar of His people’s confession], 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 an 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 [those who have no knowledge of God], 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 [see Daniel 12:11 & 12, when the word is sealed until the end, until God’s people have regained the power {lost in verse 7} by being purified from the false doctrines and the blindness that caused the book to be sealed]:
12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you: and he saith, 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 [their reasoning mind – to know the knowledge of God] 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. [Do you understand this?]
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? [The LORD sees you and knows you.]
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 [purity] shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest [men risen on the mountain of purity]?
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 [the father of those who receive the blessing], concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob [those who have unknowingly wrestled with God and His word] shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale [he shall reach the expected end].
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 sudden end that comes upon the “terrible ones,” spoken of above in verse 5, occurs when the LORD visits them, which is described in Isaiah 25. We know this chapter tells of when death is swallowed up in victory, which Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 15:54 as when the corrupted have put on the incorruptible, and this mortal has put on immortality.
 
Friends, open your mouth and let the LORD be heard, exhale what you have inhaled.
 
Isaiah 25
1 O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things; your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For you have made of a city an heap; of a defensed city a ruin: a palace of strangers [those who don’t know you] to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Therefore shall the strong people [those to whom your strength has returned] glorify you, the city of the terrible nations shall fear you.
4 For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 You shall bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6 And in this mountain [of purity] shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. [This feast at the LORD’s table.]
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people [He will destroy the corruption that has caused the knowledge of God to be covered], and the vail that is spread over all nations [those who don’t know Him].
8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the LORD God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD has spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab [the gates of Sheol – that hold down the dead] shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill [which is Gehenna].
11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swims spreads forth his hands to swim [to divide the waters {word} to not sink and be consumed by them]: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
12 And the fortress of the high fort of your walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust [the words spoken of in Isaiah 29:4, coming from those who have taken and hold strength captive].
 
1 Corinthians 15
12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept [I am].
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ [in man] shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
24 Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power [these men whose ideas and creations {corruption} must be taken out of the way].
25 For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27 For he has put all things under his feet [see Isaiah 25:10 above]. But when he says all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all [see John 17 below].
29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead [Romans 6:3 Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?], if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our LORD, I die daily.
32 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantages it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.
33 Be not deceived: evil communications [joining with idols] corrupt good manners.
34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame [meaning this isn’t what is expected by those who think they know God, and don’t].
35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
36 You fool, that which you sow is not quickened, except it die [this should be understood in the context of verse 45, this body is quickened: brought from death to life, after the old corrupted mind dies]:
37 And that which you sow, you sow not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
38 But God gives it a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power [when God’s strength returns]:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [man – quickened to quicken] was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second MAN is the LORD from heaven [in us bringing us to life].
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our LORD Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, un-moveable, always abounding in the work of the LORD, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the LORD.
 
The “sting” of death spoken of in verse 55 above is the Greek word kentron, the same word used in Revelation 9:10 to tell of the sting in the tail of the scorpion. As we have seen, this is referring to the poison that rots those stung from the inside. It is referring to the corruption spoken of before, rotting the mind into death, as the law requires of those who have eaten the poison of the tree. We also know this eating is referring to words, the advice of the serpent, and the death following, which it has brought upon all humanity. We know the serpent is Satan, those who use their word to resist and rebel against the knowledge of God, also known as Lucifer [see Isaiah 14], and the dragon [death in the waters – his words] the false light among God’s people, who drew away a third part of these stars and cast them down where he holds them (katecho).
 
The victory over this corruption in our minds and rotting us into death is the LORD Jesus Christ who raises us to life by taking these men’s venom out of the way, and (reversing the rot) quickens us to life (by understanding) from the dead.
 
Verse 55 above is referring to Hosea 13:14 where we are told of the LORD redeeming us from this state of death. The passage’s context continues to its point in chapter 14:2, when we return to the LORD and render to Him the calves of our lips (word of our mouth) as the sacrifice He desires. We know what the LORD desires is the knowledge of God, and mercy, which Hosea 6:6 tells us.
 
Hosea 6
1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning [as the light of understanding]; and he shall come unto us as the rain [the pure word of God flowing from heaven], as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
4 O Ephraim [God’s people in this generation], what shall I do unto you? O Judah [those who have led His people astray], what shall I do unto you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away.
5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and your judgments are as the light [understanding] that goes forth.
6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
 
Hosea 13
14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring [the word of death] shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
16 Samaria [those who worship idols in the place of God] shall become desolate; for she has rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
 
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.
 
John 17
17 Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth.
18 As you have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me.
24 Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me: for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father, the world has not known you: but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me.
26 And I have declared unto them your name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
 
1 Corinthians 1
19 For it is written [in Isaiah 29:14], I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, has God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are:
29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
30 But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
31 That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the LORD.
 
