Word XP

Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things.

As we saw in the previous post, the above, Psalms 72:18, is David speaking of the LORD “alone” doing wonders. His wonders are further explained in Psalms 51:4 where the same Hebrew word (bad) is again rendered “only” in saying our sins are against God alone. David there speaks of the LORD’s correction and forgiveness as His salvation. David says this is what opened his mouth to teach others in the same correction, while also telling of God’s sure mercies. The “wondrous” things that only the LORD does are spoken of often using the Hebrew word pala’, as they are precisely described, again by David, in Psalms 40.

Psalms 51
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only [bad], have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight: that you might be justified when you speak, and be clear when you judge.
5 Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part you shall make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop [sprinkling the blood of your sacrifice, your corrective word –see Hebrews 12:24 below], and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence; and take not your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with your free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors your ways; and sinners shall be converted unto you.
14 Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, you God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O LORD, open you my lips; and my mouth shall show forth your praise.
16 For you desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: you delight not in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good in your good pleasure unto Zion: build you the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then shall you be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon your altar.

Hebrews 12
11 Now no chastening [correction] for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
18 For you are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: [You are not those who’ve turned away from God’s correction and sold your birthright to keep what you lusted for]
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect [by accepting the Father’s correction],
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Psalms 40
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust, and respects not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O LORD my God, are your wonderful [pala’] works which you have done, and your thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto you: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire; mine ears have you opened: burnt offering and sin offering have you not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do your will, O my God: yea, your law is within my heart.
9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, you know.
10 I have not hid your righteousness within my heart; I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation: I have not concealed your lovingkindness and your truth from the great congregation.
11 Withhold not you your tender mercies from me, O LORD: let your lovingkindness and your truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
16 Let all those that seek you rejoice and be glad in you: let such as love your salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
17 But I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinks upon me: you are my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

Psalms 52
1 Why boast you yourself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endures continually.
2 The tongue devises mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3 You love evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.
4 You love all devouring words, O you deceitful tongue.
5 God shall likewise destroy you for ever, he shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.
6 The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him:
7 Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
9 I will praise you for ever, because you have done it: and I will wait on your name; for it is good before your saints.

Psalms 51:4 above is quoted by Paul in Romans 3:4 as he, the LORD speaking through his writing, described this correction as the circumcisions of the heart, meaning removing the flesh from our reasoning. In other words, we aren’t controlled by, nor do we act based upon momentary shortsighted lust; but we remove it (lust/flesh) from ruling over our thoughts and act according to what we understanding to be the best way to continuing in peace. This is the process (Jerusalem – yarah shalam) of being taught and founded upon the ideas, the ways, of peace and security (civilization) that flow from God. These are found in the His written word, the oracles of God, the word He has inspirited men to write as His hand, which word effectually works as the power in man that changes his nature. In the change that occurs is God’s power and plan seen, His righteousness manifested by changing us away from our unrighteousness, and making His righteousness ours.

Romans 2
1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are that judges: for wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you that judges do the same things.
2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
3 And think you this, O man, that judges them which do such things, and does the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God?
4 Or despises you the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5 But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasure up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life:
8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
10 But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
15 Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
17 Behold, you are called a Jew, and rests in the law, and make your boast of God,
18 And know his will, and approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
19 And are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which have the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
21 You therefore which teaches another, teaches you not yourself? you that preaches a man should not steal, do you steal [from God and from His people by extorting money in His name to fulfill your lust for (mammon) things]?
22 You that say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery [haven’t you left God and joined yourself to idols – ideas of your own creation]? you that abhors idols, do you commit sacrilege?
23 You that make your boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonor you God?
24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
25 For circumcision truly profits, if you keep the law: but if you be a breaker of the law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.
26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keeps the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision do transgress the law?
28 For he is not a Jew [Judah – a leader of God people], which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew [Judah], which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God [seek the praise of men is the adultery and idolatry earlier mentioned – lusting for the approval of men].

Romans 3
1 What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged.
5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
7 For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19 Now we know that what things so-ever the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Romans 4
1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has found?
2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he has whereof to glory; but not before God.
3 For what says the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
4 Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
5 But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith [believing the report and receiving the gift of God’s correction] is counted for righteousness.
6 Even as David [see Psalms 32:1 & 2 below] also describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works,
7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD will not impute sin.
9 Comes this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
15 Because the law works wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
17 (As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickens the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall your seed be.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our LORD from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Psalms 32
1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile [no deception].
3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me: my moisture [the substance of life, as a flame of a lamp deprived of its oil] is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
5 I acknowledge my sin unto you, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto you in a time when you may be found [the acceptable time]: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
7 You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; you shall compass me about with songs [ron – shouts] of deliverance. Selah.
8 I [the LORD in me] will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go: I will guide you with mine eye.
9 Be you not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto you.
10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusts in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.
11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, you righteous: and shout for joy, all you that are upright in heart.

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

Verse 6 above is quoted by Peter in 2 Peter 3:5, a chapter where Peter is telling of the ignorance of men, also describing them as those who wrestle with the scriptures to their own destruction. Therein he, the LORD speaking through his writing, tells of the foundational ideas of these men, describing them as elements, from the Greek word stoicheion, that melt away in the fires these same ideas have caused. Peter says the fires end the old heaven and earth, which are inevitably destroyed by their own ignorance. He says we look for a new heaven and earth, wherein dwells righteousness (a kingdom where God’s ideas reign), which is what we hope for, as say the final verses of Psalms 33 above.

2 Peter 3
1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2 That you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the LORD and Savior:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved 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 [stroicheion – foundational ideas of the corrupted world] shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our LORD is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stead-fastness.
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.

As we know, the LORD appearing to pull us the fire these men have caused is the event the false prophets have twisted into their rapture idol. Those who refuse to receive this truth, will never take his hand and be pulled from the fires, and will, therefore, perish in them.

2 Thessalonians 2
5 Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now you know what withholds [katecho – hold down] that he might be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity does already work [the power of the prince of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience]: only he who now lets [katecho – hold you down – the preacher or teacher you follow] will let [hold you down], until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked [the same wicked men spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 3:2 below, who can’t be reasoned with and therefore perish] be revealed, whom the LORD shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness [this understanding] of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders [deceptions],
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the LORD, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our LORD Jesus Christ.
15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
16 Now our LORD Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
17 Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

2 Thessalonians 3
1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the LORD may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:
2 And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
3 But the LORD is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
4 And we have confidence in the LORD touching you, that you both do and will do the things which we command you.
5 And the LORD direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly [because they refuse to receive this grace of God and have chosen instead to keep their idols], and not after the tradition which he received of us.

Isaiah 66
4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
5 Hear the word of the LORD, you that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
6 A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that renders recompense to his enemies.
7 Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.

And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

In the above, Luke 24:51, Luke, the risen LORD speaking through him, is describing (witnessing to) the events after the LORD’s resurrection was realized (understood). Luke’s witness prior to this chapter is an after the fact chronology including the LORD’s ministry and the unbelief and ignorance of those He was leading and teaching – to get them to this point of His resurrection in them.

His witness continues into Acts, the first eight verse giving a synopsis of the LORD’s mission and ours. These are written as patterns, as Ezekiel’s wheel within a wheel, events, that when understood, enable us to see and ACT in the same ways and be warned away from repeating the mistakes of others. The latter is seen as Acts 1 continues with Peter describing Judas (Judah – as the leaders, the ruling class), who is said to be “the guide to them that took Jesus.”

Luke, in giving the scriptural justification for replacing Judas, in Acts 1:20, quotes Psalms 69:25, which gives a precise and fuller description of the types who betray the LORD, then and now, as did those in the house of David. The Psalm tells of the gift of God given through David’s just rule and his faithfulness to God’s leading. Those who should have received what was for their benefit, instead, in rejecting it, turned it into the snare in which they are caught, as was Judas. This pattern is carried forward in who the other true apostles chose to replace the betrayer. They choose Justus, who is also called Matthias, names meaning he believes in just rule and freely giving the gift that was given for all by God. The one who isn’t chosen, is Joseph, who is also called Barsabas (Bar-tsaba), names telling of the one who is for now separated from his brethren because he is a warrior reserved for a time of war (as I have been).

Psalms 69 A Psalm of David
1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
5 O God, you know my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from you.
6 Let not them that wait on you, O LORD God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek you be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
7 Because for your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face.
8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.
9 For the zeal of your house has eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached you are fallen upon me.
10 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.
11 I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.
12 They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is unto you, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of your mercy hear me, in the truth of your salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
16 Hear me, O LORD; for your lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of your tender mercies.
17 And hide not your face from your servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.
19 You have known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: mine adversaries are all before you.
20 Reproach has broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom you have smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom you have wounded.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into your righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful: let your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.
33 For the LORD hears the poor, and despises not his prisoners.
34 Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moves therein.
35 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.
36 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.
To the Chief Musician [to the masters of assemblies, given from one shepherd]

The “acceptable” time David speaks of in verse 13 above is from the Hebrew word ratsown, and in context is leading us to Deuteronomy 33:16 where it is rendered “good will” in telling of when God’s word came from the fire in the bush. The passage above goes on to speak in the same terms as does Jonah from the belly of the fish, which we know tells of his being consumed and held by the underlying cause of what was agitating the masses into a storm. Jonah’s and Joseph’s separation are intended to be understood in concert, as a pattern of the LORD’s separation while He is hidden by the blindness caused by false apostles, the guides who’ve betrayed him.

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.
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, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Deuteronomy 33
13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that couches beneath,
14 And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon,
15 And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,
16 And for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the good will [ratsown] of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns [single horn {rhino – powerful} as the masters of assemblies, giving words given by the one shepherd]: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim [those who receive this second blessing – the free gift of God’s teaching], and they are the thousands of Manasseh [those who’ve forgotten what they once knew].

Friends, this time and the advent in our midst is the time the LORD has spoken of since the beginning. It is sent as a free gift in an acceptable time, when He has heard our prayers and come for the Salvation of His people. The simple but necessary requirement is it must be received, He must be received at His appearing and His kingdom.

2 Timothy 3
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.
10 But you have fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the LORD delivered me.
12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
14 But continue you in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them;
15 And that from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

2 Timothy 4
1 I charge you therefore before God, and the LORD Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch you in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry.

There is no better place where the “acceptable” time is described than Isaiah 49, where in verse 8 the word ratsown again appears. It is a well know passage quoted by Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:2 where he is speaking of the separation from those who refuse to believe this gospel. The chapter ends with his quoting several other scriptures that tell of God living in us, that He is our Father, and explaining that the separation from idols is the prerequisite (preparation). One of the quotes, 2 Corinthians 6:17, is from Isaiah 52:11, a chapter that tells of the arm (work) of the LORD revealed in His preaching this gospel, bringing tidings of good, and publishing peace (yarah shalam – Jerusalem). Receiving the report is the only necessary step that must be taken, receiving the grace and mercy, the Father’s free gift. Those who reject the message perish, “because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

Isaiah 49
1 Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, you people, from far; The LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name.
2 And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand has he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he hid me;
3 And said unto me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
4 Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.
5 And now, says the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.
6 And he said, It is a light thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose you.
8 Thus says the LORD, In an acceptable [ratsown] time have I heard you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you: and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
9 That you may say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that has mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.
12 Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim [double {blessing}].
13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me, and my LORD has forgotten me.
15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget you.
16 Behold, I have graven you upon the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
17 Your children shall make haste; your destroyers and they that made you waste shall go forth of you.
18 Lift up your eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall surely clothe you with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on you, as a bride does.
19 For your waste and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed you up shall be far away.
20 The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.
21 Then shall you say in your heart, Who has begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?
22 Thus says the LORD God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
23 And kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
25 But thus says the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contend with you, and I will save your children.
26 And I will feed them that oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

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 [in Isaiah 49:8 above], 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.)
3 Giving no offence 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 watching, in fasting;
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 [the understanding God has given us is increased before your eyes].
12 You are not straitened in us [you are not restricted by our teaching], but you are straitened in your own bowels [but your own ignorance and rejection of His gift is what restricts you].
13 Now for a recompense in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be you also enlarged [let God’s understanding free you from what is restricting you].
14 Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what concord has Christ with Belial? or what part has he that believes with an infidel?
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 [Leviticus 26:12].
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate, says the LORD, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you [Isaiah 52:11].
18 And will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty [2 Samuel 7:14].

Leviticus 26
4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6 And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7 And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
10 And you shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
11 And I set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my 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, 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.

2 Samuel 7
… Thus saith the LORD, Shall you build me an house for me to dwell in?
6 Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.
7 In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build you not me a house of cedar?
8 Now therefore so shall you say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took you from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel:
9 And I was with you whithersoever you wentest, and have cut off all your enemies out of your sight, and have made you a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.
10 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime,
11 And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the LORD telleth you that he will make you a house.
12 And when your days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.
16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established for ever before you: your throne shall be established for ever.
17 According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
18 Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD, and he said, Who am I, O LORD God? and what is my house, that you have brought me hitherto?
19 And this was yet a small thing in your sight, O LORD God; but you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O LORD God?
20 And what can David say more unto you? for you, LORD God, knowest your servant.
21 For your word’s sake, and according to your own heart, have you done all these great things, to make your servant know them.
22 Wherefore you are great, O LORD God: for there is none like you, neither is there any God beside you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
23 And what one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for your land, before your people, which you redeemed to you from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?
24 For you have confirmed to yourself your people Israel to be a people unto you for ever: and you, LORD, are become their God.
25 And now, O LORD God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as you have said.
26 And let your name be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is the God over Israel: and let the house of your servant David be established before you.
27 For you, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, I will build you a house: therefore has your servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto you.
28 And now, O LORD God, you are that God, and your words be true, and you have promised this goodness unto your servant:
29 Therefore now let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue for ever before you: for you, O LORD God, have spoken it: and with your blessing let the house of your servant be blessed for ever.

Psalm 72
1 Give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness unto the king’s son.
2 He shall judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with judgment.
3 The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.
4 He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
5 They shall fear you as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.
7 In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.
8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
12 For he shall deliver the needy when he cries; the poor also, and him that has no helper.
13 He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.
14 He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
15 And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.
16 There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.
18 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things.
19 And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.
20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

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.

The title is Isaiah 53:3, well known to be describing the one who rises as new life from a dry ground, who is “despised” and rejected by those who are unable to recognize him. As we know, the reason they are unable is that they haven’t believed the report, and therefore the arm (work) of the LORD isn’t revealed to them. As we’ve seen in a previous post, the Hebrew word rendered “despised” is bazah, which means to place no value on.

As we have seen in previous posts, the word bazah is used in Jeremiah 22:28 as Jeremiah asks if Coniah is a despised idol, or a vessel wherein is no pleasure. Jeremiah, in verse 21 where the LORD speaking through him, tells of God’s people not listening to Him or obeying His voice, which is their manner from their youth. The reason is always the same, the people can’t see or hear God because of who they are looking at and listening to, which is to the builders building their own houses as the LORD’s house, the house of David, remains desolate.

Jeremiah 22
5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
6 For thus says the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; You are Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
7 And I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8 And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Wherefore has the LORD done thus unto this great city?
9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
10 Weep you not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11 For thus says the LORD touching Shallum [the LORD’s final proclamation of judgement upon the corrupted seed line] the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
12 But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
13 Woe unto him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and gives him not for his work;
14 That says, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cuts him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
15 Shall you reign, because you closest yourself in cedar? did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? says the LORD.
17 But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
18 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah LORD! or, Ah his glory!
19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all your lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke unto you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyed not my voice.
22 The wind shall eat up all your pastors, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.
23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makes your nest in the cedars, how gracious shall you be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in travail!
24 As I live, says the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck you thence;
25 And I will give you into the hand of them that seek your life, and into the hand of them whose face you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon [the abominations, false teaching, the confusion that rules over and makes desolate], and into the hand of the Chaldeans [those who uses their words to control and manipulate, to hold God’s people in death].
26 And I will cast you out, and your mother that bare you, into another country, where you were not born; and there shall you die.
27 But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.
28 Is this man Coniah [Jehovah will establish – raise to life out of the confusion] a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
30 Thus says the LORD, Write you this man [Jehoiakim] childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

The earth-shaking (voice of God) will not stop until the wicked have been shaken from their hold on the earth.

2 Chronicles 36
1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz [Jehovah has seized {the throne away from the kings}, also called Shallam {retribution}] the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father’s stead in Jerusalem.
2 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
3 And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.
5 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.
6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.
7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.
8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin [Coniah – who the LORD will reestablish, after he rises from the confusion] his son reigned in his stead.
9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
10 And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
11 Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
12 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD.
13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel.
14 Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
15 And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:
16 But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.
17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.
18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon.
19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:
21 To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
23 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth has the LORD God of heaven given me; and he has charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.

Jeremiah speaks of the seventy years, the threescore and ten years mentioned in verse 21 above, in Jeremiah 25:11 & 12.

Jeremiah 25
4 And the LORD has sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but you have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.
5 They said, Turn you again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever:
6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.
7 Yet you have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.
8 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because you have not heard my words,
9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
12 And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

Verse 10 above is quoted in Revelation 18:23, where the perpetual desolations that are coming have come in the fire after the earthquake. As we’ve seen in previous posts, heaven and earth shaking to shake the wicked from them, is mentioned in Job 38 and Hebrews 12. The fire that follows is what causes men to hear the still small voice (of the LORD speaking). See 1 Kings 19:11 & 12.

Revelation 16
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Revelation 17
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto you the judgment of the great whore [the unfaithful church and nation in total – who left God and took up idols] that sits upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.
6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns.
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit [confusion that is the product of the endless fall away from God], and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
9 And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains [the seven churches the LORD is speaking to through John], on which the woman sits.
10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue a short space.
11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition.
12 And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings [represent all the kings of the world – civil governments, all ruled by confusion and ignorance], which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast [in confusion/Babylon].
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast [Babylon – a Mystery no longer].
14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is LORD of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
15 And he says unto me, The waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
16 And the ten horns which you saw upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
17 For God has put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which you saw is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.

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

Psalms 22
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
2 O my God, I cry in the day time, but you hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But you are holy, O you that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in you: they trusted, and you did deliver them.
5 They cried unto you, and were delivered: they trusted in you, and were not confounded.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised [bazah] of the people.
7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
9 But you are he that took me out of the womb: you did make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon you from the womb: you are my God from my mother’s belly.
11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and you have brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
19 But be not you far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste you to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth: for you have heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
22 I will declare your name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise you.
23 You that fear the LORD, praise him; all you the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all you the seed of Israel.
24 For he has not despised [bazah] nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither has he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of you in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindred of the nations shall worship before you.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the LORD for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he has done this.

Woe unto those that observe lying vanities, because they forsake their own mercy.

Hear the word of the LORD, “The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.”

The title is Ecclesiastes 12:11 and is the LORD telling of the means by which He is leading us into life, showing us the day He has foretold, which has now arrived. I urge all to realize this is the day of the LORD, a time for all to REPENT and come to His light (understanding). Solomon, in Ecclesiastes 12, is calling all to remember the Creator, before this day comes, so when it does, as it has, we are prepared to see it and join Him in His work of repairing the house of David, which He HAS first raised up in us (as we saw in the prior post, from Amos 9).

Ecclesiastes 12 is speaking of the Creator and those who’ve become His children (youth) by learning at His feet, and, by it, receiving understanding. Solomon then speaks of the evil day, when understanding (light) has vanished from His people, and even though He sends rain from the cloud (His word, corrective advice, from where the ignorant can’t understand), the keepers of the house, by rejection, only see their own darkness (ignorance).