1 Corinthians 2
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught:
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the LORD of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.
10 But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who has known the mind of the LORD, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.
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Who is like unto you, O LORD, among the gods [the mighty men of the earth]? who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

Who is like unto you, O LORD, among the gods [the mighty men of the earth]? who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
 
The above is Exodus 15:11 and is spoken after the LORD delivered His people from their captivity and overflowed the enemies who pursued them. (If you have read along and read to the end you will see even greater wonders. “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.”)
 
Exodus 15
5 The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.
6 Your right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: your right hand, O LORD, has dashed in pieces the enemy.
7 And in the greatness of your excellency you have overthrown them that rose up against you: you sent forth your wrath, which consumed them as stubble.
8 And with the blast of your nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart [the reasoning mind] of the sea.
9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
10 You did blow with your wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
11 Who is like unto you, O LORD, among the gods? who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them.
 
The Hebrew word used to describe this event as a “wonder” is pele’, from the word pala’, meaning to separate, as in to distinguish by something miraculous.
 
The prophets and apostilles describe these same miraculous events as the LORD’s wondrous appearing, as he destroys the idol/ideas His people have ignorantly followed into captivity. The sea spoken of above is the masses, risen like mountains, ignorant of God by forgetting His deep word congealed in their midst. The word “congealed” in verse 8 above is qapha’, meaning to become solid, as the LORD says in Job 38:30, “The waters [this word] are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.”
 
Job earlier in Job 10:10 uses the word qapha’, the second of the four times it appears in God’s word. It is there translated as “curdled” as he describes the LORD creating his flesh, as if milk poured out and solidified into (a stone/block of ) cheese.
 
Job 10
8 Your hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet you do destroy me.
9 Remember, I beseech you, that you have made me as the clay; and will you bring me into dust again?
10 Have you not poured me out as milk, and curdled [qapha’] me like cheese?
11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and have fenced me with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and favor, and your visitation has preserved my spirit.
13 And these things have you hid in your heart [reasoning mind]: I know that this is with you.
 
The wonder is in releasing this in man, reigniting his power of right reasoning, wherein he can assess reality (external data) and use his ability to recall, and to abstractly model, to arrive at correct conclusions. Then and only then is he able to develop, implement, and vigilantly conclude solutions. This is describing critical thinking – as opposed to blindly following the subjective and relativistic opinions of the so-called “experts” of this poisoned and confused culture.
 
The above is also what the word of God describes as giving sight to the blind, and waking the dead: bringing them out of the grave of this (now ending) elementary and primeval earth age. The LORD is the one who has reserved this power to and for His own use; so man can understand there is a higher intellect, all-powerful, and who by His own will is reproducing us in His image and likeness.
 
Job 38
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2 Who is this [these “experts” of this world] that darken 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 knowest? 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 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 [a protective wrapping – restricting movement until the proper coordination is gained],
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 [the agitation of the masses – caused by the darkened counsel] be stayed?
12 Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the dayspring [of these waters of life – the light of understanding] to know his place;
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked [who agitate the world for their own purposes – and reject and vilify the truth and {light} understanding] might be shaken out of it?
14 It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment [it is what these men wear that marks them as the wicked].
15 And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the high arm shall be broken.
16 Have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in the search of the depth?
17 Have the gates of death been opened unto you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
18 Have you perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if you know it all.
19 Where is the way where light dwells? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
20 That you should take it to the bound thereof, and that you should know the paths to the house thereof?
21 Know you it, because you were then born? or because the number of your days is great?
22 Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? or have you seen the treasures of the hail,
23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
24 By what way is the light parted, which scatters the east wind upon the earth?
25 Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder [the voice of God that accompanies the light];
26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
28 Has the rain a father? or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it? [This word of God congealed until it is sent from heaven and melts upon the earth.]
30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep [word] is frozen.
31 Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
32 Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or can you guide Arcturus with his sons? [these are speaking of when the children of God awaken and come to light in the darkness these others have caused. As verse 7 above says, “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.]
33 Know you the ordinances of heaven? can you set the dominion thereof in the earth?
34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you [This is speaking of the latter rain – God’s word sent from heaven in its pure understandable {liquid} form.]
35 Can you send lightnings [understanding], that they may go and say unto you, Here we are?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart [the reasoning mind – who has given oil to feed the light]?
37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
38 When the dust grows into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
39 Will you hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
41 Who provides for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat. [This the meat His children wait for – to bring them from the grave {dens} in the earth.
 
Qapha’ next appears in Zephaniah 1:12 telling of this same time when the voice of the LORD will be heard, and the dead shall come out of the grave.
 