The “youth” Solomon (the LORD in him) speaks of in verse 1 is from the Hebrew word bchurowth, which only appears two other times. One of these is in Ecclesiastes 11:9 in a passage giving understanding (context) to what is meant in chapter 12. The one other use, also describing the pattern of our day, is found in Numbers 11:28 where it is used to describe Joshua’s relationship to Moses.

Ecclesiastes 11
1 Cast your bread upon the waters: for you shall find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for you know not what evil shall be upon the earth.
3 If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall be [if the word from heaven moves men toward God or away from Him, there shall it remain].
4 He that observes the wind shall not sow; and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.
5 As you know not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so you know not the works of God who makes all.
6 In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening withhold not your hand: for you know not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.
7 Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
8 But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.
9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth; and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth [bchurowth], and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes: but know you, that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
10 Therefore remove sorrow [ka`ac – vexation {an inability to grasp understanding – that leads to an evil conscience}] from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh: for childhood and youth [shacharuwth – being drawn away {by sorrow and the flesh}] are vanity.

Ecclesiastes 12
1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth [bchurowth], while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them;
2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few [the work of sowing and casting bread {the word of God and understanding} has stopped, because the shepherds and husbandmen feed themselves {their god is their belly}], and those that look out of the windows be darkened [they look but see nothing except their own ignorance],
4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;
5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern [these all speak of the waters stopped and the house therefore departing].
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was [the earth will again become without form and void – founded on confusion upon which is build nothing of value/emptiness]: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
8 Vanity of vanities, says the preacher; all is vanity.
9 And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed [warning of the coming inevitable consequences, as I warn of now – Be awakened by the shaking], and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
10 The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.
11 The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Number 11 begins by speaking of the people’s ignorance of the manna, not knowing it was the bread of heaven, the word of God, sent so they would, by it, live. The chapter continues and tells of the people, in their ignorance and dissatisfaction, lusting for flesh. The flesh is then manifested as the seventy men (flesh) the LORD, in Moses, chooses and manifest Himself before (removing the veil and showing Himself in Moses). These men are the pattern of the first fruits, and the word of God sent in them is the flesh men lust for. Be enlightened and be warned.

Numbers 11
1 And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.
2 And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched.
3 And he called the name of the place Taberah [seems to be combining the Hebrew words tabniyth and ba’ar, therefore meaning the pattern of all consuming fire {that comes after the voice shaking heaven and earth – see Hebrews 12:12 thru 29 below]: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them.
4 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic:
6 But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.
7 And the manna was as coriander seed [gad – as seed among the crowd], and the color thereof as the color of bdellium [badal – separated, as the right divided word of God].
8 And the people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.
9 And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.
10 Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased.
11 And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore have you afflicted your servant? and wherefore have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people upon me?
12 Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that you should say unto me, Carry them in your bosom, as a nursing father bears the sucking child, unto the land which you swore unto their fathers?
13 Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.
14 I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
15 And if you deal thus with me, kill me, I pray you, out of hand, if I have found favor in your sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.
16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with you.
17 And I will come down and talk with you there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon you, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you bear it not yourself alone.
18 And say you unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and you shall eat flesh: for you have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and you shall eat.
19 You shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days;
20 But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that you have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?
21 And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and you have said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.
22 Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?
23 And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD’s hand waxed short? you shall see now whether my word shall come to pass unto you or not.
24 And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.
25 And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spoke unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.
26 But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad [these names tell of the word of God, as waters boiling up and flooding out]: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.
27 And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.
28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young [bchurowth] men, answered and said, My LORD Moses, forbid them.
29 And Moses said unto him, Envy you for my sake? would God that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!
30 And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
31 And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.
32 And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.
33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.
34 And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah [where their lust brought them into the grave]: because there they buried the people that lusted.
35 And the people journeyed from Kibrothhattaavah unto Hazeroth [into a place of protection, apart from the graves of those who lusted]; and abode at Hazeroth.

Hebrews 12
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 [they refused to hear the word of God’s correction]:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast [those who couldn’t be corrected away from what they lusted for – and as Esau, traded their birthright to keep what they lusted for] touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
22 But you are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.

The one speaking, as the all consuming fire, which consumes those who oppose it, is the same one Solomon describes in Ecclesiastes 12:11 as “one shepherd,” from who the word is given, which is only received by the wise. When he says the words are as nail fasted by the masters of assemblies, the word rendered “masters” is ba’al (the same word as Baal). Seeing this as an intentional contrast meant to distinguish between the LORD’s minsters and those preaching their own words (the advice, the voices {ideas} from the many different origins and authors), we see the point. It is to focus His people’s attention on the one voice the LORD God Almighty Himself raises to prominence and establishes as His throne. His is the throne where the one shepherd is heard as the voice of God, ending the darkness and removing the confusion (babel) of the many different babbling voices.

Joel 1
1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel [vison of God – opened by God].
2 Hear this, you old men, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Has this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell you your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
4 That which the palmerworm has left has the locust eaten; and that which the locust has left has the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left has the caterpillar eaten.
5 Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and howl, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the cheek teeth of a great lion.
7 He has laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he has made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn.
10 The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languishes.
11 Be you ashamed, O you husbandmen [ba’al]; howl, O you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
13 Gird yourselves, and lament, you priests: howl, you ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God.
14 Sanctify you a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
18 How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
19 O LORD, to you will I cry: for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.
20 The beasts of the field cry also unto you: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

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

Joel 3
1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
4 Yea, and what have you to do with me, O Tyre [false rock in which people mistakenly put the trust], and Zidon [those who hunt souls, to consume them to fulfill their lusts], and all the coasts of Palestine [the invaders {with the lying ways and deceptions} who seek to change of culture {have nationally removed it from under God} to consume us]? will you render me a recompense? and if you recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head;
5 Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:
6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have you sold unto the Grecians, that you might remove them far from their border.
7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither you have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head:
8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD has spoken it.
9 Proclaim you this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all you heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause your mighty ones to come down, O LORD.
12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
13 Put you in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
17 So shall you know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwells in Zion.

Psalms 70
1 Make haste, o God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD.
2 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt.
3 Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha.
4 Let all those that seek you rejoice and be glad in you: and let such as love your salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.
5 But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: you are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying

Psalm 72
1 Give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness unto the king’s son.
2 He shall judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with judgment.
3 The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.
4 He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
5 They shall fear you as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.
7 In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endures.
8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
12 For he shall deliver the needy when he cries; the poor also, and him that has no helper.
13 He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.
14 He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
15 And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.
16 There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.
18 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things.
19 And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.
20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

Today’s title is Amos 9:11 and tells of the day (now) when the LORD restores the house of David, meaning when there is again one true (God chosen and established) king sitting on the throne. Amos is the first of all those called the major and minor prophets and the evidence of his dating is found in his words (the LORD’s word by his hand). The book begins with Amos telling us when he understood (saw) the things he is writing. He says it is in the time (689 BC) when Uzziah is the king of Judah, when Jeroboam II is king of Israel, and two years before the earthquake. He is writing about events that occurred much earlier, which are alluded to as the house of Isaac is mention twice in Amos 7. The name Isaac only appears two other times, Psalms 105:9 and Jeremiah 33:26, after the books of Chronicles. In these latter four uses, it is a different word than is used in the many times the name appears before. The earlier times it means he laughs, referring to Sarah’s laughing when she was told she was going to have a child in her old age, and God having the last laugh when the child is born. In the latter four appearances, it is Yischaq, which the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon says mean He will laugh, and is from the word sachaq. It (sachaq) is the word that appears in Psalms 2:4, 37:13, 59:8, and Proverbs 1:26, as we are told of when the LORD will laugh, when He sees the calamity of the wicked is coming, which is put in context by Psalms 2, as the son who comes by the LORD’s proclamation.

In Amos 7 the name Isaac is used to refer us to the sins of Amaziah king of Judah and how it combined again Esau, Israel, and Judah in one corrupt house (therefore defined as the house of Isaac). With these events, the culmination of earlier sins of Judah mixing with idolatrous Israel and resulted in Judah replacing God with the idol of Esau, comes the (major and minor) prophets warning of the impending end of Judah, Jerusalem, and Israel. (As is this nation now warned, and appears to be rejecting the remedy, instead choosing to remain in darkness.)

Amaziah, who is the father of Uzziah, also reigned at the same time as Jeroboam II. In Amos 7 the LORD, through Amos, is speaking to Jeroboam II, king of Israel, through a priest named Amaziah.

What we see in 2 Kings 14 and 2 Chronicle 25 (see the post of 22 January 2018), is that Amaziah (Judah) goes to war with and defeats Edom (Esau) and afterward bring back their idols (gods) and puts them in the temple in God place (abominations in the holy place). Amaziah, after a battle between Judah and Israel in which Judah is defeated, is captured by Joash (Jehoash) king of Israel, the father of Jeroboam II. What is unsaid but alluded to, is Amaziah is carried hostage back to Samaria, where he is (most likely by Jeroboam) put in a priest’s position, over the idols of Edom that were taken from Jerusalem. (Much deeper meaning here – for another day.)

Early in these chapters, we are told of Joash and Amaziah meeting face to face, which result after a very cryptic message is sent to Amaziah by Joash. This message is referring to their common lineage, which didn’t exist until Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel and Ahab (king of Israel – Israel’s kings are not in the Davidic line, and begin with the first Jeroboam in the generation after Solomon), married (Jehoram the son of) Jehoshaphat king of Judah (making all the kings of Judah after them also descendants of Ahab – See Jeremiah 29:19 thru 23). By this both king lines were corrupted, which is another reason why Coniah is separated (cut off) from the kings of Judah at their ending (written childless – See the prior post.) This is also why the LORD told his people to go to Babylon, where the true heir was {in the line that there would begin again in Coniah} and where they should be with Him. (See Jeremiah 29 – Selah!)

2 Kings 14
7 He slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah [the false rock] by war, and called the name of it Joktheel [obedience to God] unto this day.
8 Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash [Joash], the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face.
9 And Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle [{Jehoshaphat the son of} Asa] that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar [Ahab] that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast [Athaliah – Jehovah has constrained] that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle [corrupted/darkened the king line and eventually ended Judah].
10 You have indeed smitten Edom, and your heart has lifted you up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why should you meddle to your hurt, that you should fall, even you, and Judah with you?
11 But Amaziah would not hear. Therefore Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Bethshemesh [house of the sun – the church], which belongs to Judah.
12 And Judah was put to the worse before Israel; and they fled every man to their tents.
13 And Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Bethshemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner gate, four hundred cubits.
14 And he took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and hostages [including Amaziah], and returned to Samaria.

2 Chronicles 25
14 Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir [Edom], and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them.
15 Wherefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent unto him a prophet, which said unto him, Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of your hand?
16 And it came to pass, as he talked with him, that the king said unto him, Are you made of the king’s counsel? forbear; why should you be smitten? Then the prophet forbare, and said, I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this, and have not hearkened unto my counsel.
17 Then Amaziah king of Judah took advice, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us see one another in the face.
18 And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle.
19 You say, Lo, you have smitten the Edomites; and your heart lifts you up to boast: abide now at home; why should you meddle to your hurt, that you should fall, even you, and Judah with you?
20 But Amaziah would not hear; for it came of God, that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they sought after the gods of Edom.
21 So Joash the king of Israel went up; and they saw one another in the face, both he and Amaziah king of Judah, at Bethshemesh, which belongeth to Judah.
22 And Judah was put to the worse before Israel, and they fled every man to his tent.
23 And Joash the king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, at Bethshemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.
24 And he took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obededom [servant {Amaziah} of Edom {the idols of Esau – who is also called Seir and Idumea}], and the treasures of the king’s house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria.
25 And Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years.

It is in the above context of events the LORD speaks through Amos to what is now as if the house of Isaac, a regression to a more primitive state. Hear the law, the word of God explaining the pattern of the decline of His people, now, and the restoration that comes, after they realize their depraved and fallen state (their sickness unto death) and awaken from their confusion (as Zerubbabel, quickened to life from Babylon). “Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus [the priesthood] is dead.”

Joel tells of the day as the day of darkness, when the sun, moon, and stars have been darkened, which we know means the church, nation, and all God’s people, have become without understanding. It is said to be a day of decision, which is given context by also calling it the valley of Jehoshaphat. This is written in Joel 3:2 where the LORD is telling of when he will gather the His people who have been scattered. The scattering aspect is what leads us to the meaning in association with Jehoshaphat, which is found in 2 Chronicles 18:16. This is when Jehoshaphat and Ahab are trying to decide if they should go to war against Ramothgilead: a name telling of whose advice is going to be followed (whose testimony will be raised).

These two kings put their question to four hundred false prophets, who tell them to go to war. They then look for another prophet who isn’t from this crowd of self-called experts (probably because they know the prophets are never right and only say what keeps them popular and prospering). The prophet they find is named Micaiah [who is like Jehovah], who tells them, “I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and the LORD said, ‘These have no master; let them return therefore every man to his house in peace.'”

It is in this battle Ahab is killed – because he listened to the false prophets and went.

The battle is in whose words, whose advice and ideas are followed, the many false prophets who have caused the darkness and drought, or the one God is speaking through.

Joel 2
12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
13 Put you in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
17 So shall you know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, O you heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe you greatness unto our God.
4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
5 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Do you thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he your father that has bought you? has he not made you, and established you?
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 For the LORD’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, taketh them, bears them on her wings:
12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and you did drink the pure blood of the grape.
15 But Jeshurun [God’s people in prosperity that is produced by following His advice] waxed fat, and kicked: you are waxen fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
18 Of the Rock that begat you you are unmindful, and have forgotten God that formed you.
19 And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation [a generation that has twisted and perverted truth], children in whom is no faith.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
25 The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
26 I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:
27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD has not done all this.
28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
35 To me belongs vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
36 For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
37 And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
38 Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
41 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
42 I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
43 Rejoice, O you nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.

Amos 7
1 Thus has the LORD God shown unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowing.
2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O LORD God, forgive, I beseech you: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
3 The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, says the LORD.
4 Thus has the LORD God shown unto me: and, behold, the LORD God called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
5 Then said I, O LORD God, cease, I beseech you: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
6 The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, says the LORD God.
7 Thus he shown me: and, behold, the LORD stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.
8 And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what sees you? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the LORD, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel [the LORD has evaluated what they have built and has given a truthful report]: I will not again pass by them any more:
9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
11 For thus Amos says, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.
12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O you seer, go, flee you away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:
13 But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.
14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit:
15 And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.
16 Now therefore hear you the word of the LORD: You say, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not your word against the house of Isaac.
17 Therefore thus says the LORD; Your wife shall be an harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you shall die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.

Amos 8
1 Thus has the LORD God shown unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
2 And he said, Amos, what see you? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
3 And the songs of the temple shall be howling in that day, says the LORD God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.
4 Hear this, O you that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? [They want these words to stop so they can get back to the same old corrupt ways – which {stopping} isn’t an option. The options are, REPENT or destroy yourselves.]
7 The LORD has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this [is it not trembling – on the 4th of July – coincidence, I think not], and every one mourn that dwells therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11 Behold, the days come, says the LORD God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Your god, O Dan, lives; and, The manner of Beersheba lives; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

Amos 9
1 I saw the LORD standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that flees of them shall not flee away, and he that escapes of them shall not be delivered.
2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.
5 And the LORD God of hosts is he that touches the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
6 It is he that builds his stories in the heaven, and has founded his troop in the earth; he that calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.
7 Are you not as children of the Ethiopians [covered in darkness] unto me, O children of Israel? says the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?
8 Behold, the eyes of the LORD God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
10 All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, says the LORD that does this.
13 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the LORD your God.

Proverbs 1
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
4 To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8 My son, hear the instruction of your father, and forsake not the law of your mother:
9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto your head, and chains about your neck.
10 My son, if sinners entice you, consent you not.
11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily [secretly] for the innocent without cause:
12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:
13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:
14 Cast in your lot among us; let us all have one purse:
15 My son, walk not you in the way with them; refrain your foot from their path:
16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
17 Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
18 And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily [unknowingly] for their own lives.
19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
20 Wisdom cries without; she utters her voice in the streets:
21 She cries in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she utters her words, saying,
22 How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
24 Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25 But you have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
26 I also will laugh [sachaq] at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;
27 When your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish comes upon you.
28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
33 But whoso hearkens unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

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 [sachaq]: 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.

“Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, ‘This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.'”

The above is Haggai 1:2, and is the LORD, through Haggai, speaking to “Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest.” We are told this is in the second year of Darius the king, when we know the building resumed after it was halted by the opposition of those (in Ezra 4:1) called “adversaries.” We are told these men first tried to join in with the builders and when rejected resorted to false accusation. This is the pattern of our time, the opposition among us, as discussed in prior posts, as the gates of hell attempting to hold us.

These same adversaries (tsar) are described in Nehemiah 4:11, the chapter’s wording describing a hell-like setting. It tells of those sent from foreign nations becoming confederate with the remainder of idol worshipping Israel, against Judah building Jerusalem, which was a burned ruin.

Nehemiah 4
1 But it came to pass, that when Sanballat [the powerful] heard that we built the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews.
2 And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria [at this point Samaria had become fully corrupted by what can be likened to the illegal immigration of our time – then, to show the pattern, it was those sent in by the king of Babylon], and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?
3 Now Tobiah [claiming to be the goodness of Jehovah – false Christians and Jews – enemies among us taking the LORD’s name in vain – Esau types] the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.
4 Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
5 And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before you: for they have provoked you to anger before the builders.
6 So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.
7 But it came to pass, that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites [names meaning the darkness mixed with God’s people, He will destroy], heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth,
8 And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.
9 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
10 And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.
11 And our adversaries [tsar – Satan inspired] said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.
12 And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places whence you shall return unto us they will be upon you.
13 Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
14 And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not you afraid of them: remember the LORD, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.
15 And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to naught, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work.
16 And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.
17 They which built on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.
18 For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so built. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.
19 And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another.
20 In what place therefore you hear the sound of the trumpet, resort you thither unto us: our God shall fight for us.

It is into these events the LORD sends His word by Haggai (who is another of Ezekiel’s and Obadiah’s contemporaries). The names used in first verses of Haggai 1 translate into saying it is the LORD who now reigns in Babylon; He has prepared a feast for those who’ve been born by coming out of the confusion that before ruled in His place; and this is Jehovah’s Salvation born from His righteousness.

Haggai 1
1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,
2 Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built.
3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 Is it time for you, O you, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
5 Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
6 You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but you have not enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a bag with holes.
7 Thus says the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says the LORD.
9 You looked for much, and, lo it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and you run every man unto his own house.
10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.
11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD.
13 Then spake Haggai the LORD’s messenger in the LORD’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, says the LORD.
14 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,
15 In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Haggai 2
1 In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the LORD by the prophet Haggai, saying,
2 Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying,
3 Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do you see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?
4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land, says the LORD, and work: for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts:
5 According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you: fear you not.
6 For thus says the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;
7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.
8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts.
9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, says the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, says the LORD of hosts.
10 In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,
11 Thus says the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,
12 If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.
13 Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
14 Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, says the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.
15 And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD:
16 Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the press-fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty.
17 I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you turned not to me, says the LORD.
18 Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider it.
19 Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, has not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.
20 And again the word of the LORD came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying,
21 Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth;
22 And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.
23 In that day, says the LORD of hosts, will I take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the LORD, and will make you as a signet [chowtham]: for I have chosen you, says the LORD of hosts.

As we saw in the prior post, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the son of Coniah, who we are told in Jeremiah 22:24 is a signet on the LORD’s right hand, is also said will be a signet the LORD has chosen. The signet is the signature ring, that is pressed into a seal that can only be opened by the one to whom the message is sent. These are the ideas written in Job 38 where, as above in verse 21 & 22, we are told of this unsealing as what shake the world and the wicked from it.