John 5
25 Truly, truly, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
26 For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given to the Son to have life in himself;
27 And has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me.
31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
32 There is another that bears witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witness of me is true.
33 You sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.
34 But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that you might be saved.
35 He was a burning and a shining light: and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me.
37 And the Father himself, which has sent me, has borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
38 And you have not his word abiding in you [waiting to be liquefied – to overflow the confusion]: for whom he has sent, him you believe not.
39 Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
40 And you will not come to me, that you might have life.
41 I receive not honor from men.
42 But I know you, that you have not the love of God in you.
43 I am come in my Father’s name, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.
44 How can you believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only? [see Job 38:35 above]
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust.
46 For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me; for he wrote of me.
47 But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?
Zephaniah 1
7 Hold your peace at the presence of the LORD God: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD has prepared a sacrifice, he has bid his guests.
8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and a howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.
11 Howl, you inhabitants of Maktesh [those in the graves], for all the merchant people [those who have made merchandise of you] are cut down; all they that bear silver [what they have gained by betrayal] are cut off.
12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles [by understanding], and punish the men that are settled [qapha’] on their lees [who have become immovable in their ignorance and reject correction]: that say in their heart [reasoning], The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hastens greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities [the place {lies} in which they trust], and against the high towers [those who think they see/know what is coming – which become the trap they are snared in].
17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
 
The final time qapha’ is used it is in Zechariah 14:6 describing the same day, when the light shall neither be clear, nor “dark.” It is telling of when this latter rain is upon the earth, when the waters are no longer congealed but are still not understood by the wicked. The word here rendered “clear” is yaqar, meaning valuable. It is telling of when the true valuables are on the earth, and men put no value on them and are therefore unable to understand (see Job 38:15 above).
 
We know, this is the day when these men’s “flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes [what they have seen] shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue [words] shall consume away in their mouth.” The word “consume” is the ten times used Hebrew word maqaq, meaning to melt, as in what Peter says in 2 Peter 3. We know there it is the ideas (elements) of these men that caused the fires that melt them away and which burns up their works.
 
Zechariah 14
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives [the source of the anointing – the oil that brings the light], which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. [the anointing dispersed in this word to all the earth]
5 And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal [the elect remnant]: yea, you shall flee, like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah [when Jehovah was the strength of the] king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with you. [“I and the children God has given me are for signs and wonders among His people.” Also, see Jude 14 & 15]
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light [understanding] shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light [when the understanding {eye} has failed He shall send understanding].
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. [As it is!]
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba [the hills] to Rimmon south [the false ones who have exalted themselves, and standing at the right hand to resist the LORD’s work] of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel [until it is seen as the favor of God] unto the king’s winepresses [in this word of God as His corrective wrath].
11 And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes [what they have seen] shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue [the words formed by it] shall consume away in their mouth [and their mouths shall be stopped].
 
Before the word maqaq is used three times by Zachariah it appears three time in Ezekiel; first in Ezekiel 4:17 where we are told of the day the LORD breaks the staff that is the defiled bread in the land.
 
Ezekiel 4
16 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:
17 That they may want bread [the flesh of God – not the flesh of man] and water [the word of God – not the defiled word of man], and be astonished one with another, and consume [maqaq] away for their iniquity.
 
The next time maqaq appears it is in Ezekiel 24:23 telling of those who “pine away” for this iniquity, when you shall not eat the defiled bread of men.
 
Ezekiel 24
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 [you shall not hide these words], 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 [maqaq] for your iniquities [you shall consume – burn up – the work of this iniquity], and mourn one toward another.
24 Thus Ezekiel [God’s strength] 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.
 
The final time maqaq is used by Ezekiel appears in Ezekiel 33:10 where it is again translated as “pine away.” Hear and heed this word of the LORD.
 
Ezekiel 33
10 Therefore, O you son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus you speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away [maqaq] in them, how should we then live?
11 Say unto them, As I live, says the LORD God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn you, turn you from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?
12 Therefore, you son of man, say unto the children of your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sins.
13 When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he has committed, he shall die for it.
14 Again, when I say unto the wicked, You shall surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;
15 If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.
16 None of his sins that he has committed shall be mentioned unto him: he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.
17 Yet the children of your people say, The way of the LORD is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.
18 When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall even die thereby.
19 But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.
20 Yet you say, The way of the LORD is not equal. O you house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways.
21 And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.
22 Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.
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 [by teaching them lies] every one 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, every one 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 shew 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, 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.
 
These are the miraculous (pele’) works of the LORD, to open the eyes of the blind and restore hearing to the deaf. These are the “wonders,” the pele’, Daniel asks the angel when they will end. Daniel’s answer comes in verse 10.
 
Daniel 12
1 And at that time shall Michael [He who is like God – made in His image and likeness – see the title verse] stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
4 But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, 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 [pele’]?
7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that lives for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an 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.
Isaiah, in Isaiah 29:14, defines this specific “wonder,” the LORD’s marvelous work, as when He destroys the wisdom of the wise. It is when what is spoken of ending Ezekiel 33 has occurred, and we understand it as the LORD’s work made apparent before our eyes.
 