The deep meaning is the LORD opens His word, the message He has written and reserved for His own use, by opening what he has sealed, His word in the person he chooses, in whom He manifests His presence. This is the mystery of God ended and shown for all the earth to see.

Job 38
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2 Who is this that darkens counsel [brought ignorance to rule the world] by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up now your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and answer you me.
4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding.
5 Who has laid the measures thereof, if you know? or who has stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Or who shut up 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 [made the ignorance a protective wrapping to protect man from himself],
10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
11 And said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed [man’s pride in His ignorance and vanity]?
12 Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the dayspring [the beginning of this new age of light- understanding] to know his place;
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
14 It is turned as clay to the seal [chowtham]; and they stand as a garment [a flesh cover wherein the LORD dwells].
15 And from the wicked their light [understanding] is withheld [it is sealed from them], 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 [understanding] dwells? and as for darkness [ignorance], 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, [this word of God frozen in heaven, reserved there until God reveals it in manifesting His presence]
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 [God’s Spirit] upon the earth?
25 Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of [these] waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder [the voice of understanding];
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 [and man is quickened to life from where there was no man]?
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?
30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep 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? [When the sons of God are called forward, when the foundation of the earth is again established and the cornerstone is set in His place. “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?
35 Can you send lightnings [understanding], that they may go and say unto you, Here we are [as God has done in me]?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart?
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. [They wander because the wisdom of man has proved to be foolishness and vanity. But thankfully God provides meat that gathers them again to His light.]

As we’ve discussed, when Coniah is said to be a signet on the right hand of God, it is speaking of a mystery sealed with Him in what is written in Jeremiah 22. It is this revelation that shows all the earth God’s presence in its engineering (the intelligent and supernatural design that proves immortality).

Jeremiah 22
1 Thus says the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
2 And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sits upon the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people that enter in by these gates:
3 Thus says the LORD; Execute you judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
6 For thus says the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; You are Gilead [a spring of testimony] unto me, and the head of Lebanon [purity]: yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
7 And I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8 And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Wherefore has the LORD done thus unto this great city?
9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
10 Weep you not for the dead [Josiah], neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11 For thus says the LORD touching Shallum [this is thought to be another name for Jehoahaz, who reigned for three months and was then taken away captive by Pharaoh Neco. It appears to also be speaking of the retribution, the LORD’s wrath, that comes upon all Josiah’s sons.] the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
12 But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
13 Woe unto him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and gives him not for his work; [it is speaking of the taxation under Eliakim {Jehoiakim}, which was then give to foreigners, as ordered by Pharaoh Neco. This was discussed in detail in the prior post, and seen as the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes spoken of in Revelation 2:15, which the LORD says He hates.]
14 That says, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cuts him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
15 Shall you reign, because you closest yourself in cedar? did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? says the LORD.
17 But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
18 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah LORD! or, Ah his glory!
19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all your lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke unto you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyed not my voice.
22 The wind shall eat up all your pastors, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.
23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that make your nest in the cedars, how gracious shall you be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in travail! [Because you have a man child to bring forth.]
24 As I live, says the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck you thence [cut you off – see Daniel 9:26, when Messiah is cut off];
25 And I will give you into the hand of them that seek your life, and into the hand of them whose face you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 And I will cast you out, and your mother that bare you, into another country, where you were not born; and there shall you die.
27 But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.
28 Is this man Coniah [Jehovah will establish] a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
30 Thus says the LORD, Write you this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

The mystery is in the question why Matthew recorded the LORD Jesus’ lineage without including Jehoiakim as the father of Coniah. It is so all the earth, earth, earth would see this is the cutting off Daniel saw, which Matthew later saw through these prophets writing. Matthew then obediently wrote the LORD’s family line excluding Jehoiakim, writing him childless, as commanded, and thereby also showing the LORD’s Devine origin.

Jeremiah uses words telling of Coniah as the Messiah (the anointed, chosen of God, son of David), when he asks, in verse 28 above, if he is a broken and despised idol, or a vessel wherein is no pleasure. This last portion is leading us to what the apostles of the LORD knew, and many wrote of as what they heard the Father says of Him. See below Peter recounting what he heard, and Hebrews 13 telling us in what the Father is “well pleased”

2 Peter 1
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.
12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established [Coniah – Jehovah will establish] in the present truth.
13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our LORD Jesus Christ has shown me.
15 Moreover I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our LORD Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto you do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

2 Peter 2
1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily [from their own imaginations] shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the LORD that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.

Hebrews 13
7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established [Coniah – Jehovah will establish] with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
10 We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
11 For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

The word Jeremiah uses, rendered “despised,” in Jeremiah 22:28 above, when asking if Coniah is a despised idol, is the Hebrew word bazah. This word is used twice by Isaiah, both appearing in Isaiah 53:3, therein describing the unrecognized and despised LORD, who those who are worshipping idols think is just another idol like the ones they’ve created, and they, therefore, reject Him.

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 [bazah] 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 [bazah], and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Psalms 60
1 O God, you have cast us off, you have scattered us, you have been displeased; O turn yourself to us again.
2 You have made the earth to tremble; you have broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shakes.
3 You have shown your people hard things: you have made us to drink the wine of astonishment.
4 You have given a banner to them that fear you, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.
5 That your beloved may be delivered; save with your right hand, and hear me.
6 God has spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem [the burden], and mete out the valley of Succoth [booths].
7 Gilead [the spring of testimony] is mine, and Manasseh [the things you’ve forgotten] is mine; Ephraim [this second blessing/gift] also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;
8 Moab is my wash-pot [this entrance is for cleansing]; over Edom will I cast out my shoe [I will take them into possession]: Philistia [immigrant invaders], triumph you because of me.
9 Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?
10 Will not you, O God, which had cast us off? and you, O God, which did not go out with our armies?
11 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
12 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

So have you also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.

In prior posts, we’ve discussed Revelation 2 where the LORD is speaking to the church at Thyatira, a place we saw defining this church as held by the gate of hell. We saw this gate therein described as under the power of an evil spirit (Satan) by the means of false prophets in their midst. We saw the passage referring us to Jeremiah and 2 Kings, and referring to the end of Judah, Jerusalem, and seemingly the Davidic king line.

The title verse, Revelation 2:15, adds further to the same references, the Nicolaitanes referring us to Pharaoh Neco who made Eliakim king after his father Josiah’s death, and the removal of Jehoahaz (who reigned for only three months). Pharaoh then changes Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. We are told in 2 Kings 23:35 of the evil Eliakim did to his own people, saying, “And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh.” (see Daniel 11:20)

As we know, these events are written in ways showing their deeper truer intended meaning of our time, the events that end this age and begin the next.

2 Kings 23
24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah [whose portion, inheritance, is Jehovah] the priest found in the house of the LORD.
25 And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
26 Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.
27 And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
29 In his days Pharaohnechoh [Pharaoh Neco {the great house is smitten} – the Nicolaitanes, whose doctrine and intention is to rob God’s people their wealth by taxation] king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo [Armageddon – the rendezvous, the appointed time of all meeting with God], when he had seen him.
30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulcher. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz [Jehovah has seized] the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.
31 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
33 And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.
34 And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.
35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh.
36 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. [these names tells us of the seed of the woman, those through whom Christ would come]
37 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

When the above tells of Eliakim’s (Jehoiakim’s) mother and her bloodline, the names used mean, respectively in reverse, the highest ransom from Jehovah is given.

This is the bloodline of Christ given to us in Matthew 1, this portion saying, “11 And Josias [Josiah] begat Jechonias [Coniah, also called Jehoiachin and Jeconiah, meaning Jehovah will establish] and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon:
12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel;”

The last two names above, in reverse order, are Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, spoken of by Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah. As we know, Zachariah 4 tells us Zerubbabel is the one who laid the foundation of the house, and whose hands will finish it – not by worldly power or might, but by the Spirit of the LORD. As we know, the name Zerubbabel means he is born by coming out of confusion (even though he is still in the land of Babylon {confusion}). Shealtiel means he asked God (for a deliverer or deliverance). Matthew’s bloodline skips Eliakim, the father of Coniah, to show us he is a Christ-like figure, without father. Coniah reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem after Eliakim and was then carried away captive into Babylon. There he was held prisoner for thirty-six years before His release (the same number of years Jesus Christ was held by His earthly body – coincidence, I think not).

As we have seen, Coniah is spoken of by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 22:24 and 28, where we are told he is a signet upon the LORD right hand, meaning He is a sign of the LORD’s power found in His written word and His coinciding supernatural work as it appears. Before Coniah is there mentioned, the LORD, through Jeremiah’s hand, is speaking of and to the works of Eliakim (Jehoiakim) and the evil he wrought with Pharaoh Neco. This is the same evil done in our time when foreign ways have been brought in and rule over God’s people, and their rulers make laws to rob them of their wealth, which eventually destroys them. These are the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which the LORD Jesus Christ says He hates.

Revelation 2
12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos [those who’ve elevated themselves – the lofty] write; These things says he which has the sharp sword with two edges;
13 I know your works, and where you dwell, even where Satan’s seat is: and you hold fast my name, and have not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas [who is like the Father] was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwells [Satan dwells in hell, where the dead are, where the church is].
14 But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication [interaction with idols instead of God, the Father, as did Ahab and Jezebel].
15 So have you also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes [taxing God’s people to give their wealth to others, not of His nation], which thing I hate.
16 Repent; or else I will come unto you quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches; To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knows saving he that receives it.
18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira [held down, in death, by the gates of hell] write; These things says the Son of God, who has his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;
19 I know your works, and charity, and service, and faith, and your patience, and your works; and the last to be more than the first.
20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against you, because you suffer that woman Jezebel [Ahab’s wife, and Baal worshipper], which calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
23 And I will kill her children with death [there can be no quickening into life for those who follow false prophets and unfaithful preachers]; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searches the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.
25 But that which you have already hold fast till I come.
26 And he that overcomes, and keeps my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
28 And I will give him the morning star.
29 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.

The above is speaking to/of men who’ve mingled themselves among God’s people, who the LORD speaks of and to through Ezekiel, and his contemporary Obadiah.

Ezekiel begins by telling us he is in Babylon, in the captivity, in the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s [Coniah’s] captivity. As we know, the vision recorded in chapter 1, of the wheel and the living creatures going forward, are speaking of the word of God coming through the prophets. As we know, reading and being given understanding (by God’s Spirit) of their intricacies (depth), we understand our own time as the patterns of the same events and are thereby brought from the darkness. It is in this light (understanding) we are quickened to life, moved forward in God’s power, by the Spirit of the LORD in us, into victory over these circumstances.

Friends, Ezekiel, and Obadiah his contemporary, in describing these men, use the analogy of Esau (Seir, Edom, and Idumea), telling us they are mingled among us as those who have sold their birthright by follows their own bellies as their gods. These are the domestic enemies among us, shortsighted and oblivious, seeking to destroy us from within, to fulfill their animal, unnatural, and insane lusts.

Philippians 3
1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the LORD. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
2 Beware of dogs [among us and always barking], beware of evil workers, beware of the concision [Esau].
3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my LORD: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example.
18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the LORD Jesus Christ:
21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Ezekiel 34
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus says the LORD God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
3 You eat the fat, and you clothe you with the wool, you kill them that are fed: but you feed not the flock.
4 The diseased have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them.
5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.
6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
7 Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
8 As I live, says the LORD God, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;
9 Therefore, O you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
10 Thus says the LORD God; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
11 For thus says the LORD God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, says the LORD God.
16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.
17 And as for you, O my flock, thus says the LORD God; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.
18 Seem it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet?
19 And as for my flock, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.
20 Therefore thus says the LORD God unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle.
21 Because you have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad;
22 Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.
23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
24 And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.
25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.
26 And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.
27 And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.
28 And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.
29 And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.
30 Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, says the LORD God.
31 And you my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the LORD God.

Ezekiel 35
1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set your face against mount Seir [Esau – the enemies among us – the concision], and prophesy against it,
3 And say unto it, Thus says the LORD God; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against you, and I will stretch out mine hand against you, and I will make you most desolate.
4 I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate, and you shall know that I am the LORD.
5 Because you have had a perpetual hatred, and have shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:
6 Therefore, as I live, says the LORD God, I will prepare you unto blood, and blood shall pursue you: sith [since] you have not hated blood, even blood shall pursue you.
7 Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passes out and him that returns.
8 And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in your hills, and in your valleys, and in all your rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword.
9 I will make you perpetual desolations, and your cities shall not return: and you shall know that I am the LORD.
10 Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:
11 Therefore, as I live, says the LORD God, I will even do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have used out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged you.
12 And you shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all your blasphemies which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.
13 Thus with your mouth you have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.
14 Thus says the LORD God; When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate.
15 As you did rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto you: you shall be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 36
1 Also, you son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD:
2 Thus says the LORD God; Because the enemy has said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:
3 Therefore prophesy and say, Thus says the LORD God; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:
4 Therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD God; Thus says the LORD God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about;
5 Therefore thus says the LORD God; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.
6 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus says the LORD God; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because you have borne the shame of the heathen:
7 Therefore thus says the LORD God; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.
8 But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.
9 For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and you shall be tilled and sown:
10 And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be build:
11 And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and you shall know that I am the LORD.
12 Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no more henceforth bereave them of men.
13 Thus says the LORD God; Because they say unto you, You land devors up men, and have bereaved your nations:
14 Therefore you shall devour men no more, neither bereave your nations any more, says the LORD God.
15 Neither will I cause men to hear in you the shame of the heathen any more, neither shall you bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shall you cause your nations to fall any more, says the LORD God.
16 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.
18 Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:
19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.
20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.
21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.
22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus says the LORD God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the heathen, whither you went.
23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, says the LORD God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them.
28 And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
29 I will also save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.
31 Then shall you remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.
32 Not for your sakes do I this, says the LORD God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.
33 Thus says the LORD God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.
34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.
35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.
36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.
37 Thus says the LORD God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.
38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Obadiah
1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the LORD God concerning Edom; We have heard a rumor from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise you, and let us rise up against her in battle.
2 Behold, I have made you small among the heathen: you are greatly despised.
3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you that dwells in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high [the lofty]; that says in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
4 Though you exalt yourself as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, thence will I bring you down, says the LORD.
5 If thieves came to you, if robbers by night, (how are you cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave some grapes?
6 How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!
7 All the men of your confederacy have brought you even to the border: the men that were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you; they that eat your bread have laid a wound under you: there is none understanding in him.
8 Shall I not in that day, says the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
9 And your mighty men, O Teman [the place where wisdom should dwell and once did – where God’s right hand is now seen], shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.
10 For your violence against your brother Jacob shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off for ever.
11 In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even you were as one of them.
12 But you should not have looked on the day of your brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress.
13 You should not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, you should not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;
14 Neither should you have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither should you have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.
15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as you have done, it shall be done unto you: your reward shall return upon your own head.
16 For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.
17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD has spoken it.
19 And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
20 And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.
21 And saviors shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.

Psalms 21
1 The king shall joy in your strength, O LORD; and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
2 You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
3 For you prevented [went before him preparing his throne] him with the blessings of goodness: you set a crown of pure gold on his head.
4 He asked life of you, and you gave it him, even length of days for ever and ever.
5 His glory is great in your salvation: honor and majesty have you laid upon him.
6 For you have made him most blessed for ever: you have made him exceeding glad with your countenance.
7 For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand shall find out all your enemies: your right hand shall find out those that hate you.
9 You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
10 Their fruit shall you destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.
11 For they intended evil against you: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
12 Therefore shall you make them turn their back, when you shall make ready your arrows upon your strings against the face of them.
13 Be you exalted, LORD, in your own strength: so will we sing and praise your power.

And He shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

The title is Revelation 2:27 and is the LORD speaking to the church at Thyatira. As briefly alluded to in the prior post, the name Thyatira appears to be compounded from the Greek words thura, meaning door or gate, and tereo, meaning to guard. In the passage, these meanings are seen in their intended context, by which we understand where, by what means, and under whose power, this church is held.

Revelation 2

18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira [held down, in death, by the gates of hell] write; These things says the Son of God, who has his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;19 I know your works, and charity, and service, and faith, and your patience, and your works; and the last to be more than the first.20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against you, because you suffer that woman Jezebel [Ahab’s wife, and Baal worshipper], which calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.23 And I will kill her children with death [there can be no quickening into life for those who follow false prophets and unfaithful preachers]; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searches the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.25 But that which you have already hold fast till I come.26 And he that overcomes, and keeps my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.28 And I will give him the morning star.29 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.

Here following are the definitions, of the above-mentioned words, from the Strong’s Greek Dictionary.

Strong’s #2374: thura (pronounced thoo‘-rah) apparently a primary word (compare “door”); a portal or entrance (the opening or the closure, literally or figuratively):–door, gate.

Strong’s #5083: tereo (pronounced tay–reh‘-o) from teros (a watch; perhaps akin to 2334); to guard (from loss or injury, properly, by keeping the eye upon; and thus differing from 5442, which is properly to prevent escaping; and from 2892, which implies a fortress or full military lines of apparatus), i.e. to note (a prophecy; figuratively, to fulfil a command); by implication, to detain (in custody; figuratively, to maintain); by extension, to withhold (for personal ends; figuratively, to keep unmarried); by extension, to withhold (for personal ends; figuratively, to keep unmarried):–hold fast, keep(- er), (pre-, re-)serve, watch.

When Revelation 2:27 tell of the LORD breaking them as the vessel of the potter, it is referring us to Jeremiah 18 when the LORD tells Jeremiah to go down to the potter’s house. In the context of the current ongoing discussion, speaking of the end of Judah and Jerusalem, here they are likened to the work of a potter’s hand. The LORD is sending Jeremiah with His word, to (first) break in pieces the vessel marred in the hand (by the words) of the potters who’ve made them. We know from the surrounding chapters, Jeremiah has been sent to speak to the kings, priests, and prophets, who are here the potter whose hands made the marred vessel.

Jeremiah 19 begins by addressing these same men in this same light, in verse 2 calling them the “sons of Hinnom.” Hinnom is Gehenna, hell, where the kings of Judah sacrificed their children to idols, in the fire. Jeremiah is speaking to them in the east gate, which is where the LORD will enter. This is what the title and Thyatira are speaking of, where the false prophets, the corrupt priesthood, in the power of the king of hell, a son of Hinnom, Satan, are resisting and opposing the King’s entry.
What the LORD is telling Jeremiah to speak of, is He, as Master Potter, has the power, authority, and the obligation, to break the old (ruined) vessel and make a new one that is without the same fatal flaws.

Jeremiah 18

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

Jeremiah 19

1 Thus says the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom [hell], which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,3 And say, Hear you the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever hears, his ears shall tingle [as in 2 Kings 21:12].4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:6 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet [a place of fire], nor The valley of the son of Hinnom [hell], but The valley of slaughter.7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.8 And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.10 Then shall you break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with you,11 And shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet [the place of their fires], till there be no place to bury.12 Thus will I do unto this place, says the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’s house; and said to all the people,15 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

The word used above in saying the ears, which hear this proclamation of the end, will “tingle,” is the four times used word Hebrew word tsalal. As we see in Jeremiah 19:3 above, it also appears in 2 Kings 21:12, which we saw in the prior post speaks of the end of the Judah and Jerusalem and it coinciding with the seeming end of the Davidic king line.