Isaiah 29
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 [the strength {lion} of God], 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 [pele’]: 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.
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Do you think these men care about understanding, truth, or evidence? They reject them, because their deeds are evil, meaning they rely on their opposites: confusion, deception, and false accusation without evidence.

Do you think these men care about understanding, truth, or evidence? They reject them, because their deeds are evil, meaning they rely on their opposites: confusion, deception, and false accusation without evidence.
 
Isaiah 28
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol 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 Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
 
When verses 15 and 18 mentions the scourge these men said wouldn’t overflow them when it came, it is referring to Job 5:21. In Job it is one of His accusers telling of what he knew comes, as these men above are telling Isaiah of what they know will come, but neither understand they are in the midst of it coming against their hypocrisy and arrogance. This is the same scourge the LORD used (John 2:15) when he chased the thieves and robbers (those selling sacrifices) out of the temple, saying, make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise. All of these are the same pattern, men knowing of the LORD’s coming correction and driving out error and corruption, but fail to see it when it comes because of their own opinion of themselves as without need of correction.
 
Hebrews 12
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not you the chastening [correction] of the LORD, nor faint when you are rebuked of him:
6 For whom the LORD loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not?
8 But if you be without chastisement [correction], whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they truly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
18 For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast [therion – viper] touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
22 But you are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
The “friend” of Job who is speaking in Job 5 is Eliphaz, meaning his god is gold, which he has in common with those the LORD chased from the temple, and with the modern false teachers and false prophets. These men do it as a job, and any deviation from the “accepted ” doctrine would put their means of income at risk. So they, as did Esau, choose to sell their birthright, and rejecting the correction that should have been for their welfare, they turn it into a trap (thera) in which they themselves are snared.
 
Job 5
7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward [as sons trusting in ideas that have set the world on fire].
8 I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:
9 Which does great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without number:
10 Who gives rain [His word from heaven] upon the earth, and sends waters [His word] upon the fields [intervening in the work being done in the world – age]:
11 To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
12 He disappoints the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the forward [those who have twisted and perverted truth] is carried headlong.
14 They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
15 But he saves the poor from the sword, from their mouth [the mouths of these men who see nothing, not even what they have wandered into], and from the hand of the mighty.
16 So the poor has hope, and iniquity stops her mouth.
17 Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects: therefore despise not you the chastening of the Almighty:
18 For he makes sore, and binds up: he wounds, and his hands make whole.
19 He shall deliver you in six troubles [from troubles man is born into, which are caused by the words of the mighty: men who think they are rich and in control]: yea, in seven [when the LORD’s presence and word are revealed] there shall no evil touch you.
20 In famine he shall redeem you from death: and in war from the power of the sword.
21 You shall be hid from the scourge [showt] of the tongue: neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.
22 At destruction and famine you shall laugh: neither shall you be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
23 For you shall be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
24 And you shall know that your tabernacle shall be in peace; and you shall visit your habitation, and shall not sin.
25 You shall know also that your seed shall be great, and your offspring as the grass of the earth.
26 You shall come to your grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn comes in in his season.
27 Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know you it for your good.
 
What we see above is that the scourge is the tongue, which we saw in the prior post, as what sets the world on fire. We have seen it is the corrupted ideas of men, the chasm (ketos) of the open mouth, which has swallowed up and holds God’s people, all the world, in the fires of Gehenna (Sheol) these ideas themselves have caused.
 
Here is how Luke describes the same pattern:
 
Luke 16
19 There was a certain rich man [the mighty who know it all – while never hearing it as God talking to them], which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus [who God will help], which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom [ab-ra’ah-hem: meaning the father in whom appears the true riches; in his bosom {kolpos}]: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in Hades he lifts up his eyes, being in torments, and sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water [God’s word], and cool my tongue [put the fires out – which would come from the word they have refused to hear]; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and you are tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf [chasm – as vacuous mouth spewing words setting the world on fire] fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot [as long as your mouth is open none can come from your place to Abraham’s bosom]; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house:
28 For I have five brethren [he and his brothers, the six troubles spoken of in Job 5:19 above]; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets [the former rain that would have put out the fires coming from their mouths]; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead [as He has, and come with the latter rain that they continue to hear and reject, because their deeds are evil].
 
The Greek word kolpos, above rendered “bosom,” is said to apparently be a primary word. It is actually a word compounded from kolla, meaning to join self; and pos, meaning who or what. It is a word telling of the opposite of what causes the viper (the beast that is confusion) to fasten itself and inject its venom. In the previous posts, we have discussed this as it appears in Acts 28, as Paul gathered and burned the dead wood and the viper leaped from the flames and fastened itself to His words (hand). The bosom is where and what joins us with the LORD, which is what keeps us from confusion and allows us to shake off the beast into the fires when he comes.
 