The same word appears in 1 Samuel 3:11, also rendered “tingle,” and in Habakkuk 3:16 where it’s translated “quiver” in telling Habakkuk’s reaction when he hears of the LORD’s appearing. He is rejoicing at His coming, understanding it is for our salvation, but quivers because he understands it is the self-destruction of those who oppose Him.

1 Samuel 3

1 And the child Samuel [he hears God] ministered unto the LORD before Eli [the lofty – who have risen on high]. And the word of the LORD was precious [rare – not heard often, therefore Samuel at first thinks it is the word of Eli {men, priests, who’ve raised themselves up in God’s place}] in those days; there was no open vision [there was no understanding, light in people, of the deeper meaning].2 And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see;3 And ere the lamp [understanding] of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel [hearing God] was laid down to sleep [in a death-like state];4 That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.5 And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down.6 And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you did call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.7 Now Samuel did not yet know [the voice of] the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.8 And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you did call me. And Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child.9 Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he calls you, that you shall say, Speak, LORD; for your servant hears. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.10 And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for your servant hears.11 And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that hears it shall tingle [tsalal].12 In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end [of the corrupt priesthood – and will replace it with those hearing the voice of the LORD].13 For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knows; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.14 And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever.15 And Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel feared to show Eli the vision.16 Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, Here am I.17 And he said, What is the thing that the LORD has said unto you? I pray you hide it not from me: God do so to you, and more also, if you hide any thing from me of all the things that he said unto you.18 And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seems him good.19 And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.20 And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD. [The pattern that is in our time those who’ve heard His correction, become His children, and faithfully speak His word in the pure form He has given it.]21 And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

This last verse is what Habakkuk understands, the power as rays of light coming from the LORD’s hand, in His word and works of revelation (interpretation opening vision).

Habakkuk 3

1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth [from the word shagah, meaning to err – telling of the when the LORD’s hand is upon those who’ve erred and gone astray. It appears three times in Isaiah 28:7 describing these men. “But they also have erred [shagah] through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred [shagah] through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err [shgagah] in vision, they stumble in judgment.”]2 O LORD, I have heard your speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.3 God came from Teman [appeared in work of His right hand], and the Holy One from mount Paran [His interpretation into clarity]. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.4 And his brightness was as the light; he had horns [as rays of light] coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power [‘oz].5 Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.7 I saw the tents of Cushan [in darkness] in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian [strife] did tremble.8 Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was your anger against the rivers? was your wrath against the sea, that you did ride upon your horses and your chariots of salvation?9 Your bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even your word. Selah. You did cleave the earth with rivers.10 The mountains saw you, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.11 The sun and moon [church and state governments] stood still in their habitation: at the light [understanding] of your arrows they went, and at the shining of your glittering spear.12 You did march through the land in indignation, you did thresh the heathen in anger.13 You went forth for the salvation of your people, even for salvation with your anointed; you wounded the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.14 You did strike through with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.15 You did walk through the sea with your horses, through the heap of great waters [this word of God].16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered [tsalal] at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he comes up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

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 [shagah] through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred [shagah] through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err [shagah] 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 hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:16 Therefore thus says the LORD God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.19 From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

Proverbs 28

9 He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.10 Whoso causes the righteous to go astray [shagah] in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession.11 The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that has understanding searches him out.12 When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory: but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden.13 He that covers his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.14 Happy is the man that fears always: but he that hardens his heart shall fall into mischief.15 As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.16 The prince that wants understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that hates covetousness shall prolong his days.17 A man that does violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him.18 Whoso walks uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once.19 He that tills his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that follows after vain persons shall have poverty enough.20 A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent.21 To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will transgress.22 He that hastes to be rich has an evil eye, and considers not that poverty shall come upon him.23 He that rebukes a man afterwards shall find more favor than he that flatters with the tongue.24 Whoso robs his father or his mother, and says, It is no transgression; the same is the companion of a destroyer.25 He that is of a proud heart stirs up strife: but he that puts his trust in the LORD shall be made fat.26 He that trusts in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walks wisely, he shall be delivered.27 He that gives unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hides his eyes shall have many a curse.28 When the wicked rise, men hide themselves: but when they perish, the righteous increase.

Psalms118

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 showed 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.

Psalms 61

1 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto you, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.3 For you have been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.4 I will abide in your tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of your wings. Selah.5 For you, O God, have heard my vows: you have given me the heritage of those that fear your name.6 You will prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations.7 He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.8 So will I sing praise unto your name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.

Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

The title verse is Jeremiah 16:21, the final verse of the chapter. It is referring to what is written in Habakkuk 3:4 when we are told the LORD’s power is hidden in His hand. The word Habakkuk uses, rendered “power,” is the Hebrew word ‘oz, which appears in Jeremiah 16:19 where it is translated “strength.” It comes in what is a parenthetical statement of Jeremiah as he is telling of the end of those against who the LORD said His anger has been kindled.

Jeremiah 16

17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.19 (O LORD, my Strength, and my Fortress, and my Refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.)20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

In the following verse, we are told the LORD’s might is in His hand, as with it He has written (documented) the sins of Judah, describing them as the ideas in their minds (hearts) and the idols they worship. This is after the death of Josiah and speaks of the end of Judah under the rule of the kings (sons of Josiah) who followed. This decline into national destruction, as mention in the previous post, is foretold in 2 Kings 21, which is referred to in Jeremiah 15:4. As we’ve seen, this is speaking, in a pattern, of our time and the continual backsliding, as came in the king immediately after Hezekiah and Josiah, who both led periods of repentance. As we know, Hezekiah’s occurred during the time of Isaiah, and Josiah’s during Jeremiah’s.

Jeremiah 17

1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders.4 And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.5 Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD. [this is contrasted against what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 16:9 above.] 6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert [like a dry tree in the desert], and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.7 Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.9 The heart [the mind that is without the LORD’s word, darkened and without understanding] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

2 Kings 21

1 Manasseh [causing to forget] was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hephzibah [{causing to forget} My delight {is} in her].2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.3 For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.4 And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.6 And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.7 And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:8 Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.9 But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.10 And the LORD spoke by his servants the prophets, saying,11 Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols:12 Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle.

Jeremiah 17:9 & 10 tell us the LORD knows the mind of man, and the self-inflicted tribulation of those without understanding. The same concept is expanded upon, by Paul in Romans 8, and by John in Revelation 2, both examples of the LORD’s power projected by the His hand as the hand of men writing His word.

Romans 8

21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for?25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.26 Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.27 And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.

Revelation 2

18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira [held down, in death, by the gates of hell] write; These things says the Son of God, who has his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;19 I know your works, and charity, and service, and faith, and your patience, and your works; and the last to be more than the first.20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against you, because you suffer that woman Jezebel [Ahab’s wife, and Baal worshipper], which calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.23 And I will kill her children with death [there can be no quickening into life for those who follow false prophets and unfaithful preachers]; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searches the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.25 But that which you have already hold fast till I come.26 And he that overcomes, and keeps my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.28 And I will give him the morning star.29 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.

The end of Judah and Jerusalem comes with the family line of David seemingly ending, which Jeremiah writes of in Jeremiah 22. This is spoken of in the pattern of the LORD’s death, and why the writing was placed over His head on the cross, above His crown of thorns, saying, “Jesus Of Nazareth The King Of The Jews [Judah].”

Jeremiah, in chapter 23, then tell of the LORD rising, in spite of those who have destroyed His pasture.

Jeremiah 22

1 Thus says the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,2 And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people that enter in by these gates:3 Thus says the LORD; Execute you judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.4 For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.6 For thus says the LORD unto the king’s house [family] of Judah; You are Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.7 And I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.8 And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Wherefore has the LORD done thus unto this great city?9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.10 Weep you not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.11 For thus says the LORD touching Shallum [the LORD’s vengeance coming upon the sons of Josiah – and our hope coming as the line is raised from the dead to resume the David line, as promised] son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:12 But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.13 Woe unto him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and gives him not for his work;14 That says, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cuts him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.15 Shall you reign, because you closest yourself in cedar? did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? says the LORD.17 But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.18 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah LORD! or, Ah his glory!19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all your lovers are destroyed.21 I spoke unto you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyed not my voice.22 The wind shall eat up all your pastors, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that make your nest in the cedars, how gracious shall you be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in travail!24 As I live, says the LORD, though Coniah [Jehovah will reestablish – the king line] the son of Jehoiakim [in whom Jehovah raises up from the dead] king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck you thence;25 And I will give you into the hand of them that seek your life, and into the hand of them whose face you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.26 And I will cast you out, and your mother that bare you, into another country, where you were not born; and there shall you die.27 But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.28 Is this man Coniah [the LORD will reestablish] a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.30 Thus says the LORD, Write you this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Jeremiah 23

1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD.2 Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, says the LORD.3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, says the LORD.5 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The LORD Our Righteousness.7 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD lives, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;8 But, The LORD lives, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.9 Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force [‘oz – the power hidden in their hand] is not right.11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, says the LORD.12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, says the LORD.13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none does return from his wickedness; they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.15 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.16 Thus says the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.17 They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD has said, You shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.18 For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and heard his word? who has marked his word, and heard it?19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly.21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.23 Am I a God at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off?24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the LORD.25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.28 The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the LORD.29 Is not my word like as a fire? says the LORD; and like a hammer that break the rock in pieces?30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbor.31 Behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He says.32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, says the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the LORD.33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? you shall then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, says the LORD.34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house.35 Thus shall you say every one to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, What has the LORD answered? and, What has the LORD spoken?36 And the burden of the LORD shall you mention no more: for every man’s word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.37 Thus shall you say to the prophet, What has the LORD answered you? and, What has the LORD spoken?38 But since you say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus says the LORD; Because you say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of the LORD;39 Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence:40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

1 Timothy 6

10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.11 But you, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are also called, and have professed a good profession before many witnesses.13 I give you charge in the sight of God, who quickens all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;14 That you keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our LORD Jesus Christ:15 Which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and LORD of lords;16 Who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.17 Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy;18 That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;19 Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

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 strive lawfully.6 The husbandman that labors must be first partaker of the fruits.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.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 show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Jude

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

Psalms 44

1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work you did in their days, in the times of old.2 How you did drive out the heathen with your hand, and planted them; how you did afflict the people, and cast them out.3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you had a favor unto them.4 You are my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.5 Through you will we push down our enemies: through your name will we tread them under that rise up against us.6 For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.7 But you have saved us from our enemies, and have put them to shame that hated us.8 In God we boast all the day long, and praise your name for ever. Selah.9 But you have cast off, and put us to shame; and go not forth with our armies.10 You make us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.11 You have given us like sheep appointed for meat; and have scattered us among the heathen.12 You sell your people for naught, and do not increase your wealth by their price.13 You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.14 You make us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.15 My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me,16 For the voice of him that reproaches and blasphemes; by reason of the enemy and avenger.17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten you, neither have we dealt falsely in your covenant.18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from your way;19 Though you have sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;21 Shall not God search this out? for he knows the secrets of the heart.22 Yea, for your sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.23 Awake, why sleep you, O LORD? arise, cast us not off for ever.24 Wherefore hide you your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaves unto the earth.26 Arise for our help, and redeem us for your mercies’ sake.