The word kolpos is translated one time as “creek” in telling of the place where the unseeing unknowingly trust headlong into (see Job 5:13 above). It is the trap that destroyed their ideas and the institutions that propagate them, while allowing all those in them to reach the shore alive. They, as was Jonah, are vomited from the whale’s (ketos) belly onto the shore where the venomous beasts are attempting to fasten and inject their venom into this word of God. The LORD has shaken them off into the fires.
 
Acts 27
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 [the first principles – the truth in the pure form it was delivered from God], and remained un-moveable, but the hinder part [what men have fastened to the truth] was broken with the violence of the waves [the pride of men and their confidence in corrupted ideas].
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. [The institutions as they now exist do not make it through this – they exist only to service themselves and to protect and preserve the institutions in their degenerate form.]
 
Acts 28
1 And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita [the land of honey, from the word meli – the word rendered honey twice telling of what John ate, and twice in Revelation 10].
2 And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.
3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper [echidna] out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast [therion] hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffers not to live.
5 And he shook off the beast into the fire [therion], and felt no harm.
 
The word “discovered” used in Acts 27:39 describing how they saw the place to put in, is the Greek word katanoeo, meaning to observe fully. The verse says they saw this when the day came, meaning the light, which we know is understanding returned after the darkness. It is the same word used by the LORD in Matthew 7:3 and Luke 6:41, when He asks why these men, who thought they knew it all and were blindly judging, don’t “consider” or “perceive” the beam in their eye causing them to not see or judge clearly.
 
The place where the ship is thrust in, from where the forepart will not be moved, is speaking of what is written in Isaiah 33:21, which tells of these ships never again passing by this place. It tells of this as when the fire devours these mighty men, “For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our Lawgiver, the LORD is our King; He will deliver us.” (The Strong’s Concordance says the word rendered “scourge” in Isaiah 28:15 is actually shayit, which is only used one other time, in Isaiah 33:21 as “oar.” My other resources say otherwise. I mention it because it tells what these institutions are propelled by when they can’t raise their sails. Deeper meaning there for those curious enough to look.)
 
Isaiah 33
1 Woe to you that spoil, and you were not spoiled; and deals treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with you! when you shall cease to spoil, you shall be spoiled; and when you shall make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with you.
2 O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for you: be you their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
3 At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of yourself the nations were scattered.
4 And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.
5 The LORD is exalted; for he dwells on high: he has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.
6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
7 Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases: he has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he regards no man.
9 The earth mourns and languishes: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.
10 Now will I rise, says the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.
11 You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
12 And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.
13 Hear, you that are far off, what I have done; and, you that are near, acknowledge my might.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
15 He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, that shakes his hands from holding of bribes, that stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil;
16 He shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.
17 Your eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.
18 Your heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?
19 You shall not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than you can perceive; of a stammering tongue, that you can not understand.
20 Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.
21 But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.
22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.
23 Your tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.
24 And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.
 
James 3
1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor lists [leans].
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of Gehenna.
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed of mankind:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
11 Does a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
15 This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
 
James 4
1 From whence come wars and fighting among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
2 You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not.
3 You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.
4 You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
5 Do you think that the scripture say in vain, The spirit that dwells in us lusts to envy?
6 But he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the LORD, and he shall lift you up.
11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaks evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law: but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who are you that judges another?
13 Go to now, you that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
15 For that you ought to say, If the LORD will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
16 But now you rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
17 Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.
 
James 5
1 Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the LORD of Sabaoth [LORD of the Armies of heaven].
5 You have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; you have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned and killed the just; and he does not resist you.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the LORD. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be you also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the LORD draws nigh.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest you be condemned: behold, the judge stands before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the LORD, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the LORD; that the LORD is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest you fall into condemnation.
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the LORD:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the LORD shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
17 Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul [mind] from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
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And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.

And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
 
As discussed in the previous post, the above is Luke describing the pattern of the last generation of this age. We saw the venomous beast (the confusion that now covers the world in blindness) attaching itself to Paul’s hand (writing), which he shakes off into the fire to be burned up with the dead wood. Because we studied the former rain (the words of the apostles and prophets) and the latter rain, the same word of God coming to us and our experiencing the same pattern, we see clearly what the confusion had mired. (If you don’t see it, you are blinded by the false gods of this time, the authors of confusion, the spirit now at work in the children of disobedience. Go back and read the prior post, and then all those before it, which will fill your lamps with the oil that feeds the light, which is understanding.)
 
The “venomous beast” Luke describes in Acts 28:4, and as the “beast” in verse 5, is above in the title (verse 3) described as a “viper.” The latter two descriptions, as we saw, are from the Greek word therion, which is from the word thera; a one-time used word that describes the “trap” these same leaders of the confusion fall into as they predictably act without reason or understanding. We know their inability to use the higher function of their human mind cause their table, that which should have been for their welfare, to become a snare in which they are unwittingly caught. We have seen in Luke’s, Paul’s, and Peter’s descriptions, the fires their ideas themselves have caused are the snare catching them. We also know, because we have studied and now see it coming in the experience, it is the LORD’s coming with His truth that traps them as He comes as a thief in the night.
 
We saw that of the forty-six times the word therion is used thirty-eight of those come in Revelation to describe the “beast” we know is confusion. This confusion is what keeps the modern false prophets and false teachers from seeing this state of mind is “Mystery Babylon,” the name meaning the unknown confusion, which rules the world (age) and all in it.
 
Revelation 18
8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the LORD God who judges her.
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is your judgment come.
 
Revelation 18 goes on to tell of her sorceries: confusion that alters and deadens the mind; as what has drained the life (blood) from and killed the prophets and saints.
 
Revelation 18
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 [her works] shall be heard no more at all in you;
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in you [no longer will people look to their confusion for understanding]; 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.
 
Peter plainly tells us this end comes by the word of God protected and preserved in pure form in heaven, “reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” He says these men are following their own will and by it are ignorant that these same waters flowing from God ended the former age. Their willful acts are those later describe as the “works” of the world (age) that are burned up in the fire these men’s ideas (elements) have caused. He ends describing their ignorance (unlearned) and their wrestling with the word of God, His truth now released, unto their own destruction.
 
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 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 [these men’s ideas] 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 [these men’s ideas] shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our LORD is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrestle, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
 
The word “viper” Luke uses in Acts 28:3 is the Greek word echidna, a word only used four other times, and said to be from an uncertain origin. The meaning is found in its use in Acts as Luke describes it as fastening to Paul’s hand. The word appears to be from the Greek words echo, to hold, and eido to know (understand). It means what has attached itself to what is known (written) as if venom (poison from the mouth) that destroys understanding.
 
James 3
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of Gehenna.
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
 
In this context, we know echo from its use in the word katecho; meaning to hold down; the word used twice in 2 Thessalonians 2 to tell of what “withholds” and will “lets,” meaning hold down, God’s people until it is taken out of the way.
 
2 Thessalonians 2
5 Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now you know [eido] what withholds [katecho] that he might be revealed [uncovered] in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity does already work: only he who now lets [katecho] will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the LORD shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness [light of understanding] of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan [after those who resist and rebel against God] with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
 
Every other time the word echidna is used it is in the LORD describing the “generation of vipers.” These are those whose eyes are held by what is (their lack of the knowledge of God and His word) causing them not to understand and therefore not see or hear the LORD.
 
Luke 24
15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
16 But their eyes were held that they should not know him.
17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that you have one to another, as you walk, and are sad?
18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas [of a renowned father], answering said unto him, Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem, and have not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
19 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth [the one preserved {kept} by separation from corruption], which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
20 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.
22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher [the churches – where the corruption occurred and is, as are the dead];
23 And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive [as I have].
24 And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher [the churches – the grave of the dead], and found it [empty] even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.
25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
 
John 5
19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Truly, truly, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for what things soever he does, these also does the Son likewise.
20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all things that himself does: and he will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
21 For as the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them; even so the Son quickens [brings from death to life] whom he will.
22 For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son:
23 That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honors not the Father which has sent him.
24 Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
25 Truly, truly, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
26 For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given to the Son to have life in himself;
27 And has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will [see 2 Peter 3:5 above speaking of those who have followed their own will into ignorance], but the will of the Father which has sent me.
 
The resurrection to life comes only when these men’s corrupted ideas, their own creation, are taken out of the way, and then God’s children rise from under those who have held them down (katecho). This truth is what set us free, while at the same it exposes the wicked as the dead, who remain with their dead works and choose to perish with them.
 
Matthew 3
…O generation of vipers [echidna – generation held in what drains life], who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet [suitable] for repentance:
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees [those leading astray]: therefore every tree [leader] which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
12 Whose fan is in his hand [the same hand we’re discussing], and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
13 Then comes Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of you, and come you to me?
15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
 
Hebrews 13
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made [the errors these men have created and attached to God’s truth, which has drained the life from His people and the world], that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
 
Matthew 12
30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathers not with me scatters abroad.
31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
32 And whosoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost [the work of gathering into one body those who have heeded the warning and fled from corruption and the wrath to come], it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world [age], neither in the world [age] to come.
33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
34 O generation of vipers [echidna], how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
37 For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.
38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from you.
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah:
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly [in the chasm {the open mouth of confusion} that has caused {swallowed up and held in} the agitation of the people]; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation [of vipers], and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here.
42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
 