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

The above is Habakkuk 2:1 and is Habakkuk waiting and watching, in silence, for the LORD to speak. This is connected to the last verse of the chapter, which says, “But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.” Just before this last verse, we are told of those who are dumb idols, who others are watching and waiting for, expecting them to rise and teach. We are told there is no breath in these men or their idols, who are as dumb stones and dead wood, in which there is no life.

(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.)

Habakkuk, meaning to grasp or take hold of with the hand (the work of the hand), is speaking of the vision of when God takes hold of His people, and in realizing His presence the wise are silent and listening to Him teach. Habakkuk is a contemporary of Jeremiah, and Zephaniah, each telling of the same silence as the word of God is found and heard. These prophets are speaking to Judah in the time of king Josiah and describing the desolation of Judah and Jerusalem, and the delay, under Josiah, of their eventual end, which is spoken of and ends Jeremiah’s book. This end comes at the hands of Babylon (confusion) and lasts until our time and the end of the LORD’s silence when He silences the idols of confusion.

Jeremiah 8

1 At that time, says the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.4 Moreover you shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slid back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.6 I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle.7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the LORD.13 I will surely consume them, says the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defensed cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the LORD.18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment has taken hold on me.22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Jeremiah begins by telling us, in Jeremiah 1:2, it is in the thirteenth year of king Josiah, who at the time would have only been twenty-one years old. (See 2 Kings 22:1 and do the math.) We know from many prior studies, Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 4:23, uses the exact words of Genesis 1:2 to tell of the state of Judah and Jerusalem, as without form and void. This is the total desolation that had come, as in the Genesis pattern, when darkness covers the world, meaning the word of God was silenced and there was no understanding. We know the meaning from the only other time these Genesis words (towhu bohuw) are used, in Isaiah 34:11, there descriptively rendered instead as “confusion” and “emptiness.” It tells of the foundation becoming confusion, and the stones built upon it are emptiness (void of value).

We know in Isaiah 34:4 we are told of the heavens being rolled together as a scroll, meaning the place where the word of God is rightly divided (per Genesis 1:6 thru 8 and the second day) and the word of God was closed and unknown. We also told, later in verse 8, of all the streams turned into pitch, meaning the words and ideas flowing to the people had become darkened (nothing but ignorance).

Much later, 70 years after the end of Isaiah, in the eighteenth year of Josiah, recorded in Jeremiah 15:16, we are told of the word of God being found. We are also told of Jeremiah eating them, of them becoming his joy and rejoicing, and saying, “I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” We know Jeremiah’s name means Jehovah will rise, and tells of the LORD rising in him, and raising up the His people through him.

This event, the book, the word of God, being found, is recorded in both 2 Kings 22:8 and 2 Chronicles 34:15. In the latter, in its earlier verses, we are told of the same events Jeremiah speaks of beginning in chapter 8 above, happening in the eighth year of king Josiah. These are telling of the pattern, spiritually speaking, of this time and the condition from which we will rise. The name Josiah translates into telling of him being the restorer of the foundation of Jehovah.

2 Chronicles 34

1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years.2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left.3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.4 And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.5 And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.6 And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about.7 And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.8 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah [names meaning concealed treasure Jehovah has set apart – reserved unto this time, as Peter speaks of in 2 Peter 3:4 thru 7], and Maaseiah [those doing the work of Jehovah] the governor of the city, and Joah [Jehovah is {has become} our brother] the son of Joahaz [Jehovah has grasped – taken us by and into His hand] the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.9 And when they came to Hilkiah [whose portion, inheritance, is Jehovah] the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God [see Malachi 3:10], which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem.10 And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD, to repair and amend the house:11 Even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.12 And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath [He will snatch up – unite us into one] and Obadiah [those who are serving Jehovah – see Malachi 3:18], the Levites, of the sons of Merari [and heal the bitter waters]; and Zechariah [because Jehovah has remembered] and Meshullam [His friends and allies], of the sons of the Kohathites [those He has gathered to Him], to set it forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of music.13 Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.14 And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses.15 And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.16 And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to your servants, they do it.17 And they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen.18 Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.19 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.20 And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah [our brother has risen] a servant of the king’s, saying,21 Go, enquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book.22 And Hilkiah [whose inheritance is Jehovah], and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah [this world age] the prophetess, the wife of Shallum [upon whom has come the LORD’s vengeance] the son of Tikvath [this expected end – our hope], the son of Hasrah [to a world without hope], keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spoke to her to that effect.23 And she answered them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell you the man that sent you to me,24 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah:25 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched.26 And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the LORD, so shall you say unto him, Thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the words which you have heard;27 Because your heart was tender, and you did humble yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbled yourself before me, and did rend your clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard you also, says the LORD.28 Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.29 Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.30 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.31 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.32 And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.33 And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.

Finding the book is the pattern of and finding the light, understanding given by the Spirit moving upon the waters (uncovering the deep understanding hidden in progressive and now total ignorance).

Revelation 10

1 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow [light divided as a sign of correction and not destruction] was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,6 And swore by him that lives for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he has declared to his servants the prophets.8 And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which stands upon the sea and upon the earth.9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make your belly bitter, but it shall be in your mouth sweet as honey.10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.11 And he said unto me, You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

Woe to those who fail to see the reality in our midst.

Jeremiah 15

1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.2 And it shall come to pass, if they say unto you, Whither shall we go forth? then you shall tell them, Thus says the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, says the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem [see 2 Kings 21:9 thru 15 – this is when the end of Judah and Jerusalem is foretold, and presumably when the book was lost].5 For who shall have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan you? or who shall go aside to ask how you do?6 You have forsaken me, says the LORD, you are gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting.7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people since they return not from their ways.8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.9 She that has borne seven languishes [these exact word only appear together in 1 Samuel 2:5] she has given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD.10 Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them does curse me.11 The LORD said, Truly it shall be well with your remnant; truly I will cause the enemy to entreat you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.12 Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?13 Your substance and your treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.14 And I will make you to pass with your enemies into a land which you know not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.15 O LORD, you know: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered rebuke.16 Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by your name, O LORD God of hosts.17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand: for you have filled me with indignation.18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuse to be healed? will you be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?19 Therefore thus says the LORD, If you return, then will I bring you again, and you shall stand before me: and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: let them return unto you; but return not you unto them.20 And I will make you unto this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says the LORD.21 And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.

1 Samuel 2

1 And Hannah [the LORD’s grace] prayed, and said, My heart rejoices in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in your salvation.2 There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside you: neither is there any rock like our God.3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogance come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.4 The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.5 They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren has born seven; and she that has many children is waxed feeble [languishes].6 The LORD kills, and makes alive: he brings down to the grave, and brings up.7 The LORD makes poor, and makes rich: he brings low, and lifts up.8 He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and he has set the world upon them.9 He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Habakkuk 2

1 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.5 Yea also, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, neither keeps at home, who enlarges his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers unto him all nations, and heaps unto him all people:6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increases that which is not his! how long? and to him that lades himself with thick clay!7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite you, and awake that shall vex you, and you shall be for booties unto them?8 Because you have spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil you; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.9 Woe to him that covets an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!10 You have consulted shame to your house by cutting off many people, and have sinned against your soul.11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.12 Woe to him that builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!13 Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.15 Woe unto him that gives his neighbor drink, that puts your bottle to him, and makes him drunken also, that you may look on their nakedness!16 You are filled with shame for glory: drink you also, and let your foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’s right hand shall be turned unto you, and shameful spewing shall be on your glory.17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover you, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.18 What profits the graven image that the maker thereof has graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusts therein, to make dumb idols?19 Woe unto him that says to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath [life] at all in the midst of it.20 But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

Zephaniah 3

1 Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!2 She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the LORD; she drew not near to her God.3 Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.4 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.5 The just LORD is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning does he bring his judgment to light, he fails not; but the unjust know no shame.6 I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passes by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant.7 I said, Surely you will fear me, you will receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings.8 Therefore wait you upon me, says the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.9 For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia [rivers of darkness] my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.11 In that day shall you not be ashamed for all your doings, wherein you have transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of you them that rejoice in your pride, and you shall no more be haughty because of my holy mountain.12 I will also leave in the midst of you an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD.13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.15 The LORD has taken away your judgments, he has cast out your enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of you: you shall not see evil any more.16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear you not: and to Zion, Let not your hands be slack.17 The LORD your God in the midst of you is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over you with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over you with singing.18 I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of you, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.19 Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict you: and I will save her that halts, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.20 At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, says the LORD.

Psalms 28

1 Unto you will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if you be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto you, when I lift up my hands toward your holy oracle.3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.4 Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.5 Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.6 Blessed be the LORD, because he has heard the voice of my supplications.7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song will I praise him.8 The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.9 Save your people, and bless your inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.