Matthew 23
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees [false prophets, false preachers, and false teachers of God’s people], hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith [the knowledge of God]: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 You blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whited sepulchers [their churches, where the corruption has occurred and is, and where the dead are], which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets [those you have drained the life from], and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous [those you have held down in your corruption],
30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31 Wherefore you be witnesses unto yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32 Fill you up then the measure of your fathers.
33 You serpents, you generation of vipers [echidna], how can you escape the damnation of Gehenna?
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel [the righteous you made empty and void of the knowledge of God] unto the blood of Zechariah [who remembered and recognized Jehovah] son of Barachias [who Jehovah blessed], whom you slew between the temple and the altar.
36 Truly I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!
38 Behold, your house [the house of corruption] is left unto you desolate.
39 For I say unto you, You shall not see me henceforth, till you shall say, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the LORD.
 
Isaiah 27
1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent [the echidna among God’s people], even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon [death lurking unknown below the surface] that is in the sea [that has flowed like a river into the masses].
2 In that day sing you unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment [with the pure life-giving waters of heaven – this latter rain]: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns [these men of corruption] against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob [those who have unknowingly wrestled with God’s presence and word] to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Has he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
8 In measure, when it shoots forth, you will debate with it: he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar [the idols/ideas they worship] as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves [of trees/men] and [their] images shall not stand up.
10 Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor.
12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat [the fruit being corrupted by there words] off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt [away from the captivity of those who are holding them by their corrupt ideas], and you shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria [the communists among us], and the outcasts in the land of Egypt [captivity], and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at [New] Jerusalem [the place taught and founded on the word that flows from the LORD, and who thereby find peace and civilization].
 
Psalm 118
1 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endures for ever.
2 Let Israel now say, that his mercy endures for ever.
3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endures for ever.
4 Let them now that fear the LORD say, that his mercy endures for ever.
5 I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.
6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?
7 The LORD taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.
8 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
9 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
10 All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.
11 They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
12 They compassed me about like bees: they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
13 You have thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD helped me.
14 The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
16 The right hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
18 The LORD has chastened me sore: but he has not given me over unto death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD:
20 This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.
21 I will praise you: for you have heard me, and are become my salvation.
22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.
23 This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save now, I beseech you, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech you, send now prosperity.
26 Blessed be he that comes in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
27 God is the LORD, which has shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will praise you: you are my God, I will exalt you.
29 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endures for ever.
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If you haven’t read along, you should just pass on by. There is nothing for you to see here.

If you haven’t read along, you should just pass on by. There is nothing for you to see here.

Well spoke the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, Saying, “Go unto this people, and say, Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

The above passage is from Acts 28:25 thru 27 and speaks of the blindness that was and remains upon those who call themselves God’s people. These are the same people, the same ignorance, Paul speaks of in Roman 10, where he says it comes from lacking the knowledge of God. He says these are those who are going about to prove themselves right (righteous) instead of seeking to find God’s rightness in what He is telling them – through those He has chosen. As we have seen, it is the confession of God’s rightness that brings life: the quickening: resurrection, from death resulting from a darkened mind.

Paul says, “for with the heart (reason) man believes unto righteousness (rightness), and with the mouth confession (that God’s is right and correct) is made unto salvation.” He is speaking of Christ in him as the preacher, and believing God has in this way raised Christ in him from the dead, which is evidenced by knowing the voice. “For the scripture says, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.”

This last quote appears in Romans 10:11 and is from Isaiah 28:16 where Isaiah is describing the LORD teaching precept upon precept, line upon line, to those who had made a covenant with death. He says those hearing have rejected the rest and refreshing His teaching would produce as the LORD in this way raised them out of their agreement with death. As we know, the chapter goes on to say, “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.”

Isaiah, in Isaiah 29:8, says this is as when a man dreams he has attained something and awakes to realize it was his mind deceiving him. This refers to what is written earlier in Isaiah 28:16, which Paul quotes in Romans 10:11, being ashamed and fleeing away for this same reason: awakening to see the expected doesn’t materialize, because of a mind strayed from God and His Truth.

We know God’s people were blinded in Isaiah’s time and identically in the time of Paul, as His people now remain blinded by the same cause.

Luke, earlier in Acts 28 tells us the cause is confusion: blindness that keeps God’s people from understanding. His description is of the same as above, men teaching God’s people things opposing God and then contradicting His correction when it comes. In Acts 28:4 & 5 it is the venomous beast that leaped from the fire and fastened to Paul’s hand as he burned the dead wood.

The hand is the same hand we have discussed as it appears in Habakkuk 3, from where the light (understanding) comes as rays from God’s hand, wherein His power is hidden. It is Luke describing Paul’s hand (what he has written with it) in the same sense as what Peter says in 2 Peter 3 of Paul’s writing and the men (false teachers) who wrestle with it and the other scripture to their own destruction. In Acts 28 Paul shakes them off into the fire, to burn with the dead wood from where they leaped. This shaking off into the fire is what is referred to Habakkuk where those spoken to are asking dead wood and dumb stones to rise and teach. This occurs when the knowledge of God is covering the earth (in light), as water (His word) covers the sea (the masses).

Habakkuk 2
13 Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
15 Woe unto him that gives his neighbor drink, that puts your bottle to him, and make him drunken also, that you may look on their nakedness!
16 You are filled with shame for glory: drink you also, and let your foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’s right hand shall be turned unto you, and shameful spewing shall be on your glory.
17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover you, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
18 What profits the graven image that the maker thereof has graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusts therein, to make dumb idols?
19 Woe unto him that says to the [dead] wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath [no life being exhaled] at all in the midst of it.
20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

Here is what Peter says of these same venomous beasts, alive as if worms in the fires of Gehenna, whose works are burning up, and whose ideas (stoicheion – elements) melt ways.

2 Peter 3
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 [the destruction] 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 [these men’s ideas] 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 [these men’s ideas] shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our LORD is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrestle, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

The word Luke uses in Acts 28:4 & 5, rendered “venomous beast” and “beast,” is therion, meaning a dangerous animal. It is from the one time used word thera, rendered trap in Romans 11:9, which is a quote from Psalms 69:22. In both it tells of the blindness that has come on those who think they are the “true believers” and because if it, what should have been for their welfare becomes the trap in which they have fallen. [See Luke 6:39]

This fall is the case with all those who oppose this Plan of God and who reject His corrective teaching. “But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.”

These men, now caught in (the fires) the trap, have become as panicked animals attempting to escape the inescapable truth.

The word therion is used forty-six times, all except eight of those appear in Revelation where it is always translated “beast” in telling of what we know is confusion (which reduces man to acting on animal instinct rather than his intellect and reason).

Do you hear the LORD’s voice over the noise from the fires? If you are in the fires, calm down, use your mind, and take the hand reaching to pull you out (harpazo – as in Jude 23).

Acts 28
24 And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.
25 And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, “Well spoke the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers,
26 Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and not perceive:
27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles [those who don’t call themselves Christian or Jew], and that they will hear it.
29 And when he had said these words, the Jews [now those who claim to be Christians and Jews] departed, and had great reasoning among themselves.

Romans 10
1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is [all God’s people, Christian and Jew alike], that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.
5 For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which does those things shall live by them.
6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what says it? The word is nigh you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture says, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed [whosever believes on Him shall reach the expected end – those who don’t and refuse this correction, will never reach the end they’ve seen – because they are lies of men].
12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same LORD over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, LORD, who has believed our report?
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes truly, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
20 But Isaiah is very bold, and says, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have stretched forth my hands [into the fires they have created with their own ideas] unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

Romans 11
1 I say then, Has God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot you not what the scripture says of Elijah? how he makes intercession to God against Israel saying,
3 LORD, they have killed your prophets, and digged down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what says the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
7 What then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
8 (According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
9 And David says, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap [thera], and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always.
11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

Isaiah 28
5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol 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 Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.

Paul speaks of these evil “beasts,” the therion who are trapped by their own words and in their own confusion, in Titus 1:12, saying they are always liars. He continues, saying, “13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; 14 Not giving heed to Jewish [and Christian] fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. 15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. 16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate [show themselves as unapproved by God].”

Psalms 69
16 Hear me, O LORD; for your lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of your tender mercies.
17 And hide not your face from your servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.
19 You have known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: mine adversaries are all before you.
20 Reproach has broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom you have smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom you have wounded.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into your righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful: let your salvation, O God, set me up on high.

Psalm 108
1 O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2 Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
3 I will praise you, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto you among the nations.
4 For your mercy is great above the heavens: and your truth reaches unto the clouds.
5 Be you exalted, O God, above the heavens: and your glory above all the earth;
6 That your beloved may be delivered: save with your right hand, and answer me.
7 God has spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem [rightly divide the word that has become the burden upon their shoulders], and mete out the valley of Succoth [where Jacob built His first house and booths for his livestock – and there fed them – see Genesis 33:17].
8 Gilead [the fountain {mountain of water} of this testimony] is mine; Manasseh is mine [that which you have forgotten]; Ephraim [the second {double} blessing] also is the strength of mine head; Judah [the leader God shows as approved] is my lawgiver;
9 Moab is my washpot [the entrance {gateway} is in these cleansing waters]; over Edom [those who have sold their birthright] will I cast out my shoe [I will take possession {of their gates}]; over Philistia [those wallowing in the mire of their own confusion] will I triumph.
10 Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?
11 Will not you, O God, who have cast us off? and will not you, O God, go forth with our hosts?
12 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
13 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. [Selah. Remember Psalms 81 & 2]

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